Saturday, 1 March 2014

Vox-inspired guitars from 1960s Japan

guitarz.blogspot.com:
Here's a 1960s Japanese copy of a Vox Teardrop style guitar that I've not seen before. It's not that accurate a copy having quite a few features that are a distinct departure from the original. Most notably, the body has a German carve to the top and a triple-bound body.

Don't be fooled by the Vox name on the headstock, which has almost certainly been added at a later date by someone owning this guitar. The eBay seller claims (quite predictably) that the guitar may be a Teisco. It's not a model that I have seen before, but it is plausible.

Below we see a 1960s guitar that is definitely a Teisco-made Vox copy. The Teisco EV-2T is based (loosely) on the Vox Phantom. As with the Teardrop guitar, the resemblance is quite superficial.

The necks of the two guitars are very similar. Note the multi-laminate construction, the shape of the headstock, and the position of the bolts for the string retainer. Here is the Teisco EV-2T (Phantom):

And here is the Teardrop:

If anyone out there has any further information on these guitars - particularly the Teardrop - then please leave a comment below.

The Teardrop is currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of US $649.99, and the Teisco EV-2T (Phantom) is similarly listed at US $539.96.

G L Wilson 

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4 comments:

  1. I have a teisco with a lot of identical hardware to the teardrop, which at best tells us that the guitar was built around '66 in Japan (but we probably already guessed that, right?).

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  2. I had an EV-2T, possibly the worst guitar I ever owned. The tear drop looks like it has over all better components, it might be a pretty good ride…

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  3. Really nothing to complain about the "teardrop". It seems even better than the original Vox; binding everywhere, nice mahogany body, very tightly assembled,average sixties japanese pickups (so you can guess how it sounds, simple electronics (so you can fix it easily if it's over used). The other one smells crap but maybe I'm wrong...

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  4. I think this guitar may be a Vox by Eko manufactured by Teisco, or similar. Probably as you know, several 1960s Vox/Eko models (such as Mando Guitar) were made after Teisco models (such as Teisco MayQueen), and also vice versa (Phantom copied by Kawai/Teisco). And, several Japanese Vox/Eko models are known with simple logo seen on the first photo.

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