Lyle, never ran across you on any forums, though I realize you've been a big contributor at TGP. Just wanted to give you a shout-out. A lot of techs make income based upon videos like yours, or off the sweat of your brow. I want to thank you, bc you've helped me streamline my pre-roll intake with incoming repairs. I do homework days before to help me hit the ground running. Your TB/X series was very helpful to me, even as an Electronics Engineer. The biggest compliment o could pay you is to state that you are at engineer level in your analysis and troubleshooting approaches. Thank you. FrankD @ Forgotten Gear Restorations

I don’t know how I missed this series a year ago, but I am finding them very helpful in that I have a great deal of interest in the amp you are attempting to get into production. It’s now more clear where you are going with your amp.

Thanks alot for these great videos! I'm an happy owner of an ac30 tb6/x which has been slightly modified (just few little updates). I have to say that normal channel is often underrated, I use it every time. Artists such Adrian Utley (Portishead) and Yorke, O'Brien and Greenwood (Radiohead) always use this channel to achieve their tone. Having a good eq pedal or a bright booster can help. The normal channel is a perfect platform for pedals! Thanks again, great content man!

Interesting video, thanks for going over this amp - I still have one of these, bought it in 2001, at the time I knew nothing about Vox amps but knew that I wanted an AC30 to emulate my guitar heroes, mostly late 90s Brit-rockers. I always thought it sounded fantastic! I always loved the normal channel as a great basic sound to layer use with pedals. It seemed to have a darker sound, although still clear and tight at the low end (I also had a Fender Deluxe which I thought sounded either 'wooly' down low, or too 'glassy' up high). Definitely not the most reliable amp though, has needed a lot of repairs over the years.

Really appreciate your videos on the 90s Vox amps! Excellent.

At one point I say "low pass" when I meant to say "high pass." Sorry about that.

I started playing electric in 1972. My first amp was a used AC30 TB from '65. At the time it was nothing like an icon or anything, just a used amp, that I saved up for - and Dad helpede out as well. A couple of years later it was not big enough, oh no, it had to be a Marshall 100W halfstack, oh yeah... for school parties and venues like that. I SHOULD NEVER HAVE SOLD THAT VOX! :-D

Hi Lyle, I just thought that I would tell you my Vox AC30 Brian May Special Edition story. I got this amp off of a guy that had this amp in a studio that was brand new and had been used on a session in Toronto, Ontario. The guy I got the amp from didn't like it because it was too loud. When I got the amp, I started poking around on the net to get information on this amp. I found some people that were all connected in some way over Brian May's amps. One name that I came up with was a guy guy in the UK that had built a few AC30 amps for Mr. May. His name is David Petersen. The other guy from the UK as well was named Mike Ryde. Mr. Petersen and myself started talking to each other and I said that I did not like the stock sound of this remit done by Steven Grinrod that was the chief engineer on this special edition amp of Brian May that was supposedly endorsed by Mr. May. The amp in stock form was to be only the normal channel of the Vox AC30 Brian May Special Edition which David Petersen designed. It supposed to be an exact knockoff of Petersen's original schematic. Well , once the bloody Chinese got a hold of it, it was nothing like the original. Mr. Petersen sent me for free the caps and resistors and all of the parts for free. He was unbelievable. Mr. Petersen now lives in the Philippines with his wife. But for many years Mr. Petersen worked at Vox and ran his own company ShereSound company out of the UK. Well once I got these parts installed the amp somehow blew up. It was minor but I had to send it to Michael Klein in Kansas City, Missouri. This guy built a buffer for Nik at Ceriatone in Malaysia. Nik put me onto Michael Klein. He is a young bloke that is an Optometrist, but he also builds amps. Well he was kind enough to rebuild my Vox AC30 Brian May Special Edition to the exact specs of Mr. Petersen. My amp today only has one knob and that is for volume and a boost channel knob. No tone stack at all. It sounds so good that you do not need one. Mr. Greg Fryer of Australia also built these types of amps for Brian May. He is another awesome amp builder of VoxAC30 amps. Just wanted to add my little story about my Vox AC30 Brian May Special Edition amp. I love your chann else and you are obviously a guy that is well versed with these amps. My opinion is that these new amps from China are nothing like the originals other than the cosmetics of these new amps. Ceriatone from Malaysia is a different story all together. Top notch amps all the way. I own two of his amps. But this Chinese crap is unbelievable. My Vox now with the Mercury Magnetic output transformer and power transformer makes my amp now sound as good as any 60's Vox. I am quite happy with it. Like I said, I love your videos . They are incredibly interesting just like this other bloke down in Elpaso, Texas, Uncle Doug that has a KZfaq channel. Very cool what you guys do. Unfortunately here in Canada, there aren't any really competent repair people.I am an old guy now and I have a lot of great amps. I play just as a hobby that I have done since I was about 10 when the Beatles came out in the 60's. Always wanted a Vox AC30 amp. But having owned this amp of mine for many years now, it's great now, but this amp was suggested retail price of $3000.00 USD. The price of this amp in 2005 was unbelievably expensive and to boot, it sounded like shite. Thanks Lyle Caldwell keep up the videos. Mike Ryde has an interesting document on the rebuild of my amp showing pictures and each step of process. All of Brian May's amps are gutted and only have the normal channel modified. Check it out. It's very interesting mate. Just as a point of interest, this amp came with the Chinese Alnico Blue speakers. I did put some old Alnico Celestion blues in the cab, but I have done a side by side comparison and I must say the Chinese blues sound every bit as good as the older Celestion UK blues that I have. That's my side by side comparison, but the Chinese Vox amps, well there is no way that I would buy one. Ceriatone all the way especially from a price standpoint. Ceriatone is state of the art guitar amps. Stacks up to anything made in the States.

