Vox is a musical equipment manufacturer which is most famous for making the Vox AC30 guitar amplifier, the Vox electric organ, and a series of innovative but commercially unsuccessful electric guitars and bass guitars. Founded in Kent, England, Vox has been owned by the Japanese electronics firm Korg since 1992.
History
Beginnings
The Jennings Organ Company was founded by Thomas Walter Jennings in Dartford Kent, England after World War II. Jennings's first successful product was the Univox, an early self-powered electronic keyboard similar to the Clavioline.
In 1956 Jennings was shown a prototype guitar amplifier made by Dick Denney, a big band guitarist and an old workmate from World War II. The company was renamed Jennings Musical Instruments, or JMI, and in 1958 the 15-watt Vox AC15 amplifier was launched. It was successful, popularized by The Shadows and other British rock 'n' roll musicians.
The AC30
Main article: Vox AC30In 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 sound of the British Invasion, being used by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks and the Yardbirds, among others. AC30s were later used by Brian May of Queen (who is known for having a wall of AC30s 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. The Vox AC30 has been used by many other artists including Hank Marvin, Pete Townshend, John Scofield, Snowy White, Tom Petty, Mike Campbell, Peter Buck, Justin Hayward and many others.
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 featured an unusual separate cabinet outfitted with a 12" and a 15" speaker. The T60 head had an unnerving tendency to overheat and 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 customized T60 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.
In the early 1960’s the Brothers Grim became the first American group to be featured with Vox Amplifiers. Joe Banaron, CEO of Warwick Electronics Inc. / Thomas Organ, the United States distributor of Vox, along with Bernard Stockly (London) importer of Challenge pianos to the United States, arranged for the boys to have full use of the tall super AC 100 Vox amps (4x12" speakers). The solid-state version of this amp (known in the USA as the "Super Beatle") was produced to cash in on the Beatles-Vox affiliation, but was not nearly as successful as the tube AC30 and AC15 models. A modern popular rock artist known for use of the Super Beatle is Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, although in the April 2008 issue of Premier Guitar, lead guitarist Mike Campbell revealed that the Super Beatle "backline" was, on their thirtieth anniversary tour at least, primarily used only as a stage prop, though Petty used his "on a couple of songs." A photograph included in the article showed Campbell's actual guitar sound was coming from other amplifiers hidden behind the large Super Beatles, which Campbell stated were "a tweed Fender Deluxe and a blackface Fender Princeton together behind the Super Beatle, and an isolated Vox AC30 that I have backstage in a box."
Instruments
Guitars
Vox's first electric guitars, the Clubman and Stroller were modeled after the Fender Stratocaster, which at the time, was not available in the U.K. These first guitars were low-price, low-quality models made by a cabinet maker in Shoeburyness, Essex. In 1962 Vox introduced the pentagonal Vox Phantom guitar, originally made in England but soon after made by EKO of Italy. Phil "Fang" Volk of Paul Revere & the Raiders played a Phantom IV bass (which for some reason was eventually retrofitted with a Fender neck). It was followed a year later by the teardrop-shaped Mark VI, the prototype of which was made specifically for Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones, using a Fender Stratocaster bridge. By the end of the decade, Stones bassist Bill Wyman was himself playing a teardrop-bodied bass, made for him by the company, and subsequently marketed as the Wyman Bass. See also Vox Bass Guitar. Vox experimented with built-in effects and electronics, with guitars such as the Cheetah and Ultrasonic offering numerous built-in effects. Amongst many innovations were the Guitar Organ, which featured miniaturized VOX organ circuitry activated by the contact of strings with fret contacts, producing organ tones in key with guitar chords. . This instrument was heavy and cumbersome with its steel neck and external circuit boxes, and rarely worked correctly, but was a hallmark of the ingenuity of this company.
In the mid 1960s, as the sound of electric 12-string guitars became popular, Vox introduced the Phantom XII, which has been used by Tony Hicks of The Hollies, Captain Sensible of early English punk band The Damned and Hilton Valentine of The Animals; and Mark XII electric 12-string guitars as well as the Tempest XII, also made in Italy, which featured a more conventional body style. The Phantom XII and Mark XII both featured a unique Bigsby style 12-string vibrato tailpiece, the only 12 string electric guitar to feature such a vibrato. The Stereo Phantom XII had split pickups resembling the Fender precision bass, each half of which could be sent to a separate amplifier using an onboard mix control. 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 pedal used by Jimi Hendrix and the Tone Bender fuzzbox pedal used by Jimmy Page of the Yardbirds were also manufactured. In 1967 Vox introduced a series of guitars which featured built in effects such as fuzz tone, "repeater" tremolo, and a wah-wah operated by the heel of the picking hand pushing on a spring loaded lever over the bridge. The Delta phantom style guitar and bass, the Starstream teardrop 6-string, and Constellation teardrop bass had such effects.
Vox had experimented with Japanese manufacturers at the end of the sixties with the Les Paul style VG2, and in 1982 all guitar production was moved to Japan, where the Standard & Custom 24 & 25 guitars and basses were built by Matsumoku, the makers of Aria guitars. These are generally regarded as the best quality guitars ever built under the Vox name. However, they were discontinued in '85 when production was moved to Korea and they were replaced by the White Shadow models, although a number of White Shadow M Series guitars and basses are clearly marked as made in Japan, suggesting a phased production hand-over.
In March 2008, Vox unveiled the semi-hollow Vox Virage DC (double cutaway) and SC (single cutaway) at the NAMM show. Noteable characteristics include a 3D contoured ergonomic design and a triple coil pickup system called the Three-90 that emulates humbucker, P90, and single-coil tone.
Organs
The Vox brand was also applied to Jennings's 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 Paul Revere of Paul Revere & the Raiders, as well as Ray Manzarek on most songs recorded by The Doors and by John Lennon on The Beatles' track "I'm Down", both in the studio and live at their 1965 Shea Stadium concert. Doug Ingle of Iron Butterfly used it on "In A Gadda Da Vida" and other songs of the group. Mike Smith of The Dave Clark Five and Rod Argent of The Zombies were also made frequent use of 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). In newer popular music, the organist Spider Webb of the UK garage band The Horrors can be seen using a Vox Continental. A famous Vox organ riff can be heard on "96 Tears" by Question Mark & the Mysterians.
The Continental and other Vox organs such as the Jaguar, the Continental II, Super Continental, and the Continental 300 share characteristic visual features including orange and black vinyl coverings, s
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