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Vox AC30 website updates

September 2023

30th September

The page on later AC10 Twins has been expanded with further pics. It is still not really possible to say definitively whether there is any ostensible difference between amps sold in late 1964 and those sold in late 1966, say. Probably - one suspects - not much.

Below, old pics of AC4 serial number 3236 (from late 1963) and its original JMI shipping box. The Dispatch Department, effectively a long shed, ran down the flank of 115 Dartford Road.

AC4 serial number 3236, late 1963.

29th September

AC10 Twin serial number 2352 sold recently in the UK - in superb condition, complete with its original cover, warranty card, and advice booklet (tips on maintenance).

In the preamp, blue Hunts caps with date codes "HUT" and "TTT" = 26th and 44th weeks of 1964 respectively for their manufacture, and Mullard mustards with date codes "B/64", "C/64", and "D4N" - second, third, and last quarters of 1964. The chassis number is 2314.

The highest serial number encountered so far for an AC10 Twin is 3163, so over 700 intervened between that and number 2352 below. But the question of how these amps were made ready for sale - in what order, in batches of what size, and so on - remains.

28th September

Just to note that the page on "Musicland", the Jennings shop in Bexleyheath, has been updated on the Vox AC100 website. In late 1961, Tom moved advertising away from music magazines to the small ads of the popular press - a far larger audience, and a concentration on budget models. The ads were generally placed in spring and early summer, and in the months leading up to Christmas - in other words shortly before major school holidays.

Four different species of "Musicland" ads, October 1961 to December 1962. The first has guitars only. The second, to its right, May 1962, has one amplifier at 19 guineas (the Vox AC4). The other two (left to right) introduce further guitars. The Pacifica had long been available (first demonstrated publicly in late 1960).

The AC4s advertised - first at 19 guineas, later at 22 guineas - will have had serial numbers in in the mid to high 2000s. The increase in price came between 27th May and 8th July 1962.

27th September

The advert put out in August 1962 by JMI for the Vox Continental organ (still in design at the time) indicates that the decision to equip it with a "reversed" keyboard - black naturals, white sharps - came fairly late on in 1962. See the ad below, entry for 6th September, or on the Continental overview page.

The question of where the inspiration for such a keyboard came from is an interesting one. "Reversed key" boards were certainly not a twentieth-century invention. An eighteenth-century example was exhibited in London for instance in the early 1960s [not 1950s as previously stated], a note of its presence recorded in a music trade journal well known to Tom and others at Jennings. Jennings placed regular adverts in the journal for over a decade. Whether he actually went to see the keyboard - a spinet - is another thing of course.

Closer to home in a way is the Galanti "Super Dominator" accordion displayed below by Mario Fiorentini in 1955, the picture printed in another journal taken by Tom. From 1947 through to the mid 1950s accordions were his main business. He claimed towards the end of the decade to have sold 500,000! Tom will not only have seen this picture but may even have had Super Dominators to hand at one time - the published Jennings accordion stock lists (of which there are a good number) will need searching through though.

Reverting to the Continental - clearly a point must have been reached when orders for "reversed" keyboards could be given to Herrburger Brooks, the company that made the boards under contract for Jennings. This, one suspects, was quite late on, perhaps as late as October 1962, which would on the face of things leave time for Herrburger to produce a sample or series of samples that were finished enough to be used in the organs issued in late November / early December. Remember that Herrburger had come up with a board of the same scope - 49 notes but white naturals and black sharps - for the Jennings Model H organ in 1959.

To judge from a number of Continental keyboards made by Herrburger for JMI in early 1963, manufacture of the wooden frames was a fairly rough and ready process, all sorts of bodges employed to get the battens trued up - bodges that one (naturally) does not find in the assemblies that Herrburger made for grand pianos and concert grands. A good part of the Herrburger Works was its woodshop.

July 1955.

Detail of a Continental keyboard from early/mid 1963.

26th September

Entries for three more AC30 Twins with serial numbers in the 7000s added to this page: numbers 7631N, 7892N, and 7935B.

