Vox AC30 - Documents 1970s

Continued from the previous page: . There will be an intervening page in due course. Items below are arranged as far as possible in chronological order.

Three changes of company are encompassed - from "Vox Sound Equipment Limited" to "Vox Sound Limited" in early 1970; from "Vox Sound Limited" to a new incarnation of "Vox Sound Limited" owned by Dallas Musical Limited (from late summer 1973 to early 1975); and a third "Vox Sound Limited" owned by Dallas / CBS Arbiter. In terms of material, there is little at present from 1972 and 1973. In '72, "Vox Sound Limited" as originally constituted, was struggling. By 1973 it had more or less given up the ghost.

1970 and 1971

On the 7th January 1970, "Vox Sound Equipment Limited" formally came to an end, having struggled for the better part of 1969. Although its order books were healthy, there was simply not enough capital to meet running costs. The piece below, published in a music trade paper on 24th January, gives a small glimpse of what followed.

"Dallas Arbiter" was in fact fairly short-lived, becoming "Dallas Musical Limited" in 1972, then "Dallas Arbiter" again (in Spring 1975). Reg Clark sailed through, having taken the whole of the VSEL sales team to Dallas in January 1970. Indeed, it was probably Reg who recommended that Dallas take on Vox at that point. On Dallas and Vox in 1974 and 1975, .

Unfortunately, nothing came of it, and Vox was bought (for £100,000) by Michael Birch, whose principal claim to fame was as owner of a company that made sunglasses - some biographical details here.

Music trade newspaper, 24th January, 1970.

"Vox Sound Limited" catalogue and pricelist of Autumn 1970, drawn up for the "Associated Musical Instrument Industries" Trade Fair at the Russell Hotel, London. The AMII was formerly known as the "BMII" - "British Musical Instrument Industries" association. Also a detail from a pricelist drawn up for the German market, April 1971, showing for the first time, the new Vox AC30 Top Boost Reverb.

The VSL stand at the Fair. A rough-print picture published in September 1970. The AC30 at this point was the only valve amp on offer. The V100 - a new version of the AC100 - was still in development.

These pieces come from the Vox Supreme website, where documentary histories of both and can be found.

Detail from the catalogue of Autumn 1970.

A detail from the pricelist that accompanied the catalogue above. Only the AC30 Top Boost ("Treble and Bass Boost") is on offer.

A detail from the pricelist drawn up for the German market, April 1971. Now the AC30 Top Boost, and AC30 Top Boost Reverb ("mit Hall") are available.

Below, details of a catalogue issued by Frank Hessy's shop in Liverpool, probably late 1971. The material encompassed is standard Vox promotional material.

An interesting advert from November 1971 - the Vox shop in Gees Court (off Oxford Street) selling off storage-soiled goods. The AC30s were a real bargain.

27th November, 1971. A page on the Vox Discotape (Discotheque) can be found on the .

At this point, production of AC30s was divided between Hastings/St-Leonards-on-Sea (the Birch-Stolec factory) and the E.M.E. works in Italy (probably the new purpose-built complex at Montecassiano). E.M.E, which stands for "Elettronica Musicale Europea", a venture set in motion by Tom Jennings, Joe Benaron, and Enrico Uncini (of Eko), not only supplied neighbouring European countries with AC30s in the period 1968-1972, but acted as distributor for the "Vox Sound Limited" solid state amps built in England.

Most of the AC30s sold in England in 1971 will have been made in Sussex though. Batches are only likely to have been brought over from Italy when the occasion demanded.

1972

A note on Reg Clark, formerly General Sales Manager of JMI and VSEL. When VSEL collapsed in December 1969, Reg left for Dallas taking with him four key members of VSEL's sales team. In the 1970s he saved Vox twice, persuading Dallas-Arbiter to take on production in summer 1973, then CBS-Dallas/Arbiter (winter 1974). And Reg is also likely to have been behind the talks of a takeover in January 1970. Those unfortunately came to nothing. More on Reg further down this page.

In terms of the note, mention of the factory in Erith is intriguing. Could this be the old Vox works - the West Street Works - which had been vacated by "Vox Sound Limited" in early Spring 1971? It certainly seems possible, though if Dallas had acquired the building (at Reg's prompting), it will only have been used for a couple of years or so. In Spring 1973 the decision was taken to integrate all Dallas product lines in a vast new complex in Shoeburyness - see this page.

At any rate, word has it that Hayman drums were produced for Dallas in Erith. When further info comes to light, it will be posted here.

8th July 1972.

One of the last full page adverts issued by the original "Vox Sound Limited" in August 1972. For most of 1972 the AC30 had not been much advertised.

