The distinct and unique heritage of Vox Amplifiers begins in the midst of World War II, when Thomas Walter Jennings, discharged from the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers on medical grounds, took a job at a munitions plant, Vickers in Kent.

Born 28th of February 1917 in Hackney, Jennings was a keen accordion player and whilst working at the plant began a part-time business repairing accordions and trading in second hand musical instruments. It was also at this time that he met amateur guitarist Dick Denny, who also worked at the factory. Denny, who had an interest in electronics and radio technology, played with a local big band and on occasion the two would play together. Following the end of the War, Jennings and Denney went their separate ways and Jennings made buying and repairing musical instruments his full time occupation. In 1946 he acquired his first commercial premises and an office at 119, Dartford Road, Dartford, where he began to import and sell accordions, as well as other instruments. During that time he began to experiment in building his own products and in the late 1940 created the Univox Electronic Organ. The organ, similar in design to a Clavioline, was a reasonable success and in 1951 Jennings used the capital gained to create his first company, The Jennings
Organ Company.

A Dream Partnership - Tom Jennings (Left) and Dick Denney (Centre) with Musical Merchandise Review Magazine's publication manager Joe Feldman in 1967

By 1956 the Rock 'n' Roll revolution was in full swing. Jennings looked to capitalise on this new phenomenon by modifying the amplifier section of his electric organs for use with electric guitar. The experiment only had limited success, and was quickly shelved. At around the same time, however, Dick Denny, recovering after a serious illness, had also been experimenting and had made a 15 watt unit combined with a 12" speaker, and later a tremolo unit. One of the early prototypes made it's way into Thomas Jennings' shop and days later he offered Denney a job.

With Denney on board as chief engineer and Jennings and his wife as directors, Jennings Musical Instruments was born. The first amp with the Vox brand name, the Vox AC2/30, was released in 1957, and began to sell. But it was their next amp, the AC15 that began to bring them recognition within the industry. From new shop premises at 100, Charing Cross Road, London, Jennings sold Fender guitars and, eventually, Vox amps to the burgeoning London scene. One of their first major accounts was The Shadows, who began to use the AC15's for their live shows. Noted for it's clean sound, others began to purchase the amps, including Bert Weedon, The Migil Five, The Joe Loss Band and The Checkmates.

Following the success of the AC15, JMI released the AC4 (a 4 watt practice amp with 8" speaker) and the AC10 (a 10 Watt amp with 10" speaker) in late '58. While these amps were successful, the release of Fender's new 60 Watt amp brought demand for a louder Vox amp to be created. With artists reluctant to use two AC15's in tandem, the suggestion to "twin" an AC15 was put forward. Although amps around the 50 Watt range typically used two EL34 valves, JMI felt that the less powerful EL84 created a superior sound, and so used four in it's new creation. The mains transformer and and rectifier valve were upgraded, and a bigger 30 watt output transformer installed. Initally a single Goodmans Audiom 80 Speaker was used, but the results were not ideal and the company reluctantly decided to increase the size of the cabinet to allow the installation of two 15 Watt Goodmans speakers. The AC30/4 was born, so called because of it's thirty Watts of power and four inputs, two for the normal channel and two for the Vibrato, or "Vibravox", channel.

In 1959 The Shadows took delivery of three AC30s. JMI made one more modification to the design, replacing the Goodmans' speakers with a newly developed Celestion set, using Alnico magnets and painted blue. the Vox "Blue", as it was known, would become synonymous with the success and sound of the AC30. In July of the next year The Shadows' instrumental, "Apache", reached number one in the charts. With the AC30's sound clearly noticeable, Vox amps became highly
desired.

At this time, the AC30 was once more revised. The use of the more reliable ECC83 (12AX7) valve in the pre-amp stage allowed a third channel to be added. This
was the "Brilliant" channel, and required two more inputs, bringing the total to 6. The newly dubbed AC30/6 had a slight difference in sound, which some players thought had less clarity, so in 1961 Vox offered an extra piece of circuitry to new and existing AC30/6's. The "Top Boost" unit added a Treble and Bass control to the Brilliance channel, and many owners would choose to have the modification installed. Also in this year, JMI began to produce it's first guitars, the Clubman and the Stroller. Essentially copies of the Fender Stratocaster, which wasn't easily available in England at the time, these were low budget guitars, made for Vox by a British furniture company.

Sometime in sometime in late '62, the Vox store in Charing Cross road received a visit from music manager Brian Epstein. At this point, The Beatles were already using Vox amps, with John owning a fawn coloured AC15 Twin, and George an AC30, both acquired on hire purchase from Hessy's in Liverpool in July of 1962 (they were photographed using the amps at The Tower Ballroom on the 27th of July, and it is believed that John had acquired his amp that afternoon).
They were very fond of the amps and used them extensively, including the "Please, Please Me" single recording on September the 4th of that year. Epstein came into the shop and requested a set of Vox amps for The Beatles, which he claimed were "going to grow very big". In exchange, JMI could use publicity photos of the band in any manner the company saw fit, and they would exclusively use Vox amps over any other brand for as long as Epstein was manager. Shop manager Reg Clarke agreed to the endorsement, and a set of AC30's (with the "retrofitted" Top Boost rear mounted circuit) were delivered.