25th September

A number of new text entries for later Super Twins have now been added to this page. Some things of note: in the high 3000s and low 4000s a return to hand-stamped serial number plates; the transition from "square" sided amplifier section box to slope sided and back again (towards the end of the run) evidently took some time and was far from consistent; at present there is a sizeable gap in the Super Twin serial number sequence - from 4834 to 5241 - which could (perhaps) simply be chance. At least fifteen known Super Reverb Twins have numbers in this range.

23rd September

July 1957, the earliest ad placed by Tom in an education journal - one as it turns out published by the Pergamon Press, a company owned by Robert Maxwell, who is probably better known these days for his activities (let's say) at the Mirror newspaper Group in the 1980s and 1990s.

The series of organs mentioned was the "V-series", which had been launched in mid 1956. Various points of interest: delivery possible around 8 weeks after the order had been placed; every note independently generated; "we demonstrate every model in your own building".

July 1957.

21st September

Thanks to Terry, some pictures of a Jennings organ power section (to be added soon). Below, a general view of the chassis with its Haddon transformers, the output transformer now gone. The main TCC filter caps have date codes "QE" = May 1959; underneath the chassis a WIMA Tropydur cap has "69Np" = June 1959. The assembly is likely to have been produced therefore in the second half of '59.

Its circuit corresponds closely (though not exactly) to Derek Underdown's "50-Watt Amplifier" (sheet undated) designed for several models of V-series organ. In the summer of 1963 Derek used the circuit as a starting point for the power section of the new Vox AC50.

In its original form, the "50-Watt Amplifier" will have been extremely unforgiving to its EL34s - plate voltage around 550V, screens at 410V, and a bias of around -30V.

20th September

Notable characteristics of the Jennings J50C, J51C and J52B console organs as published in an electronics trade journal in July 1955 (shortly after the "British Industries Fair" of that year). The rows have been divided to aid legibility. This is the only source currently known that gives the size and weight of the organs. The column at the end of the first image gives the number of stops.

19th September

Thanks to Alan, pictures of AC30 Expanded Frequency serial number 10471. The chassis, with "High Boost" controls in the control panel, still has its original inspection tag. Further pics can be found here.

AC30X serial number 10471.

A question surrounding the inspection tag: if it is a Westrex tag, how was the serial number of the amp known? Perhaps added later? The name of the inspector - apparently "Moses" - is found on other tags (AC10s and AC30s), though on those no note of the serial number is entered.

18th September

In spring 1949, Tom created a new company for his business: "Jennings Musical Instruments Ltd". This replaced his initial trading name "Jennings" or sometimes "Jennings of Dartford". The transition took a little while to work through though.

Below, two ads from a music trade journal: August 1949, plain old "Jennings". From September, the new trading name, used thereafter principally for things other than organs through to 1956. The company remained on the books (as a registered trading name) until 1968, though it was little used after 1956.

The page on early Jennings companies has been updated.

August 1949.

September 1949.

17th September

Thanks to Michael, pics of AC15 serial number 4129 (third circuit), late 1960. The meaning of the suffix "O" on the serial number plate is unknown at present.

16th September

Well, it turns out that Tom did not bring the run of adverts for Jennings organs in educational journals to an end in 1959. He simply kicked off a new series in another set in 1960. Whether these stretched into 1961 and beyond remains to be seen. The search is a sort of work in progress at the moment - a slow trawl. The 1950s and 1960s in Britain were a boom time for the building of new schools, and with that expansion came an expansion also in the number of journals published. Aimed at teachers, school boards, governors, and other "educationalists", these covered a wide range of subjects: government policy, innovations in teaching methods, the wisdom of arranging dining halls in a particular way, successes of particular establishments, and so on. Audio-visual aids - televisions, projectors, sound systems - were of increasing interest too.

Below, the advert placed by Tom in September 1960, probably a little optimistically. 1975 guineas was beyond the reach of most schools. An almost identical ad published in August 1960 gave the price as 1850 guineas.

