Vox AC30 website updates

June 2022

30th June

An interesting replacement Woden mains transformer in AC30 Super Twin 2731. In pencil on top: "Replaced / 9th July '68 / AG".

Unfortunately the fore-edge has rusted, so it is not possible to be sure of the date of the transformer's manufacture. But it will probably not be too far removed from the original unit in (very late JMI) Super Twin serial number 5596 - Woden date code "BZ" = February 1968.

AC30 Super Twin, serial number 2731.

AC30 Super Twin, serial number 5596.

29th June (2)

For the time being, simply to state the fact that three AC30 Twins with serial numbers in the 10000s contain Treble chassis but have plates stamped "Normal".

10440N: chassis number 2901. Signalled in the entry for 8th June below.

10566N: chassis number 3332 (?). Woden OT and choke "AV" = Jamuary 1964.

10705N: chassis number 3450. No pics of transformers. Hunts cap dated 41st week 1963.

These will be added to the list of early Treble chassis being assembled on this page. Also to be added are:

3002 - Woden output "MU" = December 1963. AC30 Super Twin 2713T. Although it is unusual to find a Burndept chassis in a Super Twin, this one is fine - original to the cabinet.

3086 - No component date codes known.

3401 - Woden mains and choke "AV" = January 1964. Serial number 12784T.

3499 - Woden mains and output "AV" = January 1964. The red paint on the chassis and "TREBLE" stamp have been mostly scratched away (someone realised the chassis did not belong in the cabinet).

3936 - Woden output "AV" = January 1964. Choke probably "BV" = February 1964.

At present, all chassis currently known in the range 2901-3592 are TREBLE. It will be interesting to see if the pattern can be broken. Either side of this range, evidence is a little fragmentary at the moment though. Chassis 2685 is a BASS, as is chassis 3889.

29th June

Thanks to Ian, pictures of an AC30 Super Twin amplifier section from mid 1963. The latest visible date code is "UE" = May 1963 - on the main preamp filter capacitor. Further pictures .

AC30 Super Twin amplifier section, mid 1963.

28th June

Pictures of AC30 Super Reverb Twin serial number 5116 (the reverb now removed) added . Thanks (very belatedly) to Cameron.

The highest number for an AC30 SRT currently represented on the page is 5318, just over two hundred units on from the amp illustrated below. It is likely that sales dropped significantly following the decision of Thomas Organ to promote its fully solid state amps in 1966.

Over-ordering of components and over-production of chassis in late 1964 and early 1965 meant that JMI took some time to sell its stock. In 1966 and 1967 amps regularly left the factory with chassis that had been assembled a considerable while earlier.

AC30 SRT serial number 5116.

27th June

The new page signalled in yesterday's entry has been updated to include a note on the trademark that Tom took out for "VOX" in the USA in October 1963.

Detail from the published US Patent records - application filed on 11th October 1963.

26th June

A new page has been started on . It will be udpated and extended shortly.

23rd June

Below, the first Service Bulletin for Vox amplifiers issued by Thomas Organ, 4th December, 1964, explaining why fuses were blowing in early batches of amps that had been shipped to the USA, and how to remedy the situation.

The key piece of info missing from the sheet though is that British and American fuses were rated differently. In the UK, a 3A fuse would blow at 3A. In the USA, the rating of the fuse designated maximum continuous use for a specified period of time - 3A meant 3A for 60 minutes or something along those lines (60 minutes being the norm). This type of fuse was designated "AG" or "AGC".

Donald John remained service manager through to mid 1968, when Thomas Organ purged some of the more experienced staff (including Marv Kaiser) in its "Vox Division". A long slow downhill ride from there.

22nd June

Thanks to Tom, a detail of the serial number plate of AC30 number 14832T. The plate pictured beneath it is a repro. and belongs to a completely different amp - with a chassis number in the 12000s, a serial number probably originally in the 20000s.

My error in not spotting that the plate with non-standard hand stamping was in fact a fiction. The hope that numbers on repro plates replicate the original must be put aside - no such luck.

