This is newly serviced, very original AC30/6 top boost with a pair of classic ‘silver alnico’ speakers, complete with original Pulsonic cones.
70s AC30s can be either terrible or brilliant, depending on which model you have. After the JMI years, there were some great and some not-so-great versions. For a brief and wonderful period, however, Vox produced British-built reissues after the Dallas company acquired the brand. These were a beautifully-made return to the original, hand-wired design (with some minor improvements) built in a state-of-the-art, purpose-built factory in Essex. Sadly, these Dallas (and then ‘Dallas Arbiter’) amps were only built for a few years before, again, cost-cutting and mass-production started to impact the lineup.
This is a Dallas-built AC30/6 TB chassis dating from 1974. It is exceptionally clean with both case and chassis in almost original condition. These amps are serious ‘sleepers’ and this one was fitted with a pair of Celestion T1088 ‘Silver Alnico speakers’ complete with sought-after pulsonic cones.
The chassis has been thoroughly serviced including all the main filter and bias caps (using original values) and the power section has been overhauled with some new power resistors. This example was already fitted with a proper fuse (later examples omitted that) and it has now been fitted with a new mains cable. One (possibly two) of the pots have been replaced at some stage.
The speakers are original to this amp. Dallas ‘inherited’ several hundred of these from the previous owners of Vox and used them in the early Dallas-built amps. The T1088 ‘silver alnico’ speaker (the exact same speaker as the alnico blue, just painted silver) had been used by JMI for AC30s since the early 60s.
The only obvious sign that this is not a JMI era amp is the double row of metal vents (leftover JMI stock, no doubt) that enable some extra cooling. This one even has the earlier-style silvered grey control panel as a nice bonus. Inside, the only significant change that Dallas made from the JMI specifications was the use of a SS rectifier which gives this amp a slightly more aggressive feel with a little less ‘sag’ but also a bit more output. Interestingly, this one still has the 5v taps for the rectifier tube on the original mains transformer, it was just never used. That does mean that this amp could be modified to include the original GZ34 tube rectifier (or even to allow switching between SS and Tube rectifier …) if desired in future.
Other than that, Dallas made subtle improvements to the air flow and to the earthing of the chassis, installed better EL84 sockets with stronger retaining clips, corrected the (terrible) JMI earthing of the heater circuit and added a ‘hum control’ adjustment to that. None of these impact the tone, but they do result in a happier, less noisy amp.
This amp both looks and sounds like a ‘proper’ AC30: all three channels and the tremolo work as expected and sound just as they should. All the switches, pots and controls operate smoothly and work as expected. This amp will come with a brand new set of JJ EL84s and a mix of pre-amp valves and a new replacement foot switch.
Grab a bargain while these are still going under the radar: these Dallas-built AC30s are not currently well understood and often get mistaken for the poorer quality PCB-based Rose-Morris or Birch-Stolec examples. Make no mistake, this is a proper Vox AC30, hand-wired in England for not much more than the price of the speakers. Last of the true AC30s!
This is newly serviced, very original AC30/6 top boost with a pair of classic ‘silver alnico’ speakers, complete with original Pulsonic cones.
70s AC30s can be either terrible or brilliant, depending on which model you have. After the JMI years, there were some great and some not-so-great versions. For a brief and wonderful period, however, Vox produced British-built reissues after the Dallas company acquired the brand. These were a beautifully-made return to the original, hand-wired design (with some minor improvements) built in a state-of-the-art, purpose-built factory in Essex. Sadly, these Dallas (and then ‘Dallas Arbiter’) amps were only built for a few years before, again, cost-cutting and mass-production started to impact the lineup.
This is a Dallas-built AC30/6 TB chassis dating from 1974. It is exceptionally clean with both case and chassis in almost original condition. These amps are serious ‘sleepers’ and this one was fitted with a pair of Celestion T1088 ‘Silver Alnico speakers’ complete with sought-after pulsonic cones.
The chassis has been thoroughly serviced including all the main filter and bias caps (using original values) and the power section has been overhauled with some new power resistors. This example was already fitted with a proper fuse (later examples omitted that) and it has now been fitted with a new mains cable. One (possibly two) of the pots have been replaced at some stage.
The speakers are original to this amp. Dallas ‘inherited’ several hundred of these from the previous owners of Vox and used them in the early Dallas-built amps. The T1088 ‘silver alnico’ speaker (the exact same speaker as the alnico blue, just painted silver) had been used by JMI for AC30s since the early 60s.
The only obvious sign that this is not a JMI era amp is the double row of metal vents (leftover JMI stock, no doubt) that enable some extra cooling. This one even has the earlier-style silvered grey control panel as a nice bonus. Inside, the only significant change that Dallas made from the JMI specifications was the use of a SS rectifier which gives this amp a slightly more aggressive feel with a little less ‘sag’ but also a bit more output. Interestingly, this one still has the 5v taps for the rectifier tube on the original mains transformer, it was just never used. That does mean that this amp could be modified to include the original GZ34 tube rectifier (or even to allow switching between SS and Tube rectifier …) if desired in future.
Other than that, Dallas made subtle improvements to the air flow and to the earthing of the chassis, installed better EL84 sockets with stronger retaining clips, corrected the (terrible) JMI earthing of the heater circuit and added a ‘hum control’ adjustment to that. None of these impact the tone, but they do result in a happier, less noisy amp.
This amp both looks and sounds like a ‘proper’ AC30: all three channels and the tremolo work as expected and sound just as they should. All the switches, pots and controls operate smoothly and work as expected. This amp will come with a brand new set of JJ EL84s and a mix of pre-amp valves and a new replacement foot switch.
Grab a bargain while these are still going under the radar: these Dallas-built AC30s are not currently well understood and often get mistaken for the poorer quality PCB-based Rose-Morris or Birch-Stolec examples. Make no mistake, this is a proper Vox AC30, hand-wired in England for not much more than the price of the speakers. Last of the true AC30s!
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