1962 proved to be a good year for Jennings and Denney, who began to expand their range of instruments even further. Not content with their low cost, American "copy" guitars, Vox teamed up with an Italian guitar maker, EKO, to provide parts for their original design, the Vox Phantom. The trapezoid shape of the body made the guitar instantly recognisable and it became a quick success, adopted by many top artists, including the Dave Clark Five and The Hollies. In late '63
the company released the Phantom Mk III, a vastly different design from the original, With it's rounder lute-like body. The guitar, known simply as the "Teardrop", would become Vox's most famous guitar shape, with the very first hand built example used by The Rolling Stones' Brian Jones. Semi- acoustic guitar models the Vox Victor (based on the Hofner guitars) and the Vox Verithin (similar to the Gibson 335) also sold well, and Vox also expanded their amplifier range, releasing the more powerful AC50

Above: The Beatles at the Cavern Club in Liverpool, using their Vox's. Below: John Lennon in the recording studio with his fawn AC15

By 1964, the Vox empire was well and truly up and running. The Phantom and the Teardrop appeared in 6-string, 4-string bass and 12-string versions, and Dick Denney's continued creative experimentations resulted in the Vox Echo, the Vox Radio Microphone and the first of Vox's transistor amps, the T60. The Foundation bass cabinet and the AC100 were released; the latter designed to work with the Beatle speaker cabinet, created to cash in on the band's meteoric rise to fame.

Jennings had remained interested in the organ market, and had originally released the Continental I organ in '62, but re-released the instrument later on, using the Vox brand's success, as the Vox Continental I. The organ was a success, audible on number one single "House of the Rising Sun", By The Animals, as
well as Manfred Mann's "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" and the Zombies' "She's Not There". The technology involved would also lead to one of Vox's true innovations of the time, the Guitar Organ. Using the oscillator circuits present in the Continental I, the organ tone would sound by holding down the strings and be combined with the sound of the guitar. Although the instrument was heavy and cumbersome due to its steel neck and circuit boxes, and prone to failure, it is a hallmark to the ingenuity of the company at this time.

A still from The House of the Rising Sun Video by The Animals, featuring the Vox Continental I

Vox had become very successful in a relatively small space of time. The increased growth meant the acquisition of a new manufacturing works on West Street, Erith. In order to raise the capital needed to facilitate JMI's expansion, as well as a fear that the "golden age" of pop would be short-lived, in '64 Tom Jennings sold controlling interest in JMI to the Royston Group, a British holding company. The Beatles, by now using AC50's due to the larger venues they
were playing, were becoming an international phenomenon, and their US success increased the demand for Vox products by American distributors. Jennings negotiated a deal with the Thomas Organ Company to import Vox into the USA, who quickly began to supplement the imported amps with their own Vox branded models, designed in their La Sepulvenda laboratories. Thomas Organs preferred to build transistor amps over the more expensive tube models, and after paying a large license fee to the Royston Group, giving them control of Vox in the US, all US Vox's soon become transistor based, using "British themed" names such
as the Westminster, Viscount, Essex and Buckingham. The Super Beatle, named to capitalise on the group's success, appears with a host of extra features, including built in tuning tones and a Hammond licensed reverb effect. Yet despite much promotion, the inferior sound quality and reliability of the transistor amps caused much damage to the Vox reputation throughout the US, and by the early '70's Vox's American presence would be virtually nonexistent.

Back in the UK, Dick Denney had also been playing with transistor based amplification, and in 1967 Vox released The Conqueror (30 watts), Defiant (50 watts) and Supreme (100 watts) lead guitar models with relatively unique features such as distortion and Vox reverb. Bass models such as The Dynamic, The Foundation and it's big brother The Super Foundation were also added to the production line. This, coupled with the phasing out of the Vox Blue speaker in preference of cheaper ceramic magnet speakers, led to the Vox's loss of reputation in regards to sound quality. With many guitarists preferring the warm tones offered by valve amps, with the preference of the newer breed of guitar heroes, such as Hendrix, Cream and the Who was for the competition and Vox began to lose popularity. Unhappy with his company's current direction, Jennings resigned from Vox and set up a new company, Jennings Electronic Industries, later joined by Denney. Together they would continue to build amps and organs for the next few years, including the AC40, essentially a rebadged and updated version of the AC30.

Brian May of Queen and his Wall of AC30's

From it's base in Erith, Kent, the Vox brand continued to decline. The Royston Group invested heavily in areas outside the music industry, but the investments did not pay off and considerable contracts were lost. In 1969, Royston went into liquidation. For most, this marked the end of the golden era of Vox amps. The next ten years would see the company change hands, and name, numerous times, with owners ranging from British banks, to CBS-Arbiter (UK importers of Fender) and finally to Rose-Morris, who bought the company after losing their exclusive distribution deal with Marshall. Despite a successful collaboration with Queen guitarist Brian May, whose image in front of stacked AC30's during the 70's became iconic, the brand never again hit its previous level of notoriety.

Korg bought Vox Amplification Ltd in the early 90's, and began to produce what is thought to be the most faithful version of the AC30 for some time, using a tube rectifier and Blue Alnico speakers. It's this amp, and it's 60's ancestor, which have been coveted by musicians from every generation, including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Yardbirds, The Monkees, Brian May of Queen, The Edge of U2, Paul Weller (both in and out of the Jam), Rory
Gallagher, New Order, Joe Satriani, The Killers and Radiohead's three guitarists Johnny Greenwood, Thom Yorke and Ed O'Brian. Vintage vox amps continue to
sell, and their durability and well designed build means that these amps will be alive and loud for many more years to come.