Vox AC30 website updates
May 2022
31st May
A detail of the back of Paul McCartney's AC30 Super Twin amplifier section, Wimbledon Palais, 14th December, 1963.
The settings are: Brilliant channel (high gain input); volume at 10 o'clock (from another picture); Tone cut at 5 o'clock; Top Boost: bass all the way up, treble at 9 o'clock.
Paul first used this amplifier in public in Liverpool on 2nd August (with its accompanying "tray" stand). On the 28th July at Great Yarmouth he was still using the T60 amplifier. Most Super Twins produced in mid 1963 had beige vinyl. More to come on Paul's amp soon.
30th May
Thanks to Mark, pictures of "Vox Sound Limited" AC30 serial number 26019, made in the Birch-Stolec factory in Hastings, purchased in 1972. Although there is a "Top Boost 30 Reverb" flag on the front (lower right), the amp is actually just a Top Boost. Speakers are the original Goodmans Audiom Power Range, red label.
Serial number 26019 - now added to this page.
29th May
Notes on the design of the AC30 Twin and on the "prototype" chassis published by Jim Elyea (p. 381).
The first thing to say - which cannot be stressed strongly enough - is that Derek Underdown designed the power section of the AC30 Twin, Dick Denney the preamp. The same "division of labour" held true also for the AC50 and AC80/100.
The chassis published by Jim is extremely peculiar. For the time being, notes and questions only.
Valves are 2 x EL34, four double triodes (ECC82/ECC83); and one taller valve or at least a taller valve shroud.
All the weight of transformers and choke is at one end. This is countered, though only to a small degree, by the off-set preamp upright. Preamp uprights and valves do not weigh much.
The preamp has one control for "Tremolo", three channels (a volume control for each), and Bass and Treble tone controls.
Why are there four inputs in a diamond arrangement? The only other amp in JMI's catalogue to have had such an arrangement was the second version of the AC50 Mark 1 (mid 1964), produced by Triumph Electronics - see below.
Does the amp only have "Tremolo", not "Vibrato" too?
Does any amp produced by JMI have "Presence" to describe "Tone" controls? Most if not all have "Tone".
The three valves on the preamp "chassis" extend through holes the plinth underneath. Extremely eccentric.
The preamp is "free-wired" - there is no tag board.
The insulated connection spurs / stand-offs in the preamp and on the plinth are typical of Triumnph Electronics, not JMI.
The signal from the preamp is taken to the power section (on the underside of the plinth) via a spur on the top of the plinth, not via a pass-through hole.
What if this were a design - or at least a first attempt at a design - produced by Triumph Electronics for Derek and Dick? Triumph did a good of contract work for JMI throughout the 1960s. The only date code visible is on the tall TCC 16+16uf capacitor - "QC" = March 1959, which is naturally the date of the capacitor's manufacture, not the amp's.
A detail of the preamp, the spurs / stand-offs indicated with arrows.
28th May
13th June 2022: an updated and expanded version of this entry and the one above, are now available here.
Some notes on the beginnings of the AC30 Twin - stories and facts - followed by comments (very provisional in nature).
(1) Both Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch are clear that The Shadows asked Dick Denney for a bigger, louder amplifier (bigger and louder than the AC15).
(2) In an interview in "Guitarist Magazine" (October 2017) Hank related:
“I spoke to Dick Denney and asked him if it was possible to make the amps twice as loud; I said, ‘Can’t you put two of these together?’ and he said, ‘It doesn’t quite work like that!’ He went off and a little while later we had a call saying that he’d designed this new amplifier, an AC30, which was quite a lot louder than the AC15. So they knocked us up a couple and we started using those.”
(3) Rodney Angell, in an inverview for the "Vox Pop: How Dartford Powered The British Beat Boom" programme, broadcast on BBC 4 (30th January, 2012), stated that Dick asked Tom about making a new amp with two speakers. Tom said "No, No, No. Too heavy, too loud". [At this point the narrator comes in and says that Dick went ahead and made some anyway "...just to help out bands like The Shadows"]. Tom found out - spotting some [presumably tell-tale] items that Dick had ordered - and a huge row ensued. The upshot was that Dick was allowed to make 10 as a sort of trial - "on his head be it". Rodney worked for JMI first as an amp tester, then as a Research and Design engineer.
