Vox Spitfire

Mid to late '60s Vox Spitfire solid body. Made in Italy as the later ones were. Body shape and pickguard style is very reminiscent of a Fender Jazzmaster as I'm sure they were trying to horn in on. Now it looks like one of those Cobain type guitars. Difference between the Jazz and the Spit is three single coil pickups arranged Strat style, two tone and one volume control, and a three way pickup selector mounted on the upper right horn. Adjustable bridge with large roller saddles and a kind of Bigsby style tailpiece vibrato system. Inferior to a true Bigsby, though. The trem arm is missing as is some sort of mute bar I guess they came with. I had a Vox semi-hollow with an intact vibrato and it did not stay in tune at all with even slight pitch changes. It could be fixed with the right setup and improvements.

Oh yeah, 24.75 scale length with a laquered maple neck, rosewood fretboard, vintage frets with zero fret, and six-in-line tuners. I'm not sure what the body is made of. The previous owner stripped the finish, sanded it rough and left it at that. Someone's going to go "Oh Yeah, that's my old gee-tar". Multi-piece body of unknown wood. Rather dark. Actually kind of cool in a slightly cheesy garage surf-punk way. Came with a really cool original teardrop hard case which will accomodate a Strat. Awesome.

Sound was rather dismal as received. Dead strings, needed cleaned and some basic but minor setup. Pickups were adjusted too low. They are very low output. Same pickups as on my Bobcat and I wan't too impressed with them. The Italian manufacturer (Eko?) apparently used the same hardware on different models. Two things brought this guitar's sound to life. New strings (of course) and adjusting those pickups as high as they'll go. Now, I know what you're thinking, but these pickups are so low powered that you don't get the dreaded "Strat-itis" where the pickups are pulling the strings out of tune. What you get is a very sweet, clear, underwound sound like a good vintage lipstick pickup. Very nice neck and middle sounds. The bridge is a bit brittle by comparison but usuable for surf. Hey, you can only raise the height so much! Body is nice and resonant even with the light guage strings I've got on her now. This thing will get that sweet syrupy SRV thing going for "Tin Pan Alley" sounds. The key is maxing out those pickups. Another cool thing is the three way selector. It's like the old-time Strats in that you can move the selector between the three indents to get "that" sound. Some of you know what I mean. Not the same as a five-way selector.

While the finish is non-existant except for the neck, the overall fit is good. It really looks like a beat up old player. The neck is solid but the truss rod adjustment is stubborn. The neck is nearly dead straight and I need a little more relief. Could use a refret but I might get by with a dress. Works best right now with light strings and a light right hand touch. This is weird, the volume and tone pots turn backwards from normal. How about that? I don't think the vibrato is worth messing with. Better to keep it as a hard tail. The tuners are OK only. They hold but are stiff. Not bad for vintage cheapo. A refret, better roller bridge, and modern repo tuners would do wonders for this old gal.

My guess is this thing has withstood lots of live playing. I'm not sure you could kill it. It's got to be going on 40 years and it does not look babied. Light but solid. The pickguard has shrunk a bit over the years as they tend to do.

Yeah, right.

I bought this guitar over the net since I dig old, different looking axes. It wasn't too much and it had a Strat meets Jazzmaster look to it. Cheap for a vintage guitar and it's not junk. I figured if I didn't like it I'd have no trouble selling it. Now that I cleaned it up and set those pickups right it's starting to grow on me. Cool old player for a sweet to slightly grinding low-fi sound. I may just keep it after all. Oh, for those who curse about stringing up those Bigsby style tailpieces. The trick is to take a little piece of duct tape. Put the ball end of the string on the tailpiece post then secure it with the tape. It will hold the ball end in place so you can use both hands to string up the tuner.

A late sixties Guitar Exact year unknown since the second owner has had it in a closet stored since 1971. I inherited this guitar and cleaned it up strung it and started playing it to save hours on my prs. This is all original with three single coils two tone knobs and a volume. a three way switch. Its a tobacco burst i would say. Laminate I believe since a small chunk popped out. which is the only flaw on this guitars appearence. It has the Vox classic tremblo and muffle bar. Hard shell case and Vox polish rag. The tuning pegs are stiff but hold a good tune. Neck is strieght and has a good action for this old of a guitar. Doesn't hold a candle to my prs though.

being single coils it doesn't really give the sound I like but it does a good job as far as volume and sound adjustability. I play it through a Fender hot rod deluxe and it really goes good with the tube amp. Sound is bright but definately sounds better clean than in any distortion mode. Then it's better in a blues type distortion than rock. It really lacks there. So its good for practice but since I'm a rock fan it would never do playing out.

I had to string and set the guitars action since it was stored with everything off it. I has a real good action. Plays light with the ernie ball tens I put on it. Neck is streight and true. the volume and pick up selector switch has noisey spots but I hope cleaning them will solve most of that. Handling and playing on this guitar all in all is a real treat. Plays better than alot of old guitars of similar quality.

Being of a laminate nature the finish will take a lot of abuse. Vox made a pretty heavy duty guitar and after all these years if the neck hasn't warped at all I don't expect it to. Everything on this guitar appears solid and woould make a great beat it up guitar if it weren't for the fact that I want to keep it as nice as it is. I would take it out on teh road before I would my prs.

