"I kept on bidding with excitement and nervousness; this is John Lennon's... I must be mad!”: John Lennon’s first Vox amp has apparently been rediscovered after 60 years

In what is being hailed as “the amp find of the century,” John Lennon’s first Vox amp, a 1962 AC15 Twin, appears to have resurfaced after falling out of sight for 60 years.

A sharp-eyed Beatles fan came across it in an online auction, a feat made even more impressive considering the once fawn-colored combo amp was disguised under a coat of black paint.

Lennon purchased the amp, bearing the serial number ‘4583,’ in July 1962 from Hessy’s Music in Liverpool. It would feature at early Cavern Club shows and EMI sessions, including those that produced Please Please Me and Love Me Do.

Official verification is still to be made but the serial number is a match. There’s also photographic evidence to further the claim that this, one of only 30 AC15 Twins produced at that time, is the real deal.

Guitar World was invited to view the amp at the Cavern Club, where it was the subject of a photoshoot.

Its owner has remained anonymous but is represented by Nathan Hodgson, the man who discovered Jeff Beck’s prototype Ibanez signature late last year.

Recently retired and a hobbyist collector, he spotted the amp on the auction site Gardiner Houlgate in December 2023. He was excited at the prospect of owning a Vox much like Lennon’s first, not knowing it actually was his amp.

“There was only a £1,000 reserve on the amp, so I asked for more pictures,” the owner told Guitar World, via email.

“When I got the pictures checked, with the specification [and serial number] in the Vox book, I suddenly noticed it was the same as John Lennon’s amp. I couldn’t believe it.”

A bidding war ensued, with the owner speculating he wasn’t the only one to make the connection, ultimately parting with £16,000 to win the auction.

“I kept on bidding with excitement and some nervousness,” he says. “In my head, I said, ‘This is John Lennon’s…’ I had a limit of £15,000 – must be mad, I thought! Once I bought it I was happy, relieved, excited. All these emotions!”

Guitar World reports that the amp is in surprisingly good shape, given its 60-year journey, of which the last 20 years saw it kept in storage.

It came to the owner fitted with Celestion Greenback speakers. Period-correct Goodmans speakers have since been installed and its fawn finish has also been restored.

After Beatles manager Brian Epstein secured a Vox endorsement deal in 1963, the amp is believed to have been sold, with Lennon getting a larger AC30 amp in its place.

As GW says, there is a small doubt that this is Lennon's amp as “some unscrupulous traders have been known to swap chassis between cabinets, so the cabinet and serial number could be original but the internals sourced from another amp.”

However, it adds that the scarcity of these amps “presents a potential barrier to any bad actors in sourcing the components to create a ‘fake’.”

The owner says he is unsure of what to do with the amp once it is verified, but a sale, with a portion of proceeds going to the Liverpool Institute of the Performing Arts, founded by Paul McCartney in 1996, seems likely.

While famous amps are “notoriously tricky to value” compared to their stringed counterparts, Hodgson says conversations with multiple auction houses have drummed up of a figure of £100,000 to £250,000 [approx. $123,000 to $320,000].

To read more about the amp, its history, and incredible re-discovery, head over to Guitar World.