Meazzi, Framez, and JMI

From a Meazzi catalogue, 1958. Framez = Fratelli Meazzi (Meazzi Brothers). In other words, Framez was simply one of Meazzi's Trade Names.

In March 1959, Jennings applied to the old Patent Office for a Trade Mark for the name "Framez" in the United Kingdom - presumably with the agreement of Meazzi. In November the application was granted. In effect, the grant made Jennings sole distributor of any musical item labelled "Framez" in the UK, and prevented or at least provided the means to stop competitors (Rose-Morris, say) importing and selling an Echomatic or Framez guitar sourced from one of Meazzi's dealers in Italy.

How soon after March 1959 Jennings had started selling items supplied by Meazzi is unknown at present. But the deal was evidently made then rather than closer in time to the earliest adverts (autumn 1959).

That the application for the Trade Mark was successful ties in (albeit loosely) with the Jennings claim (see the advert for the Cliff Richard Echo, below) to have "... pioneered the introduction of echo and reverberation in the United Kingdom".

Trade Mark applied for in March 1959 and granted in November.

Below, early October 1959, the first JMI advert for a new range of Italian guitars. These as it turns out were made by Wandre in southern Italy and distributed in northern Italy and Europe by Meazzi, often (though not always) under its trade name "Framez".

Quite how Tom came to take on equipment distributed/offered by Meazzi in the first instance is perhaps the question. The "British Musical Instrument Industries" did not host any trade shows between 1959 and 1961, a source of major dissatisfaction to many companies. Presumably the echo units and guitars were not purchased by JMI "sight unseen".

10th October, 1959.

1959 - two inputs - "Model J" (Jennings) Echomatic

Below, an advert in "Melody Maker", 19th September, 1959, for the first version of the Meazzi Echomatic carried by JMI - known as the "Echomatic 1" or "Model J". The Meazzis will have come from Italy fully assembled.

A set of new pages on Vox Echos and their users - hardly just "Cliff Richard" and "The Shadows" - will available in due course.

September 1959.

The connectors on the front panel were made by Geloso, a type of XLR. Jennings began using these connectors soon after - see this page.

Below, a couple of adverts for the two-input "Model J" Meazzi Echomatic from March 1960 that are probably not well known. Two units, both covered in dark vinyl (one seemingly black), were evidently photographed, one having a badge for instance, the other not.

March 1960, detail from a full-page JMI advert (which encompasses a spread of other items).

March 1960, studio photograph accompanied by a short description of the unit. Dimensions and weight are given, the full text of the blurb (supplied by JMI) to be posted in due course.

The advert above, published in a trade magazine, appears in a section entitled "What's New", though the unit was hardly new to Jennings at this time. It is possible however that the "newness" lay in a move to a revised type of Echomatic - the so-called "Model J" Type 1B, a modern designation, not entirely satisfactory in some respects, but there we are. Type 1B it is for the time being. As for the image, Jennings could be slow at times to update illustrations of its products.

Type 1A: - the units conventionally depicted by Jennings (from September 1959) in its adverts. Normally a white PVC strap handle, three small control knobs on the front panel (as above), black vinyl.

Type 1B: - as issued to The Shadows (see the pictures in the previous entry) and at least two other bands. A large black knob provided for the adjustment of "Effects" (Reverb), and a two-tone vinyl scheme among other changes. Further details to come.

May 1960, still the "old" image. At present, this is the latest advert known for the "Model J".

The information panel of OOS/32 (undated). The numbers "1" and "7" for instance are written in continental - Italian - form throughout, the former with a pronounced downward tick from its top, the latter with a cross-bar through its upright. This copy formed part of a set assembled by or for a JMI service engineer. Rodney Angell, who served as a service engineer from c. 1960-1964, and a research and design engineer from 1965-1968, had an almost identical set. For OOS/035, see below.

Joe Brown, Hank, and the Jack Good show - December 1959

Below, a snippet from "Guitarist" magazine, August, 2012, Hank's recollection of being shown a Meazzi Echomatic by Joe Brown, then acquiring his own from Jennings.

"Guitarist" magazine, August 2012, article on Hank's echo units, p. 57.

Gene Vincent first appeared on the Jack Good television show - "Boy Meets Girls" - on 12th December 1959, the session perhaps recorded some days before. Vincent played his first concert in UK on the 6th.

It is worth noting though that Joe's recollections have not been reported well. It has sometimes been said for instance that he owned the Meazzi in question and gave it to Hank. Not so. And it has not helped that Hank has occasionally spoken of his first encounter with the Echomatic without mentioning Joe at all - see for instance this video on YouTube, 5'40" to 7'50", from 1997. But the piece printed in 2012 is clear enough.

As to how the Meazzi came to be on the set of the "Boy Meets Girls" show, one of the regular early guests may hold the key - "Little Tony and his Brothers". Little Tony - Antonio Ciacci by birth - was recommended to Jack Good by Marino Marini, and it just so happens that Marini had been an early adopter of the Framez/Meazzi Echomatic in Italy. His use of the Echomatic is expressly mentioned in early Jennings adverts.

A further possibility of course is that Jennings had simply made the unit available in advance of Gene Vincent's appearances (12th, 19th and 26th December, 1959).

That Joe actually owned the Meazzi he showed to Hank seems unlikely. Not only were they hugely expensive, but if he didn't like it - as Hank clearly recalled - why not sell or give it Hank? The unit was not - one suspects - Joe's to pass on. At any rate, it evidently didn't take Hank long to make a bee-line for the Jennings shop on Charing Cross Road.

