Making an AC15 Sound Good With Overdrive?

Hey guys,

I have an AC15 Herritage head, i'm using it through an egnater 1x12 cab loaded with a G12-30H.
The amp sounds great through the Top Boost channel when playing clean, but when adding an OD pedal there's this high end fizz that only goes away when the cut knob is almost all the way up- but then the sound gets too muddy and loses clarity.

My 66' Bandmaster sounds great with OD through the same cab.

Is there a fix for this issue? I've read about the Bright Cap Mod here:
http://www.guitarpug.com/2008/06/vox-ac15cc-mod-guide/

But it's for the AC15CC, is there a similar mod or fix for the Herritage model?

Schematic: http://www.blueguitar.org/new/schem/vox/ac15htvh1_handwired.pdf

Thanks!

My ac15c1 has this same problem. I have seen many say that they use TS pedals with no problem but I can't do it.

Like you said, if I go through the normal channel and cut the tone it does away with most of the fizz. But then it looses a lot of that magic tone.

I have a similar problem with a Vox Night Train. My dirt pedals just don't sound good with it. But, that natural amp overdrive is heaven.

The night train is a different beast and clips in the preamp quite early on.. Doesn't really like pedals that much IMO.

For the Vox, I've never had success with a TS type pedal.. Can't boost the mids much on them before it starts sounding congested.

Crowther Hotcake, OCD, Tube Zone all sound great going into a Vox.

I have a similar problem with a Vox Night Train. My dirt pedals just don't sound good with it. But, that natural amp overdrive is heaven.

Very true. Thats one reason I don't worry about it. I have another amp that I use for pedals.

There are bright cap mods for Vox amps that make pedals sound better. I did this to my L'il Night Train and it definitely helped. I don't use pedals with my AC15 but am planning to start testing pedals with it soon. If necessary, I will do the bright cap mod to it too.

Depends on which guitar I use. I generally use an FDII Mosfet, or an old Visual Sound Jekyll and Hyde.

With my Les Pauls, the amp, and the pedals sound like heaven. Especially in a band mix.

With my Tele, the pedals will work fine, though I can't quite get the tone I get out of the LP's.

My strat sounds terrible through this amp no matter what I do, and the pedals just make it worse. It's much, MUCH better with the J&H than the Fulltone, but it still sucks. I thought about doing the bright cap mod, and still might, but truthfully, all my other guitars work so well with this amp (mine is the AC15C1) I don't want to screw with it on the chance that a mod might make one guitar sound better, and all the ones that sound good now worse.

There are bright cap mods for Vox amps that make pedals sound better. I did this to my L'il Night Train and it definitely helped. I don't use pedals with my AC15 but am planning to start testing pedals with it soon. If necessary, I will do the bright cap mod to it too.

The bright cap mod made my top boost channel much better with overdrive - takes a lot of the fizz out of it, but that was the C1 - don't know the heritage model.

I don't hear this when I use overdrive pedals with either single coils or humbuckers on the top boost channel. I set the tone cut to about 3 'oclock. I still hear the bright/chiminess but it's not fizzy at all, it sounds great to my ears.

Preamp tube problems maybe?

I don't think there's anything necessarily 'wrong' with his amp - it's a pretty common complaint/observation that the top boost channel doesn't play nice with certain pedals, which is one of the reasons that the bright cap mod exists. The stock tubes on the C1 are also considered pretty fizzy (not sure about the heritage) although I didn't notice a spectabular change when swapping for JJs in the preampm, but again, it's an easy fix to try.

My Tech 21 double drive actually sounded pretty nice through it to start and sounds even better with the bright cap mod. Maybe just try a couple different pedals before doing anything drastic though.

I've actually tried a lot of pedals and all of them had the fizz going on.

So looking at this schematic:

http://www.blueguitar.org/new/schem/vox/ac15htvh1_handwired.pdf

Is the bright cap C22? It's a 120pf cap in parallel with the Top Boost Volume knob.