Serial number 174 - currently in the UK

Sold on ebay in June 2013. Brown grille cloth. Thin-edged box in good condition. The original Cannon mains connector is visible in picture 2. The backboard has a number of additions - a Bulgin mains connector above the XLR speaker socket, and an inserted panel of jack sockets in a cut-out. The serial number plate is in more or less the same position as that of no. 173 on the preceding page, but the white warning plaque is on the right rather than the left.

Truly superb condition - a few new replaced caps and resistors here and there (old work), but otherwise all there. Thanks to Martin for the pics - in the last, by the way, Bill Wyman's prototype teardrop bass!

Serial number 175 - currently in Japan

No pictures available.

Serial number 177 - currently in Connecticut

For years this amp was pictured on Marcus Hardy's Tone Heaven site (the one rather poor image above). The caption read: "The mint example pictured, number 177 was sold to a gentleman in Florida. Apparently, one reason for the lack of survival of these amps was the unreliability of the transformers on this model. This amp was purchased new in 1964 and the speaker cabinet contained newspaper from this era !!!! In the photo, the control panel looks black but in fact was a copper / red colour." The page in question is archived by webarchive.org here. Marcus Hardy found this fine rig in a music shop in Bournemouth, where it had been since the the late 1960s, kept in a back room. He had been asked to locate an AC100 by the "gentleman in Florida" mentioned in his caption, and this is what he turned up.

Both amp and cabinet have their original brown covers. Newspaper in the cabinet (the Daily Express and News of the World) from September - November 1964, used as dampening, is likely to have been put in by its first owner, probably at a date not too far removed from the date of the latest pages (Sunday 1st Nov. '64) - see the pictures below, the scrunched-up paper now flattened out.

Examination of the amp by its present owner determined that one of the filter capacitors in the preamp had been wired in wrongly at the factory, thereby impairing the amps's functionality. This is probably why the Bournemouth shop had kept it in a back room. However, at some point in its life, the amp certainly had been used. The original Mullard yellow-print EL34s - XF2s with the code B3K4 (4th week of November 1963) - show evident signs of wear. Thanks to Tom for the pictures.

To judge from its back panel, no. 177 is a twin of no. 178. The mains connector is a Cannon LNE-11, which Vox regularly fitted to its AC80/100s. Such connectors were also used by the BBC and the hifi manufacturer Quad.

New pictures of amp, cab and the drivers - 15" Celestion T1076, 15ohm, wired in parallel for a total of 8ohms. Extremely rare to find original examples surviving in situ. The grille cloth and logo of the cab are immaculate, thanks no doubt to the covers, pictured two sections above this.

Serial number 178 - currently in the UK

Above, pictures supplied by the seller of the amp.

Said to have been refitted with a new mains transformer for a Mk 2 fixed bias AC100 at the Vox factory in 1965/66. Due to the higher rating of the secondary - after rectification 470V instead of 450V - the cathode resistors were raised to 400 ohms. The output transformer is a later replacement again, possibly 1970 or 80s? The amp probably originally had a Cannon LNE-11 mains socket, as on 177 above. The bass control was wired to work forwards, ie. in the conventional manner, clockwise. The bass in 173 and many others, on the other hand, works backwards. Pictures 9-12 show the volume and tone pots (in order, volume, treble, and two of bass).

Last four pictures: the amp tidied up - a shroud and bracket have been fitted to the output transformer; 100 ohm plate resistors reinstated; and Cannon LNE-11 mains socket installed.

The amp was acquired (ie. came back to the UK) from Japan, where it had been for some years. The first four pictures were supplied by the seller. It seems to have been one of three brown-fronted thin-edged amps that passed, though not with any great regularity, to and fro among Japanese collectors (serial nos 175 and 184 being the others). Prior to Japan, no. 178 may have been in New York. The owner of no. 177 saw a twin of 177 in a NYC dealer's premises, but the amp at that time had already been sold and was awaiting shipping to Japan.

Above, further pictures, 2013, the last two with a Foundation Bass cab that originally travelled with a small-box AC50.

