Vox Mando-Guitar 12 String Electric Guitar (1966)
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Vox Mando-Guitar Model 12 String Electric Guitar (1966), made in Recanati, Italy, serial # 305784, 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 quite functional oddity. A fairly small number of the first Mando-Guitars were produced at Jennings' Dartford, Kent factory but the great bulk of extant examples (like this one) were built for Vox by Eko in Recanati, Italy.
The Mando-Guitar is an double-strung octave guitar; originally the strings were intended to be tuned in unison, not the octave arrangement of a conventional 12-string. After production moved to Italy that idea seems to have been lost and they sometimes appear originally set up with a conventional 12-string nut, strung with 3 octave and 3 unison courses. This one appears to have had the nut recut for that configuration long ago, so that is how it is set up. The original idea had been for 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!
Rolling Stone Brian Jones was given one of the first samples, supposedly one went to the Beatles as well. With its small artist-palette shaped solid body and short 15" scale neck this is a very handy instrument, and with two clear sounding Vox pickups has a fairly wide range of tones. The 3-way switch is paired with master tone and volume controls, the adjustable bridge is hidden under a Vox-logo chrome cover.
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-12 string guitar efforts. Prominent use by Ry Cooder and David Lindley (among others) has resulted in a continued interest in the design and likely inspired the re-creations; we are always happy to get a nice original in stock and this is the cleanest one we have ever had.
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.).
This instrument remains all original, complete and VERY clean overall. There are some small scuffs and bumps to the finish but NONE of the typical checking which is usually almost inevitable on the Eko-made Vox instruments. The fret ends are cut through the binding, but it is are original; for some reason that's how these were made at Eko. This is truly superb example of this eccentric creation and a very nice little player, with an awful lot of chime in its octave-strung setup. It includes a very clean suitcase-like Vox OHSC. Overall 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 quite functional oddity. A fairly small number of the first Mando-Guitars were produced at Jennings' Dartford, Kent factory but the great bulk of extant examples (like this one) were built for Vox by Eko in Recanati, Italy.
The Mando-Guitar is an double-strung octave guitar; originally the strings were intended to be tuned in unison, not the octave arrangement of a conventional 12-string. After production moved to Italy that idea seems to have been lost and they sometimes appear originally set up with a conventional 12-string nut, strung with 3 octave and 3 unison courses. This one appears to have had the nut recut for that configuration long ago, so that is how it is set up. The original idea had been for 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!
Rolling Stone Brian Jones was given one of the first samples, supposedly one went to the Beatles as well. With its small artist-palette shaped solid body and short 15" scale neck this is a very handy instrument, and with two clear sounding Vox pickups has a fairly wide range of tones. The 3-way switch is paired with master tone and volume controls, the adjustable bridge is hidden under a Vox-logo chrome cover.
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-12 string guitar efforts. Prominent use by Ry Cooder and David Lindley (among others) has resulted in a continued interest in the design and likely inspired the re-creations; we are always happy to get a nice original in stock and this is the cleanest one we have ever had.
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.).
This instrument remains all original, complete and VERY clean overall. There are some small scuffs and bumps to the finish but NONE of the typical checking which is usually almost inevitable on the Eko-made Vox instruments. The fret ends are cut through the binding, but it is are original; for some reason that's how these were made at Eko. This is truly superb example of this eccentric creation and a very nice little player, with an awful lot of chime in its octave-strung setup. It includes a very clean suitcase-like Vox OHSC. Overall Excellent + Condition.