Vox Teardrop - any info?

[Mikey]

Saw this Vox Teardrop on Ebay and am thinking of making an offer ...and deciding which guitars to sacrifice to pay for it! It seems "too new" looking for a guitar of that period but who knows? Maybe a collector had it rather than a player.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12-String-Vox ... 3f5058adbe

I know Teardrops and Phantoms have a chequered history and have been produced in various places by various makers but I had a hard job pinning this one down to a source or a year of manufacture. The only reference I could find was one when Bonham's auctioned one owned by Bowie and that was circa 1968/69 and was when Dallas-Arbiter were producing them. The absence of a serial number would suggest this too. The sum it went for was a ridiculous £13,750!! Here's a pic of the Bowie one:

vox.jpg

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What I'm asking is can anyone add any further info to what little I've managed to glean and do you thing it's a fair asking price (I would of course make a lower offer)!
All contributions (including cash) gratefully received.

[JimN]

Dallas-Arbiter never produced Vox guitars, but they DID buy up a lot of finished guitars when VSL went bankrupt.

The spares and cheaper components were mainly sold through bramches of Radiospares and similar shops (I remember Super Radio in Whitechapel, Liverpool, selling off the cheaper model scratchplates, ready built with the metal-covered "single pole" pickups).

In early 1970, Sound City (Dallas-Arbiter's main London retail shop) started to sell off a lot of the better, UK-built Vox guitars (models like the Soundcaster, Consort, Symphonic Bass and the Phantom guitars) as Dallas-branded instruments. They tended to charge about £35 - £40 for guitars which had been priced at between £80 and £90 in their heyday. It was in that year (1970) that I asked the then-manager of the shop (Doug Ellis) about the few Vox guitars which had been delivered but hadn't yet been put on sale. He told me about the "Dallas" intentions.

Dallas-Arbiter also bought up a load of components and cabinets intended for the AC15 (a model which had not been produced since about 1966) and made them up as Dallas amplifiers. John Farrar used to use two of them on stage with Marvin and Farrar.

Later on, in 1971/1972, the West End was alive with bankrupt stock, from both Baldwin-Burns and then again, in a new wave of components from Jennings/VSL. Some of the components were made up into viable instruments, and I remember Modern Sound (Dallas-Arbiter's other guitar shop in the West End) having in stock a load of Vox Phantoms. One of them was a Phantom Mk XII like the one in the photo: and in that same red - for £19. I bought it and kept it for a few years. I had Emile Grimshaw fit it with a new nut, and he also suggested a chrome stay-bar behind the nut. but I declined that suggestion.

The at 12 string Vox that I bought was a UK-made guitar. At least, the components were made, and assembled, in the UK, which is the same thing.

[dusty fretz]

Like Jim, I bought one of the 'bitsa' Vox models from Modern Sound in the early 70s, mine being a red Phantom XII. This lacked the Vox logo, but worked well and certainly looked the part. although the neck was actually a leftie, as confirmed by the angle of the headstock top. In terms of components, it was indeed an all-UK example, unlike the one being offered on eBay, which employs an Italian, Eko-made neck. To me the whole instrument looks very much like something put together by Roberto Brandoni in Wembley, who has assembled numerous 'new' Voxes from the copious stocks of leftover Eko parts he acquired many years ago.

[Uncle Fiesta]

Bristol Musical had a whole load of VOX bits for sale in, I believe, 1968. My brother and I bought enough to assembled one guitar, looked a bit like a twin-pickup Strat with a tremolo. I sold it to another music shop in Bristol in 1980.

In 1998, Korg (the owners of VOX) produced reissues of the Vox Teardrop and Phantom. The Teardrop was now called the Mark III, and the Phantom the Mark V. They were made in the US and I'm not sure 12-strings were included. I do remember though, that they were quite expensive (£899 I believe) so they never sold that well. I thought it would have been better to go the way Burns had with the Marquee; produce something that captured the spirit of the original, at an affordable price.

[Mikey]

To me the whole instrument looks very much like something put together by Roberto Brandoni in Wembley, who has assembled numerous 'new' Voxes from the copious stocks of leftover Eko parts he acquired many years ago.

The more I look at it the more I agree that it's most likely a Brandoni and that's probably not a bad thing but too many unknowns about the whole thing so I've decided to pass on this one. However, still gassing for a teardrop I found 3 examples of the Hutchins Brian Jones Signature model commissioned by the fan club some years ago. I had a Hutchins Phantom style a while back and it was a pretty decent guitar. Out of the 3 up for sale, one is on Ebay at a way over the top £799 whilst the other two on other sites are less than half that. So, I did a deal with a guy for number 105 of the 250 that were made.

20043549-800-160x92.jpg (11.23 KiB) Viewed 6086 times

He said he had owned an original Vox version back in the day and it was cr*p. He reckoned the Hutchins was far better. Like most modern guitars compared to their 60s counterparts I guess. It has Entwhistle single coil pickups which get good reviews. Apparently, this particular one was previously owned by The British Beach Boys which is odd because the BBs never used Vox. Anyway, it's on it's way to me so I'll let you know what it's like. The new Vox Mk III guitars were a possibility too and are plentiful but that's probably why I've gone for something else. All I need to do now is comply with SHMBO's rule of "one in, one out" and decide which of my other guitars to sell