(4) Mike Ameson of MAJ Electronics recalls servicing TV Front AC30 Twins that had two output transformers (2 x AC15).
(5) The circuit diagrams for the AC30/4 and AC30/6 - single output transformers envisaged for both models - are dated 29th April 1960. The first adverts for the AC30 Twin were issued in Spring 1960.
(6) From summer 1960 to late 1960 The Shadows used two-tone AC15s (second circuit). JMI provided the band with TV Front AC30 Twins shortly before Cliff Richard's third season of shows on ATV, December 1960.
The chief difficulty in all this (as it has always been) is making sense of the recollections in relation to known facts.
One possible picture of events is that Dick actually did make some amps very early on - in February/March 1960, say, without Tom's knowledge. These had doubled-up output transformers. Two of the amps quietly assembled by Dick were given to The Shadows, but the band did not like them and did not use them publicly, later deciding to move to new two-tone AC15s (second circuit).
Tom and Dick had their row, and following that a first run of ten (redesigned) AC30 Twins was agreed. These were advertised in April 1960 - see this page. Thereafter production proper hegan. In late 1960, some way into production, The Shadows were issued with a set of three TV Front Twins in time for Cliff's television shows. The amps would be seen by millions of viewers.
That perhaps is all well and good as far as it goes. However, Derek Underdown (quoted by Jim Elyea, p. 379) recalls that the move to design the Twin came not from The Shadows, but dissatisfaction on his part and Dick's with the single speaker AC/30. The prototype chassis illustrated by Jim Elyea (p. 381) - two EL34s and tremolo only - perhaps belongs at this point. A first stab at the new format. As the process of design continued, it was Derek's idea - not Dick's or Hank's or anyone else's - to "double up" the EL84s of the AC15 to form the AC30. Jim suggests (p. 379) that the process of designing began in late 1959. Possible. The quotes from Reg Clark (pp. 379-380) tend to suggest early 1960 though.
As for the AC30/6 chassis embodied in the TV Front Twin with serial number plate 4290 added to its backboard, all bets are off. Unfortunately many of the early amps have been subject to too many "changes".
27th May
In late February 1963, Tom began the process of obtaining legal protection for designs and names embodied in and attached to the range of Vox amplifiers then in production, the AC30 in particular. His first step: the trade-marking of the grille cloth, the application (as published in the picture below) submitted on the 22nd.
22nd February, 1963.
Next came the application to protect the AC30's full name - the "Vox Twin 30". Quite why he decided against trade-marking "Vox AC30" is not clear. None of the correspondence with Marks and Clerk, JMI's Patent Agents, survives unfortunately.
28th March, 1963.
His third step was to apply, on 28th June '63, for protection for the design - the outward appearance - of the AC30 itself.
Two of five photos submitted to the Patent Office on 28th June 1963.
Last, the trade-marking of the repeating diamond pattern of the cloth, the submission made on 27th September 1963.
27th September 1963.
The over-arching question in relation to the AC30 in particular is why Tom acted when he did. Perhaps something he had sensed at the Frankfurt Trade Fair in February '63? Or simply a growing feeling that his best-selling and most "visible" amp ought to have some measure of protection against rivals and imitators? Trade-marking the Vox grille cloth of course protected the range as a whole (echo and reverberation units included).
26th May
Some material relating to Tom's applications, in August 1951, for a number of trade-marks (posted in recent entries on this page). Key in all this is the Univox, designed for Tom by the reclusive Les Hills (and patented in 1952-1955). Les was reckoned by some to have been acutely agoraphobic, his work generally collected from his house in Belvedere in Erith by someone sent along from Dartford Road. In the autumn of 1951 production began. Difficulties were soon encountered though. Workshop practice was not what it should have been. Most of the assemblers, skilled accordion makers and repairers, did not have the requisite electronics know-how. To remedy the situation, Tom brought Derek Underdown in; and Derek remained Tom's right-hand man through to 1967.
