'60s Vox Hollowbodies?

For guitars of the straight waisted variety (or reverse offset).
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wooderson
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'60s Vox Hollowbodies?

Post by wooderson » Thu Mar 07, 2019 1:36 pm

Anyone have experience with the vintage Vox hollowbody guitars - Lynx, Super Lynx, etc.?

I've got an itch for something like that. I've never liked the low end Epiphone Casinos I've played, thought about looking for a used Eastman ES-330 style guitar but vintage would be cool (and cost less).

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PorkyPrimeCut
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Re: '60s Vox Hollowbodies?

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Thu Mar 07, 2019 11:09 pm

I have a Vox Ultrasonic.

From what I've read over the years the quality in many Vox guitars seems to be disproportionately focuses in the neck. Indeed, mine is very well made & beautifully crafted. They have a unique truss-rod system too.

The body, while solidly constructed, isn't much to write home about. When you take a look inside it's clear that it lacks a certain amount of finesse & I actually had to mod the bridge set-up to try & get the guitar to be more resonant. The roller bridge that came as stock became rattly & moving to a Gretsch-style bar bridge made a noticeable difference.
Similarly, this particular guitar has a lot of electronics inside it - several chunky PCB "modules" that are all screw mounted & plenty of wire. This may well explain why it'll never sound as good unplugged as, say, a Guild Starfire (want!)
I missed the opportunity to restring & play it empty when I got Ben (theworkoffire) to service & make an accurate schematic of the circuitry.

So, in short, even the top-end models had their problems. Whether that be down to the excessive amount of chrome panels & electronics remains to be seen & I'd like to think the truly "hollow" models were different beasts (in a good way).

EDIT - I should also add, the "Ferro-Sonic Wide-Range" pickups in my guitar are fantastic. There's not a whole lot of info out there about them so I'd be very interested to hear from anyone else who has a guitar with them installed.
Last edited by PorkyPrimeCut on Fri Mar 08, 2019 7:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
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fuzzjunkie
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Re: '60s Vox Hollowbodies?

Post by fuzzjunkie » Fri Mar 08, 2019 7:36 am

I have only seen a handful and only played one. The quality and playability was in line with the vintage Kay that I had at the time. A step up from a Silvertone. A decent guitar, but not really a good and certainly not a great guitar.

I would look for a Guild Starfire, as mentioned, it’s a much better guitar.

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Re: '60s Vox Hollowbodies?

Post by mgeek » Fri Mar 08, 2019 3:54 pm

When you say 'low end' Epiphone Casinos, do you mean the reissues? Cos if you're looking for a great quality semi acoustic at a good price, imo you could do a lot worse than a sixties Hofner.

Once you move out of the fantasyland BIN zone on ebay and reverb you can get nice Verithins for around 400UK and they are really well made guitars which compare well to Gretsch, Guild etc when set up well. I paid £128 for a battered one with a headstock repair and it's one of the best guitars I've owned, super light and resonant, great tone.

Voxes are fine, but will take some tinkering to get the best out of them, and the Italian ones (which 99% of them are) have very thick neck finishes, that I don't get on with personally. LIke, I love Vox guitars, but they aren't who I'd think of if I was after a decent hollow semi

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raphaël
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Re: '60s Vox Hollowbodies?

Post by raphaël » Mon Mar 11, 2019 3:19 pm

I've got an Eko Barracuda, which is basically a Vox Superlynx.
It's just an awesome guitar. So much that I've plan to buy all the barracudas I find, to have all the pickups versions and even the modded ones.
The finish on the neck is indeed different. But different is good and this one is a great neck.
Also it's a very well made guitar and very pleasant to play and hear.
Really love it.

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Re: '60s Vox Hollowbodies?

Post by F15hface » Mon Mar 11, 2019 4:28 pm

I've played one, I think it was an ultrasonic. The neck was super skinny, to the point of being almost difficult to play. The pickups sounded ok, and the inbuilt fuzz was certainly something you could occasionally use. Thats about all I remember though.

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