Vox Bossman

The only reason I got rid of it was the frets wore out paper thin. Wish I had it now, I would refret it myself with jumbos and put a piezo in the bridge it would be killer. The tuners were the split shaft type, Floating rosewood roller bridge. Skunk stripe thin / wide neck. Sunburst. Back pad with snaps to hide the battery compartment
Very good bigsby type whammy, not as bulky, lightweight. I was luckey to know alot of pros growing up. they were always loaning me great vintage stuff.

This was the first electric I owned. Got it for $50 back in earley 70s . It was a thinline ES 335 type single pickup in neck position. Bolt on neck with active electronics in it. It has an E tuner, Trebble/Bass booster, Distortion built in. Very good bigsly type vibrado Italian made, Not sure it was called a bossman though Always wished it had a second Pickup for the bridge. One single coil wasnt quite enough.

The coolest thing was the neck It was very thin from top to bottom yet fairly wide which made for great chording and fast action. I hate those boat necks they put on some of these now a days. Wide is cool for bending but thick sucks. The electronics were a novelty. The distortion and e tuner were very good. The Trebble bass booster weren't very usefull.

One thing it was well made. Way better than the epiphone dots made now. I did sell it and bought a 60s Epiphone Riveria which was better made at the time. Very thin neck but quality made.

Saw a vox like mine on Ebay a few months ago. I should keep a few hundred aside for finds like that. Woul like to find annother.

no way

Playing 40yrs. Anybody has one Hang onto it. Its a real rarity that will only go up in value. Guitar makers should do more retro reissues, this one would be a goodie.

So actually i did not know the model of this guitar until reading the review previous. I could not find it on the vox website but i may have not been really paying attention, regardless, im throwing my two cents as i've nothing better to do
Made in Italy, 22 frets (plus zero fret)
there is a volume knob, a tone knob, a knob controlling the distortion volume, and a knob controlling the amount of treble boost. there are switches for the above mentioned effects. bridge is roughly a bigsby tremelo in the way that i actually dont know much about bridges but they look similar. one pickup, humbucker, not sure what it is precisely though i think it may be a dimarzio and someone at a guitar shop offered to trade it out for a new one all tricky-like. pickup is located about halfway between bridge and end of neck, very thick translucent black pickguard, clear lacquer transparent finish, rosewood fretboard this is getting to be insanely long i apologise - body shape is pretty much like a fender p-bass really. the neck is thin and the frets are kinda wide, the nut is metal, that is most likely enough ok

I think this guitar sounds great. the clean tones are fairly even, it is not bottom nor top heavy - very warm sound, smooth et cetera.
the distortion circuitry built in sounds really neat too, however, i dont spend enough time / money on batteries so usually i am without it. I dont know, i cant really say enough for it on this, i highly endorse and such. variety of sounds possible i suppose, the tone pot, while the only one really functioning on my guitar, covers a fairly wide range, moreso than my wah pedal

the action on this guitar is fairly low
i will say the following however
i had assumed for the longest time that the electronics were a later modification by an owner as the wiring seemed pretty amateurish. the effects and such however seem congruent with what this other guy was saying so i dont know, it could be a case specific incident, or perhaps a manufacturing flaw. also, as is to be expected with anything most likely 30+ years old, i have had to replace some things, for example the switches for the distortion / treble boost
alot of the wires running to said switches are nearly thread thin so it is a fairly delicate situation, the grounding is a bit goofy as it is just a thicker wire that runs alongside the switches and is soldered to them, comes loose on mine and signal cuts until repaired
it is alot of upkeep but
a) i am no champion at soldering
b) it is most likely worth it regardless

this guitar will definately withstand live playing, i have beaten the hell out of it and thankfully it has stayed in one piece
the hardware well i suppose all the stuff i addressed above i should have most likely addressed here oh hell. yes i can depend on it, yes i have used it many times at a gig without a backup but thenagain i am foolish

yeah im really not sure what to say to this
i do not have the motivation to deal with the company, i am sure at this point there would be no applicable warranty, i have done all repairs myself it has been a learning experience et cetera goodnight

this is definately the best find i have ever had in a guitar shop, i suppose id reccomend this sort of thing if you are looking for an interesting guitar, one that is really easy + comfortable to play
hell i dont know i cannot afford top of the line guitars but id rather
have one like this any day or maybe i dont know what im talking about
fuck it buy a guitar like this if you come across one, it is worthwhile, ok, fantastic

This is a thinline single pickup, sharp cutaway guitar in 3-tone sunburst. It features vol/tone controls, plus E-tuner, distortion boost and bass/treble boost features. The most impressive aspect of this guitar is the ability to set it up as a very fast player, with bolt-on neck, adjustable truss rod and adjustable archtop bridge, plus the neck rivals Fenders in thinness. It is very simple in design, with perfect proportions and teardrop headstock. The 2 downsides to this guitar: This like all Vox guitars from Italy were manufactured by Eko, which had a propensity to overdo the lacquer. Almost all of these guitars suffer with lacquer cracks, usually not through the wood. Also, users must make sure to turn effects off after playing or the 9V battery drains quickly.

Even though pickup is in neck position, you can really get a very twangy sound from this guitar. It is not really a blues player, more of a garage jangler. Treble boost and Distortion support that idea.

Action is absolutely superb as mentioned earlier. These Vox/Eko guitars all suffer from lacquer cracks, so beware. Selector switch for effects sometimes does not connect and will cut guitar out - very rarely however.

The Vox tuners are also superb, this is a non-tremelo model and I have no trouble picking this guitar up and finding it in tune! This guitar features a backpad which has prevented a lot of buckling and keeps the battery access area hidden. Well constructed and used without fear at gigs.

Forget about it.

I think these guitars are great, but bide your time and pick out a decent player, in good condition, it's worth it.