Hand-in-hand with the introduction of the Univox and Tom's Unitone Products and Vibratone amplifier, went not only the applications for trade-marks, but the contracting of a commercial advertising agency to handle publicity. That was announced in October 1951. Up to then promotional activities had mainly been handled from 119 Dartford Road. A series of full-page adverts had been taken out in music journals, and from mid 1949 a monthly magazine (albeit of modest circulation) was published from 119 Dartford Road, running until early 1952. But there was no "campaign" as such.
The new agency - "Commercial Advertising Service Limited" - appears to have worked hard, overseeing the publication of around 60 different adverts for the Univox (no two ever the same) and the provision of display materials for shops and Tom's stands at trade fairs.
"World's Press News and Advertisers' Review", 12th October, 1951.
25th May
A note published in "Mechanical World", February 1956 - prospective works at Dartford Road - a new factory - either a new building (not ultimately realised), or some expansion / redevelopment of number 115, which had been acquired by Tom in 1953.
The need for more space is likely to have been created by the expansion of organ production set in motion by "The Jennings Organ Company" in 1956. Towards the middle of the year, Tom recast "Jennings Musical Instruments Limited", his first company, as "Jennings Musical Industries Limited". Further details can be found on this page. 1956 was a year of significant change.
"Mechanical World and Engineering Record", February 1956.
23rd May
It seemed worth bringing this entry on Tom's trade-marking of "VOX" in the USA (in 1963) over from the Vox AC100 website. This was by no means his first American trade mark. "UNIVOX" had been applied for and approved as far back as August 1952.
In October 1963, having attended the NAMM show for the first time four months earlier, Tom Jennings applied to trade-mark the name "VOX" in the USA, an application subsequently granted. Whether his decision stemmed on the one hand simply from prescience or on the other the concrete need to secure the name following a distribution deal is not known at present. Tom certainly had at least one distributor - probably in the shape of Zeb Billings in Milwaukee - by the time of the NAMM show of '64.
At any rate, when the deal with Thomas Organ came to be sealed in late August 1964, one of the conditions placed upon JMI was that pre-existing arrangements should be wound up. Thomas became "exclusive" distributor, later gaining its own rights to "VOX" as a trade name in the USA. More on that to come.
One of the peculiar consequences of Thomas's "ownership" of the name was that "Vox Sound Equipment Limited", the company formed by Cyril Windiate and Reg Clark in the summer of 1968 after the collapse of JMI, could not exhibit English Vox equipment in America (whether it wanted to or not). Thomas's deal had been with JMI.
This did not deter VSEL's successor though - VSEL unfortunately lasted only until December 1969. "Vox Sound Limited" the new incarnation of "Vox" went to the NAMM show in 1971 as the "English Organ Company Limited". A pretty neat workaround.
Detail from the published US Patent records - application filed on 11th October 1963.
22nd May (2)
A Super Twin, sold in Germany a little while ago. The chassis, assembled by Westrex (Haddon transformers), has several original components with date codes: main filter capacitor "TH" = August 1962; pot "GJ" = July 1962; Hunts 25uf cathode bypass cap "YAH" = 9th week of 1962. The amplifier section cabinet bears the shop plaque of Musikhaus Schlüter in Dortmund.
The speaker cabinet at one time had a cut-out for a chassis, but was probably a Super Twin cabinet to begin with - note the odd arrangement of vents in its top. There are no end handles. The Celestion blues have date codes: 19KG [not 15KG, as previous stated] and 08LG = 19th October and 8th November 1962.
The back-boards of both amplifier section and speaker cabinet appear to have JMI vinyl, but of a different colour from the bodies of the cabinets.
22nd May
Recently sold in the Netherlands, a beige AC30 from late 1962 or early 1963. Two of the original capacitors have visible date codes "TH" and "TJ" = August and September 1962. The speakers - Fanes - are later replacements.
21st May
A note on the six early Trade Marks taken out by Tom in the period 1951-1953:
700,198: UNITONE PRODUCTS. 2nd August 1951. Electrical sound amplifiers...
