The Vox AC30TBX was offered in three limited edition vinyl finishes in 1995 and 1996.
Vox produced one hundred AC-30TBX amps in red Vox basket weave vinyl in an "official limited edition." Only 36 of these were offered to the United States market, the balance was sold by Vox dealers throughout the world.
A second limited edition run of 108 amps were covered in the "fawn" or tan vinyl left over from the Rose Morris Vox days. 61 of these amps were equipped with Celestion blue alnico speakers while the other 47 had Celestion Greenbacks. All 108 were offered exclusively to the US market. Vox consumed all of the remaining tan vinyl left over from Rose Morris in this limited production series. Despite the small production numbers, the tan amps were not considered by Vox to be an "official limited edition" product.
In 1996, Vox produced 146 AC30TBX amps in purple Vox basket weave vinyl. These were sold throughout the world and were considered to be an "official limited edition" amplifier.
The control panel of the Limited Edition amps differed from the standard AC30TBX amps. Rather than the dark red, anodized aluminum control panels used on the standard TB and TBX amps, the Limited Edition amps had black semi gloss control panels with silk screened gold nomenclature. The silk screened control panel was less expensive for Vox to produce and was later additionally incorporated into the AC15TB and AC15TBX amps.
The Limited Edition amps were produced by Marshall Amplification PLC of Milton Keynes UK under contract to Vox and were available only with the Vox Alnico Blue speaker.
My thanks to my good friend, Kenny Howes, for the pictures of his red and tan AC-30TBX limited edition amps, as well for doing the research on the production numbers on these amps. Kenny found the production numbers in an old "Vox Talks" bulletin board posting by Mitch Colby, former head of Vox in America.
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