Vox Supreme site updates, june to October 2022

List of updates / new info. on Vox solid state amps (1967-1972).

2022

28th October

Thanks to Chris, pictures of "Vox Sound Equipment Limited" Conqueror serial number 2096, most likely first quarter of 1969. In the preamp a Mullard mustard capacitor is visible with date code "C8" = third quarter of 1968 for its manufacture.

Vox Conqueror serial number 2096. The footswitch is a NCM reproduction.

25th October

A series of updates coming soon.

8th September

The page on the West Street Works at Erith has been updated and expanded, further material and pictures to come shortly.

2nd September

CABINET SUPPLIERS

When Royston Industries collapsed in late 1967 the various constituent members of its Group collapsed too - the domino effect. JMI went swiftly into receivership, struggled manfully for around five months, but finally had to throw in the towel at the end of April 1968. Although little is recorded of Heslop and Company, a similar fate is likely to have befallen it.

Naturally when Reg Clark and Cyril Windiate formed "Vox Sound Equipment Limited" in the summer of 1968, a new supplier of cabinets (for amplifiers, speakers, and organs) had to be found. That very probably was "Heathpoint Timber" of Thundersley in Essex (533 Rayleigh Road).

533 Rayleigh Road a couple of years ago (from Google Street view). Heathpoint had the left-hand side of the builing and the works behind.

At any rate, Heathpoint (which had a separate arm trading as "Becket Instruments") was certainly supplying fully finished cabs - with basketweave covering, grille cloth, piping, corner protectors, and so on - to "Vox Sound Limited" in 1970/1971. At the rear of the premises the production of Gladlyn Ware - slatted teak domestic furniture which had also been produced in earlier years by Heslop - took place. In the 1970s Heathpoint did extrememly well, supplying cabinets to Orange, Hiwatt, White, Simms Watts, as well as Vox; as its fortunes rose, those of Gla-Rev, once a major force on the scene, seem to have fallen. In the late 1970s, however, Heathpoint ran into difficulties, having pinned its hopes by that time on orders from a single musical instrument manufacturer, and was revided and recast under new management.

Thanks to Andy Milner for his first-hand knowledge of Heathpoint in the 1970s.

28th August

Thanks to Tim, pictures of Vox Defiant amplifier section serial number 1050 with a Vox AC100 speaker cabinet from late 1965 / early 1966. The two were purchased together in the late 1970s. Note that the Defiant, being early, is termed "ST50R" on its serial number plate = "Super Twin 50 Reverb".

19th August

Thanks to Graham, pics of a Conqueror amplifier section from the first half of 1969 - twin lamps still on the front, "Vox Sound Equipment Limited" on the control panel. Further pictures can be found here.

VSEL Conqueror, first half of 1969.

18th August

Thanks to Alte, shots of "Vox Sound Limited" Conqueror speaker cabinet serial number 345, complete with its original mounting hardware for the amplifier section. This at present is the earliest VSL cab known. The latest VSEL unit known at present is serial number 312.

An overview of Conqueror speaker cabinets can be found on this page., which has been updated accordingly.

The speakers are a species of heavy-duty Goodmans 241s, not yet the Power Range.

12th August

A couple of Vox Multi-Link I speaker cabinets (4x12"), the first issued by "Vox Sound Equipment Limited", c. 1969, with heavy-duty Goodmans speakers (241s, as in Vox Supreme speaker cabs, 25-30W handling per driver). The second, serial number plate missing, has a species of Celestion G12L (light) - sometimes called G12S. These were also used in Line Source 60 public address cabs.

Note that the Celestions have JMI labels. Multi-Link cabs were devised long after JMI had collapsed.

22nd July

Thanks to Martin, pictures of JMI wah serial number 5524, potentiometer with date code "YF" = June 1967. The circuit board is glooped as the first 550 or so grey wahs were - see this page - a means of preventing rivals from copying the circuit.

The owner is intending to sell the pedal. If you are interested, please contact me at the site address for his details.

JMI wah serial number 5524.

