The Vox AC50 is a

guitar amplifier A guitar amplifier (or amp) is an electronic device or system that strengthens the electrical signal from a pickup on an electric guitar, bass guitar, or acoustic guitar so that it can produce sound through one or more loudspeakers, which a ...

head and accompanying speaker cabinet manufactured by Vox. It was introduced in 1964 to meet the growing demand for louder amplifiers during the

British Invasion The British Invasion was a cultural phenomenon of the mid-1960s, when rock and pop music acts from the United Kingdom and other aspects of British culture became popular in the United States and significant to the rising "counterculture" on b ...

era of rock and roll live performances. Most notable performers that used the AC50 was

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

as well as several other British pop rock bands during the mid to late 60's.

Amp Head

The head of the first AC50 MKI model originally had 2 inputs. 1 for a warmer "Normal" channel and another for a brighter "Brilliant" channel that sounds more comparable to a

Vox AC30 The Vox AC30 is a guitar amplifier manufactured by Vox. It was introduced in 1958 to meet the growing demand for louder amplifiers. Characterised by its "jangly" high-end sound it has become widely recognized by British musicians and others, su ...

. The later MKII and MKIII models have 4 channels to meet the varied input needs of musicians. While the amp's output provided larger sound than the

, the tube design called for two EL34 output tubes to achieve the power needed for tonal clarity. The preamp tubes were consistently one ECC82 (12AU7) tube and three ECC83 (12AX7) tubes. Early designs came outfitted with a GZ34 rectifier tube, while latter MKIII models housed a more predictable and stable diode rectifier to support the power supply.

Amp Cabinet

The AC50 many times accompanied the amplifier head with a speaker trolley cabinet loaded with Silver Alnico or Blue Alnico speakers and a Goodmans Midax Horn to push more bright clear sounds out into large crowds. The speaker trolley was cleverly designed to change in speaker tilt angle for adjusting down or up based on crowd locations beyond a main stage.

Production Years

The golden era of production for the Vox AC50 occurred between 1964-1969. With the most popular models being produced by

Jennings Musical Instruments Jennings Musical Instruments is a manufacturer of musical instruments, and the original owner of the Vox brand. The company was founded by Thomas Walter Jennings. History The Jennings Organ Company was founded by Thomas Walter Jennings in Dart ...

, or otherwise known as JMI.

References

{{Reflist Valve amplifiers Instrument amplifiers