700,199: UNIVOX. 2nd August 1951. Electrical sound amplifiers...
700,201: VIBRATONE. 2nd August 1951. Electrical sound amplifiers.
700,201: VOX. 2nd August 1951. Electronic apparatus for use in vibrating the sound....
705,032: UNIVOX. 19th February 1952. Musical instruments (other than talking machines and wireless apparatus).
705,032: VIBRAVOX. 13th June 1953. Electronic apparatus for use in vibrating the sound....
All but the second UNIVOX Trade Mark have associations with other records. The relationship is:
The Univox is obviously a known quantity, and the Vibravox (circuit and unit) was certainly in marketable form by the end of 1957. Nothing is known of Unitone Products and Vibratone, both of which are classed as "Electrical sound amplifiers...". Vibravox was associated by Tom with the latter. The question is whether, from 1954 to 1957, it was more than just a Trade Name awaiting a potential use - in other words, was there a Vibravox circuit at this point in a Jennings Vibratone amplifier? More on this to come.
Just to correct an incorrect statement made below. Tom did not supply "Electrical Times" with a note of his application for a Trade Mark for "Vibravox". The magazine, with the permission of the Patent Office, copied the note from the official record published in November 1953.
"Electrical Times" also published notes of "Unitone Products", "Vox", and "Univox" in its Trade Marks sections, though not apparently "Vibratone".
20th May
The chronology of "Vox" as a Trade Name from the Patent Office journals - August 1951 through to the end of JMI. The records illustrated below were effectively Tom's "master" records. Subsequent applications for amplifiers, guitars, and so on were generally associated with one of the three.
Application 2nd August 1951; formally registered 8th October 1952.
The phraseology of 700,201 is deliberately unspecific: "{any} electronic apparatus for use in vibrating the sound....", which would allow for amplifiers, microphones, speakers, footpedals and the like. An early instance of the use of "Vox", as Jim Elyea indicated, is the rotary action footpedal - the "VOX foot volume control" - of 1954. See this page. But it is certainly possible that something prior to that will come to light in time.
In 1959, with a view to specifying the purpose and use of future applications more clearly, Tom created two new master Trade Mark records: one for items that fell under the general brief of Class 9 - sound reproducers and recorders, etc; the other for those that belonged to Class 15 - musical instruments.
Application: 15th January 1959 (Class 15); formally registered 5th April 1961.
Application: 15th January 1959 (Class 9); formally registered 3rd May 1961.
Below, an amendment registered by Tom in March 1961 to 786,137 shortly before its formal registration. Only proprietors of businesses could present applications and amend or cancel existing records.
Tom's amendment to 786,137 of March 1961.
On 17th November 1965 Tom renewed both 786,137 and 786,138, and these carried through to the end of JMI (as a legal entity) in late April 1968.
The latest instance of the use of 700,201 that has emerged so far is in the application for the Vox Supertwin (25th September 1961), illustrated in yesterday's entry.
19th May (2)
Below, the record of Tom's application to the Patent Office for the trade mark "Vox Supertwin" on 25th September, 1961, the name having been formulated at some point after July 1961. See the general introduction to Super Twins on this page.
It took the Patent Office around two years to register it formally - a relatively long, though not uncommon, span of time. Unfortunately most of the paper records relating to applications were destroyed in line with one of the more draconian Public Records Acts, so it is not possible to see or know why some moved more quickly than others.
Published on 23rd January 1963, registered on the 19th of June.
The preamble relating to "Class 9" embodies text devised (and registered) by Tom in March 1961. Trade Marks 700,201 and 786,137 were for "Vox". More to come on those tomorrow.
19th May
More to come on this in due course, but just to signal in passing that Tom had trade-marked "Vibravox" as far back as June 1953, the name (and device) associated with "Vibratone" - see yesterday's entry.
It seems that one of Tom's first actions following the application was to notify "Electrical Times" magazine. Thanks to Manfred Reckmeyer for forwarding the reference. [My supposition of Tom's action is incorrect, see the entry above for 30th May].
