My first drive pedal was an OCD 1.4, and my first amp was an AC15C1. Little did I know stumbled on this great pairing by pure chance. Over ten years on and I still get ‘the feeling’ when plugging in and playing that first note/chord. Haven’t found anything that has even come close to replacing it for me!
I have several of these pedals, but the Hot Cake is in a league of it's own. I love my Hot Cake because it remains clear and articulate throughout its gain and volume range. An incredible pedal with it's own tone and sound. Great for other amps as well despite it being designed for the Vox.
Best distortion/drive/OD pedal I owned and would buy it again if lost. Sounds amazing on guitar or bass and very versatile. If I should keep only 1 pedal of all of my pedals, then it would be Hot Cake😊
Barbershop!!! I’ve had it for a few years before they put out their no switch, always on model. Might have bought this one because it is indeed absolutely always on! Great to see it mention here, Fairfield Circuitry is an awesome company. I have a Tele with AC 15.
Awesome video dude! Recently got an AC15. I play a Tele and I gotta say…. First time I plugged the Rat in I’ve never had such a “holy shit” moment with a pedal. This amp cranked is pairing with a lot of pedals so well, and it’s making me want to play more than I have in years.
Love my Timmy! Paired with my Les Paul is delightful. Have a Hot Cake on order and can’t wait to hear the combo! Great work on this video, fantastic demo of every pedal and useful tidbits scrolling across the bottom of the screen, A+ work! Thank you for putting this together 🤘🏻
This is like standing in the line over night to get limited edition trainers but better! My new Lounge influenced AC15C1 pedal board is - Timmy V3, Hotcake (latest), RAT (JHS mod), OCD V2, BD-2W - and that's it 🤣🤣🤣 I'm not joking!
Awesome! I enjoyed the Archer, BD-2 and was surprised by the Grey Channel-sounds gnarly! The Red Llama has always sounded great in your videos. Thanks for sharing!!
Glad you enjoyed it! I wanted to include the Red Llama in this video but that would have been a Top 13 video, and it would have been an odd number...which my brain says can't happen lol
Great comparison for a huge vox fan like me... love your videos...personally i play a vox ac15hw and i own a hudson dual broadcast (glorious), wampler tumnus (super) and a keeley d&m drive (modded ocd + modded klon with some ts9 frequency maybe) which i love too but i am evaluating to replace it for just one straight drive/distortion pedal. The secret for an od or distortion on a vox is a pedal with very tight bass or a control to tame low frequency (that is why treble boosters are so damn great on vox amps). Dist sidemof the keeley d&m drive is a bit too fat on the lows and plays great only when my vox is set pretty clean and non I am looking for something different and I am very interested in to try a rat, but loved the hot cake in this video too. Original ocd seems to have less frequency that i expected compared to my d&m drive dist side...
IMHO, the treble booster was the clear winner, though the others were good too. It's the sparkles with the volume rolled back, like a FF, but the mid range and distortion on the volume up.
@@TheToneLounge the rat and the hotcake. I use a Sunface and a TS9, i think the vox sounds great with anything just a matter of taste. But in your video you made a great selection 😁✌
I run a BD-2. It plays pretty well with the Vox AC-15c1 and either humbuckers or single coils. I typically play a semi hollow with coil splits. Great for a boost as well. Haven't found the sweet spot if it exists for a Ric 660-12 and an OD. But I got the Vox for the Ric. With a little (or a lot) of compression and choirs we get some sweet sounds out of the vox.
I've been a non- pedal player for years but just got the bd-2 and use it with my ac10 (definitely thinking about getting the 15). But I've also been liking what the rat does too. I think at this point I'm going to wait until I know more about the new hand wired vox amps before I get another amp. My ac10 can get quite harsh but when I've tried the 15 it sounds more pleasant. I really want to try one with the blue alnico though. Some people say it's too bright and some people love it. I can't hear much of a difference with the comparison videos.
Hi, I own a VOX AC15CH, which I play through an OX BOX and headphones. I have greatly enjoyed and learned from you videos. Thanks to your recommendations, I have collected an ABY pedal (Orange Detonator), a treble booster (Catalinbread Naga Viper), an ODR-1, a Fairfield Barbershop, a TIM V3, a Muff (EQD Hoof), and a RAT 2. Individually, using your settings for the amp head and the pedals, they all sound great. However, I've had a hard time trying to combine them productively, e.g., to produce a fuzzy yet focused sound like Sleep or Kyushu. I would really appreciate any suggestions regarding order of pedals and settings that you may have. But don't feel pressured to answer. Anyways, thanks again for the great content!
Here are two signal chains you can try: 1. treble booster/Muff/RAT 2/Barbershop/TIM V3/ODR-1 This chain take the TB first, as the overall boost for the higher gain pedals (muff and Rat). The Barbershp/Tim and ODR-1 are last, as they can tighten up the higher gain pedals, shape their over all tone and boost the volume. I tend to favor this approach. 2. This one requires more experimentation. I'm talking about combining pedals into "scenes". For example; you might want to have the TB/RAT/Barbershop as a trio that is at the beginning of your signal chain. Followed by the Muff/ODR-1, and last the Tim V3 to control the volume and shape the tone. There are a lot of ways you could do this, but these two are the ones I would try.
@@TheToneLounge Bell dinged as always, my man. Looking forward to both of them. If it's not too late, could you please indicate which channel. I tend to assume it's the NORMAL channel if it isn't. (The Top Boost never gets enough love, and works very with pedals. I've found, anyway. :)
I'm a fan of the Green Rhino, Belle, OCD, Hotcake, BD-2, and RAT. Not featured here are 4 of my faves: Xotic AC Booster, Vick Audio Tree of Life, Keeley Red Dirt germanium, and the Tech 21 Double Drive.
