The Radio Tube That Gave the Beatles Their Sound: The EL84 Story

In December 2023, an old guitar amp, painted black and listed as a "generic Vox," turned up at a small British auction. Its serial number matched the Vox AC15 John Lennon bought on hire purchase in Liverpool in July 1962. Inside it were two small glass tubes that were never designed for rock and roll. They were designed for radios. This is the story of the EL84: the little Philips and Mullard valve from 1953 that made radios cheaper, then gave the British Invasion its chime. We follow it from the Netherlands to Dartford, Kent, where Tom Jennings and Dick Denney built the Vox AC15, and where the AC30 was born even though the boss called it "too heavy, too loud." Then the Shadows, Brian Epstein's deal with Vox, the Beatles outgrowing their AC30s, the AC100 at Shea Stadium (which, surprisingly, ran on EL34s), the "Class A" myth, Brian May's wall of AC30s, The Edge, Marshall's 18-watt, and the Fender Blues Junior. Special thanks to @valvetones7344, who built five Fender Vibroverbs with five different output tubes and ranked the EL84 first. This is the third tube in our power-tube family: The 6L6, the American sound: https://youtu.be/y0cxgoKsijI The EL34, the Marshall sound: https://youtu.be/rj0Wa16iZv8 The Transistor That Almost Killed the Tube Amp: https://youtu.be/WJM5yy-pD0s CHAPTERS 0:00 Lennon's lost amp turns up at auction 1:03 Two small tubes built for radios 1:56 Back to the Netherlands 3:07 1953: the EL84 is born 3:36 The EL84's big trick 4:29 The Mullard 5-10 4:53 Dartford: Tom Jennings and JMI 5:45 1958: the Vox AC15 6:17 The Shadows and Hank Marvin 6:58 The Shadows want more volume 7:36 "Too heavy, too loud" 8:17 The mystery of the first AC30 9:27 Inside the AC30 9:34 Your correction: the GZ34 9:58 A radio valve pushed past its limit 11:12 Where the chime comes from 11:42 The "Class A" myth 13:10 The Top Boost 13:43 John Lennon's AC15 14:12 Brian Epstein's deal with Vox 15:07 Beatlemania outgrows the AC30 15:30 The AC100 and its EL34s 16:11 Shea Stadium, 1965 16:59 The British Invasion plays Vox 17:29 How Vox fell apart 18:31 Brian May's wall of AC30s 19:33 The Edge, Tom Petty, Peter Buck 19:56 The Marshall 18-watt 20:22 Fender's EL84 amp: the Blues Junior 21:02 A viewer's five-amp experiment 22:37 Where EL84s are made today 23:10 Back to Lennon's amp 23:57 6L6, EL34, EL84 24:12 Your turn Do you own an AC30, an AC15, or another amp with EL84s inside? Chime of the EL84 or crunch of the EL34? Is the AC30 really Class A? And if you know anything about the very first AC30s from 1959, tell us in the comments. If we got a date, a model number or a name wrong, tell us there too. We read every comment and we pin every correction. SOURCES & FURTHER READING - EL84 history: Wikipedia; National Valve Museum (r-type.org) - Vox AC30 Twin history and the Mullard EL84 in the AC30: voxac30.org.uk - Vox AC30 and Vox company history: Wikipedia; "Vox Milestones," Guitarist magazine - Randall Aiken, "Is the Vox AC-30 Really Class A?" (aikenamps.com) - John Lennon's first Vox amp: Guitar World - Vox AC100: Vintage Guitar magazine - Brian May and the AC30: pcpki.com - The Edge rig rundown: Premier Guitar - Marshall 18-watt history: fuzzfaced.net - Fender Blues Junior: Wikipedia