It is perhaps worth noting that Tom's comments on patented circuits in a piece published in "Electrical and Radio Trading" in December 1964 (extract below) are not pure promotion (as they initially seemed). Although a trade mark is necessarily not a patent in any legal or technical sense, "patent" is often used loosely to mean "protected in law".
"Electrical Times" may have been one of the magazines to which Tom and Derek Underdown subscribed.
"Vibravox" was formally registered a trade mark on 6th January 1954.
"Electrical Times", vol. 124, 1953, p. 1030. Thanks to Manfred.
"Electrical and Radio Trading", December, 1964. Thanks to Martin Kelly for this reference. A copy of the piece as a whole to follow.
18th May
Early days - two of Tom's successful Trade Mark applications from 1951. "Electric sound amplifiers" could mean a number of things. The Univox, for instance, was similarly classed. But it is possible that these were actually amplifiers properly speaking.
"Products" in the case of "Unitone" suggests that Tom had a range of equipment in mind. Whether any reached production is unknown.
The page on early Jennings amplifiers has been updated.
24th October, 1951. Trade Mark registered (formally approved) on 6th January, 1952.
5th December, 1951. Trade Mark registered on 13th February, 1952.
17th May
Two more items relating to the Vox Continental - the publication of two Trade Mark applications by JMI for the organ in the Patent Office journals. The process was a three-fold one: application (noted as being 12th December, 1962); publication; and finally registration - formal legal approval of the name.
"Trade Marks" solely concern the name. "Registered Design" covered outward appearance; "Patents" covered physical/electro-mechanical features.
"Class 15" was for musical instruments; "Class 9" encompassed items intended for a variety of applications: photographic, cinematographic, sound recording, wireless (radio), and so on.
30th October, 1963. Publication, Class 15.
27th May, 1964. Publication, Class 9.
16th May (2)
There is now a dedicated index page for Vox Super Twins, further material to be added to it soon. It is probably worth noting that no Super Twin II set, that is to say AC30 amplifier section with two speaker cabinets, seems to have survived intact, at least not at present identifiably so. A couple of amps may originally have been part of such sets, but are now without one or both cabs.
16th May
A couple of details relating to the Vox Continental organ. First, in 1963/1964 JMI recommended the use of an AC30 Twin. Quite how many bands adopted the pairing is unknown at present - presumably quite a few - certainly The Animals initially and The Beatles later with the dual-manual version.
Second, the patent application for the contact assembly, recorded on a plaque inside an early Continental currently in the UK, has just come to light (hiding in plain sight). The number "34717" is abbreviated and should actually be "34717/55" or "3471755". The design, submitted on the 5th December 1955, was the work of Les Hills and Robert Whittington on behalf of "Jennings Musical Industries LImited".
The patent relates to a new type of switch contact for Jennings console organ keyboards - conductive rubber contacts in the blocks to suppress noise of switching and to add an element of pressure sensitivity to the keys.
The appearance of "Jennings Musical Industries Limited" rather than "Jennings Musical Instruments Limited" in both provisional and main applications may be the earliest instance so far of the new name. However, it is possible also that it did not come in until the "complete specification" of December 1956 and that earlier documents were adjusted accordingly.
Further details on Continentals can be found on this page.
15th May
One of those shots that inadvertently stops just short of showing enough of an amp - taken around October 1961, a portion of a split-front AC30/4 belonging to Dave Anthony and The Rebels, Bure Club, Bournemouth.
The amp is likely to have come from Eddie Moors' shop. Eddie sold Jennings organs and amps from the late 1950s. At the time the photo was taken, the AC30/4 had just gone out of production.
Bure Club, Bournemouth, around October 1961. Picture from Al Kirtley's site.
14th May
In the first months of 1961, as for most of 1960, Adam Faith was normally backed by The John Barry Seven - JMI endorsees. However, in the summer of '61, Faith had to look elsewhere. Barry was heavily booked up. The band that would become The Roulettes was auditioned in mid August, and rehearsals for a series of tours and appearances began soon after. The story is well told by Peter Thorp, lead guitarist of the band, on Eddy Bonte's site.