Fictional serial number 14832 has now been moved to the bottom of this page.

Genuine plate and number.

Repro plate, made up number.

16th June

A page has been started on the system. Although it is impossible to sure of numbers, a good proportion of AC30s on the second hand market in the 1960s are likely to have been "returns", resold by shops as second hand following the cancellation of a hire purchase scheme.

14th June

Below, the single-sided hire purchase form - actually two stapled together - used by JMI in the early 1960s and probably in later years too. The information required is much the same as on the Musicland form from late 1963 further down this page.

13th June (3)

Also added to the list of Treble chassis, number 3018. Another may be 3250, image too small to be wholly certain though.

It looks as though JMI instructed Burndept to pull out all the stops in relation to the production of Trebles in the Spring and Summer of 1964.

13th June (2)

Four more Treble chassis added to the list below (entry for 8th June): - numbers 3098, 3443, 3582, 3592. Along with the others, all four belong to cabinets with serial numbers in the 11000s.

At present, no Bass, Normal, or Top Boost chassis has come to light with a chassis number between 2901 and 3592, but that of course is not to say that none exist.

No chassis number for an amp with a serial number in the 10000s - ie. immediately prior to the introduction of the new Treble model - is currently known.

13th June

Updated and expanded versions of the entries for the 28th and 29th May - stories relating to the creation of the AC30 Twin - . There is still much to be done, many loose ends that need tying up.

10th June

Shots of a Musicland Hire Purchase form. These were sent all over the country, normally in company with the Vox "Precision in Sound" catalogue (Hank and the Shadows on the front); a Musicland pricelist and update; and the "Vox People" brochure.

The Musicland pricelist set out the Hire Purchase terms: the initial deposit, and the number of instalments of a stipulated amount. Any HP agreement had to be sanctioned and guaranteed by a house owner (a willing parent, relative, or perhaps even employer).

This is how thousands of young band members will have acquired (or rather afforded) their first AC30 and Vox guitars in 1963 and 1964.

"Paul Raymond" was in fact Tom's son, Paul.

9th June

Early 1964: the expansion of the AC30 line. The new AC30 Expanded Frequency (AC30X) for the bass guitarist alongside the existing AC30 Twin Bass; the AC30 Normal and AC30 Top Boost for the rhythm guitarist; and the AC30 Treble for lead.

The AC30X was advertised for the first time in late January 1964, the AC30 Top Boost probably in February and certainly in early April.

A buyer could easily tell the AC30X, AC30TB, and AC30B apart. AC30B amps normally had a BASS flag on front. But the AC30N and AC30T will have been less easy to distinguish. Only the serial number plate would give the voicing away.

"Melody Maker", 15th February, 1964 - "AC/30/6 and Top Boost" is slightly ambiguous. It could be that the Top Boost was on the back panel. In 1963, though, the wording was "AC/30/6 WITH Top Boost".

"Melody Maker", 4th April, 1964. The Shadows's amps, two with Top Boost integrated in the copper panel and one AC30 Bass (standard controls), are seen on the band's European tour in May (below).

The Shadows, 29th May, 1964. The band received the amps shortly before the beginning of their European tour, late April.

8th June (2)

Below, a short overview of Treble chassis numbers (not serial numbers) and component date codes. Early 1964 is clearly in view. If one goes by the latest element - the Woden transfomer dated February 1964 - then early Spring '64.

Quite whether further precision will be obtainable seems unlikely. JMI issued no special promotion for the new model.

13th June: the list that follows has now been incorporated in the page .

2901 - Pots "KK" = November 63. Wodens KU" = October 63.

*3018 - Hunts cap with "TDI" = 48th week of 1963. Wodem mains "MU" = December 1963; output "KU" = October '63.

3053 - Hunts cap. 48th week 63. Wodens "KU" and "MU" = October and December 63.

3083 - Hunts cap. 45th week '63. Wodens "AV" and "BV" = January and February 64.

