THE VOX SPECIAL PAGE


VOX AMPLIFIERS
MADE IN DARTFORD, KENT, ENGLAND BY

JENNINGS MUSICAL INDUSTRIES LTD.

CLICK On:
AC 120 TWIN
MODEL:
UL 710
DESIGNATION:
CONQUEROR
WITHIN:
DEFIANT
FIELD:
DYNAMIC BASS
TO SEE:
AC 30 T
DETAILS:
AC 30 TB

W A R N I N G

HIGH VOLTAGE

DO NOT HESITATE TO COME BACK LATER TO CHECK OUT NEW ENTRIES FOR THE PATHFINDER, UL 730 CAB AND THE SUPER FOUNDATION. FOR A REAL EXHAUSTIVE VOX SITE, YOU SHOULD OF COURSE CHECK OUT THE VOX SHOWROOM
VOX AMPLIFIERS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN A PART OF MY MUSICAL LIFE,SINCE MY FIRST BEATLES ALBUM, AND IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN IN MY BACKLINE. THE MAGIC OF VOX PRODUCTS HAS SURVIVED IN THE MODERN WORLD OF TODAY, PERHAPS DUE TO THE FACT THAT THEY DID IT RIGHT IN THE FIRST TRY.


Plus: SELMER ZODIAC TWIN-FIFTY

and SELMER TREBLE'N BASS






AC 120 TWIN

This is a picture of the Vox AC 120 Twin. Introduced to the market around 1973, as a rival to the Fender Twin-Reverb, though it never achieved any great success. This valve amplifier is quite good for some purposes. I have found it particularly useful for making many palettes of overdrive. It produces soft overdrive whenever you turn on the top EQ, or turn up the Treble knob above 8. Furthermore it has a dedicated distortion feature and a master volume. On this particular amplifier this sounds very special, and produces a classic 70'ies tone.
This was my main amp throughout Etc#1, #2, #3 and #4, but I have now sold it.






VOX 710



The Vox 710 is a very rare amplifier built in 1966. It comes from the same product line as the Beatles famous 7120ies and 730ies of the Revolver and Sgt. Pepper era. This is an ideal studio amplifier! It has the greatest amplifier sound I have ever heard. Very clear and crisp,, particularly when the Top Boost feature is activated, round, full bottom end, and both reverb and tremolo effects.

The serial numbers seem to start at #1001. There is a rumour that only 50 were ever made. However I have personally been in contact with the owners of #1089 and an owner in the #12xx-range, so this is definitely not true. It seems more likely that about 300 were made.

The 7-series is really a strange amp line. They were probably experimental amps built as a testbed for the development of the solid state line. Therefore these amps come in strange variants. The 710 has the same chassis as the larger 715, 730 etc., but is an all-valve design. It has several strange features. The pre-amp has a rare military valve called the ECC807. This valve has an unusually high gain for a valve, which is probably a key to the 710 sound. But then, I got my hands on a Vox schematics for a 710, which uses no ECC807!? So there are at least two variants out there.
Also, the amp has three tone controls; bass, middle and treble, which is unusual for sixties Vox. And the reverb bypasses the clean signal through its own pre-amp arrangement, so you can turn down the volume completely, and play only through the reverb. Very unusual!
More details about VOX amplifiers can be found at The Vox Showroom.
I have used this amp extensively through Etc#1, #2, #3 and #4