This is actually a nice comparison. Liked the grey channel a lot. I'm certain there are many others. I would like to try the liquid sunshine. And maybe the katzenkonig.
@@TheToneLounge the Liquid Sunshine is an original Jfet design by Subdecay. i forgot about this pedal, but JLeonardJay made a video this week. The katzenkonig is made by Catalinbread. They glued the front of a mk2 tonebender to the back of a procorat. So you can mix between them.
Without a doubt the Benson Preamp is amazing into a Vox! May cover similar ground as the Barbershop though in some ways. Also, any Tone Bender sounds amazing into a Vox, I really like the one on the Hoof Reaper
@@TheToneLounge Thank you! That’s kinda what I was figuring. They cover a ton of range between them. Although, I was kinda hoping you’d say “No, you need all three! Buy more pedals!” 😂
Blues Driver eh? Yeah I don't get it for the ac15. I bought a Keeley modded one and ended up selling it. The Keeley TS9 however, you will have to pry it from my cold dead hands. Match made in heaven for the AC15
@@TheToneLounge It's basically two effects in one housing. With separate switches. The versatility of this solution is amazing. In addition, it has the ability to add bass. It works very well with my AC15 and PRS SE CUSTOM guitar. ...And of course it looks killer. :-)
Hmmm, need to borrow my friend's v1 Barbershop. Got a HotCake on backorder. My personal top 2 right now are the DOD Carcosa and Wren & Cuff Tall Font Russian in the normal channel with a humbucker guitar. Fave TV shows...re-watching Westworld and catching up on What We Do In The Shadows. Our Flag Means Death was surprisingly good too (by episode 3).
If you do get to borrow it, let me know what you think of it! I've been meaning to watch Westworld for years. I have no clue why I keep forgetting to watch it lol. I'll check out the other two series as well. I'm always looking for new stuff to watch. Cheers
I use the BD-2 on my AC15, also use the EHX Glove, DOD 250 and for Fuzz the EQD Cloven Hoof. I would like to try the Red Llama as well for that classic Tom Petty tone. The MXR Timmy sounds great, I may need to try this one out as well
@@TheToneLounge yes, I recently saw the new Re-issued Red Llama. It’s kinda funny as I wrote asking Dunlop a few times over the past 5-7 years and asked if they had plans to re-issue the pedal and both times they said No, unless there was an interest from consumers. Guess I wasn’t the only one asking 😀
I peeped on the forums that the newer generation who've stumbled upon the Vox AC15C1 definitely do use the Barbershop (great pedal) and some of the Greer drive pedals, they (the youth) mostly seem to play strats (I prefer an LP or Tele with an AC15/30 but new tonal territory exploration is a good thing) they also seem into stuff like the Red Snapper (which is clearly amazing) and even out there stuff like Lumpy's Lemon Drop, the youth are way more into boutique pedals then Boss work horses - I imagine they are getting some new unique tones out of this amp which is only a good thing (they also don't have much love for the Alnico Blue which I disagree with but they experiment with speakers like the WSG Black Hawk non HP - they drove the price of it up stupid high - all of this is great for the community).
The next gen of players has different tastes for sure. I'm not team Blue either, although I do like the speaker. I tend to favor the voicing of the Greenback or even the V30 for that matter. I do play fuzz a lot, as well as some higher gain pedals. They just translate better imho with the GB. It's all a matter of taste, though. No absolutes when it comes to tone.
Very informative comparison. I just wonder if the different guitars are confusing a bit a clear aural view....Anyway to my ears the 3 outstanding ones are the ocd, the rat and the broadcast.
@@nikman5300 I would love to do that. I just can't afford to buy more amps. Unless Vox lends me a few amps, it will take a while before I can get to other amps.
I think you covered it here! It’s hard to pick favorites from this list, too many good tones. Lately I’ve been enjoying the Hot Cake (pretty similar setting to what you used here) and, as usual, the Rat works for my sound. I might try an upgraded Rat-style pedal some day. But I might have to try a Blues Driver, or better yet the Fairfield Circuitry pedal, could give me a different option. Any chance you could do your favorite fuzzes for Vox, too?
@@TheToneLoungeI've recently switched from bass to guitar and so all of this is new to me. By God there are so many variables to the guitar compared with bass (for one thing I keep breaking strings... pretty sure I'm fitting them correctly 😂). I'm still trying to get to grips with the AC15, still trying to find that sweet spot before breakup. Ultimately I'm looking for a classic British punk tone for a couple of basic songs I've written. I perhaps want to push it a bit more for chaotic effect. I'm thinking one of the OD pedals like the Fulltone OCD or the MXR Timmy combined with a tube screamer but I could be wrong. One thing I don't want to do is over cook the egg.
thank you for great demo! do you prefer amp gain up or low? when it is with pedal. I like to put it somewhere between clean and dirt. 12clock in my matchless high input
You have a great experience with vox amp and overdrive. I have a ac10 for smaller gigs and im looking for a good sustained lead tone distortion for 80’rock like Toto ect. What would be the best for that?
I use either a simple SM57, off-axis about 2 inches from the grill cloth, or use a Two Notes Captor 16 with Celestion's Speaker Mix Pro. It depends on what time of the day that I get to record.
Ok I am ready for this. It's my understanding all youtube videos have a universal compression as applied to all videos. Are you able to link audio files to your videos?
Honestly, to me they all sound about the same. ;-( Not sure the Mighty AC15C1 needs a pedal next to the Original VOX footswitch. It would have been cool to listen to it in Native first, then pedal.
