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The Vox division of Thomas Organ had developed a number of |
middle and upper end PA products for the US market between 1966 and 1968. These included the
V119 Churchill six channel powered mixer ($550 MSRP), the
V836 Booster Amp ($200 MSRP), the
V1091 Grenadier X column, the
V121 4x12 Grenadier XII column, the JBL powered V419 Winston 2x15" two way enclosure ($1765 MSRP) and the JBL powered V4191 2x15" Marlboro sub woofer enclosure ($1200 MSRP). An upper end Vox PA using a Churchill powered mixer, a Booster Amp and two each of the JBL powered enclosures would retail for nearly $6700 in 1968. Adjusted for fifty years of inflation, this sound system would retail for nearly $30,000 today. It wasn't until 1969 that Vox introduced a more affordable PA system, the V1263 Berkeley PA.
The Berkeley P.A. System combined two
V1091 Grenadier X PA columns with a 32 watt RMS
Berkeley III amp head. The dual channel Berkeley III was originally designed as a guitar amp. The first or "Normal" channel offered full range performance while the second, or "Brilliant" channel accented treble response. Each channel had two ¼" high impedance input jacks. Reverb was limited to the Normal channel. The Normal channel also included tremolo and the Brilliant channel featured MRB (Mid Range Boost). The reverb, tremolo and MRB effects could be operated remotely from a three button foot switch. A photo in the 1969 US Vox catalog showed the
Berkeley III head elevated on a chrome plated tripod stand.
The Berkeley P.A. gained little traction in the marketplace and was only offered in the 1969 US Vox catalog. Customers seemed to prefer the multi-channel mixing facilities and greater output power offered in PA amps from Kustom and Shure.