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All in all this is a very playable and fun guitar. I'm very happy I recieved it. Makes a great addition to my equipment and lets my prs custom 24 get less play. When I don't feel like a regular amp I will plug it into my boss me 30 and use it instead of my martin D35 sometimes. If anyone out there has a chance to pick up a old Vox you can't go wrong. For most brands the price is right for what you get. Excluding the old phantoms or mark series. My uncle has a mark 9 and its valued at a nice new guitar price.

My parents bought the guitar for me new in 1969. Made in Italy, this Strat-style solid body has 24 frets set in a rosewood fingerboard on a very slick and smooth maple neck. The guitar has two tone knobs and a volume knob along with a three-way pick-up switch. Three Vox passive pick-ups are arranged Strat-style. The finish is a solid gel-coat like coating of dark red. A Bigsby-style vibro-bar came with this guitar and, against the advise of more than one person, I elected to keep it hooked up. Tuners are standard non-locking Vox. They are stiff, but I have little problem with keeping the thing in tune, even after 31 years. The guitar came with a Vox hard-shell case, cleaning cloth, neck adjustment wrenches, a small snap lock pouch for the tools and picks. Overall, for a first guitar it had more features than I knew what to do with.

I've always found the Spitfire met my needs just fine. For the most part those needs were simply self enjoyment. Never really got a band together for more than a few gigs, but the Spit was always up to the task. Worked fine for everything from high school dance band to the 60s cover stuff we are doing now. For 31 years I ran the guitar through the Fender Vibro-Champ amp that was purchased with the guitar, but just this year regretfully traded that for a new Peavey Delta Blues 210 (great amp). The switch really only improved the sound of the guitar. I'm sure amps have a lot to do with overall sound, but honestly I believe the Spit is in most areas equal to the sound of our rhthym player's new Strat but with maybe a bit less twang and a bit more mid-range fullness. Again, amp probably is a factor, but I can get a very broad range of sound. My only dislike on sound is that I have a number of bandly worn frets so in some places I get fret buzz. Oddly enough, it gives it a bit of sitar flavor when I do lead to "Norwegian Wood."

I'm sure fit and finish are probably not up to Strat or Ric standards, but then neither was the price. The only finish problems came from 31 years of use. I would say the action is fairly quick and low. Used to use very light gauge strings, but currently use Pyramids which are a little higher effort, but produce great 60s sounds. The pick-up selector switch is loose (missing screw) and the volume control is pretty much all or nothing, not much range. These are my only complaints. Even the chrome on the vibro and bridge are still first rate, no flakes, hazing, or pitting!! Not bad!!

I have played live with this under a variety of temperature conditions. I've never had the luxury of a back-up, so this baby has taken all the abuse I could give over 31 years and she still takes it. We practice once per week for 2-3 hours. Plus I usually play alone at least two or three times a week for 30 to 60 minutes. I would not hesitate to gig with her tomorrow. I am looking for a new primary guitar and once that is home the Spit will probably become my back-up - that's the faith I have in it.

Don't know as I've never had a problem in all these years. Since Vox long ago quick making these my guess would be that dealer service could be a problem now.

I've been playing guitar since 1966. If something happened to this guitar I doubt I could find another just like it. Since it was my first electric guitar, a gift from my parents, and such a faithful friend for so long, there's really no way it could be replaced. One thing I really like about this guitar over, say a Strat, (other than tone) is the pick-up switch is located out on the bottom cutaway horn and not right below your strumming hand. I've never had a problem accidently switching off the pick-up I way. Strat guys can't say that. I love the feel of the neck too. Frets are cramped at the high end, but the neck is just so smooth and quick. I'm sure it needs a really good overhaul by an expert, and one day soon I hope to give her that as she's probably earned it.

My dad bought this guitar used in the late sixties when he was still in highschool. Made in Italy. 22 frets, though it gets REALLY cramped up there. Solid Body. 5 selector swich (gotten really stiff lately). Tone for the neck and middle Pickups. One master volume. 3 passive single coils, Vox pickups I assume. There sqaured off on the edges instead of rounded of like most standard PUs now-a-days. Wierd huh? Three color sunburst. Kind of like an early fenderish shape. Kind of like a Jagaur or Mustang. I couldn't tell you the type of bridge it has. Very "vintage" looking. Used to have a wammy bar until my dad took it off for some reason... (grr!) It was a very old fasioned style wammy bar. Horrible Vox tuners, stiff as hell. Very shallow frets. Its got a good neck though, unless ofcourse you hate small frets. Got it with a hard shell case.

I play rock, grunge, metal, and blues. The pickups are very weak, which means you gotta turn the gain up a few notches higher. The guitar sounds fine until you turn up the fuzz. The distortion isn't smooth or solid. Its kind of broken up and rough, but not in a good way. Plus it feeds back like hell. It works fine for blues, especaily though a cool "vintage" sounding tube amp. Its Mustange like shape makes it perfect for the grunge thing. So I use this guitar when I WANT to sound cheap and broken up and rough! Yeah!

20 years and still tickin'!

Vox discontinued there guitar line long ago.

This is the coolest guitar I will ever own in my entire life! Ok, so it sounds god awful and has basically no practical use at all, but it just looks too cool! I'll never sell it! If I stop playing it I'll hang it on my wall. If you see one in a pawn shop and like offbeat, beat up guitars then get it!