Zaphod B

Oops - I guess I could have posted the linK!

Here's a YouTube video that I found - an AC15 using the Warehouse alnico. It really sparkles.

You are correct; the Celestions are now Chinese-made. By all accounts, though, they compare very favorably with the pre-Chinese speakers. There are a couple of less expensive alternatives to the Celestion Blues. Weber makes a version that is supposed to sound very close (the Blue Dog), and Warehouse Speakers have an even more affordable version called the Black and Blue. The Red Fang is a good choice, too.

If you do demo an AC30CC, try to do a side-by-side comparison of two amps, one equipped with the Celestion Alnico Blues and the other equipped with the Vox GSH12-30. The Blues will blow you away. They're significantly more expensive but IMO it is money well spent.

I have a Vox AX30CC2X (loaded with Celestion Blues) and all three of my LPs sound very good through it. In fact, every single one of my guitars sounds good through it. It's a really versatile amp. With the Norm channel you can get old-school (and by old-school I'm talking late '50s) clean through crunchy, and an EQ switch on the Norm channel yields a brighter more modern sound. The Top Boost channel is hotter, with more preamp gain, and it can give you some very brilliant tones, sort of like a Fender amp on steriods. The really cool thing is that you can blend the two channels to darken up the Top Boost channel and approach Marshall-dom. Highly recommended.

Hey, Raptor - I admit I'm confused about the VOS vs. Historic Reissue thing. The Custom Shop web site lists the historic reissues as Vintage Original Spec - check out the product pages. For current models I'm thinking that VOS and "historic reissue" mean the same thing. I think.

Correct, the "R" abbreviation is only used for the Custom Shop VOS reissues. To add to the confusion, there are some "R"s that have finishes exclusive to Guitar Center, and these are referred to as "G" as in "G0".

Thundergod, that's some beautiful flame on the upper guitar.

All this talk about straplocks made me realize that I had a bunch of guitars sitting around without them. Went to Guitar Center and bought 5 sets of Schallers. On the two Gibsons that I installed them on, I did reduce the hole size with glued-in toothpicks at the bottom of the body. The Fenders use the same size screws at both locations. Another thing to note about Schallers vs Dunlops: To remove the Schallers you have to PULL the spring-loaded pin - something that is impossible to achieve unless you intend to do it. To remove the Dunlops you PUSH the spring-loaded pin - something that can be done inadvertently.

My preference is the Schallers - like Raptor said, they have a failsafe engineered in, and they're made of metal, by damn. I do have the Dunlops on one of my guitars but my confidence level in it is not very high.

You have several options, I think. 1. See if you can make your straplocks work with the original screws. or 2. Fill the original screw holes with plastic wood and re-drill them for your strap lock screw size. or 3. Use the old carpenter's trick for sizing down wood screw holes - drop some carpenter's glue in the hole, drop in a couple of wood toothpicks trimmed to the same depth as the hole, install the new, slightly smaller screw, allow to dry overnight before putting any load on it. (Yes, it works.) or 4. See if another brand of straplock has the same screw size as your originals or 5. Forget the straplock and install a big stainless steel washer between the original strap holder and the body. (Not elegant, but it works too.)