"Model J", new version (so-called Type 1B)

A wonderful Meazzi Echomatic Model J with "Jennings" label

Just to illustrate in passing the use by The Shadows of a "Model J" two-input Meazzi echo:

March 1960, Cliff Richard Show, ATV. Other instances will be documented on a coming page.

September 1960.

Shop adverts and demos - probably of the new version "Model J"

London, May 1960 through to July 1960.

Bristol, May 1960.

King's Lynn, June 1960.

Banham (Norfolk), July 1960.

Mid 1960 - three inputs - Model 2 (Framez Echomatic)

The "VOX ECKO" (a draughtsman's error) in the JMI amplifiers brochure of Spring 1961.

Below, an advert placed by Besson, 17th September, 1960, signalling that a three-input Italian-made Vox Echo was in stock. This is the "Model 2" Meazzi Echomatic (made for Meazzi by S.E.P. in Milan, as also the "Model J").

The ad. indicates too that the Watkins Copicat was coming soon. Charlie W. was always adamant that he had brought it out in 1959, but no, late 1960.

17th September, 1960.

Melody Maker magazine, 19th November, 1960. The three-input Echos were relatively new in the UK at this point.

"Melody Maker" magazine, 11th March, 1961. The legend "Framez Echomatic" can be seen under the control knobs in the centre of the unit.

Detail from the JMI circuit diagram for the three-input Echomatic, original date May 1960 and traced (ie. rendered in the form in which we now have it) in July 1963.

This second version of the Echomatic is likely to have been available through to early 1963. Various bands are seen with Model 2s in 1961 - The Shadows, The Tremilos (Brian Poole and the Tremeloes) to name two.

Below, a shot of a unit belonging to a local Essex band on stage in late 1961:

The Shadows, Copenhagen, late August 1961, with two echo units: on top a Model J (Type 1B), underneath a Model 2 Vox-branded "Framez" Echomatic.

Jack Woodroffe's, one of at least two Birmingham music shops to have had Italian-made Vox Echos in stock in late 1961, £89 and 15 shillings being only 10 shillings over the standard Jennings list price of 85 guineas. In 1961, £90 was equivalent to around £1700 in today's money.

October 1961. With a fancy red Stratocaster (perhaps a refin?) at £164 one could make a pretty good start at emulating Hank.

Jennings prices, October 1961.

The promotion by Jennings of the three-input Echomatic Model no. 2 seems to have come to an end in early 1963, final appearance in a pricelist, 9th December, 1962; final instance of a published image, January 1963:

9th December, 1962: "Echo units 3 inputs". No further mention is made of the units in pricelists published later in the month.

January 1963.

Below, a detail from the JMI "Choice of the Stars" catalogue, late 1962 / 1963. The first line of its short text - "Jennings pioneered the introduction of echo and reverberation in the United Kingdom" - may well be true.

The Watkins (WEM) Copicat is highly unlikely to have been available before early 1960 (in spite of what Charlie Watkins sometimes said about 1958 over the years). There is a good overview of the different versions and models of Copicat on this page.

"Choice of the Stars" catalogue, late 1962 / early 1963.

Details of the "Cliff Richard Echo", a new design by Jennings issued in May 1962, to follow. JMI-designed Reverb and Echo units will probably need a page or pages to themselves.

Meazzi PA306

Below, a detail from a shot of Adam Faith, 15th April, 1962, NME Pollwinners Concert. Close to his band's AC30s, a Meazzi PA306 tape echo unit. Whether this had been supplied (lent) by JMI is unknown at present.

Circuit diagrams

Some random notes on JMI circuit diagrams for Vox Echos, principally early ones (Meazzis, c. 1960). Sheets were assigned OOS numbers - not "OS" - in a fairly unsystematic way.

OOS-032 Meazzi Model J (Echomatic), sheet undated, Italian handwriting.

OOS-033 JMI OOS-035 (Factotum) redrawn, 27th July 1967.

OOS-034 Meazzi Factotum Stereo Echomatic 3, dated 9th August 1960. Selmer also sold the Factotum and had its own service sheet, dated 4th October 1961 (Drawing No. 2165).

OOS-035 Meazzi Echomatic, drawn 20th May 1960. For the Echomatic Model No. 2.

OOS/035

A thumbnail - for the time being - of OOS/035 for the Echomatic No. 2, the original circuit drawn in May 1960, and traced (ie. rendered in the form in which we have it) on 7th July 1963 - presumably for service engineers. Component values are printed rather than written by hand. OA/030 (not OS), for the single-speaker AC30, was also traced on 7th July 1963 and rendered in the same way. The name of the person who prepared these sheets is unknown at present. Note that this later version of OOS/035 contains various anomalies.

As for "purpose", remember that for the most part the small JMI circuit diagrams (10 x 8" and 13 x 8") were neither "blueprints" nor "build" sheets. They were drawn up after the event as guides for service engineers and repairmen. A number contain errors (sometimes pretty substantial ones); and batches of amps were often made in ways that do not conform wholly to any sheet issued publicly by Jennings.

A larger copy of the diagram will be provided soon, along with diagrams for other echo units designed or sold by JMI.

A small whole of OOS/035 (a 10 x 8" sheet in this form) for the Echomatic Model No. 2 from a set of diagrams assembled by or for a JMI engineer.

.