Warm and Fuzzy on an AC 30?

[Elorien]

Desiring to have an analog hobby in this digital age, and more importantly, recapture the rock star I never was in my youth, I picked up an excellent condition used Vox AC 30 amp from a large guitar store chain and snagged a beautiful custom guitar from ebay that luthier John Caruthers supposedly had a hand in crafting. As a fan of guitar music, and aspiring to play an assortment of things from rockabilly & surf to 80s hard rock and hair metal to my own six string vibrations, I find myself most in want of that warm, fat and fuzzy 80s tone. I can flesh out more details of my guitar if needed but I would very much like advice (i.e. exchange pickups vs suggested pedals vs frankenstein etc). Thanks in advance!

[Razbo]

Well, I have bad news. It's not going to stop. Eventually (since you sound like a tweaker to me!) you'll have done the pick ups, pedals, and, at minimum, will soon own 3 amps and 5 guitars.... :)

A place to start would be a good OD pedal (like a Tubescreamer). This will let you switch between clean & grit and put some variety at your feet.

[hrandersoniii]

I am up to 4 guitars now and just got into playing last December! One more will do it for me too :D

[Elorien]

Yes, a I'm a tweaker, tech junkie, in short I like my stuff. Maybe if I tell my wife it's an adoption program for underplayed guitars she'll see the charity in the investment! (smirk) However, other than being doomed to eventually owning my own armory of axes, I was hoping to learn what would be best to do with my current setup to get that 80s hair metal sound...me thinks I shall start with a distortion/overdrive pedal but which one? Any Vox users out there?

[JoaquinCastillo]

The great thing about vox amps is that they love pedals. Go to your local music store or just look it up on you tube. You could take your amp to the store and try them out there.

[Ben Lindholm]

Another good distortion pedal worth checking out is the Fulltone OCD. Best thing of course is to try a bunch out at your music store with your guitar and an identical amp :).

[Elorien]

Appreciate your reply, Ben! I've been working (slooowly) on your Turkish March tutorial on my acoustic. If I nail that maybe I can graduate it to my electric for Extreme's "Play With Me," since it opens with a few bars of Turkish March!

"Be excellent to one another and party on dudes!" -Abe Lincoln from Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.

[Ben Lindholm]

...for Extreme's "Play With Me,"...

Nice! I had missed that one, awesome intro! Pretty fast tempo there, haha, but of course, it's much easier on an electric :D.