Friday, January 23, 2009

Vox: The Fab Four Years . . .

Dave Tea joins us once again for another great Beatles piece. - - J.

One of my obsessions and favorite things to do lately is busting Beatle myths, and there are quite a few to conquer. One that sparked my enthusiasm recently is the myth, or myths surrounding the Beatles and Vox amplifiers. There is a lot of information out there on the subject, too much to cover in this posting so I’ll try to provide a few links for you gearheads that need to dig deeper into the details of the Beatle/Vox fascinations.

When the Beatles joined forces with manager Brian Epstein in 1962, they were a scruffy club band in dire need of professional stage amplifiers. Up to that point they had been using whatever modest rigs they could afford, borrow or steal. Lennon had acquired a blonde Vox AC15 somewhere along the line (all Voxes were blonde in those days, black Vox amps would appear later on...due to Beatle demands), and all of the Beatles dug its chimey, harmonic-rich tone. Mr. Epstein decided to try something rather bold, and asked one of the Vox marketing guys if he would trade a backline of Vox amplification for an artist endorsement.

The Beatles were only famous in Liverpool at the time, and it was a bit of agamble for this guy to actually give away amplifiers. This wasn't done. His gut feeling that this would be beneficial to Vox would prove right soon enough, but must have seemed quite foolish at the time. From that point forward until Brian Epstein's death in 1967, Vox would provide the Beatles with their latest and greatest bass and guitar amplifiers, and a keyboard or two under the agreement that whenever they performed anywhere, all amplifiers used onstage were Vox, and nothing but Vox. Posing for print ads was also part of the deal, but the Beatles got what they needed to try to be heard over the ever-increasing wail of ever-increasing, rabid, screaming fans. Demand for little-known Vox amplifiers eventually skyrocketed, as did the demands for Gretsch and Rickenbacker guitars, Hofner basses and Ludwig drums.

The Beatles didn't know that the guitars they banged around, leaned against chairs and dropped on the floor would become Holy Grails to latter-day gear geeks, nor did they really seem to give a lot of thought or concern to these tools of their trade. They were selling records and poking girls left and right, and making great noise with whatever non-pampered instrument might be lying around the studio at the time. The only Beatle that really collected or even seemed to care much about guitars was Harrison, but he gave a lot of them away to friends. I’m guessing that the Beatles probably laugh hysterically when “historians” and other gearheads seem to know and care more about what equipment was used on which track or tour than they did, which is easy because when pressed for information, they often haven’t had the foggiest recollection of such mundane details. However, that's not to say that they didn't have their cherished favorite guitars (*stay tuned).

The Beatles used Vox amplifiers in the studio, sure, but after conquering England and the rest of the world they would be given extraordinary access to the rest of the industry's latest electronic toys, gadgets and amplifiers. This was the time when guitar pedals and gizmos were being introduced as well as the first solid state and solid state/tube hybrid amplifiers. As the Beatles’ ever-increasing demand for higher volume and power grew, Vox amplifiers became quite huge, and more and more transistorized. It’s been said that there was a lot of grumbling about the tone and reliability of the massive “Superbeatle” amplifiers that were provided for their stadium shows.

Always free to use whatever brand of amplifiers they wished making records, a blonde piggyback Fender Bassman was reportedly used more often on more recordings from 1965 forward than any other, recording bass and guitar. They might've actually paid for that fine piece of equipment.

The end of live touring in 1966, and the death of Brian Epstein in 1967 effectively ended the Vox/Beatle "partnership", but Vox amps would continue to be seen in the backline in some later promotional films that the Beatles would send around the world instead of themselves.

Fender began sending gifts to the lads as well, guitars, basses, pianos, public address systems and tube amplifiers. By the time of the Let it Be sessions, or maybe before, Fender ruled the backline of the Beatles....not only because they sounded great, but because they were free. - - by Dave Tea

Some Beatle links:

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