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Thomas Organ introduced three generations of the Berkeley amp head in the three year period between 1966 and 1968.

Vox Berkeley Amplifier Head - V1081 The solid state V1081 Vox Berkeley was first offered in the July 10, 1966 US Vox price list. It made additional appearances in the November 15, 1966 and June 25, 1967 US Vox price lists. It was replaced by the V1083 Vox Berkeley III amp head in 1968. From Tube to Solid State The commercial success of the Beatles in 1964 caused a flood of demand for Vox products in the US market. Rather than set up shop in the states, Jennings Musical Industries (JMI), the UK manufacturer of Vox, decided that it would be best to choose an established US firm to distribute their amplifiers in America. The Thomas Organ Company, based in Sepulveda CA, was chosen to be this American distributor in September, 1964. One of the amp models Thomas imported to the US from JMI was the AC-10

Super Reverb Twin, or "SRT". The AC-10 SRT was an all tube 10 watt, single channel amp head combined

with a 2x10" speaker cabinet mounted to a tubular swivel trolley. Thomas Organ changed the name of the amp for the US market from "AC-10 SRT" to simply "Berkeley." This JMI version of the Berkeley amp was featured in the Thomas 1965 "Vox - King of the Beat" catalog, shown at right. For about a year, Thomas Organ continued to import Vox amplifiers from JMI in the UK. The high costs of shipping, import duties and delays in production at JMI became a constant source of irritation to the management of Thomas. These problems caused Thomas to approach JMI and propose a new arrangement. Thomas wished to secure a license from JMI to manufacture Vox products for the U.S. market in their own extensive facilities in California. This license was granted to Thomas by JMI in the latter part of 1965. From that point forward, Thomas started to design and produce their own Vox amp designs in the U.S. and shipments from JMI to Thomas Organ all but ceased. Thomas Organ did not feel compelled to use the original circuits designed by JMI for their new US amp line. Yet, the first U.S. made Berkeley (model V-8) was an all tube design, sort of a cross between the JMI AC-10SRT and AC-15. It upped the output to 17 watts RMS and included an improved reverb circuit with a two spring Accutronics delay line. In my opinion, the V-8 Berkeley was the one of the finest amps ever designed by Thomas Organ.

The V1081 "Solid State" Berkeley Arrives
The V1081 Vox Berkeley head was one of those new solid state Vox designs from Thomas. It was introduced at the Chicago NAMM show in the summer of 1966. For a while, Thomas offered both the V-8 "Tube" Berkeley and the V1081 "Solid State" Berkeley as they sold off their stock of the tube model. The chassis for the V1081 Berkeley was also fitted into a 1x10" combo amp Thomas called the V1031 "Cambridge Reverb."

Like it's predecessors, the AC-10SRT and V-8 Berkeley, the solid state V1081 Berkeley was a single channel amp with volume, treble and bass controls along with tremolo speed, tremolo depth and reverb.

V1081 Berkeley II amps produced from introduction in 1966 through mid 1967 had plywood head cabinets. Later production of the V1081 head cabinet switched from plywood to particle board.

You Get A Little More
Thomas Organ designed their new solid state amps with additional features to lead you to believe that you would "get a little more" value out of the U.S. Vox amps than from the UK Vox counterparts.

The Berkeley II was no exception to this Thomas Organ marketing strategy. The Berkeley II offered 18 watts RMS while the V-8 tube Berkeley had 17 and the JMI AC-10SRT just 10. A third input jack was added to the control panel of the Berkeley II but the AC-10SRT only had two. While both the Berkeley II and the AC-10SRT amps had treble and bass tone controls, the Berkeley II also added a foot switchable "MRB" mid-range boost circuit. Unlike the three frequency selectable MRB circuit on the larger Thomas Vox amplifiers, the V1081 Berkeley offered only one frequency. The Berkeley II also featured a three button foot switch to control reverb, tremolo and MRB while the JMI AC-10SRT foot switch had a single button to actuate the tremolo.