CONQUEROR


The Vox Conqueror was the end result of the transition from valve amps to transistorized amps. It was introduced late in 1966 or early 1967. The Beatles used this amp for the Savoy filming of Hello, Goodbye, and it can be heard on Magical Mystery Tour, Hey Bulldog and almost certainly also on both Sgt. Pepper and The White Album.
There is a long standing discussion about whether these amps were Conquerors or Defiants, but they were Conquerors. This page provides some photographic support for this.
This amplifier sounds much better than the vast majority of older transistor based amps. One reason might be, that at the time the circuit designers were still thinking in terms of valve amp design, and built the power section as a class A design. This was after all a key ingredient in the sound of the classic AC30. They also used germanium transistors for clipping in the fuzz circuit. In any case, the overall result is great.
The amp offers a number of unique features, only found on this amp and its brothers and sisters, the Supreme, Defiant, Virtuoso, Dynamic, Foundation and Super Foundation amps; namely Mid-Range Boost (MRB) and built in fuzz. It also had reverb and tremolo.
There are three versions of the pre-amp, as the Normal channel was revised in 1968, and the Brilliant channel was revised in 1969. The 1969 revision changed the way the MRB works.
Mine is equipped with Vox silver alnicos giving it an exceptionally good sound.
More details on The Vox Showroom.
A rig from the VSEL-era. MKIII pre-amp, and one single pilot lamp.

Head serial 1185 from the JMI-era. MKI pre-amp, and two pilot lamps.
You can hear this amp on several songs of the CD, most notably the title song, Fin de Siecle.






DEFIANT


The Vox Defiant is basically a more powerful version of the Conqueror above, more suitable for live volumes. The power amp is large, and uses a sort of transistor ladder to produce a very loud output.
Though the Conqueror and Defiant amps are visually similar, there are clear differences. Like the 100 Watt Supreme, Defiants have two rows of vents on the top of the head, and the head itself is two inches deeper than the Conqueror. So the Defiant head sides are rectangular whereas the Conqueror sides are perfect squares. The reason for this seems to be that Vox really wasn't sure how much heat they would put out when pushed. The early T60, as well as the american solid state amps suffered from thermal runaway problems. This is not the case on the fine UK amps, and so this extra size was really totally unnessecary.
The Defiant cabs are equally larger, both taller and wider, and have room for the Midax horn above the logo, and this means that the Vox logo is in the middle of the cab.
There is a long standing discussion about whether the Beatles amps were Conquerors or Defiants, but they were Conquerors. This page provides some photographic support for this.
If you are just looking for the specific tones produced by the Beatles in 1967-68, the good news is that these amps sound almost identical.
This amp has not yet made it to any of my recordings, but it will eventually..






DYNAMIC BASS


The Vox Dynamic Bass is a bass amplifier from the same product line as the Conqueror and Defiant. The amp is a solid state, and was introduced around 1967 along with the Conqueror, Defiant, Supreme, Foundation and Super Foundation amps. There is pictorial evidence that this amp, or its bigger brother the solid state Foundation Bass, was used on Beatles recordings for Hey Bulldog/Lady Madonna, etc. in early 1968, like they also used Conquerors for these sessions.
We used this amp in my first band Epicure as a guitar amp, and it has the same MRB and Distortion effects as the Conqueror, but sounds darker and slightly more powerful. It is in fact a great amp for guitar. I clearly remember looking through the vents into the amp, to see if I could spot any valves. I thought it sounded much like a valve amp - and definitely waaaay better than the Yamaha G50-112 I played through myself at the time! But there were no valves of course. It is entirely loaded with transistors. Unfortunately he didn't want to swap amps with me. I wonder why?
The Vox Showroom.
I never actualy owned this amp, I only recorded with it, but the sound made such a lasting impression on me that I now own a Conqueror and a Defiant.





AC 30 TREBLE


This is the quintessential AC-30 amp, as built by Jennings Musical Industries in 1963. Brown grill cloth, copper panel, one-pin corners and no original top boost. It came in Bass, Normal and Treble versions, this one being the Treble version. The top boost circuit was originally retrofitted to the standard models, before Vox made the circuit standard configuration. The retrofit was installed by making a square hole on the rear of the amp for a white panel with a treble and a bass control. This is an original treble model with the retrofit panel.
The Vox Showroom.
This amp can be heard on the CD Fin de Siecle as both guitar and bass amp on Vuggevise.





