UPS delivered a much anticipated package on Friday: our newly acquired all original 1965 VOX AC50. This rare bird is the first AC50 I have ever seen in person so it was pretty cool to check out the tones. Really different than an AC30 but just as cool. I plugged up my Revelator guitar works 1961 telecaster into the brilliant channel and then jumpered the input across to the normal (bass) channel. I cranked her up through a pair of the newly released celestion 10″ Greenbacks. Cool jangly tones that really are a nice vintage Vox meets Marshall hybrid. I am going to search for some NOS glass to load in this bad boy as well.

Vintage 1965 VOX AC50 Amp

Here is a little history on the 1965 VOX AC50:

The AC-50 was the replacement model for the AC-30 in VOX’s ever growing quest to produce larger and larger amplifiers. The demand of groups like The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Kinks and others to have louder amplifiers so they could play over the shrieking crowds was driving manufactures to the edge of amplifier technology.

Vintage 1965 VOX AC50 Amp (back)

The first AC-50’s were “small box” versions which were single channel units. Later AC-50 models were two channel units and the earliest of these had a tube rectifier. The rectifier version was soon dropped as the power requirements of this amplifier pushed the GZ34 rectifier tube to the edge of its useful safe operating level.

The “small box” versions are very hard to find today as well as the tube rectifier dual channel models. Both of these models are favored by VOX collectors over the later solid state rectifier models.

1965 Vox Phantom 12-String Guitar Ad featuring Tony Hicks