Vox amplifiers come from three companies that did not share a numbering system: JMI in Dartford (the 1960s AC30s), Thomas Organ in California (1966–1970) and the modern Korg-era brand. JMI serials were stamped on the chassis after testing and there is no published table, so the working route is a dated register of individual amps plus the component codes on speakers, transformers and pots.
Vox was founded under JMI in Dartford, and the AC30 arrived in 1959 as two amplifiers in one cabinet. The cosmetics tables run from 1958, and for the earliest amps they are the most reliable single route.
JMI number plates were fitted by hand after each amp was tested, so serials follow production loosely. A dated register records individual AC30s and AC15s with their serial and an independent witness, which turns a listed serial into a calendar point.
Woden transformer date codes and British component codes (TCC, Hunts, Mullard, pots) belong here, and the 11000-series AC30s are pinned by component dates rather than by their serial. Chassis were supplied by Burndept and Westrex in 1962–64, which is a marker in itself.
Vox in the United States sold Thomas Organ amps whose serials lead with the year: 9 is 1966, 10 is 1967, 11 is 1968, 12 is 1969 and 13 is 1970. This is the only Vox era where a serial number alone gives the year.
The Korg-era brand reissued the classic designs — AC30 reissues from the 1990s, hand-wired and Custom Classic lines in the 2000s — under its own numbering, with no continuity to JMI or Thomas Organ.
| Series | Years | Rows | Era note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thomas Organ — year in the leading digits | 1966–1970 | 6 | 1966–1970 |
| JMI AC30/AC15 — dated serial points | 1960–1967 | 95 | 1960–1967 |
| JMI AC30 — the 11xxx series | 1963–1964 | 42 | 1964 |
18 Vox models are catalogued with their production years, specs and safety notes.
Browse the models →Not from the serial number alone: JMI published no table. The dated register matches listed serials to speaker, component or inspection evidence; a serial that is not in the register cannot be converted this way.
The code on the Celestion driver is the date the speaker was made, and the source advises adding at least three to four weeks for final assembly, testing and assigning the serial.
The Thomas Organ numbers of 1966–1970, where the leading digits are the year.
No. The current brand's codes cover its own reissues, and nothing connects them to the 1960s numbering.
Compiled from 150 published sources — the source library.