Documents 1966
1966
Continued from the previous pages: documents 1964, and documents 1965. Items are arranged on the page as far as possible in chronological order.
The small ads are principally at present from "Melody Maker" magazine, chosen to give a snapshot - no more than that as there are AC30s for sale every week - of the prices and types of AC30s sold by shops.
During the course of 1966, the numbers of AC30 advertised dropped fairly sharply, however. Prices dropped too. "Pan Music", above the Flamingo Club on Wardour Street, had over twenty for sale in the Spring of 1966, but relatively few by December.
The average price for a second-hand AC30 in 1965 was £60. Some, though, could be had for a good deal less - £30 seems to be the lowest (for a beige Twin), below, 3rd December, 1966. Discounted new AC30s seem to have been readily available at £70-£75.
"Beat Instrumental" magazine, June, 1966, the AC30 still in the line up.
"Melody Maker" magazine, 26th February, 1966. Pan Music - twenty or more AC30s in stock.
"Melody Maker" magazine, 5th March, 1966. Sound City, an AC30N, three months old.
"Melody Maker" magazine, 5th March, 1966. Pan Music, Wardour Street.
"Melody Maker" magazine, 9th April, 1966. Pan Music - still a large number of AC30s
JMI prices, Australia, April 1966. Picture from Jim Elyea's book, collection: Martin Kelly. Note that the "AC30 Expanded Frequency Twin Fifteen" is still available.
"Melody Maker" magazine, 30th April, 1966. A much reduced number of amps. Note the AC30 Super Reverb II (two speaker cabinets).
"Melody Maker" magazine, 7th May, 1966.
"Melody Maker" magazine, 21st May, 1966. The main Selmer shop at 114 Charing Cross Road, just a few doors up from the Jennings Shop, rarely advertised Vox equipment.
"Melody Maker" magazine, 29th May, 1966. Len Stiles.
"Beat Instrumental" magazine, June, 1966, an AC30 one of the competition prizes.
"Melody Maker" magazine, 11th June, 1966. Pan Music.
"Chicago Tribune" newspaper, 17th June, 1966. An AC30 for $389, list price $495. The Thomas Organ "Studio" in the Golf Mills Shopping Center in Niles was the principal Vox centre in the northern half of the USA in the mid 1960s. Various details are gathered on these pages on the Vox AC100 website.
"Melody Maker" magazine, 2nd July, 1966. Pan Music.
"Melody Maker" magazine, 2nd July, 1966.
"Pittsburgh Post Gazette", 23rd August, 1966. Joseph Horne and Co. with, among other things, an AC30SRT, listed as a "Buckingham", but the description "3 channel amplifier with six inputs" can only mean the JMI amplifier, not the later Thomas Organ-made solid state twin that was given the same name. Price: $529.00.
Vox pricelist drawn up in later 1966 for Barth Radio-Musikhaus in Stuttgart. The only AC30 encompassed is the "Treble Boost" (i.e. "Top Boost"). Barth was one of the three main Vox Dealers/Agents in West Germany in the late 1960s. The list also contains prices for the full 4-series and 7-series range.
"Melody Maker" magazine, 3rd September, 1966.
"Melody Maker" magazine, 15th October, 1966.
"Melody Maker" magazine, 3rd December, 1966.
"Melody Maker" magazine, 24th December, 1966.