Vox (musical equipment)
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Vox is a musical equipment manufacturer formerly based in Britain, and now owned by Japanese electronics giants Korg, which is most famous for making the AC30 guitar amplifier and the Vox organ.
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[edit] Beginnings
The Jennings Organ Company was founded by Tom Jennings in Dartford, Kent, England after World War II. Jennings' first successful product was the Univox, an early self-powered electronic keyboard. In 1956 Jennings was shown a prototype guitar amplifier made by Dick Denney, a big band guitarist and an old workmate from World War 2. The company was renamed Jennings Musical Instruments, and in 1958 the 15-watt Vox AC15 amplifier was launched. It was taken up by The Shadows and other British rock 'n' roll musicians.
[edit] The AC30
In 1959, with sales under pressure from the more powerful Fender Twin and from The Shadows, who requested amplifiers with more power, Vox produced what was essentially a double-powered AC15 and named it the AC30. The AC30, fitted with alnico magnet-equipped Celestion "blue" loudspeakers and later Vox's special "Top Boost" circuitry, helped to produce the distinctive sound of the British Invasion, being used by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who and the Yardbirds, among others. The Monkees also used Vox amps and would conceal themselves in two large empty Vox cabinets that they would emerge from at the beginning of their concerts. AC30s were later used by Brian May of Queen (who is well known for having a wall of AC30's on stage), Paul Weller of The Jam (who also assembled a wall of AC30s), Rory Gallagher, The Edge of U2, and Radiohead guitarists Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, and Ed O'Brien.
[edit] Other Amplifiers
Once The Beatles became tied to Vox amplifiers (a deal was struck early in their recording career whereby they would be provided Vox equipment for exclusive stage use), the quest for more power began. John Lennon's first Vox was a fawn-colored twin-speaker AC15, while George Harrison's was a fawn AC30 with a top boost unit installed in the rear panel. They were later provided with twin black-covered AC30s with the rear panel top boost units. Paul McCartney was provided with one of the first transistorized amplifiers, the infamous T60, which had an unnerving tendency to overheat and smoke out. McCartney's was no exception, so he was then provided with an AC30 head which powered the T60's separate speaker cabinet. As the crowds at Beatles shows got louder, they needed louder amps to keep up. Jennings provided Lennon and Harrison with the first AC50 piggyback units, and McCartney's AC30/T60 rig was replaced with an AC100 head and a 2x15" cabinet. Lennon and Harrison eventually got their own AC100 rigs, with 4x12"/2-horn configurations. From 1963 through 1966, The Beatles had several prototype or specially-built Vox amplifiers, including hybrid tube/solid-state units from the short-lived 4- and 7-series.
[edit] Instruments
In 1962 Vox introduced the pentagonal Phantom guitar, originally made in England but soon after made by EKO of Italy. It was followed a year later by the teardrop-shaped Mark VI, the prototype of which was used by Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones. Vox guitars also experimented with onboard effects and electronics, with guitars such as the Cheetah and Ultrasonic offering numerous built-in effects. In the mid 1960's, as the sound of electric 12 string guitars became popular, Vox introduced the Phantom XII and Mark XII electric 12 string guitars as well as the Tempest XII, also made in Italy, which featured a more conventional body style. Vox produced a number of other models of 6 and 12 string electric guitars in both England and Italy. Guitar effects pedals, including an early version of the wah-wah, used by Jimi Hendrix, and the Tone Bender fuzzbox pedal, used by Jimmy Page of the Yardbirds, were also manufactured.
[edit] Organs
The Vox brand was also applied to Jennings' electronic organs, most notably the Vox Continental of 1962, which was immortalized by Alan Price on the Animals' track "House of the Rising Sun", and later used by Ray Manzarek on most songs recorded by The Doors. Mike Smith of The Dave Clark Five and Rod Argent of The Zombies were also strongly connected with the instrument. Peter Tork of the Monkees can be seen playing the unusual looking Vox organs several times during the Monkees TV series (1966-1968). The Continental and other Vox organs (such as the Jaguar and Continental II, Super Continental, and the Continental 300) share characteristic visual features including orange and black vinyl coverings, stands made of chromed steel tubing, and reversed black and white keys on the keyboards. The English wood key single manual continental (V301J) has become increasingly collectable, although the wood key American-built (V301H) and plastic key Italian-built models (V301E, V301E/2 and V302E) are also commanding premium prices.
Jennings sold production rights for the Vox Continental organ to an Italian subsidiary of Thomas Organ in 1967. Under the new production agreement, the Continental was gradually and subtly altered in quality and sound, and reliability became questionable. For example, Ray Manzarek of The Doors had been using a Vox since 1966, but could no longer trust it during performances because of the problems in quality after 1967, and thus was forced to look elsewhere for an organ. He settled on the Gibson Kalamazoo, because it had a flat top like the Vox Continental, so it could accommodate the physical requirements of the Fender Rhodes Bass Piano, which was the bass for The Doors, in concert.