Serial number 180 - whereabouts unknown

This has every chance of being the number of one of the thin-edged AC80/100s with black grille cloth at front given to John and George by JMI in July 1964.

Above, first sighting of John and George's black-grilled thin-edged AC80/100s, Stockholm, 28th July 1964 - used with large AC50 cabs containing 2x15" speakers. See this page for more.

New Super de Luxe speaker cabinets (4 x 12" with Midax horns) and trolleys were provied ten days later, on 9th September.

In terms of the pricelists issued by JMI, the new SDL cabs make their first appearance in September 1964:

Click on the image to see the full page on the Vox Showroom website.

In late 1964 the number appears on a thick-edged AC100 used by the Beatles from December 1964 to late summer 1965 - see below. In late 1964 the Beatles' amps (that is to say the chassis) were refurbished and reboxed prior to the Christmas concerts at the Hammersmith Odeon. Paul's first amp - with serial number 150B - was reboxed in one of the old black-fronted thin-edged boxes. John and George's chassis were put in thick-edged boxes with no corner protectors. Presumably at this point the old serial number plates were carried over too.

Number 180 belongs by rights to a thin-edged box - see the entries above and below - not a thick edged one.

The mains switch is a small ball-end Arrow. Other pictures show that the amp has a link voltage selector.

Click as ever to enlarge. The serial number plate has 9 lines of text and long panels for the details.

The plate of the amp used by Paul - serial no. 180 - for the Christmas Show, the ding in the serial number plate indicated.

Lennon photographed from stage rear in front of the amp he used - serial no. 180 - on 24th June 1965 at Milan. JMI refurbished the Beatles' amps before the European tour of summer '65, giving them extra screws on the top edge of the back panel.

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The front of the amp used by John at Milan, thick edges to the box, no corner protectors.

Updated

Serial number 182 - currently in the USA

Reproduced by kind permission of Jim Elyea

Exterior refurbished. When the amp first came to light in 2005, the box had no covering, back panel, or baffle. In terms of the electronics, the original transformers are still in place and much of the preamp in reasonable order, but the power section had been changed at some point from cathode to fixed bias.

Serial number 184 - currently in Japan

No pictures available - see below, though.

Serial number unknown - currently in Japan

It may be that the amp on the left below is serial number 184, which is known to be in Japan. The arrangement of diamonds on its grille cloth does not correspond with any other brown fronted AC80/100s on this site.

There is a strong chance that this was the amp used by Gerry and the Pacemakers for their set on the T.A.M.I Show, Santa Monica, 28th-29th October, 1964. Note the distinctive stretches in the cloth and the alignment of its diamonds. The speaker cabinets are probably the same too.

Image from "Guitar Magazine" (Japan), October 1992 - a copper-panelled AC80/100 in a thin-edged box. Possibly serial number 184, registered above. The speaker cabinet is also pictured with serial number 162 in a later Japanese publication.

Serial number 185 - formerly in the UK

A beautiful AC80/100 - in the second picture atop an original 2 x 15"; bass cabinet. At some point the plate resistors flamed out and a section of new tagboard had to be added. One can see the divide between the two pieces nine tags from the left.

Sold on ebay in September 2015. Note as in some of the amps further up this page, and on the one before, there is no screw on the top edge of the back board. The Amphenol connector is a later (anachronistic) addition.

Serial number in the 170s - 190s (?)

The grille cloth was probably black originally - see the remains on the inside of the baffle. The control panel has no legends. A very few electronic components were renewed in the 1970s, otherwise the chassis is entirely original. Dubilier capacitor date codes are "UH", "UK" and "UM" = July, October and December 1963. Welwyn cement resistors are all "VA" = January 1964. The volume pot has the date code "LK" = December 1963. At some point the back panel was painted blue, and various chalkings added inside the box (probably in the 1990s or 2000s).

Updated

The back panel was originally arranged much like serial number 174 - a Bulgin mains connector (still in place), warning plaque more or less centre, and the serial number plate to its left. Originally only a single speaker socket far left (the existing hole was enlarged later and a second added). The absence of legends on the control panel is intriguing. But the amp is certainly not a prototype or pre-production model.