Hank Signature Vox Guitars

[Teflon]

I had no idea that Hank ever had his signature on any guitars other than Fender and Burns, but it seems Vox also used his name on occasions - presumably linked to the bands use of the amplifies I imagine.

There's one for sale in the US on Reverb at the moment: https://reverb.com/item/6862836-vox-consort-1964-cherry?fbclid=IwAR1A6VVyRKEFQR07424apnWk2jKhFU7CFGoXTBhYnsVTf6o8TlrrsnIC9jw, but I think I'll stick with my Burns . Anyone here know anything about the Vox guitar connection?

Cliff

[dave robinson]

I remember as a young teenager seeing the Vox adverts for the amplifiers and the obvious connection to The Shadows, they were all over the music press at the time. Then there were adverts showing Cliff & The Shadows with the Vox echo and reverb machines which was an attempt to make you think that they used those but they didn't. I saw a few concerts at that time and only ever saw Vox AC30 amps and Hank's Binson Echorec on stage, they always used the house PA when I visited the Sheffield City Hall or the Gaumont. Then came the pictures of Hank holding the Vox guitar but nobody ever took them seriously and if you knew the guitars and had tried them you would understand immediately.
Vox made good amps and they had great advertising thanks to Cliff & The Shadows and then Brian Epstein's master stroke with The Beatles. If I remember correctly, Bill Wyman, Brian Jones, Tony Hickes and the guitarists in the Dave Clarke Five use Vox guitars quite often at that time. I had a very humble Vox Duotone which did OK until the Strat turned up, but I do remember trying some of the expensive Vox guitars and to me, at best, they were OK.

[George Geddes]

I don't recall any link between Hank and specific Vox guitars, but some instruments were fitted with a 'Hank Marvin' tremolo / vibrato arm. I suspect Hank had little or nothing to do with design.

George

[dave robinson]

Yes George I forgot to mention those, I guess you can't blame Vox for using The Shadows and Hank to help market their gear, though we were savvy enough to know that they didn't really use those things.
I remember he feeling when I first picked up my Stratocaster and how it felt in my hands. It felt like something very special but by comparison those Vox guitars just didn't.
I had a Vox Phantom 12 for a while and it didn't last.
More recently I bought a Vox Spitfire off eBay which reminded me of my Duotone, but when I found the exact Duotone I sold that too. The Spitfire wasn't a bad guitar though and would have been around £60 back in it's day. I remember the tremolo was particularly decent.

[drakula63]

I'm sure that Hank and the lads can be seen holding red Vox guitars very briefly at the start of Wonderful Life... probably because they didn't want their Fenders anywhere near exploding amps! Maybe that was just enough for Vox to claim/imply that Hank used one.

[JimN]

Early music press ads for JMI implied that the newly-emergent Shadows used their guitars, but until the end of 1963 (including the filming of "Wonderful Life"), Jennings at least had a reasonable claim to be supplying all of the Shadows' well-known electric guitar gear, obviously including the amplifiers, but also the first Vox echo (a re-badged Meazzi) and (importantly) the electric guitars, in the form of the Stratocaster, Telecaster, Jazzmaster, Precision Bass and (briefly) the Jazz Bass.

JMI had the obvious capacity to lend / give the group various accessories such as guitar leads, capos, plectra, strings, straps, etc. Although links have been established with various stringmakers over the years (notably Gibson Sonomatics during the Burns years), the truth is that this was an ever-changing business relationship and the Shads used whichever reasonable quality strings their management could get for them free of charge. This may well include what are now known as Rotosound strings but which were then also sold branded as Vox and Burns strings. Eventually, Rotosound sold a flatwound bass set with the designation "Jet Bass", though this probably originated as a Vox set.

The Gibson acoustics and the two Gretsch guitars were private purchases, of course, with the sales being made during either late 1959 or (more likely) early 1960.

[anniv 63]

Can anyone confirm the exact model of Vox Guitar that Jet Harris was using with the
Innocents in January 1964 (seen in pictures of a rehearsal session with Billy Kuy etc.)
Also would it be a Baritone Model or just like a detuned Jaguar?
If you look at You Tube , there is a clip of a Tommy Quickly recording session
at Pye studios late 1964( You might as well forget him 45)
Joe Moretti can clearly be seen in the Session Crew with a similar Vox which
he may also have used in his Tony Meehan Combo time
The mystery deepens!!!!!

Mike

[JimN]

That was a last-model Consort, complete with the Hank B Marvin tremolo horseshoe tailpiece. Although it had the same pickup and control formulation as a Strat (or Soundcaster), the guitar's body shape and string geometry were more reminiscent of the Jazzmaster. It was a guitar, not a bass.

The Tony Meehan Combo (on TV to promote Song Of Mexico), used two of the same model (that would have included Moretti and probably John McLaughlin). Jennings must have been churning them out as freebies. The Dave Clark five were also outfitted with Vox guitars (Phantom Mk VI and Mk IV Teardrop models) at about the same time.

A similar Vox Consort: https://i.imgur.com/OVylmDD.jpg

[Teflon]

I don't recall any link between Hank and specific Vox guitars, but some instruments were fitted with a 'Hank Marvin' tremolo / vibrato arm. I suspect Hank had little or nothing to do with design.

George

That was a last-model Consort, complete with the Hank B Marvin tremolo horseshoe tailpiece.

So if I understand this right, it's just the tremolo unit that was Hank endorsed, and presumably sold as a separate accessory, so could be fitted to any guitar (within reason).

Cliff