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Vox AC30 website updates

March 2025

31st March (2)

A quick illustration of how the chassis assembly of the AC10 mark 2 hinges away from the top of the cabinet to allow access to the valves.

(1) With the amplifier face down on a blanket, undo the two thumbscrews under the chassis top.

One of the two thumbscrews holding the chassis to the underside of the cabinet top.

(2) The assembly can then be tilted back on its hinges towards the speaker.

Board fixed to baffle with removable hinges.

Assembly tilted back.

(3) One can just about reach the valves too through the cutout for the control panel.

View through cutout on the cabinet top.

31st March

Some updates to the page on Dallas-made AC30s, 1974 and 1975: three amps from 1975, serial numbers 7503D1566 (thanks to David); 7504D1591; and 75102198.

An entry has also been added for an amp probably from the first half of 1974, status currently unknown.

30th March

A couple of details of AC10 serial number 3224, mid to later 1960. The TCC caps have the date code "QM" = December 1959 for their manufacture. Further pics to follow shortly.

A detail showing one of the brass thumbscrews holding the chassis assembly to the top of the cabinet. The whole thing pivots forward on hinges to allow access to the valves.

28th March

September 1969 - a good illustration of how the Vox Riviera organ could, by design, be broken down into three parts for ease of transport.

One of the drawbacks of larger organs was their weight. In the 1960s and 1970s, bands often sawed the case of their Hammonds in half to improve portability.

September 1969.

26th March

The page on early Dallas AC30s, 1974 to 1975, is in the process of being updated. Now that further relevant amps have come to light, a couple of statements that were provisional initially - relating in the main to serial numbers - can be made with more certainty.

25th March

A slightly duff image, but legible nonetheless. Yardley's, Birmingham, December 1959, the old shop at 69-70 Snow Hill, a "Vox Hi-Fi deluxe, 20 watt" at 59 guineas, and a "Vox Professional with Tremilo" at 39 guineas, in stock - in other words an AC1/15 and an AC/10.

23rd March

A further batch of new and updated entries for AC30 Twin serial numbers: 8146N, 8873B, and 9066B; also 8854N, a Super Twin amplifier section.

22nd March

Some new and updated entries for AC30 Twin serial numbers: 8400, 8435N, 8763N, and thanks to Tom, 22789.

21st March

Some new and updated entries for AC30 Twin serial numbers: 6056B, 6872, 7205N, 7253N, and 8198N.

20th March

The page on Domino SRT amplifier section serial number 2509 mentioned below can now be found here.

17th March

Thanks to Tanner, some new details of, and info on, Domino SRT serial number 2509 coming soon - to be set up on a new page.

Domino Super Reverb Twin serial number 2509 with an AC10 Twin (1964).

16th March

Below, a detail of a JMI amplifier guarantee card envelope from 1967, the form of words adopted evidently going back (with a few differences here and there) to mid 1960, perhaps further. The four stages of inspection? In most cases they will have been:

1: - inspection and testing of the chassis by the contractor responsible for assembling it prior to despatch to Dartford Road - from 1960 Triumph or Westrex, from late 1962 Triumph, Westrex, or Burndept.

2: - inspection following final assembly at Dartford Road (ie. once chassis, speakers, and cabinet had been brought together to create a usable amplifier).

3: - play-through of the amp with guitar or bass in the booths at 115 Dartford Road (up to late 1964) and in the West Street Works at Erith (late 1964 to 1968).

4: - final inspection of the whole before boxing up (to ensure among other things that documentation, tags, and so on were to hand).

15th March

Vox AC/10 serial number 3224, bought new at Yardley's in Birmingham in late autumn/early winter 1960, complete with original cover, footswitch, and JMI documentation - one of the earliest Vox amps, if not the earliest, to survive with all paperwork present.

Details of the preamp, power section, and speaker, etc., to follow shortly.

Vox AC10 serial number 3224.

13th March

An inspection tag from an AC4, and JMI warranty documentation. The numbers on the envelope indicate some model other than an AC4. "13337" can only have been an AC30; "2122" might - just about - be right for an AC10 Twin or an AC50 where 1964 is concerned.

The AC4 tested by B. Bibby and signed off on 18th December 1964.

12th March

Yardley's, Birmingham, May 1960, a Vox AC6 and an AC10 without tremolo (at 29 guineas) in stock. This is the only instance that has so far come to light of a shop advert for an AC6 outside London. The page on the model can be found here.

13th May 1960.

10th March

Entries for a further thirteen later AC10 Twins have been added to this page: serial numbers 2101, 2180, 2211, 2233, 2276, 2289, 2419, 2549, 2582, 2583, 2604, 2688, and 2746. Select pictures to be added shortly.

7th March

Bradley's Music in Rochdale, October 1964, a rare instance of an AC30 noted as having "Treble" voicing. JMI's main strand of documentation for the general public and dealers - pricelists, catalogues, and so on - only mentioned "Normal", "Bass", and "Top Boost".

The 30W, 50W, and 100W amplifiers mentioned in connection with the Line Source speakers are either the Metal-Clad Public Address units, or perhaps standard AC30, AC50 and AC100 amplifier sections. These last are certainly known - an interesting spread of survivals - to have been supplied/bought for PA applications.

October 1964.

6th March

Leicester, June 1964, two Domino amps, and among the accessories, add-on Top Boost modules, guitar strings, and chrome amp stands.

4th March

Thanks to Robert, pictures of AC30 Super Reverb Twin serial number 03852, part of a batch shipped to Thomas Organ in the USA, have now been added on this page.

3rd March

Thanks to Kevin and Ian, a couple of shots of the tremolo assembly of AC30 Lightweight serial number 12374. The transistors in the tremolo circuit are OC44s (three). One of the filter capacitors in the main amplifier section is dated "IDI" = 38th week of 1963 for its manufacture.

1st March

Pictures from a good while ago of a black panel AC30/6, mid to late 1961, a distinctive (and carefully made) hole behind the choke, output transformer missing, cabinet painted black. The serial number plate, which evidently survived the painting, was not pictured.