3094 - Wodens "HU", "JU" and "MU" = August, September, December 63.

*3098 - Hunts cap with "TDI" = 48th week of 1963.

3104 - Wodens "JU" and "MU" = September and December 63.

3265 - Pots "KK" = November 63. Hunts cap. 47th week 63.

*3443 - Welwyn resistor "UG" = July 1963; Wodens "AV" = January 1964.

3565 - One Woden certain "AV" = January 64.

3571 - Wodens: mains "MU" = December 1963; OT and choke "AV" = January 64.

*3582 (?) - Wodens "AV" = January 64.

*3592 - Wodens "AV" = January 64.

8th June

21st October, 2024: - see now the which gives the newest info on amps with Treble chassis.

Thanks to Chris, thumbnail pics (for orientation) of serial number 10440N - chassis produced by Burndept, number 02901, pots with date code "KK" = November 1963, and Woden choke and mains transformer with "KU" = October 1963. Although the plate gives the voicing as "Normal", the chassis is in actual fact a "Treble".

Chassis on the one hand, and box with serial number plate on the other, may therefore not be original to each other - though that for the time being must simply be left as a possibility. The earliest known "Treble" serial number is currently 11066T.

However, chassis number 02901 will probably have been among the earliest "Treble" assemblies to have been produced, assuming that batches were produced on Burndept's benches more or less in chassis number order (not a foregone conclusion). The next for which evidence exists at present is 3053 (AC30 serial number unknown).

AC30 serial number 10440N, chassis number 02901.

4th June

A note of the formation of the "Haddon Transformers Limited", 28th July, 1948 (entry published on 3rd August). By September 1959 the company had opened up a second factory and design department in Ruislip, Middlesex.

Jennings used Haddons for around eleven years - from late 1952 / early 1953 through to 1964 (the AC30). It may be that a number of Univoxes prior to the Jennings J51 (the "Jennings Organ Company's" first console organ) had Haddon transformers too, but that at present is not certain.

The company was doubtless contracted to supply units by Derek Underdown.

2nd June

While looking for the notice posted in yesterday's entry, several others came to light, among which one for W.D. Hazell of Eltham. According to Rodney Angell, who worked as an amp-tester for JMI up to 1965, Hazell ("Hazell's" as he called them) made a number of runs of wooden cabinets for AC30s in 1963. Sales were on the increase and JMI needed to expand production. Unfortunately the cabinets made by Hazell were not up to scratch, so the company was quickly released from contract. From what Rodney recalled, the initial contracting took place in mid/late 1963, but at almost sixty years' distance, he could not swear to it.

Around fifteen years ago, pictures were posted on the old Plexi Palace Vox forum of an AC30 cabinet with particularly intricate comb (finger) joints that had disintegrated badly. As the thread progressed, someone added that he too had once had a cab, also in poor condition, with joints of the same type. Although there is clearly not much to go on, it is possible that these were Hazell-made cabinets.

Detail from the journal recording the company's registration in 1947. Eltham is around 10 miles from Dartford.

1st June

In the pictures below, the official record of the formation of "Jennings Musical Instruments Limited" on the 23rd May 1949 - published four days later on the 27th. Whether this was Tom's first company is not entirely certain at present. Normally when a company was re-named or re-cast the record noted the intention "To carry on the business of....".

However, as Tom's earliest adverts in the music press simply give "Jennings" it may well be that "Jennings" alone or "Jennings Limited" was the business he set up initially in 1946. "Jennings Limited" appeared on the shop-front at Dartford Road,

From Spring 1949, "Jennings Musical Instruments Limited" - acknowledging the new company - is the form normally given in ads published in the music and trade press.

The text reads: "Registered May 23 1949. 119, Dartford Road, Dartford, Kent. Nominal capital: £3,000 in £1 shares. Directors: T.W.Jennings (permanent) and Joan M. Jennings, 119, Dartford Road, Dartford, Kent."

Advert published in Spring 1949.

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