I have a 2007 Vox AC30CC2 which has had the Lyle Caldwell mods done to it to make it sound a bit more like a 60s AC30. As stock it was a bit like a modern take on an AC30 sound rather than the real thing.
The stock Wharfedale speakers are ok, but I’d like to fit something better. I love mixing speakers in cabs. I think it is a great way to broaden the tone of the cab and gives you more options for micing when recording. So I was planning on fitting two different speakers into the AC30.
I use the amp for things that sound like Crowded House, Counting Crows and Radiohead, but it is also used in full Brian May mode (with a Yonderbosk BC149 Treble Booster) in a Queen tribute band, with a Weber Mass 100W attenuator to keep the volume at a manageable level.
For the Brian May sound people automatically think Celestion Alnico Blue, but in the amps that Brian May uses live he has a Blue and a G12H Anniversary and it is the G12H that is mic’ed, not the Blue. So the guitar sound you hear at a Queen concert through the PA is a G12H Anniversary.
I have been at the front at several Queen concerts and Brian May concerts and have heard the sound coming directly from Brian May’s amps. It is very harsh and piercing and nothing like the sound that comes out of the PA or that you hear on recordings.
If I wanted to get close to making my AC30 generate something like the recorded Brian May sound, rather than his actual on stage sound, and also be able to satisfy my other uses for the amp what speakers would you suggest? I thought of maybe a Green Beret / Reaper combination, but would that have enough of the AC30 chime that is an important part of the clean sound of the amp?
Holy crap ... just before you said it yourself I had read enough to know that the Green Beret / Reaper combination was the ticket for you.
Yes, you'll be totally pleased! Yep, the AC30signature tone will still be there, too :-)