Vox wasn’t the first player on the British amp scene, but it was the first brand to make a major mark on the history of rock tone, and the AC15 is where it all started.
Vox wasn’t the first player on the British amp scene, but it was the first brand to make a major mark on the history of rock tone, and the AC15 is where it all started. Back before anyone conceived that a band was likely to need more than about 18 watts to get the job done, the AC15 was the market leader in the nation that was incubating the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, and other soon-to-be Vox players, and the sound of this amp is virtually etched into the cochlea of any fan of popular music.
Designed in large part by Dick Denney as the first proper guitar amp for Jennings Musical Instruments’ new Vox brand, the AC15 was launched early in 1958, but evolved considerably through its first couple of years of manufacture, hitting its stride—and its archetypal form—by the time our featured amp was made in 1961. By 1959 the new Vox model had picked up endorsements from major British stars like the Vipers, Wee Willie Harris, Marty Wilde, Bert Weedon, and Billy Fury. Heard of them? Probably not, but the AC15’s use by guitarists Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch of the Shadows—who were not only the backing band to hit maker Cliff Richard, but scored dozens of Top 40 instrumental hits in the UK in their own right—was a significant precursor to the coming British Invasion, which would also make Vox amps must-haves for teenagers all across America.
Vox and the AC15 are synonymous with “the class-A sound,” even if that’s something of a misnomer. Rather than being strictly “class-A