September 1960.

The mention of the Model G as being "Ex Works" helps date the flyer below:

15th September

Added to the page (on the Vox AC100 website) on "Musicland", the Jennings shop in Bexleyheath, pics of the envelope and return envelope of a catalogue set sent out to a prospective customer in February 1964.

Later envelopes were printed with the silhouette of the "Jumping Beatles" rather than that of "The Shadows".

Also added to the page (at its foot) a note on The Shadows' sheet music stocked by the shop.

14th September

An advert - not encountered elsewhere so far - for the J51 "Streamline" organ in the second edition of Alan Douglas's "The Electronic Musical Instrument Manual" (London, 1954).

The pages taken by Jennings in the third and fourth editions of Douglas's book can be seen below, entry for 12th September.

1954 edition.

13th September

Copied over from the Vox AC100 website, part of a double-page advert placed by Tom in the music trade press to accompany the JMI display at the Russell Hotel Trade Fair in August 1962 - the "Piano-Harp", a means of reproducing the effect of a honky-tonk or "tack" piano (and other instruments) on any normal upright piano. The left-hand side of the spread was for the Vox Continental - see the entry below for 6th September.

Jennings had been made exclusive UK distributor of the device, also of the "Piano-Hush", by "Piano Accessories Incorporated" of New York. Quite how Jennings and Piano Accessories came to link up is not known at present. It should be said however that Tom had done business with other American companies - notably Excelsior of New York - from as early as 1950.

The first formal showing by JMI of its own range in America was at the NAMM show in the summer of 1963.

The "Piano-Harp" and "Piano-Hush" remained part of the Jennings catalogue through to the end of 1965. That a full page advert was taken out in 1962 tends to indicate that Tom attached more than ordinary importance to the devices and the deal ("exclusive distribution").

August 1962. "Exclusive distribution by Jennings Musical Industries Ltd."

An advert placed by "Piano Accessories Inc" in an American trade magazine, March 1961.

JMI pricelist, November 1965.

12th September

Below, two ads for the Jennings D2 "Entertainment" organ, 1957 and 1962, third and fourth editions of Alan Douglas's "The Electronic Musical Instrument Manual" (Pitman, London).

From early 1961 Jennings offered prospective customers the chance to hear any model in its range "at home", or in the building in view - church, chapel, assembly hall, and so on. For the larger units, at least four Jennings engineers will have been required to do the lifting and carrying. The Temple Bar telephone number was for the shop at 100 Charing Cross Road.

1957 edition.

1962 edition.

Detail from the page above.

The transistorised "effects" assembly was first signalled (new) in August 1959. Quite what the source of the circuitry was is unknown, possibly "in-house" design, though more probably borrowings from some American-made organ - a Thomas perhaps. The arrangement to distribute Thomas organs on an "exclusive" basis in the UK did not come until later though.

Below, the frontispiece of the Fourth Edition (1962).

Frontispiece, 1962 edition.

11th September

Coming shortly, a brief but interesting overview of Jennings organs - from 1955 - containing info apparently not published elsewhere.

Perhaps most striking is the note of weight: the J50C was 2 cwt (hundredweight), and the J51 (Streamline) and J52B each 2 1/2 cwt. Two hundredweight (imperial) is approximately 100kg. Two and a half hundredweight is approx. 125kg. These were heavy beasts.

The section on Jennings organs can be found here.

9th September

A short list of the schools said by Jennings to have bought Jennings organs in the late 1950s:

Bolton, Farnworth Grammar School.

Goole Grammar School, Yorks.

Leamington, St Mary's Convent.

Leicester, Abington School.

Lincoln, City School.

London, Bible College.

London, Spurgeons College.

London, Spencer Park School.

Loughborough College School.