[edit] GuitarOrgan
In 1966 Vox introduced the revolutionary but problematic GuitarOrgan, a Phantom VI guitar with internal organ electronics. The instrument's trigger mechanism required a specially-wired plectrum that completed circuit connections to each fret, resulting in a very wide and unwieldy neck. John Lennon was given one in a bid to secure an endorsement, though this never panned out. According to Up-Tight: the Velvet Underground Story, Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones also tried one; when asked by the Velvets if it "worked", his answer was negative. The instrument never became popular, but it was a precursor to the modern guitar synthesizer. Many think Ian Curtis of Joy Division used a guitar organ but it was actually a Phantom VI special with on board effects.[1]
[edit] Decline
Vox grew very big very fast. In 1964 Tom Jennings, in order to raise capital for JMI's expansion, sold controlling interest in JMI to the Royston Group, a British holding company, and sold American rights to the California-based Thomas Organ Company. Displeased with the direction his old company was taking, he left the company in 1967, roughly the same time that Marshall overtook Vox as the dominant force in the British guitar amplifier market. While Royston's Vox Sound Equipment division set up new operations in the Kent town of Erith, Tom Jennings set up a new company in his old Dartford location, joined later by Dick Denney. Jennings Electronic Industries operated for several years, making an updated and rebadged version of the AC30 along with other amplifiers, as well as a new range of organs. Meanwhile Royston, due to the loss of a lucrative government contract in one of its other companies, went into liquidation in 1969. As a result, Vox went through a series of owners including a British bank and Dallas-Arbiter. The AC30 continued to be built alongside newer solid-state amps, but in a series of cost-cutting moves different loudspeakers with ceramic magnets began to be used, as were printed circuit boards and solid-state rectification. Particleboard replaced some plywood parts in cabinet construction, and at one point an all-solid-state version was introduced alongside the classic tube-powered model. Rose-Morris, Marshall Amplification's British distributor, bought Vox in the 80s when their deal with Marshall ended. They tried to reinvigorate the Vox brand, continuing to build the AC30 along with a few other decent modern designs. In 1990 they sold the company to Korg.
Meanwhile in Sepulveda, Thomas Organ, after importing JMI's British-made amps for a short period in 1964-65, began to produce a line of mostly solid state amplifiers in the United States that carried the Vox name and cosmetic stylings. With some assistance from Dick Denney, these amps basically paralleled JMI's own transistorized amplifiers but were different from the British and Italian made Voxes in sound and reliability. To promote their equipment, Thomas Organ built the Voxmobile. a Ford roadster dressed up to look like a Phantom guitar, complete with a Continental organ and several "Beatle" amplifiers. Despite the huge marketing effort, Thomas Organ's Vox products did much to damage the reputation of Vox in the North American market for many years, and by the early 1970s Vox's American presence was virtually nonexistent.
[edit] Renewal
Vox Amplification Ltd has been owned by Korg since 1992. Korg revived the tube rectifier and alnico speakers for their version of the AC30 in what is considered the most faithful version of the amp produced for many years. Korg have also used the Vox name for a new range of digital modelling amps. In 2003 manufacturing was moved to China, including a yet-newer redesign of the venerable AC30, now designated the AC30CC. The reliability of these models has not been impressive, to date.
[edit] Valvetronix
Recently Vox has emerged as a leader in the digital amp modelling market with the release of its Valvetronix line of digital amplifier modelers. Utilizing Korg's REMS solid state modeling software, the Valvetronix are driven via a low-power tube power amp stage. The latest line, the AD15VT/AD30VT/AD50VT/AD100VT, has received many awards and much praise for its faithful recreation of eleven classic guitar amplifiers at a price that most guitarists can easily afford. The company did not reveal in the product manual which non-Vox amplifiers were modeled, although experienced guitarists would be able to deduce these from their descriptions, and the full list of amplifiers has been posted on the unofficial Valvetronix users' forum.
[edit] Cooltron
In addition to the Valvetronix, Vox has developed a line of analog effects pedals. Dubbed Cooltron, the line provides guitarists with vintage sounding overdrive, compression, boost, distortion, and tremolo. The pedals utilize low-power 12AU7 tubes to create vintage soft-clipping preamplification. Two of the Cooltron pedals, the Big Ben Overdrive, and the Bulldog Distortion, won the Guitar World Magazine Platinum Award[2]. Cooltron pedals:
- Bulldog Distortion
- Brit Boost
- Big Ben Overdrive
- Duel Overdrive
- Over the Top Boost
- Snake Charmer Compressor
- VibraVOX
[edit] Notes
- ^ Hempsall, Alan. "A Day Out With Joy Division", Extro, Vol.2/No.5 1980. Source: http://home.wxs.nl/~frankbri/jdvextro.html
- ^ Guitar World Magazine, September issue, 2005
[edit] External links
- Vox Amplification homepage
- The History of Vox Amplifiers by Jim Miller
