Recently I've seen quite a few of these 1960s-era Vox student-model guitars on eBay, and very often they are priced totally unrealistically. This Vox Clubman II, albeit in the more unusual left-handed layout, has a starting price of £200.This is sheer madness. Take it from me as the ex-owner of one of these very guitars, these guitars are barely playable. The bodies are made from a piece of plywood barely an inch thick, the neck is very narrow and doesn't have a proper truss rod, the pickups are weak, the tuners don't work too well...
It's cheaply put together-tat, a 1960s exercise in jumping on the guitar bandwaggon.
The Vox guitars to look out for are the Mark series, the Phantom series, and from the 1980s, the Japanese-built Standard and Custom 24s and 25s and possibly the White Shadow.
There are some nice-looking 60s-era semis too, which might be worth checking out, but beware of the plywood-bodied student models such as the one pictured. It might be "vintage", it might be "rare", but that doesn't mean it's going to be playable.
A more realistic price for a guitar such as the example featured here would be nearer the £50 mark - possibly a little more for a left-handed model.
(I converted my one to fretless, BTW).
Those comments are absolutely right. I had one of these many years ago and it was absolutely dreadful. No truss rod, flat fingerboard, plastic buttons on machines, which fell apart, huge "second string tendency" ( i.e feedback ) from toneless bar pick-ups, the list goes on and on. At the time I was only learning and didn't realise how awful it was until I bought a better guitar. This is only suitable for firewood!
ReplyDeleteCompletely agree - utter shite apart from the pick-ups. The Clubman was Gary Moore's first guitar and I remember him saying the only reason he played so well was because of the sheer hell of learning on his Clubman. The 'collectors' prices on these are amazingly stupid - do a comparison with a bag of firewood - if the firewood is cheaper go with that instead!
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