Played 'em? What'd you think?

Have anyone played any of Vox's guitars?

Nothing made in the last 40 years. Recently I picked up a 60's Phantom XII at a studio in London. Very cool looking, hugely retro. Utter crap.

LOL Well their newer guitars look really great, in theory. It's very difficult to hear the tonal nuances on my laptop speakers, however... I would have to drive a ways to get my hands on one, but I don't want to waste my time if they're not all they're cracked up to be.

The 60s Vox guitars were made, cheaply, in Italy by EKO. They were really quite bad. The new ones have nothing to do with the old, & most likely are made in the same Asian factories used by most guitar makers.

I was able to get my hands on their SDC55 and I thought I'd share my thoughts for anyone interested.

The pickups did offer a variety of sonic options, but the difference was not quite enough to live up to the unreasonable expectations that I had built. When you hear someone say that they have fit the sound of a single coil, soapbar, and humbucker into one guitar, you might imagine that, in that one guitar, you could find the sound of a Strat, a Jazzmaster, and an LP. Or at least that was the fantasy that I found myself inexplicably expecting. In retrospect, I'm really uncertain why I was so gullible. Perhaps, I'm truly susceptible when you are promising things to me pertaining to my passion. My desire to have all the sounds in my head must make me particularly vulnerable. The "single coil" sound was trebly in a very tinny way, the "soapbar" sound was very warm, but lacked attack, and the "humbucker" sound seemed to simply be the sum of the two.

With regards to the construction and playability, it seemed well intonated and easy enough to play. The construction did seem to be of higher craftsmanship than the Gibson Midtown that a student recently purchased. (The Midtown tone was rather desirable, however. The binding was just really shoddy.) I wasn't impressed with the neck profile, either.

It might have been the extremely light weight of the instrument or my disappointment with the tone affecting my overall perception, but I felt it was grossly overpriced. All in all, very disappointed. I love their amps and was perhaps unfair in my hopes to find a guitar that I felt equaled that appreciation.

I know people who've put the Seymour Duncan P-rails in Strat bodies and loved the results, combined with using preamps and EQ pedals to enhance some of the different pickup selections.



A Variax and the modeling software might get the "every guitar in one package" thing.

I wouldn't expect them to perfectly sound like a sampled clone of every guitar imaginable, but close enough to be tweaked a little more to get close enough... for cover gigs where I didn't feel like bringing 3 guitars.

Otherwise it's fun to collect samples of every type of guitar...

That doesn't sound very appealing...

see, all the manufacturers know what kinda lies to spew to make us tumescent...

doesn't matter if it's accurate. it's like the true bypass myth.

true bypass CAN help tone...or can also help degrade it, as your guitar signal is still going thru jumpers and jacks.

sometimes a buffered signal is far better. but all ya hear about is bullsh*t these days....anything to make a buck.

these pickups are made of unobtanium, feature true bypass, and are wound with hair genetically cloned from Jimi Hendrix's afro, which we got after much bargaining with experience hendrix...alan douglas tried to keep this a secret...of course these pickups will change your life son...step inside here, boy, have a cigar....

it's all bullshit, me boyos... all designed to make ya drool and part with your hard or ill-earned cake.

like the proliferation of catalog sales....which is retarded. i don't care how much they lie about "plek'd" setups and other crap, you cannot buy a guitar without playing it and expect it to be "the one".

i could go thru a thousand guitars, and maybe find 2-3 that resonate with ME...and they probably won't be the ones the slingers are trying to sell me.

i remember going to gc with a rich friend a couple years ago...they were trying to get him to bite at this one les paul that was wayyyyyyy overpriced and wasn't even that nice looking...

"this is the best guitar in the whole store"...

what a crock...

there were epiphones that played and sounded better. there were COPIES of epiphones that looked played and sounded better.

they just were trying to justify getting top dollar for a guitar they were told to get top dollar for.

don't fall for the hype, guys...strings, picks, accessories...hell yah, catalog, online, whatever..


guitars and amps (yes, amps)?

hell no!!! you HAVE TO PLAY THRU THEM TO SEE IF THEY WORK FOR YOU.

no two are EVER the same...not even close.

sorry...did i forget the rant alert?

ps...in the long run? for what they quoted for that one les paul, he ended up leaving the store with an sg and a lp custom...

the two guitars i said were the best in the store. and he agreed.

for less than half the price. both beautiful sounding, looking, and playing gibsons, that he still has today.

rant done.

I dunno... I think I respectfully disagree.

Amps are pretty consistent these days... people won't tolerate them otherwise. It's like buying a tv or computer. Do you want the display model? Or a pedal...

and increasingly guitars are consistent, too. All CNC routed...

If someone is having a custom guitar made should they order 3 or 4 and then only buy the one they like?

I mail order guitars if I have a window of time to send them back... I also have a great tech guy who can do wonders with anything.

Always plan to do so in the future. Trying to stop looking for short cuts. I need to just save and hold out for gems that come my way.



I like that.

it's all good. i just know that i wanna try something and see if i like it, not trust someone trying to make bank on a sale.

I have an SDC-55 that I love! I will agree that the emulation of pickup tones aren't exact but they are at least reminiscent. I will also agree the guitar is a bit bright in nature. For me it plays like a dream, sounds awesome and is very comfortable to wear.

