Vox AC30 website updates

November and December 2023

31st December

Some pages coming shortly on the Vox Domino range, starting with the Domino Bass. The main index page for the Dominos (and AC2s and AC4s) .

In the early promotional picture published in the autumn of 1963, the amp's input sockets have white surrounds. These do not appear to have been used in production - perhaps a statement to be proved wrong at a later date.

Details from the "Precision in Sound" fold-out catalogue from the autumn of 1963.

19th December

The overview page on has been updated with some of the new material from the AC100 website. Further updates to the page will be made in due course.

17th December (2)

Just to add that plates of the type illustrated below - reset in a different font - were also used on Vox Continental organs. A caption has now been supplied for the picture.

17th December

A "Jennings Organ Company" serial number plate, used on console organs (ie. not the Univox) and on certain AC15s with serial numbers in the low 3700s. What is patent application 31494/53? Clearly something to do with organs rather than amplifiers, and applied for in 1953, but no records are presented for this number, or 3149453, in the international super-database of historical patent applications and awards - espace.net. Other early Jennings things are there though.

AC15 serial number in the low 3700s, later 1959.

16th December

February 1964, a piece in the American music press a month or so before Tom began his drive to find a country-wide distributor for JMI equipment in the USA.

That the Dezo Hoffman photo was around 18 months out of date at the time does not seem to have been of great concern - the amps currently in use by the band are described briefly at the foot of the piece. The T60 is of course the 2x15" cabinet, which had no designation of its own in JMI sources. The name "T100" did not come in until 1968.

Whether Ian Duncan, whose principal job was in the publicity department, travelled with the equipment on the USA tour later in the year (autumn) is not known. John Oram, an engineer in the R&D dept, went round the States with the amps in the autumn of 1965; and Charlie Cobbett did the first leg of the 1966 tour (overseeing the Super Beatle amps provided by Thomas Organ).

15th December

The rear page of JMI's general maintenance brochure for amplifiers, 1963. The section on the T60 also encompasses the AC30 Transonic, the latter often issued with in-built vibrato (fourth control from left in the picture below). The leftmost input was low gain, the right higher gain.

Detail from JMI circuit diagram A/027 for the T60.

14th December

Details from JMI circuit diagram OS/028 for the Vox Continental organ's power section. The sheet was drawn out initially on 28th February 1963 with changes and additions through to September 1964.

The note added on 21st March appears to signal the introduction of a mains transformer with a tap for 110V operation. Three things obviously follow:

(1) the very earliest Continentals may have been suitable for use only in the UK and Europe;

(2) the decision to add a 110V tap must have accompanied the decision to market the organ in the States - some of the early US material . The earliest advert that has come to light in a US source is from Feb. '63;

and (3) there was evidently no desire to market the Continental in countries that had voltages in the range 160V-205V - taps for these are regularly found on JMI amplifiers of the period.

But the questions arising are: to what extent did the notes on the sheet lag behind reality? As we have them, they are bundled up in groups. Perhaps there is no need to suppose that everything happened at one go. The other is simply a question of transformer stock. Was it simply a matter, early on, of fitting suitable transformers as required, regardless of what was indicated on OS/028?

Detail from JMI circuit diagram OS/028.

Details from JMI circuit diagram OS/028.

13th December

A detail from a photo taken in 115 Dartford Road in September 1964. The space was occupied for the most part by AC50 Foundation Bass sets destined for America - "V-1-14" was the Thomas Organ designation for the model - but among those piles, a Domino amp, destined for elsewhere.

The Domino range was never marketed in the USA. Occasionally one finds pieces in the press of the time that appear at first glance to imply that everything produced by Jennings would be distributed by Thomas - "all Jennings equipment" or words to that effect - but in actual fact it was simply "all products" encompassed (agreed) in the "Million Dollar Deal", ie. only a subset of Jennings's extensive ranges late in 1964.

It is perhaps worth saying as a "side note" that Jennings never issued "full range" or "full line" catalogues nor ever described its catalogues as such. The pricelists hold the real key to the breadth of the company's interests. And it should not be forgotten that items long "deleted" could still be ordered. Throughout the 1960s there were boxes of unsold ("new") items at Dartford Road going back to the 1950s.

The sheer size of the Thomas Organ orders meant that some of the areas normally used for assembly and checking in number 115 had to be taken over for despatch (which was normally confined to the sheds alongside the main building).

September 1964.

12th December

Some new entries registered for amps with serial numbers in the and .

10th December

A little bit of light housekeeping this weekend - some new text entries on the pages for serial numbers in the 7000s, 8000s, and 9000s, pictures to be added in due course. At the present count, four cabinets of amps with numbers in the 9000s have handles with empty rectangular panels (no "VOX" logo): 9185, 9253, 9507, and 9978. Where there are four, there will probably be others.

Detail of serial number 9185.

8th December

Thanks to Hans, pictures of AC30 serial number 8939N . Chassis - and cabinet - seem much earlier than the serial number would suggest.

AC30 serial number 8939N.

1st December

Thanks to Peter, it is now known that TV Front single speaker AC30 serial number 4158 - the highest so far encountered for the model - still survives. More to come in due course.

28th November

Copied over from the AC100 website: American music press, October 1964 - a nice shot of Tom and Joe Benaron, perspex AC30 and Continental in front, at the Russell Hotel Trade Fair, late August 1964. The official "handshake" photo for the "Million Dollar Deal" had already been published in the British music press in September.

