Vox Amplug 2 AC30

I bought this for the occasional moment when I didn't want to plug in to my normal home rig or on gigs for warmup and such. For this I recommend it.

Size is fine, it's not too big, but could potentially get caught up on something if you're not careful.

It's plastic, so I doubt it can take a beating much at all, so the first time you forget it's still attached will probably break it.

When it's plugged in, I almost always forget what the controls are and on my guitar when the plug is on the bottom, the controls are fully hidden. This is slightly annoying.

Of course when you plug in your headphones it will be somewhat more cumbersome to use, but at gigs I already have IEMs in my ears, so it's fine.

The effects and modes are fine, the sounds are very acceptable for practice, obviously this isn't for recording or live performance. The chorus is my favorite. The reverb is my least favorite, as the style is something I never use.

It's a crunch/clean sound and with the few controls you have, you can't exactly transform it much to other things, so keep that in mind.

I wanted a small headphone amp for practice and something to hook up on a P.A. as a backup or for rehearsals.

specs

It?s supposed to be model after the classic Ac30. It has many features, volume, gain, tone pots, 9 presets for chorus, delay, reverb, and 2 presets for tremolo. The construction is not rock solid, the input jack is a bit fragile and the inputs are direct connected to the pcb board, so as the pots. Careful operation is required. You don?t have to replace batteries all the time.

Sounds

With headphones the sounds is excellent, with full gain it has a nice crunch with more open high mids. Rolling off the gain you can enjoy some nice clean sound. This is not a high gain design. The fx presets are usable. Chorus is very good, especially with a dirty sound. The 3 delay presets are a classic slap back delay, a more rock lead tone delay with 3 repeats and finally a strong one repeat delay for those who want to mimic Gilmour or U2 delay dot eight riffs. Reverb has a short preset perfect for surf, and two longer presets the third is too pronounced. Tremolo first preset is nice mild sound; the second is intense, more like a helicopter sound. So all the presets are enjoyable, you can have the tremolo always on and combine it with the other 3 (as I do). When using the FX, sound becomes a little noiser.

connect to P.A.

The surprise is when you connect this amp to a home stereo or a P.A., the eq and the general feel is just right. You can use the volume pot as a second gain pot to get some more saturated overdriven sounds. Perfect for rehearsals, and with the onboard fx you don?t need to carry pedals. Very convenient.

Conclusion

This is a great little amp with so many useful applications. Nice for backup, for rehearsals, or as a headphone amp. Finally, I have never played a Vox amp, I realized that after I played with the amplug, I started to realize, recognize and enjoy the classic vox sound (especially from U2).

I've been playing for years. I use a good old Marshall Combo JCM 800 50W and for small clubs Laney vc15 -110.
I find the VOX Ampplug very useful both for warming up and for playing when the family is asleep. The effects implemented in Ampplug are good and usable. The workmanship is solid and so far I have not had any problems. The AUX input for combination with backing tracks is also interesting. All in all a nice toy that is not too expensive. I didn’t connect it to the mixer so I don’t know what it sounds like when connected to the sound system. For the best experience, you need to have quality headphones, so you should count on additional costs if you do not already have them.