11th July

Just posted on the Vox AC100 website, thanks to Andy Barratt, a picture of the party/gathering at the Royston Industries head office (Hill Street, Mayfair) following the award to JMI of the Queen's Award in early April 1967.

From right to left: Eric Summer, chairman of Royston; unknown; Dave Clark, then recently appointed roving ambassador for JMI; Reg Clark, General Sales Manager; Dick Denney; Cyril Windiate, Tom Jennings's deputy; Tom; Joan Jennings (?), Tom's wife; Colin Barratt, Overseas Sales Manager and Andy's father; Charlie Cobbett; JMI's Group Liaison Officer; and far left, unknown, though somehow familiar.

In the background, a Vox Supreme amplifier. Dick was photographed playing his Vox New Escort Special guitar in front of this, and in another shot, posing with Dave Clark, also a Dartford lad.

A page on JMI and the Queen's Award can be found here.

6th July

Posted yesterday on the Vox AC30 website, an advert for various storage-soiled items available at the Vox shop in Gees Court, London, November 1971. Some good reductions, and an early push for the Vox Discotape.

Pictures of the shop, taken at much the same time as the advert was placed, can be found lower down on this page, entry for 25th Feburary.

27th November, 1971.

2nd July

Some new material from February 1972 added to the page on the Vox Discotape - "Suddenly your're a top DJ..."

12th February, 1972.

21st June

A note in the music trade press on the provision of equipment by JMI for the play celebrating Duke Ellington's performances in Coventry Cathedral, summer 1967. The musical section of the play took place on the Cathedral's porch steps.

Photo and note above published September 1967.

20th June

On the 28th October 1970, the Patent Office register recorded that "Trix Electronics Limited" had been taken over by "Vox Sound Limited".

In the late 1950s Trix was a large concern, one branch producing Hi-Fi and Public Address equipment, the other televisions and radios. The television arm was taken over by "Ultra Electronics Limited" in 1960; the sound equipment arm evidently lasted until 1970, probably in much reduced form, whereupon VSL acquired it.

28th October 1970.

Whether any Trix designs were taken over by the "Vox Sound Limited" Research and Design team (based in a building on London Road in St-Leonards-on-Sea / Hastings) is unknown at present.

19th June (2)

There is now a new page on the "Vox Sound Equipment Limited" display at the Russell Hotel Trade Fair, August 1968, the first public outing for the new company.

Below, one of two pictures of the VSEL rooms published in the music trade press:

The organ room - 134a (?) - on the first floor of the hotel. In view, a Riviera and Super Continental organ, and two Gyrotone IIIs, one with an AC30 Super Twin amplifier section on top.

19th June

Pictures to show the general construction of the Multi Link II speaker cabinet - the main body and baffle constructed from stout birch ply; backs are chipboard. The page on the Multi-Link cabs will be updated soon.

The example below is number 93, c. 1971 ("Vox Sound Limited"). The impedance matching unit is of the twin output type.

"Vox Sound Limited" Multi-Link II speaker cabinet.

14th June

Traveller serial number 1057 now registered here. The latest date code visible in the preamp is on one of the RCA transistors - "7F" = June 1967, so the amp was probably complete (ready for sale) by August/September.

Traveller serial no. 1057.

1st June

Some notes on Vox Traveller, serial number 1026, assembled by JMI, but sold by "Vox Sound Equipment Limited" in late 1968. The inspection tag is dated 17th October '68.

The chassis number is 01139. The RCA transistors, all original, have date codes "7C", "7E", "7F" and "7G", respectively March, May, June, and July 1967. As the speaker (a Celestion T7721) does not have a readily visible date code, it is not possible to form a sense of when the amp might have been complete - certainly after July '67 and before October '68 - but within that span there is no telling how long it was simply "parts", chassis and speaker not yet fixed in the cabinet, or how long it sat complete at the rear of a pile of Travellers waiting to be sold.

Due to slow sales, the model was deleted from the catalogue by "Vox Sound Equipment Limited" at some point before February 1969.