The first date was on 17th September 1961 - the "Great Pop Prom" at the Albert Hall, followed by a two-week residency at the "Room at the Top" club in Ilford beginning on the 18th, and two two-week Arthur Howes national tours beginning on the 1st October, and the 11th November.
A picture taken at the Albert Hall on 17th September shows the band with one TV Front AC15 belonging to Pete Thorp and at least one other TV Front Vox amp. If JMI had at this point already provided the band with the Super Twins signalled in the "Announcement" of September/October '61, then the band was clearly not yet using them. More likely however: the Super Twins were issued after the Albert Hall concert - either for the residency at Ilford, or for the group's first national tour (1st to 15th October).
Detail from a picture of The Roulettes on stage, Albert Hall, 17th September, 1961.
13th May (2)
Another "earliest instance", in this case of the new-style serial number plate introduced at the Birch-Stolec factory in late 1972. The new plate accompanied the revamped AC30s - printed circuit boards, plastic vents on the cabinets, and so on. See this page, which has recently been updated.
Serial number 25924.
The "Vox Sound Limited" van, white with blue lettering, parked outside the Birch-Stolec factory (the sign is partially visible top right) in March 1971:
In picture, left to right: sales representatives Bob Anderson and Rick Huxley (formerly of the Dave Clark Five); Marilyn West, sales office; John Wyatt, general sales manager. "Vox Sound Limited" was set up by Michael Birch and George Stow in January 1970 following the collapse of "Vox Sound Equipment Limited" in December 1969. See this page on the Vox Supreme website on the background. When VSL was acquired by "Dallas Musical Limited" in the summer of 1973, Reg Clark, General Sales Manager of Dallas and formerly of JMI and VSEL, remarked that it was good that Vox was back in the hands of a company that had some knowledge of the music business.
13th May
At present, the photo immediately below is the earliest known positively dated instance of an AC30 Super Twin being used live on stage - Adam Faith and The Roulettes, 26th January, 1962, Wisbech Corn Exchange.
26th January, 1962. Full-cloth fronted speaker cabinet behind Adam, Faith, and the amplifier on tray stand behind that.
The band's amps and cabs are also seen on the 15th April at the NME Poll Winner's Concert, Empire Pool, Wembley:
NME Poll Winner's Concert, 15th April, 1962.
By July 1962, Faith's valance-front speaker cabs were gone, replaced by standard split-front units. The original amps and tray stands remained though.
The search for non-promotional pictures from late 1961 continues. More to come on Adam Faith and The Roulettes tomorrow.
12th May
In September/October 1961, JMI reported that sets of new Super Twin amplifiers had been given to Adam Faith (for The Roulettes, his backing band), and to The Shadows. The speaker cabs given to Faith, seen in pictures taken in January and April (not March as previously stated) 1962, had "valance" fronts - full cloth, rather than part cloth, part vinyl (the so-called "split" front). It is likely that the set allocated to The Shadows also had valance-front cabs.
Safe to say, The Shadows are never seen with Super Twins of any sort. But an early set did make it into the hands of Shane Fenton and The Fentones. Indeed, it seems possible that these were the ones originally given to The Shadows, The Shadows having returned them (graciously of course).
Below, a photo taken by Reg Clark, who in 1962 worked in the Jennings shop on Charing Cross Road. Further below, some screen-grabs from Michael Winner's film "Play it Cool", shot in the first half of 1962 (filming was announced in January), and starring Billy Fury and Shane and his band.
Presumably somewhere there must be photographs of The Fentones using these Super Twins on stage - but none has come to light so far.
Photo taken by Reg Clark.
A still from "Play it Cool". The three speaker cabs alone figure in the film, one stacked on the other two, no amplifiers.
Detail.
Side view.
A "J" in chalk marked on the back.
Just to note that the handle on the cab above is evidently ribbed plastic (PVC) rather than leather. At least one early Super Twin set survives with these handles still in place.
11th May
Ffrom late 1961 through to the end of 1962 JMI produced around 1100-1200 AC30s, the majority of which were sold to musicians (of all sorts) in the UK. Some however went overseas - in particular to Belgium, France, Germany, Holland, and Scandinavia, a few travelling even further afield.
