Vox Mando-Guitar 12 String Electric Guitar (1967)
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Item # 6647
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Vox Mando-Guitar Model 12 String Electric Guitar (1967), made in Recanati, Italy, serial # 305327, sunburst polyester finish, mahogany body, maple neck with rosewood fingerboard, original black hard shell case.
One of the quirkier instruments to emerge from the JMI/Vox operation in the 1960's (And that's saying something!) The Mando-Guitar never really caught on in a big way but remains a very cool and actually quite functional oddity. This is essentially an double-strung octave guitar; some describe it as an "octave 12 string guitar" but the strings are actually tuned in unison, not the octave arrangement of a conventional 12-string. The idea was to make an instrument that played in the mandolin range but was tuned as a guitar, as few of the Beat-era guitarists who were JMI's customers had a clue how to play mandolin! A few of the first Mand-Guitars were produced at Jennings' Dartford, Kent factory but the great bulk of extant examples were built by Eko in Recanati, Italy. With its small artist-palette shaped solid body and short 15" scale neck this is a very handy instrument, and with two Vox pickups has a fairly wide range of tones. There have been a number of similar instruments inspired by this design created in more recent decades, but the Vox Mando-guitar remains the original and coolest of all mini-guitar efforts.
Overall length is 28 1/2 in. (72.4 cm.), 10 in. (25.4 cm.) width, and 1 5/8 in. (4.1 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Scale length is 15 1/4 in. (387 mm.). Width of nut is 1 3/4 in. (44 mm.). All original and complete, and quite clean overall; there are a few small dings to the finish and some light checking-almost inevitable on the Eko-made Vox instruments. The only notable finish marring is one spot where a superglue repair to a cracked pickguard corner left a bit of residue behind. A very nice little player, with an awful lot of chime! Excellent - Condition.
One of the quirkier instruments to emerge from the JMI/Vox operation in the 1960's (And that's saying something!) The Mando-Guitar never really caught on in a big way but remains a very cool and actually quite functional oddity. This is essentially an double-strung octave guitar; some describe it as an "octave 12 string guitar" but the strings are actually tuned in unison, not the octave arrangement of a conventional 12-string. The idea was to make an instrument that played in the mandolin range but was tuned as a guitar, as few of the Beat-era guitarists who were JMI's customers had a clue how to play mandolin! A few of the first Mand-Guitars were produced at Jennings' Dartford, Kent factory but the great bulk of extant examples were built by Eko in Recanati, Italy. With its small artist-palette shaped solid body and short 15" scale neck this is a very handy instrument, and with two Vox pickups has a fairly wide range of tones. There have been a number of similar instruments inspired by this design created in more recent decades, but the Vox Mando-guitar remains the original and coolest of all mini-guitar efforts.
Overall length is 28 1/2 in. (72.4 cm.), 10 in. (25.4 cm.) width, and 1 5/8 in. (4.1 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Scale length is 15 1/4 in. (387 mm.). Width of nut is 1 3/4 in. (44 mm.). All original and complete, and quite clean overall; there are a few small dings to the finish and some light checking-almost inevitable on the Eko-made Vox instruments. The only notable finish marring is one spot where a superglue repair to a cracked pickguard corner left a bit of residue behind. A very nice little player, with an awful lot of chime! Excellent - Condition.