AC 30 TOP BOOST


The AC-30 Top Boost. By 1970, the Top Boost feature had long been an integral part of the amp construction. The ownership of Vox had changed, and in 1969-1970 it was owned by a company called Corinthian Bank. Here is an AC-30 from that period, reckognizable by the square VOX logo, alike those used on american built VOX. I had this amp on loan for some years, and it was the reason I went looking for an AC-30 of my own, which lead me to find the treble model above.
The Vox Showroom.
I had this amp on loan for a long time, so I used it a lot. It can be heard on The Difficult Second on the song Trespasser.






PATHFINDER 15


The Pathfinder. After some 30 tumultuous years, Korg finally restored the venerable Vox brand. Apart from reintroducing the AC-30TB, Korg also launched a new line of practice amplifiers, reusing the model name of a 60'ies US-made Vox practice amp - the Pathfinder. This model is the first of the new Pathfinders. An all-solid state amp, but yet with a really nice gain/boost/overdrive circuit. The Pathfinder actually sounds great for recording, if you are looking for an punchy Fendrish sound.
This amp was very cheap. So I bought two... Just to be on the safe side... Which happened to be a good idea. I ran into what appears to be a common issue with this amp and its bigger brother the Cambridge 30, namely a failing optocoupler between the vibrato circuit and the signal path. Replace with a VTL5C3/2 and it works again. I got another Fender compatible type in mine which also works.
The Vox Showroom.
This amp was used on Tales of Ardour and Deceit on Song of Marsk Stig.







AD 120 VTH


Since the production of the rare 4- and 7-series of 1965-66, Vox abandoned the idea of hybrid amplifiers for another 35 years
But in 2001 we suddenly find Korg/Vox revitalising the hybrid amp with the introduction of the Valvetronix series. And they really struck gold this time, with modern digital effects and an advanced preamp circuit modelling. But most important Vox invented a totally unique output stage that couples an ECC83 valve with the speaker through a transformer and an impedancewise totally transparent solid state power amp stage. The valve may even be programmably biased as class A or A/B.
The Valvetronix series is undisputedly the best modelling amp on the market. There are some differences in the speaker/valve impedance feedback circuitry between the earlier "blue" AD60VT/AD120VT and later models, such as the "silver" AD50/AD100 amps. The earlier blue amps have the upper hand, sounding more true valve.
The AD120VTH is the cream of the series, being a stand-alone head, with 2x60W RMS stereo output, and the characteristic stylish trapezoid shape, like the sixties Thomas Vox Super Beatle head.
The AD120VTX has many descendants now, as the Valvetronix power amp has become the core technology for most of the Vox budget amp line.
The Vox Showroom.
I had an AD 120 VT combo on loan for a while too, and it was used on a couple of demo redos of some of my older material from the days of "Epicure".





SELMER ZODIAC TWIN-FIFTY




EQUIPMENT

These amps were built in the early sixties, and the Selmer Zodiac Twin-Fifty was an obvious rival of the AC-30, though it never became a threat. The rich musicians got the AC-30, and the rest got Selmers. That was not entirely fair, as the Selmer Zodiac Twin-Thirties and Fifties were great sounding, powerful amps. They were also equipped with nice features. Notice the little green valve on top of the front that flashes along with the built in tremolo. It also has wheels, and the legs mounted on the bottom can either be folded up during transport or folded out to make a stand.
This amp makes an appearance on Fin de Siecle. Actually half of the bass lines are recorded through this amp, and some guitar parts on Vuggevise too.





SELMER TREBLE'N BASS



Picture will follow!

EQUIPMENT

Another of these wonderful amps from the early sixties. The Selmer Treble'n Bass Seems to have been an amp that most pros in britain used at one point or another. It is a pretty powerful amp with great tone. No frills. Two channels with Bass, Treble and Volume each. No master volume, no effects, just great loud sound. The amps in black covering with the special Selmer pattern front cloth was a feature used in the years 1966-68 where my amp was build. There are several pictures of Syd Barrett playing through Selmer Treble'n Bass amps during his few Pink Floyd years.
Selmers have risen in popularity in recent years after people have discovered what tremendous bargains they were.
This amp makes an appearance on Tales of Ardour and Deceit. All the bass lines are recorded through this amp.




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