The aim at this point is not to track down every single picture of every single band with split-front beige-covered amps, but to bring together representative dated or dateable selections.
The amps pictured with the French bands listed below all look brand spanking new:
Les Chats Sauvage: by February 1962, two AC30 Twins, one with a BASS flag in the normal place (front right, low down).
Les Mustangs: by September 1962, two AC30 Twins, one with a BASS flag on the front, top right, much as the amp illustrated in yesterday's entry, but higher up.
Les Champions: by late October 1962, an AC30 Super Twin and an AC30 Twin with a tray stand, BASS flag high up on the amp's front.
Les Drivers: by the end of 1962, two AC30 Twins.
Les Rebelles: by the end of 1962, two beige AC30 Twins, and a split-front beige AC15 later painted grey/black.
Les Zodiaques: perhaps very late 1962, one AC30 Twin.
Interesting to note that at least three of the bands had new AC30s at much the same time as The Beatles had theirs (one AC30, one AC15 Twin).
"Les Chats Sauvages", February 1962.
Detail of a larger pic from Getty Images.
10th May (2)
A great detail of one of two AC30s with tray stands bought in the Jennings shop in early summer 1962 by The Burnettes, a group from Cambridgeshire.
Late summer, 1962.
The bands known (from pictures) to have had AC30s with tray stands are in approximate chronological order: The Shadows; Adam Faith; [The Fentones], The Burnettes; The Tornados; The Beatles; The Big Three; [Les Champions]; and The Martians (a school band from Hull).
14th May 2022: further additions are in square brackets [...]. Also to note that JMI naturally had a stock of stands to accompany loan equipment - probably seen at Battersea Gardens, May 1962, and on episodes of "Thank Your Lucky Stars" broadcast in October 1962.
10th May
From 1964 lists of "Trade Names" were published annually for the British Music Trade. These lists included certain (though not all) product names that had been registered in law ("Trade Marks"); company trading names; notes of sole UK distribution deals; and numbers of product names not registered in law but accepted in the trade as being proprietary. Among these last, still listed in 1966, was the Jennings "Vibravox" - no longer the stand-alone unit of course, but the circuit built into AC15s and AC30s.
In an interview in 1964, Tom had claimed that "Vibravox" was patented - but no record of that has so far come to light in the records of the old Patent Office.
As various items known to have been trade-marked by JMI (formal legal process) are absent - their names published in trade journals at time of approval - the list presumably reflects the things that the company was most keen to protect - eighteen product names/ranges in all, five dating back to the early 1950s.
Detail from the "Trade Names" list, published in 1966. The Vibravox was designed in late 1957; the Super Twin was brought into being in the summer of 1961, though not given the name "Super Twin" until September.
9th May
A detail from a photo of the Vox stand at the BMG Festival and Rally, St Pancras Town Hall, Saturday, 22nd April, 1961 - three split-front AC30/6s on show. Dick Denney, backed by Bob Valentine on an electric semi-acoustic, demonstrated a Fender steel guitar.
A small detail, but worth recording: the knobs on the AC30/6s were of the same type supplied on certain AC30/4s (see the second pic in the first entry yesterday) and the AC30/6s issued to The Shadows.
The new AC30/6 escutcheon panel, laid out for six inputs, vib/trem settings, three channels, and a single tone control.
JMI bought the knobs from Bulgin, catalogue number "K201". They were also used from a time on AC2s, and more regularly on AC10s, and AC15s.
8th May (2)
Sounds Incorporated joined the Gene Vincent tour of 1961 on 30th April at Bradford and remained with him for the rest of the year. The group's beige split-front AC30 was caught in a picture taken at the Rex Ballroom, Cambridge, 19th July. It is likely that this amp had been acquired by or issued to Sounds Incorporated specially for the tour - i.e. at some point shortly before 30th April 1961.
19th July, 1961. Heritage Images / Getty. The amp appears in pictures of a number of other concerts on the tour.
