VOX AC50 - the real thing! - GuitarTalk Community

VOX AC50 - the real thing!

Karel-Mars

Hi All

Check out this rare beauty. I've had one of these before to fix up, but this time I have a camera (actually my brother has the camera; but that is beside the point). What do you think?

FenderBender

The turret board and wiring are neat and well laid out. Nice fat transformers. Must sound wonderful.
Is that the old power socket on the back which is no longer being used?

Wizard

I'd love to see what it looks like after the restoration.
Or is your job just to get it working again?

vic

That is a circa '66 AC50. Very powerful amp...solid state rectified. The older models were valve rectified. These are the amps that most British groups used from about '64-'67 after which the Marshall 100W stack became very popular.

vic

See http://www.voxshowroom.com/uk/amp/ac50bb1.html for pics and the evolution of the AC50

costafonix

wow thats a real classic,,,
if that amp could speak it would have some real good stories to tell

IceCreamMan

an here i thought these were urbna legends like sasquatch

inflames

What a beauty, I don't even want to think about the price tag on this one!

Karel-Mars

Hi All

Thanks for the replies. I checked out the amp yesterday to see what is wrong. It seems the electrolytic capacitors started failing, and the next thing the -bias stopped giving -voltage. So the amp blew, taking out the rectifier diodes. Luckily the transformers still measure OK.

I hope to do a full restoration on all contacts and caps, but I gave the owner the option of only stabilising it electrically. I'm looking forward to the job ?

Karel-Mars

Here's a shot of the power amp section:

The pre-amp filter caps looks dodgy ?

Somebody fixed the amp sometime ago; non original coupling caps

Now I need to find a source for two 16+16uF 450V capacitors. The F&T one seems a little fatter than the originals

Does anybody have a suggestion?

makepeace

What about LCR?

Karel-Mars

Now you're talking Jono...

I checked here http://www.tubedepot.com/cp-lcr-16x16-450v.html

Temporarily Out of Stock unfortunately :'(

Karel-Mars

I found this site showing a really nice rebuild of the AC50 intended for gigging.

It looks like F&T caps they are using...

http://backfromthesixties.co.uk/Vox_AC50.aspx

I'll update when it is clearer what is going to happen to this amp...

AndyD

Hi Karel. Great Amp. Just picked up one yesterday and looking forward to restoring it. Got It for a total Bargain. Keep you up to speed on my progress and will post some pics.
Cheers Andy

TomCat

AndyD wrote: Hi Karel. Great Amp. Just picked up one yesterday and looking forward to restoring it. Got It for a total Bargain. Keep you up to speed on my progress and will post some pics.
Cheers Andy

You guys are making me GAS for one to restore.... ?...I'm going to have to start looking....

Karel-Mars

Nice one Andy :dance:

A very nice project that should sound fantastic. I am not going to do the job :'( It was returned to the muso earlier this week. Maybe it is the exact same one you picked up ?