You have one of the best amps in the world there, and you talk of just casually firing it up. It's a bit like owning a Ferrari and driving it once a month! it's designed to be used a lot.
An aquaintance of mine inherited his dad's lot of musical equipment when he died around 1995/96. I got to know him soon after, and since his dad worked in Illinois as a Studio Tech/Session musician, he had all kinds of cool gear.
He left his son a treasure trove of guitar and amps, vintage effects and the like to his son, but the Vox AC-30 (which was dirty and had some torn grille clothe) was stored out in a quonset. Being relatively new to guitar then, I had no idea the value of the amp, and was far more interested in the Fender Prosonic he had upstairs in his room.
He had a lot of cool stuff, two LPs, one previously owned by R.E.O. Speedwagon. While not a cool band to a fan of early-mid 90s alt-rock, my friends and I still revelled in its presence. We knew it was a piece of rock history, as is that AC-30, wherever it is now.
I read a recent [US] issue of Guitar World celebrating the 'Sgt. Peppers' album, which I believe to be one of the most overrated albums of all time; and I'm a moderate Beatles fan. Anyhow, two AC-30s were used in the process of recording that album (which IMO paled to its companion piece LP, 'Magical Mystery Tour', all paling to 'Revolver', their best).
The Beatles are as popular now as ever, but not everyone aspires to SOUND like them. They did the best they could with the limits of their time, including amps and effects-- the same could be said for Hendrix.
Still, the majority of the greatest rock albums were released from 1965-1980, a time when the industry was going through a revolution for the worst, and effects were hard to come by. These days we have every kind of sound you can imagine, but nobody's cranking out albums as good as 'Marquee Moon', 'For Your Pleasure', 'Astral Weeks' or the Replacements '83-'87 period.
At times, I feel almost inundated by the number of options in terms of guitars and amps (and the techniques of how to pimp them out, since "stock" is almost heresy this day in age). And then there's effects... thousands upon thousands, clones of clones and none of them cheap or accessible (nobody in the US sells Lovetone pedals, for example). It's a nightmare one must traverse to arrive at that dream sound.
Still, I'd follow the advice here and keep your AC30 for the time being. If you give up and decide it's not the thing for you, you could consider holding onto it for a few years before selling if you know how to keep it in pristine shape (in case it's worth anymore down the line).
My dream amp might be a vintage AC30. Maybe behind that, a '52 era Fender Bandmaster.