8th May
Gene Vincent on stage at Weston-Super-Mare, the date said either to be July 1961 or 1963, and the venue the Odeon Theatre or the Winter Gardens Pavilion. July 1963 and the Odeon Theatre seem on balance most likely. The backing band looks to be members of Sounds Incorporated (from Dartford) and The Outlaws (from London), both on the bill in '63.
Perhaps the most interesting thing is the presence of an AC30/4 in a non-standard box. One can see the inputs, part of the control panel, and a ridged black knob with circular inset on top. The chassis is at what appears to be the front of the amp. It is evidently not centred in the cabinet - very unusual. Note its closeness to the handle and the near-side edge. Had the original cabinet disintegrated? The other amps on stage are Fender and Selmer.
From late 1959, almost all the bands backing Vincent on his English tours had Vox amps of some sort or other. Sounds Incorporated for instance had a beige AC30 in July 1961. Also to note that in late October 1962, Les Champions, who backed Vincent in Paris, had a pair of beige AC30 Twins, presumably with copper rather than black panels though.
6th May
Below, two pictures of The Phantoms, a group from Huddersfield popular in the north of England in the early 1960s. The AC30s - early copper panel amps - arrived in October 1961, having been ordered from Barratt's in Manchester. Mr Barratt, owner of the shop (really a chain), went to London in person to collect the amps from Jennings. Thanks to John Weatherby, the group's bassist, for the pictures and info, and to Peter Norcliffe, whose piece on the group can be found here.
Late 1961.
A slightly later picture. The amps drove the large speaker units on which they were placed as well as the Celestion blues in their own cabinets.
5th May (2)
Material from the page on the Jennings Electronic Industries (JEI) AC40 currently on the Vox AC100 website will shortly be incorporated here.
Introduced at the Russell Hotel Trade Fair in August 1970, the amp is effectively a copy (in terms of its electronics) of the AC30 - no surprise perhaps, as Dick Denney was a founding member of Tom's new company. The AC40 was in some ways a concession to market forces, valve amps being on the whole more attractive to the bands of the time than solid state (which Tom preferred).
The "40" of the AC40 was simply Tom being Tom. Its four EL84s have a 200R cathode resistor network each, equivalent to the single shared 50R resistor of the AC30. Power output of the two amps will have been the same.
5th May
Summer 1948, probably the first full-page advert put out by Tom Jennings. In the autumn of '48, Larry Macari, who later became manager of the shop at 100 Charing Cross Road (1956), joined Tom's list of endorsers.
Summer 1948.
4th May
A footnote relating to early days. Tom evidently had two companies in 1950: "Jennings Musical Instruments Limited" (not yet "Industries"), and for a very short time "The British International Accordion Company". Nothing further on the latter has come to light so far. The "Jennings Organ Company" came into being in the autumn of 1952, and the "Jennings Accordion Company" in late 1955.
The page on Tom's early companies will be updated shortly.
Accordion journal, June and August, 1950.
3rd May
Thanks to Tessa, pictures of AC30 Super Twin amplifier section 6855 (Normal), paired with a slightly later Foundation Bass speaker cabinet (18" driver). The amp has been recovered, and regrilled to match the regrilled speaker cabinet.
2nd May
The Selmer stand, Russell Hotel Trade Fair, August 1966 - in view the perspex Thunderbird, made for this show and displayed again at Hilversum later in the year. In making this amp, Selmer is likely simply to have been following JMI, which displayed a perspex AC30 at most of the trade shows it attended from 1963. But it should be said that JMI had in its turn taken the idea from radio and television manufacturers. Perspex promotional equipment was pretty well staple at domestic electronics Fairs from the late 1950s. JMI had a stand at one of these events in late 1960.
The picture has been added to the page on perspex AC30s.
August 1966.
1st May
The pages on the AC2/30 and the single speaker AC/30 have been adjusted to take account of the details provided in the advert from June 1959 illustrated in the previous entry.
It is likely that the version of the flyer below (the second of four) was issued at much the same time as the new AC/30 was released: - on the front, the AC/15, JMI's biggest seller at the time, the AC/30 and AC/10 on the reverse.
Summer 1959.
A slightly murky shot of the reverse. The AC/30 and AC/10, various accessories below.
Updates for October and November 2020.