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Interesting Take On The Old Vox Phantom
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I have always enjoyed the old Vox body shapes, particularly the Phantom and Teardrop guitars. I happen to own a PGW Phantom and enjoy playing it. I'm really glad to see Anne building one of those Teardrops! (Although I think it might be easier to get the true Brian Jones design from PGW as Jack Charles has really gone to painstaking effort to get the specifications correct. But, I digress.)
So, I found a guitar today, made by a French builder, that presents an interesting take on the Phantom.
Built by Les Guitarres Sabolovic (link)), it is certainly an elegant, dressed up vision of the Phantom. The company also makes some other interesting looking archtops, and jazz bodies.
pretty guitar ,,,,, i am building a teardrop tribute to Brian , and the headstock is going to read Elmo Lewis
That may come in handy if you ever go canoeing...
That's quite beautiful except for the headstock.
I went outrigger canoeing off Maui and the paddle they gave me to use looked just like that. I have to say it was a mighty fine paddle....... I saw The English Beat about 6 months ago and Dave Wakeling played a guitar with that shape, pretty sure it was a Vox. Great tone from that geetar.
I dunno, he figured wood doesn't work for me. I think the cleaner appointments of the originals give a more streamlined, Bauhausian effect. I do quite like the originals (Phantom not teardrop though).
i like the woods, but the gold hardware is too domineering on that small of a body for me. i wonder what the PUs are like?
he's got some lovely archtops there. i like the fact that his body designs are a bit out of the modern norm. i'll bet the 17" guitars have bass all day.
mac, you'd be okay with it if it didn't have the Bigsby, right? Just a gold bridge would be okay on that guitar?
I like it with the exception of the bulbous headstock.
You mean vibrato, right Bob? I don't think it's a Bigsby.
And as long as it's fast as well as bulbous, it's OK with me.
hump ,, what hump ?
The vibrato is a copy of 1960s Japanese vibratos used on the cheapest possible 1960s guitars. I'm not sure it was a good idea to put it on such a high end guitar, but otherwise it looks well built and fancy.
Interesting tone switch and pickup selector.
There's a really nice copy of a Höfner Club with Gretsch style pickups on that site.
All these guitars are really expensive, all of them way out of my price range.
What does the witch hat knob control, tone or volume?
Is one of the chicken head knobs a selector switch or on/off?
As much as I love old Vox guitars or similar (if done well) this one just doesn't trip my trigger. The gaurd covers the whole guitar!
Man are those pricey... nice looking Club on the website but the prices...
Tomasito, I plead mea culpa to my loose and careless reference to the obviously-non-Bigsby vibrato as a "Bigsby." I have to remember that you are now watching me like a hawk. I promise I will strive to be better.
Didn't see the reference, but it is undoubtedly a reference to a neck hump resulting from the use of Pledge. Right, Jeff O(h, Will Old English Cause A Neck Hump?) ?
Love the shapes of those old Vox's. I was a huge Brian Jones fan when I was a kid.
The best Stones music was with Brian
looks like a fish
A very attractive fish.
I love the phantom shape (Ian Curtis) but it's a bit bling for me.
for me, the gold hardware doesn't quite go with the shade of the wood. perhaps if it was plated differently, or it might be the lighting of the photo, but there's something about it that clashes to me.
I've seen pics of Allen Collins with that kinda vibrato on his Firebirds. If you set it up right...
Oh i miss Allen Collins...
I quite like the Phantom, the headstock is shocking though. Loose the hump and have a straight string pull.
Never thought Id say it, but it makes this look good...