Product: Vox Bulldog
Price Paid: US $500 used
Submitted
12/13/2005
at
05:18pm
by
Patrick Kavanagh
Features
:
2
Vox hired an Italian company to build them some guitars. The bulldog was made in the 60s. Solid, bevelled edge body w/binding. Sunburst finish. Strat scale, but with a narrow neck by strat standards. Unique headstock (3x3), 3 single coils with a 3 way switch. Vol, tone, tone for controls. Tremolo bridge. And a muter.
I never use the muter, but the tremolo bridge works fine.
I give it a 2 here for one reason: why the hell isn't there a 5 way swtich? I know it was made in the 60s, I don't know what was goin on it Italy during that time but I'm pretty sure fender was puttn' out some nice stats with 5 ways during that time...
The best feature is the overall styling. People stop in their tracks when they see it. Its totally unique yet classicly styled.
Sound
:
10
The guitar has a unique single coil sound. Like a strat but not exactly. It has soul, it has a voice, and I play blues so that suits me to a T. It is noisy...its a single coil guitar...and you cant get away from it like you can on a guitar with a five way switch with pos 2 and 4.
It has a bright sound, almost the extent a maple neck strat does. The sound is rich and full though, you can play chords clean and loud and they sound great. IT SOUNDS GOOD W/O AN AMP, WHEN YOUR PLAYING IT UNPLUGGED, which is all you really need to know.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
8
Action: wonderful, close enough to play fast, yet far enough to get a footing to do some bending. But action is personal preference and its adjustable anyhow so what the hell am I typing this for...haha
Fit: this is why I bought the guitar; the neck. Its on a strat scale, which i love, yet its not as wide or as thick as some strats, mainly not as wide. Which works great for my smaller hands.
Finish: Im sure it was wonderful at one time, but mine is dinged up now, which you dont care about. But you should also know that some of the parts of the bridge are rusted, and the pickgaurd has warped/shrunk or something that causes it to not fit properly anymore. So watch out, that could happen to yours
Reliability/Durability
:
8
It will withstand live playing. It stays in tune well if your in standard tuning and you dont use the tremolo. But if you tune a half or whole step lower and use tremolo you'll run into problems. I haven't broken any strings though, and I bend fully and often. And that surprises me because it has a metal nut and metal saddles.
The tremolo part of the bridge uses some type of plastic saddle, and it is fragile, or has become fragile over time. If you buy one, check those out and make sure they are in good shape. I only have half of one on my guitar...its hard to describe, but you'll see what im talking about if you see on of these bad boys.
Oh and one of the strap buttons is on the neck plate, a little weird.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Can you get parts for them? I doubt it. Who would I call?
Overall Rating
:
10
I've been playing for nearly 10 years. My first guitar was a shit peavey. Eventually I bought a clapton strat, it played great but only sounded good - those lace sensors have no soul. So I sold the clapton and replaced everything but the wood on my peavey. Then my peavey sounded great but it was difficult to play. Then I stumbled across this Bulldog. A unique guitar in sound, looks, and play (the neck). My favorite feature is the neck. My least favorite is the 3 way pickup. Watch out for the tremolo saddles if you buy one. I'd would definately get another if this one were stolen.
