In 1959, the drive to promote the "Model G" continued - no fewer than four adverts in "Musical Opinion", now the principal "highbrow" magazine in which Jennings advertised. Although very little of any note appeared in "Musical Times", the company continued to improve the "visibility" of its models in other ways.

By September a whole floor - the basement (formerly the "Accordion Centre" - had been given over to organs in the Jennings shop at 100 Charing Cross Road - for a brief history of the shop see this page on the Vox AC100 website. A series of illustrated brochures was also made available (images to come).

Jennings's efforts were doubtless prompted in part by the need to remain competitive and to be seen as "different". In May '59, Selmer published a list of well over 120 installations of its "Minster" and "Lincoln" organs in the United Kingdom. The following month (in "Musical Opinion", June 1959) Jennings came back with a hint of something far more exotic where customers were concerned:

Ipoh, Malaya - Cathedral Church of St John.

Port of Spain, Trinidad - St Joseph's Convent.

Lower Hutt, New Zealand - Municipal Auditorium.

Bendigo, Australia - St John's Presbyterian Church.

Osimo, Italy - Basilica San Giuseppe da Copertino.

Onitsha, Nigeria - All Saints' Cathedral.

The interior of the basilica at Osimo, a thirteenth-century Franciscan foundation with later neo-classical interior. Picture from this page.

Certainly for the Model G, strong selling points, pressed home by Jennings in December 1959, were its three-manual format and not inconsiderable 150 watt output, this last thanks to three separate 50 watt power amplifiers of a design formulated by Derek Underdown c. 1955 - more to come later. At any rate, Selmer's "Minster" and "Lincoln" were only two- and single-manual respectively,

"Musical Opinion" magazine, November 1958, a fine double-spread from Selmer.

In terms of Jennings's distributors in the UK, Wiggs of South Shields was perhaps the most energetic in this period - it may be possible in due course to trace at least some of the installations that the company undertook. Wiggs took out a series of adverts mentioning Jennings (among others) in "Musical Times" magazine from 1956 to 1960.

But a good many local and overseas installations will still have been carried out by Jennings engineers. The three companies - "The Jennings Accordion Company", "The Jennings Organ Company", and "Jennings Musical Industries" - expanded rapidly in the late 1950s. New members of staff were regularly sought.

Pages on 1954-1958 can be found here. Other years will follow soon. A sequence of pages on guitar amplifiers, beginning with 1957, starts here.

1959

"Musical Opinion" magazine, January, 1959. The "Model G". Advert repeated in July.

"Musical Opinion" magazine, February, 1959. Models A, C, DS, G, H, K.

"Musical Opinion" magazine, May, 1959. The range of Church Organs.

"Musical Opinion" magazine, June, 1959. Model G.

Music trade press, September 1959.

"Musical Opinion" magazine, September, 1959.

"Musical Opinion" magazine, October, 1959. Model A.

Music trade press, November 1959.

Above, a JMI advert placed in a music trade journal, November 1959 - Model A, C, D1, D2, DS, H, and G organs. At the foot of the page a note that the company's organs were on display in the basement of the shop at 100 Charing Cross Road (this by September 1959). The basement had been the Jennings "London Accordion Centre" from 1956. The only organ not displayed was the gargantuan Model G as it was too large for the stairs down.

"Musical Opinion" magazine, December, 1959. Model G.

Back to the main index page.

Documents relating to Jennings (Vox) guitar amplifiers, 1959.