VC3 Gold?

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  • #15393
    Dubbya
    Participant

    Hello Ted,

    Firstly, many thanks for accepting my request to join this forum and also many thanks for creating this forum. It really is well above and beyond what I would call a standard level of customer service!

    I have been a fan of the VC3 for many years, buying my first one brand new back in 1996 and since then I have acquired a further two secondhand via eBay. I have two VC3’s with the enhancer and a VC3Q. The two with enhancers I use with a pair of AKG C214’s for my vocals and I feed the signal from my Fishman Matrix Blend equipped Breedlove acoustic guitar through the VC3Q. This set-up enables me to record ‘one take’ solo performances… and very happy I am with it indeed.

    My question is concerning what are being described as the ‘Gold’ VC3’s. These are being sold on the secondhand market advertised (by some) as the best ones to have which were made by Neve. From what I can make out the only difference is cosmetic?

    I have uploaded a picture of my little VC3 family with serial numbers where available.

    Many thanks,

    Dave

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    #16142
    Ted Fletcher
    Keymaster

    Thanks for your post Dave.

    It’s strange how rumours start and grow with time!

    The VC3 went through a few variations over the years we produced it. The early ones had a conventional mic amp very similar to the one used in all the professional consoles of the time, followed by the optical compressor that I designed for the original VC1 ‘Brick’ and then the enhancer which was again my design. These were VC3, VC3 V2 (1998) and the VC3 V3 (1999). The V2 and V3 were minor changes to the enhancer design.

    Later we dropped the enhancer and changed the design to incorporate an EQ as many customers asked for it. At about the same time we started to use a manufacturing sub-contractor in Kelso, and this is where the ‘Neve’ connection came from, but the design and quality were always the same. At about the same time we introduced a version with gold lettering, just for a short time.

    The VC3Q was the name of the version with EQ.

    The last ones we made used a slightly different mic amp design and were called the VC3QCS (2000) and MQ3CS (2001).

    There were no changes at all to the compressor design, they were all the same.

    I hope that sheds some light! :)

    #16143
    stringmen
    Participant

    Hi Ted,

    Thanks for explaining the history of the VC3 series there. I’ve got a pair of old Tweed pre-eq’s that were made in kelso, so maybe it was the same factory ( ? )

    cheers

    #16144
    Ted Fletcher
    Keymaster

    The chap who set up ‘Tweed Audio’ used to work for me at ‘Alice’. It’s very likely that the units you have were made at the same factory; Kelso is a small town and as far as I know that was the only audio electronics factory. :)

    BTW, the new BRICK2 is now a reality…. I have them in stock. 8-)

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