My opinion may be bias but I think the SDC-55 is an awesome guitar!

I think it was a really decent piece and was mostly disappointed because, at $999.99, I was expecting a truly exceptional guitar. I would say that, if the only difference between the 33 and the 55 is the number of coil taps, the 33 would have an acceptable value. I thought the construction and playability of the instrument was equivalent to guitars around the $500 mark, though I'm a little more impressed with G&L's Tribute series...

I should include that my experience with truly exceptional guitars is limited. Perhaps my opinion is not the most legitimate.

Maybe I'm just getting jaded in my old age,but I haven't run into a guitar that really knocked me out in a long time. I have played some good guitars, don't get me wrong. They sounded nice, played well, stayed in tune up & down the neck, performed electronically without untoward noises or cutting in & out, etc. But as far as finding anything amazingly special, not so much. They all just seem like electric guitars to me.

I believe I know what you're getting at. It's like the tone in my head... I think there's something out there that I'm just not getting, but really that's just my heightened expectations. Perhaps nothing will ever make me say, "Yeah, that's it!"

I'm a bit tired of buying things that are just close to what I want and then eventually growing tired of not having that thing it is lacking. I recently decided that I'm holding out for something that does it for me all the way. No more compromises. My ASAT Classic will do till something blows me away. I'm even selling everything else. Maybe my review of that guitar was tainted by this context. Maybe I was overly critical...

You know they say one man's trash is another man's treasure.. So each of us will have a different view. I'm blessed to have a few really nice guitars and being a TrueFire Artist I have access to a bunch of very high end guitars like Gibson and Fender custom shops, Huber guitars, Buscarino, D'Angelico, TrueFire has a nice collection to say the least. So I'm familiar with well built high end guitars.

When Rich sent my SDC-55 to me I was expecting a "magical" guitar because, well, it's designed by a relative of mine who has a great reputation as a guitar designer. When I opened the box and pulled the guitar out of the gig bag my first thought was "probably great for rock but not a blues guitar" I was a Tele player for yrs and this guitar is very different. I figured maybe if I raise the action it might be ok for blues... I was wrong!!! I had a gig that night and figured I'd play the guitar for the first set and then switch to my tele, I never switched, played the Vox all night long and was amazed at how "magical" the guitar was for me. So here's my detailed review of the Vox SDC-55
I've had the guitar for about 1.5 yrs now and honestly I rarely play anything else, every other guitar just feels like I'm wrestling compared to the 55. The detail in design is amazing (to me), the shape of the tuners are a little strange but when you use them you realize they are the perfect shape for a tuner, it's just something I felt when I tuned, up/down they just feel right. The neck is comfortable and has nice string spacing (for me), the flatter fretboard allows more bending options, 2 strap buttons on the horn give a choice for guitarists of different sizes and shapes, the body contour fits comfortably for me and several friends that have played it say the same thing, the contour on the top is comfortable for the right arm, I never have to look for that comfortable spot, it's everywhere!! The bridge is very comfortable to rest on and unlike any of my other guitars the saddles don't slice up my palm. The controls and switches are pretty easy to get used to as well. Now for tone and electronics, the guitar has great tone to me but you can be the judge if you listen to it on my youtube channel. I will say it is a little bright of a guitar. The pickups are, to me, the secret weapon, 7 is like 10 and from 7 up it's extra crunch. No, the pickups aren't an exact replica but I think each sound is at least reminiscent and even though they aren't exact replicas they do sound awesome. I find the fender single coil setting is probably the closest to the real thing, the p90s seem to brighten up and get a little punchier and the humbuckers are a little darker, all sounds are balanced so the volume doesn't change when you make changes on the fly. As far as the claim of noiseless I would agree, these things are silent! And having so many tonal options is very cool, I tend to think pickups more than guitars when deciding on settings. Probably my most used setting is single coil in the neck and humbucker in the bridge.

As for the Variaxe, don't know if you all know but Rich also designed the Variaxe.

As for contacting Rich, I wouldn't be comfortable giving out his contact info without asking him first but I'll try to remember to mention this thread to him next time I talk to him. I'm guessing you could send email to Vox and ask to have it forwarded to him.

Cool that Rich Lasner is your cousin. No idea he designed teh Variaxe. In case anyone doesn’t know who he is, Rich Lasner has had a huge impact on guitar design in the last 25 years or so.

When he was at Ibanez he designed the Maxxass, the P-series, the S-series, the R-series (which later became the Satriani model). Oh, and the RG series and the Jem and the Universe.

At Yamaha he designed the Weddington and the Pacifica series.

At Modulus he designed the Genesis.

Most recently he spearheaded the reintroduction of Vox into guitar manufacturing with some pretty cutting edge models.

The guy’s no joke.

Rich is a Guitar genius, what he did to guitar design is nothing short of amazing. there are things on each of his designs that should be standard on all guitars.
anyone who has ever seen an 80's Pacifica neck joint will know how Rich thinks outside of the box.

i actually seen a Maxxass in a local store when they first came out and if i had only known..

I remember trying a Maxxass. I knew nothing about guitars back then (or how to play them). I just thought it looked super cool. I remember it being extremely light.