Your favorite AC-30 emulator?

[Lee Oswald]

After the disappoinment of the English Gent, I'm looking elsewhere
for some Vox flavor. I'm torn between ROG Britannia, and Briggs'
64 Vintage.

What have you folks built, and what do you find you have liked
well enough to keep?

[dexxyy]

I`ve built every AC30 emulator I could find and in my opinion the top 3 are 3) ROG English channel 2) Catalinbread Galileo 1) ROG Britannia. The rest that I`ve done don`t come close to these 3, English channel is more of a cranked AC sound, Galileo is a better all rounder, does the cranked and the chime pretty well but doesn`t excel at either. The Brittania does both a whole lot better, it`s not an AC30 but it`s the closest I`ve managed to build.

[dexxyy]

Forgot to mention that to  get the best from the Brittania you REALLY, REALLY need to play through a solid state amp with a decent clean channel, I use a Fender 85 and it sounds freekin awesome

[Lee Oswald]

Well heck, that has me second guessing this. I use an old Twin II, the Rivera series amps.

I noticed you didn't mention the Briggs 64. I had the hunch that it might sound very close to
the English Gent, as they are similar.

I'm going to consider the CB30, as I have no use for a Naga Viper.

[rocket88]

i think the BJFE emerald green distortion machine and the catalinbread CB30 is based on the ac30 as well. they may be worth checking out too.

[Chris60601]

 I agree with Dexxyy - The English Channel is what I built. I thought about the updated version (Britannia) but after hearing the demo of it, I personally thought that the Channel sounded better overall. It has the sound I was looking for. I can't speak to the others that were mentioned and I use it though a small solid state Marshall through the clean channel and it is fantastic with a Strat.

[Frank_NH]

I just came across a very interesting thread related to this topic at the Ultimate Guitar forum:

Best amp-like sounding pedals

Vox-ish
Lovepedal Englishman-8.5/10
Carl Martin Ac-tone
Wampler cranked AC
Menatone Top Boost In A Can
Hipkitty Oxblood
Lovepedal Death of A Vox
Tech 21 liverpool
Tech 21 Leeds
EHX English muff'n-8.5/10
BJFe Honey Bee overdrive (voxy and fendery)
Gaspedal Carb-8/10
Xotic AC Booster
Vox Big Ben overdrive-9.5/10
Vox over-the-top boost

None of the ROG effects are on this list, but I think Britannia is probably one of the best.  I'll know soon once I put mine together (it's going to be my next project using the 1776 Electronics PCB).

[MrTondo]

Has anyone any experience with these pedals into tube amps? I guess the ROG stuff is great for SS amps but has anyone tried them with tubes?

[Frank_NH]

In my view, the "amp-like" pedals attempt to emulate the sound and feel of a tube preamp + power amp (though some may just follow the preamp alone), and so going into a clean amp or amp sim pedal (like the ROG Condor) will probably give you the best sound.  You can use a tube amp as long as it stays clean and has good headroom for your playing.

I have a recent experience of using a low watt (~10W, single power tube) tube amp with my Digitech pedal board and some outboard effects pedals (mainly my DIY Zen Drive).  What I found is that the pedal board + amp sounds good up until the amp starts to break up (which doesn't take much on these amps!) - then it sounds like crap.  The tube break up of the amp combined with the overdrive + other effects in front makes for a dull, blatty sound.  In contrast, if I use a higher powered tube amp (~20W, twin EL84s) it sounds great as long as I keep the gain low and the master volume high (i.e. clean).

If you want to take advantage of your tube amp's natural overdrive/break up characteristics, then use a booster and/or tube screamer-type pedal.  An amp-like pedal is not necessary.

Finally, some of the simpler amp-like pedals may in fact give you a nice overdrive to compliment your tube amp breakup.  I'm loving the Madbean Rump Roast (a pedal based on the Dr. Z Karman Ghia amp) - great sound and it's simple to build.

[Lee Oswald]

I wish there were .wav files available, or some other type of sound file.
Youtube is borderline useless to check these things out. I like that ROG
has sound files, but my concern there is that they use amp simulators
into computers. I'd like to hear sound files of these AC types (as well as others)
through an actual amp, preferably a tube amp, simply because that what I
use.

I'm seriously thinking of ditching my amp for a Tech21 amp.

I'm going to have to flip a coin over the English Channel, Brittania,
CB30 and Emerald Green.

[Frank_NH]

I had a Tech21 TM60.  It was a nice amp, but I found it hard to dial in a sound that I liked, so I sold it to a friend and got myself a used Roland BC-60 (solid state amp from the 90s).  Love the BC-60!  There are other options these days for SS - the Quilter line looks pretty good.  Check 'em out here...

http://www.quilterlabs.com/

To me, light weight + tube tone =

[dexxyy]

The blues cube is without doubt the best solid state amp I`ve ever owned. Stolen from my van over a year ago and I`ve never been able to replace it, nobody seems to want to sell them and I can fully understand why. If anybody knows or hears of one for sale give me a shout please, bc60 or bc30

[jubal81]

My favorite is the CB30/Galileo.
FWIW, I hated the Britannia, but I only tried it on a tube amp. It was rife with diode decay noise and not very vox-like to my ears.

[johnk]

Hmmm. I dig my Britannia. and it doesn't have any weird diode decay issues.

[Frank_NH]

Thanks johnk, that's good to know.  I'm starting my Britannia project this weekend and will let everyone know my findings.

[Lee Oswald]

I'm pleased to see and read all these comments.

As to the SS amp bit, I've heard the Tech21 Trademark are hard to dial in from
one person, and that they sound very blackface (Fender, not Vaudeville). I had
a BC-60 1x12, and it sounded fantastic at home. But at stage volumes, it became
harsh sounding. I think it could have been vastly improved by a speaker upgrade.
But I sold it, so I'll never know.

I'm still a bit torn about which to build. I'm leaning towards the Britannia, but
my insatiable curiosity has me wondering how the English Channel, CB30 and
Emerald Green all sound. And I'm really curious about Fred Briggs' Vintage 64.
At least that one is quick and easy.

The thing about the Briggs 64, is that the English Gent that it is based on has
potential, but it is unrealized. I can see how with some tweaking and refining
it could get kinda' Voxy. Yet it doesn't seem to get much love, which leaves me
not wanting to waste the hour or two it would take to throw it together.

Thanks for the input John, the bit about diode decay had me concerned. although
it could simply be the difference in amps and guitars we're hearing about.

[Frank_NH]

This is for dexxyy.  Roland BC-60 for sale in Vermont...

http://burlington.craigslist.org/msg/4720651927.html

Frank

[dexxyy]

Thanks Frank, I should have mentioned I`m in the UK

[Frank_NH]

Oops.  OK - I suppose you could contact him about it but I would imagine the cost to ship an amp would be pretty steep.

[dexxyy]

Yeah, not to mention the import duty customs would be looking for too. Thanks for looking anyway mate