Instead of just cobbling together a medium-powered gramophone amp with a 1/4″ input and a built-in speaker, he voiced every element of the AC15’s circuit to accentuate the guitar’s full lows, forward mids, and shimmering highs. As excellent and successful as Fender’s Deluxe and Tremolux amps of the late ’50s were, few other manufacturers gave much consideration to the designs of their sub-20-watt models. amps, accordion amps, whatever – Denney crafted the AC15’s circuit from the ground up with the intention of flattering the natural tones of the electric guitar. To clarify, while Fender, Gibson, Valco, and other manufacturers were producing amps from adaptations of circuits found in the applications handbooks that tube manufacturers such as RCA, G.E., and Mullard routinely provided with their products – which laid the groundwork for hi-fi amps, P.A. There is an element of truth to that, although the claim is also a bit misleading. The AC15 (its name an abbreviation of “Amplifier Combined with Speaker, 15 watts”) is frequently billed as the first tube amp designed specifically for the electric guitar. The Shadows, pop crooner Cliff Richard’s backing band, became almost immediate endorsees and stuck with the AC15 until success demanded a bigger amplifier (Vox’s impetus for releasing the AC30), and virtually any British guitarist of note of the late 1950s and early ’60s will have played through an AC15 at one time or another. Musicians of the day were gagging for gigworthy, home-grown products amidst a dry period for quality that was exacerbated by a ban on the importation of U.S.-made goods that lasted from 1951 to ’59. The AC15 was released as the new company’s flagship model, to almost immediate acceptance from British guitarists on the skiffle, jazz, dance band and – most crucially – rock and roll scenes. Vox founder Tom Jennings’ Jennings Organ Company had been selling portable organs and related gear since 1951, but upon establishing Jennings Musical Instruments (JMI) in 1957 in order to cash in on a booming guitar craze, he set engineer Dick Denney to the task of designing an amplifier aimed at doing just that. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Vox amplifiers must feel flattered to pieces here in their sixth decade. Mention that oft-wielded phrase “class A” and Vox’s AC30 and AC15 amplifiers come to mind first every time… followed by the plethora of significant models from dozens of other makers, boutique and production alike, who owe an enormous debt to Dick Denney’s seminal EL84-based creations. In an industry hardwired to perpetually churn out a “next big thing,” any design that remains the kid to beat for going on 50 years deserves it’s own chapter in the annals of tone. The Guitar-organ was a Dick Denney creation that combined the mechanical elements of a Phantom guitar with the oscillators of a Continental electric keyboard. 1966 Vox Guitar-organ and ’66 Phantom XII.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |