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The Jennings Organ Company was founded by Tom Jennings after World War II and made the Univox, an electronic organ. In 1956 Jennings was shown a prototype guitar amplifier made by Dick Denney, an old workmate from a wartime munitions factory. The company was renamed '''Jennings Musical Instruments''', and in 1958 the 15-watt Vox AC15 was launched. It was taken up by The Shadows and other British rock 'n' roll musicians. In 1959, with sales under pressure from the more powerful Fender Twin, Vox produced the 30-watt AC30. The AC30, fitted with Celestion "blue" loudspeakers and Vox's special "Top Boost" circuitry helped to produce the distinctive sound of the British Invasion , being used by The Beatles , The Who and the Yardbirds , among others. AC30s were later used by Brian May of Queen , Paul Weller of The Jam and The Edge of U2 . In 1962 Vox introduced the pentagonal Phantom guitar 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. In the mid 1960s as the sound of electric 12 string guitar became popular, Vox introduced the Phanton XII , and Mark XII electric 12 string guitars. Vox also produced many more traditional 6 and 12 string electric guitars in both England, and Italy. The British models tended to be the Hollow body, and the Italian tended to be the Solid body instruments. guitarists Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix .]] The Vox brand was also applied to electronic organs, notably the Vox Continental of 1962, which was immortalized by Alan Price of The Animals track House Of The Rising Sun , and Mike Smith, organist of The Dave Clark Five , was also strongly connected with the instrument. Guitar effects pedals, including an early version of the Wah-wah , used by Jimi Hendrix, and the Tone Bender Fuzz pedal, used by Jimmy Page of the Yardbirds were also manufactured. In 1967 Vox introduced the revolutionary but problematic Guitarorgan . This was a pentagonal Phantom VI guitar with internal organ electronics The trigger mechanisim involved running wires to each fret. This made the neck very large and unwieldy. John Lennon was given one in a bid to secure an endorsement, though this never panned out. The instrument never became popular but it was a precursor to the modern guitar synthesizer. In 1964 Jennings sold a share in JMI to the Royston Group, and sold American rights to the Thomas Organ Company. He left the company in 1967, at about the time that Marshall overtook Vox as the dominant force in the British guitar amp market. Royston went bust in 1969, and the company went through a series of names and owners. Costs were cut, especially in the production of the AC30: cheaper loudspeakers with inferior magnets were used, as were printed circuit boards, while particleboard replaced plywood and at one point a solid-state version was introduced. Thomas Organ Company produced a line of Solid State amplifiers in the United States, that although they looked like Vox equipment were far inferior to the British and Italian made equipment. To Promote their equipment Thomas Organ built the Voxmobile ; a Ford roadster dressed up to look like a Phantom Guitar. Despite this effort the Thomas Organ Company's Vox products destroyed the reputation of Vox in the North Americam market for many years. Vox Amplification Ltd has been owned by Korg since 1992. Korg revived the tube Rectifier and Alnico Speaker s for their version of the AC-30 in what is considered the most faithful version of the amp produced for many years. Korg have also used the name VOX for a new range of digital-modelling amps. In 2003 manufacturing was moved to China. Recently Vox has emerged as a leader in the digital amp modelling market with the release of its Valvetronix technology which combines a low power tube power amp with solid state modelling software. The latest line, the AD15VT/AD30VT/AD50VT has received many awards and much praise for its faithful recreation of 11 classic guitar amplifiers at a price that most guitarists can easily afford. EXTERNAL LINK
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