Engineers from the organ department would oversee the transportation and set up. Some models were "higher maintenance" than others. Even in "Vox Sound Equipment Limited" (1968 to 1970) and "Vox Sound Limited" (1970-1973) days, requests still came in for the repair of Jennings valve organs. Rodney Angell got so fed up that he designed transistor-based circuits to replace the valve originals in one model. He recalled installing at least one set of these in an organ in the Canary Islands.

8th September

November 1959, the last of a series of ads placed by Tom in school journals. The market for organs for chapels, assembly halls, music rooms, and so on, expanded rapidly in the late 1950s. Other makers (Burge, Selmer, Miller, Compton, etc.) were also not slow to promote their own models too.

The design and manufacture of the range - the index page for the various models is here - was one of Derek Underdown's signal achievements, though he was of course not working alone. Les Hills, Bob Whittington, Ken McDonnell, Geoff Harris, and from 1960, Alan Harding, all played their parts, along with the staff of various sub-contractors. One of these last was Colben Radio in Crayford (a mile or so up the road), from which Jennings poached Alan. Ken McDonnell oversaw final assembly on the floor of 115 Dartford Road. Les Morley and Les Mackay, successive Sales Managers in the late 1950s, fed back customer comment and responded to questions raised in the music press. Many older organists believed that organs should adhere to tradition - blowers, pipes, and so on, rather than valves, resistors, and capacitors. The feeling - often expressed quite ferociously - was that the new-fangled electronic units were akin to cheap (or not so cheap) throw-away toys.

In 1962, Burge Electronics, makers of the Lectrochord organ, stated that over over 2000 feet of wire went into its middle-sized models, different sizes and colours being used according to the nature of the assembly. The three main "grades" were 7/.0076" (seven strands each of thickness 0.0076"); 23/.0076"; and elsewhere 1/0.024" - in eleven colours so that various connections could be traced as they snaked from one section to another. Jennings' models were equally if not more involved than Burge's.

November 1959.

A series of updates to the Jennings organ pages coming soon.

7th September

Just to note in relation to the advert below that the dimensions given for the Continental - 39" x 25" x 6 1/2" (height to top of inner lid only) - are somewhat different from those of standard production units. Production units, certainly from mid 1963, measure 36" x 22" x 6 1/2". It seems unlikely that the very first Continentals issued - ie. in December 1962 - were any different from those of mid 1963. No latches for an outer lid are depicted in the advert's illustration.

6th September

August 1962, the earliest promotional item for a Vox Continental organ that has come to light so far - an advert prepared for the Russell Hotel Trade Fair (at which the organ was revealed to the public for the first time). The drawing is likely to have been based in part on a photo of an existing build of the organ - standard JMI practice. Note the keyboard - black and white keys not yet reversed. In August '62, the Continental will still have been in prototype form.

The transistor amplifier "with sixty watt capacity" mentioned at the end of the blurb was the Vox T60.

An overview of the Continental, 1962 to 1964, can be found on this page.

August 1962.

5th September

Thanks to Peter, some shots of AC30 Twin serial number 6019B, with factory added reverb and a later Top Boost unit.

AC30 Twin serial number 6019.

4th September

Copied over from the Vox AC100 website, a couple of items relating to Tom's first major foray into the USA in the 1960s - the Jennings stand at the NAMM show in Chicago, July 1963. The first is a note of the presence of the stand in an American music trade journal - Room 966W of the Palmer House Hotel. Although listings for the show are by no means comprehensive, it is evident that Jennings was there independently at this point. The arrangement to distribute Thomas Organs (announced in August 1963) had not yet been broached or at least finalised. Close to Jennings on its corridor were V.C. Squier Company Incorporated (violins and strings) in Room 968W, and Mills Music Incorporated (music publishing) in Room 969W. Thomas had rooms 617-620 on another floor.

The page on JMI's stand at the Chicago show of 1963 can be found here.

The second piece is a note of the application by Jennings to protect the trade name "VOX" in the USA, filed in October 1963, perhaps at the suggestion of Joe Benaron, who managed Thomas. Joe attended the Russell Hotel Trade Fair in London in late August 1963.