1969 Vox Defiant JMI UK-Made Vintage Solid State Amp, Head + 2x12 Speaker Cabinet w/ Fane, Ftsw

Up for sale, a 1969 Vox Defiant solid state head and matching 2x12 speaker cabinet in excellent condition and in perfect working order, complete with a custom footswitch. One of Vox's most coveted and obscure amps, the Defiant is notable for having an identical preamp, two channel design, and cosmetic appointments as the Conqueror, the amp used heavily by the Beatles on both Magical Mystery Tour and the White Album. While the Conqueror is a 30 watt affair, the Defiant is rated at 100 watts and has plenty of power to compete with a band for live use.

Heavily influenced by Thomas Organ in the USA, the UK-made Defiant was part of Vox's push towards all solid state construction of their amp line. The Defiant has a host of features and two distinct sounding channels, and Channel One (Normal) boasts Volume and EQ controls, with a Top Boost two-way switch that further accentuates the treble frequencies. The amp has a crisp, jangly clean tone that has plenty of low end fullness, and there's a distinct character to the Defiant that elevates it above any modern solid state circuit. The Tremolo has a deep pulse without veering too far towards a square wave, and the Reverb has a long decay and is surprisingly lush. Channel Two (Brilliant) has its own EQ as well as a fuzz (labeled as Distortion) circuit that uses three germanium transistors, not dissimilar to a Tone Bender. The fuzz is thick and wooly, with good sustain as well as a sputtery sizzle that sounds distinctly Vox. Further tone shaping is accomplished via a three-way Midrange Boost rotary switch (labeled MRB Effects) and a two-way on/off switch to engage this additional tone circuit. Varying from quite mild to very intense, the midrange peak with this effect can be heard most drastically on the third setting with the treble control in its higher range, where the sound has the squawk of a cocked wah pedal.

The matching 2x12 extension speaker cabinet is loaded with a vintage pair of era-correct 12” ceramic magnet Vox 122/12 blue label speakers manufactured by Fane, with heavy duty frames and both the original blue foil Vox labels and smaller model stickers intact.

Cosmetically, there are some minor marks on the original black basketweave tolex and diamond lattice grillcloth. The faceplate shows modest wear, retaining the original knob set. Both serialized model plates are intact on the head and speaker cabinet, with raised Vox logos and “Defiant” badge intact.

A custom three-button footswitch is included.