I have played a lot of these Korg reissue AC30tbx amps, and they seem to be a little different sounding through the years. I love my 1993. Other ones I have played from later years were super dark. Did they change them much as the years went along? Between myself, and all my church friends we must have half a dozen of these amps. They all sound kinda different. The closest to mine is my friends number one amp, also a 1993. Enjoying the channel! I love learning about this stuff. You're tempting me with the vibrato channel pot idea! 🤔 💡

Thank you for these videos, Vox community really needed this, one question, was the normal channel of the original JMIs as dark as the one on the TB/TBX reissue?

Thanks for this. Was about to buy a 65 with no top boost. I'll hold out for a top boost so

Hendrix was very jazzy, so that was a good lick for a jazz demo.

What output tube brand are you using here, and which version of JJ 12AX7 do you use? Thanks!

Another option, if noise bothers you on the TBX series, “delete” the oft-unused and noisy Vib/Trem channel by pulling the 3 pre-amp tubes on the back right side of amp. Amp will be noise free and work normally. Your valuable UK Drake made trans will run cooler, you’ll have 3 pre-amp tubes in your stash, and your now collectible amp will remain so.

Hi, the crossover channelling is a little out of screen shot - are you crossing the the bottom inputs of both channels and using the top inputs (either normal or brilliant) for the guitar ?

Thank you so much for this. What are the mods you made to the normal channel? I'm in the UK, otherwise I'd send you my amp.

You know I'm getting to the point where, I'm seriously considering ditching the tube amp and the constant crap of maintaining these things and can't play them at any decent level and going to plugging as when doing a a/ b/ C test actually prefering the sound of the plug ins without pissing my neighbours off and have options that one amp just can't do.

Thoughts on Greenbacks vs Alnico's?

Hey, thanks for the video. I decided to pull the trigger on an ac15tbx after watching this. It needs new tubes though, any suggestions? Thanks!

Chinese blues 2010 absolutely equal to current and 2003 blues. DOD 270 a/b pedal proves it. Pulsonic era probably a different animal.

That tremelo sounds nothing like the 2003 handwired ac30 model I play through.

Umm, your Vib/Trem switch is backwards or something. When you show it switched to Vib it’s choppy like a trem and when switched to Trem it warbles like a Vib.