October 1964

The deal was not in actual fact to distribute "all" Vox products, simply an agreed selection. More on Vox in the USA in 1964 and early 1965 to follow soon.

26th November

The AC30 Top Boost Reverb in the "Vox Sound Limited" catalogue of late 1971. The type of amp pictured is the , identifiable by the position of the Reverb control - where an input jack socket would normally be.

25th November

Thanks to James, a couple of shots of the cabinet of AC30 serial number 4988N (chassis no longer present), probably ready for sale in early 1962. Along with serial numbers 4981, 5002, and perhaps also 4995, the amp has Celestion blues dated 22nd December 1961. The cone codes are "RIC 1DJ" and "RIC 1DO".

Note that whoever stamped the gaskets at Celestion on this day got the letters for year and month reversed. The code should be "22MF". This happened on other occasions too.

24th November

A couple of details from the "Vox Sound Limited" catalogue of late 1971, produced to accompany the Russell Hotel Trade Fair of August - the AC30 Top Boost with specifications.

The amps in view correspond to those issued with serial numbers in the 25000s - .

21st November

A page has now been set up for material relating to the . There is still a little more to add; and further material will doubtless come to light in due course (as it always does).

20th November

June 1963, ad for the Continental published in music papers in the USA and Britain, and probably in Germany too. JMI had attended the Frankfurt Musikmesse for the first time earlier that year. The page on the Continental early on in the UK .

USA, June 1963.

19th November

More from America - August 1963 - a short summary of the Jennings display at the NAMM show. Of particular note is the last sentence.

"Paul and Paula": the first American artists to feature a Vox Continental in their act? Keep your eyes peeled for contemporary photos.

August 1963.

18th November

Copied over from the AC100 website - thanks to Nick, a detail from a full-page advert placed by Jennings in a spread of American music trade magazines to coincide with the . The Continental at this time was the big thing - a version of the ad printed in various British and American journals a few months earlier gave the specifications in some detail, picking up from the report placed in February '63 (see yesterday's entry).

The American material from 1963 relating to the Continental will be posted here in its entirety in due course.

Jennings ad for NAMM 1963.

17th November

This is the earliest report of the Vox Continental that has so far come to light in American sources - February 1963.

As can be seen, the ad uses the standard promotional image, the text a synopsis of information supplied by Jennings. Later in 1963, Jennings placed full-page ads for the Continental in a spread of American magazines. More on these to follow.

American music trade journal, February 1963.

14th November (2)

Thanks to Eberhard, pictures of Italian-made AC30 serial number 30421 have been . The amp is likely to have been ready for sale in the last quarter of 1971.

14th November

A clarification and correction in relation to yesterday's entry. The two plates - left and right - have panels of the same length. The image that should have been on the left is this one - Domino plate, earliest type (as used also on AC30s with numbers in the 7400s and low 11000s) - short silver panels:

Plate on an early Domino Normal combo, serial number 1047.

13th November

As has long been known, the type of plate illustrated in the previous entry was also used on the Vox Domino range (early on). Plates of this type were also used for a brief time on AC30s with serial numbers in the 7400s and low 11000s.

Left: Domino Super Reverb, aluminium plate, later type. Right, Domino Reverb combo aluminium plate, later type. [caption corrected]

Domino plastic plate, probably corresponding in terms of use to the plastic plates used on AC30s, serial numbers 11160 - 11600.

12th November

A couple of instances of runs of non-standard "supply" serial number plates on AC30s (Twins and Super Twins) in 1963 and 1964, "AMPLIFIER" rather than "VOX AMPLIFIER" at their head - the first on amps with serial numbers in the 7400s, the known bounds at present being 7404 to 7474; the second in the low 11000s (but no further than 11166). Serial number 11167 has a new plastic plate. The plastic plates were used through to the 11500s, after which standard aluminium plates were reinstated.

Serial numbers 7431 and 7433.

Serial numbers 11066 and 11077.

6th November

Thanks to Josh, a couple of details of the panel of serial number 22563. As can be seen, its right-hand side has an original factory-made overlay (with a new section for "RATINGS") - Jennings or the importer? The green pilot lamp looks to be an English Radiospares part.

The amp is .

AC30 serial number 22563.

5th November (2)

A batch of panels specially made for AC30s destined for the Scandinavian market? AC30 serial number 22563, no voltage selector, and instead of a heading for "SELECTOR" we have "RATING", and underneath that the details required by Scandinavian electrical legislation. JMI voltage selectors were normally removed by the importer prior to the amp being sent out to a dealer, and the resulting hole covered over with a blank of some description or a ratings plaque. The importer was required by law to provide a note of these ratings and to install further internal fuses for the HT line. But in this case the "ratings" section looks either to be part of the panel, or a very clever overlay. The numbers seem to be stamped rather than printed. A pity that the detail is for the time being a small one.

AC30 serial number 22563.

5th November

A good example of the Burndept stamp on the chassis of AC30 Twin serial number 8775B ( correction: speakers dated 17th October and 7th November 1963, not November and December). It is not clear at present what the "9" signifies - building or work bench no. 9 perhaps? Further pics of the amp to come.

AC30 serial number 8775.

4th November

Thanks to Tony, a couple of provisional pictures of AC15 Twin serial number 1047N. The original Fane that remains, sprayed Jennings blue at factory (the Fane factory), still has its "Heavy Duty" label.

AC15 Twin serial number 1047N.

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