OFF: VOX (was: HW: Live 79 (An invitation to a 1 minute hate))

[Doug Pearson]

On Thu, 1 Apr 1999 07:36:35 EDT, "Ted Jackson jr. s2h2"
<tojackso at LIBRARY.SYR.EDU> wrote:

>> From:          andrew <andrew at DELUMINATE.FREESERVE.CO.UK>
>
>> >Sorry to be nit-picky, but ... Vox Phantoms are guitars/basses ...
>>
>Wasn't the Phantom the one that was shaped sort of like a coffin?

Yeah, that's a pretty good description of the shape.  Sort of appropriate,
since they're favored by 60s-style garage bands that frequently travel in
old hearses!

>Didn't Brian Jones or Keef play one back in the days?

Brian Jones played a teardrop Vox from time to time, and there was actually
a Bill Wyman signature bass model, a semi-hollow teardrop shape.  Toody
Cole of Dead Moon (one of the greatest Rock and Roll bands in America!)
plays one.

>Voxes are pretty neat guitars.  Made in Italy weren't they?

I think that most of the guitars were (at least some of them, back in the
day).  It's pretty confusing, since Vox made guitars, amps, and effect
pedals, and the various items were manufactured (sometimes under license by
different companies) in Italy, England and the US.  And the new amplifier
reissues (AC30, etc.) are manufactured by Korg, so those are presumably out
of Japan.

>> As the mighty Homer has been known to say, "D'oh!" Yeah, i was typing
>> Phantom and meaning Jaguar (u-huh, just ask Dr Freud about my big cat/ghost
>> mix-ups).

I've certainly made similar mistakes ...

>> But what i would really like to know is what manner of a geetar
>> is a Starstreamer? On Spacemen 3/solo stuff Sonic Boom is always listed as
>> playing one but i've never seen one of the buggers.

I've never actually seen a Starstreamer "in the flesh", but there's a
blurry picture of Sonic playing his on the first Spectrum album.  It's
another teardrop-shaped Vox (they made numerous models using that body
shape), and I believe that it was part of the 60s trend (several Teisco
guitar models also did this) of including effects built into the instrument
itself.  If that's true, I would bet that the tremelo on Sonic's guitar
(think "Honey" from 'Playing With Fire') is from the built-in effect.  Of
course, the built-in effects thing turned out to be not such a good idea
when musicians would jump around a lot and knock all the wiring out of wack
...

        -Doug
         ceres at sirius.com