Vox
Vox is a British musical-equipment manufacturer founded in 1957 by Thomas Walter Jennings in Dartford, Kent — most famous for the AC15/AC30 guitar amplifiers used by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Kinks and the Yardbirds, and for the wah-wah pedal.^[raw/articles/wikipedia-vox.md] Since 1992 Vox has been owned by Japanese electronics company Korg (see korg).^[raw/articles/wikipedia-vox.md]
Why it matters to the Hammond story
Vox built the definitive transistor combo organ: the Vox Continental of 1962, which featured drawbars and used transistors to generate sound.^[raw/articles/wikipedia-vox.md] Like the Farfisa, it is the lightweight, cheap counterpoint to the B-3 (see b3-vs-combo-organs):
- John Lennon played a Continental onstage with the Beatles during "I'm Down", including at Shea Stadium in 1965.^[raw/articles/wikipedia-vox.md]
- Alan Price of the Animals played the Continental on the group's first two albums before switching to a Gibson G-101; Doug Ingle's Iron Butterfly used it on "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida".^[raw/articles/wikipedia-vox.md]
The transistor-drawbar concept — voice selection at a fraction of the tonewheel weight — foreshadows the trade-offs catalogued in Clonewheel Organ and B-3 vs Clonewheels.