BACKGROUND

As is well known, in September 1967 Tom Jennings was unceremoniously dismissed from Vox/Jennings Musical Industries, the company he had founded. Dick Denney and a group of others soon followed.

With money resulting from the case he had brought against Royston Industries (which owned Vox) for his wrongful dismissal, Jennings set about creating "Jennings Electronic Developments", taking over 117-119 Dartford Road, which he still owned. For the sequence of events, as reported in local Dartford newspapers and the music trade press, see this page on Tom.

JMI formally csme to an end (ceased trading) at the end of April 1968. Liquidation began in July 1968. The Dartford Road premises in JMI days were nos 115-119.

Below, a shot of Tom Jennings and Dick Denney as "Jennings Electronic Developments" at the Frankfurt Fair, February 1968. The company did not have a stand at the show however. Tom and Dick demonstrated their equipment at a nearby hotel, though they clearly made their presence known in the exhibition halls.

"Jennings Electronic Developments" at this point had a number of "gadgets", and at least one guitar and amplifier.

Photo printed in the music trade press, March 1968.

Prototyping and test production must have begun apace, as the company exhibited a fuller selection of items at the British Musical Instrument Trade Fair in August 1968.

Below, Tom's advert in the music trade press to accompany the Russell Hotel show, illustrating the new J40 and J100 amplifiers; and the Growler, Wah-Wah, and Scrambler rotary action pedals. Jennings exhibited at the President Hotel in Russell Square along with a number of other manufacturers. The event had become so large that spaces in a further three nearby hotels were pressed into service.

Music trade press, August 1968. The pedals are: the Wah-Wah, the Growler (Wah-Wah and Fuzz), and the Scrambler.

Dick Denney at the '68 Russell Hotel show. The guitar is a Framus.

A number of early designs had clearly been worked out in 1967 - presumably by Denney in JMI days - but not put into production by Vox at the time. See, for instance, the PA amplifier (visible under the headstock of Dick's guitar) - noticed at the foot of this page.

Music Trade press, November 1968

The inset picture above was taken in late August '68 in a pub around the corner from the Russell Hotel Trade Fair. John Oram, formerly of JMI, had joined Tom's new company shortly after Dick Denney. Alan Marcuson was James How's General Sales Manager. Interesting to note that one of How's factories was in Dartford.

Among the first items to be marketed were pedals. Numbers survive with "Jennings Electronic Developments" ident plates. On the Jennings fuzz, see now Nick Sternberg's page on his superb fuzzboxes.org site.

Jennings Electronic Developments fuzz pedal.

Above, the JED Growler, Hi Lo Boost and Repeater. Some of the effects pedals were later distributed in conjunction with James How. See the note in Beat Instrumental magazine, January 1969. When the company became "Jennings Electronics Industries" the ident plates were adjusted.

To date no amplifiers or speaker cabinets have turned up with Jennings Electronic Development plates - all known ones are "Jennings Electronic Industries". But that is not to say that early JED-made units will not come to light. Amplifiers and cabs, nominally perhaps of a pre-production nature, were of course exhibited in 1968.

For a selection of later amps and cabs, see these pages, admittedly in need some updating, but a good body of pics.

All JEI serial number plates give patent numbers too. Jennings was obviously moved to protect its innovations.