1973

In 1973 "Vox Sound Limited", the last incarnation of Vox proper, simply fell off the map - there were no mentions of any note in the music trade press; no adverts in the popular music press; and in the monthly digests of available equipment only the gnomic "line being revised", "prices to be announced". The company's difficulties were readily apparent in late 1972 when a half-hearted hope of becoming a "recommended supplier" for schools was expressed in a short notice.

That Vox did some business in 1973 seems clear from surviving amplifiers - but it was evidently very little. To all intents and purposes "Vox Sound Limited" was dead in the water by the beginning of '73.

Then in August 1973, the music trade press carried the report below. Dallas had come to the rescue:

August 1973

Judging by the tone of the piece, Vox was still alive at the time, but only just. Bankruptcy at any rate had not been declared. Quite how long the negotiations took is not known at present.

Dallas's acquisition was in some senses well timed, as certain items of Vox equipment could be shown at the Russell Hotel Trade Fair (late August '73). "Vox Sound Limited" had been in too poor a condition to go to the Frankfurt Fair in February.

Russell Hotel Trade Fair, late August 1973. A rough shot showing Vox in a sort of mix and match display. One can make out a perspex AC30 in the foreground, and production amps further back, along with some pedals.

Shortly after the Fair, the acquisition was announced in the mainstream music press - first by "Beat Instrumental" (in October '73), illustrating the perspex AC30 shown by Dallas.

"Beat Instrumental" magazine, October 1973.

1974

Below, a report published in a music trade journal, July 1974 - Tom Jennings joins "Vox Sound Limited". Tom had left "Jennings Electronic Industries", the company he founded in late 1967, at some point in 1973. If Tom did actually join VSL, it was not for long - the company went into liquidation in January 1975 (see further below).

July 1974

Dallas certainly put on a show of Vox equipment at the "British Musical Instrument Industries" Fair of July 1974, mounted for the first (and last) time at the Metropole Hotel in Brighton. In 1975 the Fair returned to the Russell Hotel in London.

Brighton, July 1974 - no shot of the stand itself, simply the name - VOX - over the entrance.

Below, a shot of the Dallas factory complex at Shoeburyness in Essex. This was a new build, begun in April 1973 and complete by April 1974. Dallas began moving in in May 1974. Various production lines were set up under the building's many roofs - "Sound City", "Vox Sound Limited", "Hayman guitars", and so on.

Manufacture of new AC30s was evidently put in motion in the summer of '74 - in good time for the BMII Trade Fair (see the last sentence in the item at the top of this entry).

Dallas Musical Industries, Shoeburyness factory, Essex.

In the new AC30 ncircuit, drawn up in June 1974, the GZ34 rectifier valve is replaced by silicon diodes - to squeeze as much power as possible from the amp (and to reduce the cost of production).

Detail from the "Dallas Musical Limited" catalogue of 1974 / 1975.

Image from the wonderful Bell catalogue collection on the .

Below, the earliest advert placed by Dallas in the music trade press to mention Vox amps - December 1974. Apologies for the so-so pictures.

December 1974.

Detail of the above - "VOX AMPS including the famous AC30".

Dallas, it should be said, had become "Dallas Musical Limited" in January 1974, the new name superceding the old - "Dallas Arbiter". But in January the company went into voluntary liquidation, having been overstretched by the construction of the factory in Shoeburyness. In the Spring of 1975, however, "CBS Arbiter" stepped in, and Dallas became "Dallas / CBS Arbiter" - to all intents and purposes "Dallas Arbiter" again. In the article below, there is a real sense that "CBS" had weakened Dallas's position in the market deliberately before moving in to purchase some months later. The comings and goings of CBS, Dallas, and Ivor Arbiter were incredibly complex in the first half of the 1970s. "Vox Sound Limited" remained a separate entity within the company structure.

February 1975.

1975

The purchase of Dallas by CBS/Arbiter. Reg Clark, formerly General Sales Manager at JMI, led "Vox Sound Limited". Reg had saved Vox in 1968, almost brought it under Dallas's wing in 1970, saved it under Dallas in 1973, and helped save it again in 1975.

April 1975.

Later 1970s

Below, pages from the blue version of the Dallas/CBS Arbiter Vox catalogue, late 1977. There are also red and green versions. Production at this point was still based in the factory in Shoeburyness, Essex. Most AC30s made there have "VSL" speaker labels with the Shoeburyness address.

The Hayter drum factory. Photo by Mark Goodwin.

Early 1980s

Some material from the USA, summer 1981, a time when Don Greer was ordering equipment directly from Vox (Rose Morris) in England. Don was never formally affiliated with Vox (as stated in this note previously). The pricelist is from "Allstate Music Supply Corp.", which also issued an accompanying catalogue.

Picture from "The Vox Story", ed. Denney and Petersen, 1993, p. 150.

Xerox pricelist from "Allstate Music Supply Corporation". The AC30 Top Boost and Top Boost Reverb are respectively $1200 and 1320.