One of the most unique makes of electric guitar you will ever see and always remember from being used by pop groups such as The Beatles or Rolling Stones, is the electric guitars made by a company called Vox.
Vox has a long history in the making of musical equipment including amps, guitars, organs and even accordions - but the guitars and amplifiers really stick out among the crowd and will carry on to be very desirable even now. The amps were used to propel artists and groups such as The Shadows and The Animals to the heights in the pop charts in the 1950s and 60's. The 1st two Vox guitars named as The Stroller and the Clubman were both produced in 1961 and were copies on the standard guitars that were on sale at the time. Although this was the 1st outing for Vox into the electric guitar making business, they decided to play safe.
In 1962 after making the decision not to copy electric such as Gibson or Fender, the Vox design team hired the talents of EKO, the Italian electric guitar maker and designer to help them design something unique and special. The team produced the Vox Phantom which featured a totally unique trapezoid shaped body. The Phantom went on to become a very popular model of guitar for Vox, being played by the Rolling Stones and bands like The Hollies. Due to the amazing success of the Vox guitar range, it was expanded to include Bass models and 12 string models of the their very popular Phantom range. The 12 string Phantom model Phantom is probably the best 12 string electric guitars ever manufactured - even up to today. Vox also released signature models such as the Bill Wyman Bass, played by the Rolling Stones guitarist and produced other unique designs such as the mandolin inspired Vox Mando.
In 1963, the Vox Phantom MK3 electric guitar was created which ended up being a totally different shape to the predecessor. The unique format and design was known as The Teardrop Guitar due to its unique design and shape. The Teardrop shape and due to the fact that it was used and made popular by musicians such as Brian Jones and Bill Wyman from the Rolling Stones pushed the Vox Phantom MK3 into the history books.
Due to heavily investing money in their world class AC Vox amp models, the Vox company stopped production of guitars in the late 60's which did not resume until 1982. Once they had restarted making electric guitars once more, Vox released the Vox Standard and Custom guitars which were perhaps the best guitars they had produced. Just three years later the Vox Custom and Standard guitars were re-branded and remade by a Korean manufacturer under the name of White Shadow. Vox continues to still be one of the classic electric guitar makers of the 20th century and has its name is in the history books as helping lay the foundations for the rock guitar genre with its range of "AC" amplifiers, Phantom MK3 guitars and innovative and unique designs.
