Vox (company)

Vox is a British musical equipment manufacturer founded in 1957 by Thomas Walter Jennings in Dartford, Kent, England. The company is most famous for making the Vox AC30 guitar amplifier, used by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Yardbirds, Queen, Dire Straits, U2, and Radiohead; the Vox Continental electric organ, the Vox wah-wah pedal used by Jimi Hendrix, and a series of innovative electric guitars and bass guitars. Since 1992, Vox has been owned by the Japanese electronics firm Korg. 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 workmate from World War II. The company was renamed Jennings Musical Industries, or JMI. In 1958 the 15-watt Vox AC15 amplifier was launched; "vox" simply being the Latin word for "voice". It was popularised by The Shadows and other British rock 'n' roll musicians and became a commercial success. Vox released the 12-watt AC10 in late 1959 as a student model, originally as a 1x10-inch combo and later as a 2x10-inch combo. Features simplified from the AC15 included a tremolo effect (mislabeled as "vibrato"), a single, shared Tone control, and smaller output transformer. The AC10 was discontinued in 1965. Vox AC30 In 1959, with sales under pressure from the more powerful Fender Twin, by request 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, and like the AC15 using valves (known in the US as vacuum tubes), helped to produce the sound of the British Invasion, being used by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks and the Yardbirds, among others.