1960 Vox Duotone

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1960 Vox Duotone

Postby dave robinson » Thu Jul 20, 2017 5:39 pm

For the last ten years or so I have been on the lookout for a 1962 Vox Duotone the same as mum and dad bought for me on my 15th birthday. There are several different versions of the Duotone and I have seen some of those, but never the one that I had - until last week. It was on ebay and the price was acceptable so I bid on it and won.
This is where it gets interesting as my one was bought new in 1962, but this one was bought new in January 1960. It's red, very close to the iconic Shads red that we all love, although battered and distressed through natural process, which I don't mind. It also has the original strings still on there, flatwound heavy ones ! I asked the owner to verify this as he mentioned it in the advert and he said that he had never changed them in 57 years. The pickgaurd is cracked at the tone control, which is exactly what happened to my one back then, the stuff they used to make them was rubbish as far as durability was concerned. The jack socket was unusual too, a three pin affair, similar to a male XLR, but the pins slightly in different positions. My one had a 1/4" jack socket in 1962 so this was a new experience for me. I immediately changed it for a jack socket so that I could play it through my amp and when I did I was amazed how good, if not slightly quieter than the Strat it sounded. The strings that I expected to be awful stayed in tune and the intonation is fine, which I find unbelievable. At the ball end of the strings there is black winding which I remember seeing before back then.
Anyway my dilemma is whether to re-string to try it out on stage, or just leave well alone and hang it up as a piece of interest instead. There was never a truss rod in these, just two steel bars that are unadjustable, so the neck is slightly bowed, but not enough to stop in from playing OK.
Back in the day my friend who played rhythm guitar bought the Vox Ace, identical to mine but with a trem which was about 5gns more than mine. We couldn't afford that for mine so as lead guitar, I had no trem but our rhythm guitarist did.
My Duotone back then was 28gns but the guy I bought this from paid 25gns two and a half years previously.
I checked what that is in todays money and it's around £630, no mean sum.
I hope someone finds interest in this, even if it's only the strings, I find it amazing that they still exist in tact. :)
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Re: 1960 Vox Duotone

Postby kipper » Thu Jul 20, 2017 10:31 pm

the whole thing is an intresting story dave. and £630.00 as you say no mean sum. what would a set strings have cost back then. peter
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Re: 1960 Vox Duotone

Postby dave robinson » Fri Jul 21, 2017 1:02 am

I can't remember the price of strings back then Peter, though I do have a Vox/Jennings catalogue from the sixties and I think that strings are listed so I'll dig it out and tell you. I think that these will be Vox branded strings on this guitar, although we all bought Monopole back then.
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Re: 1960 Vox Duotone

Postby JimN » Fri Jul 21, 2017 1:11 am

Have you got a picture to post, Dave?

I certainly remember the Duotone you mean from a few years into the sixties. The range of the cheapest Vox guitars (with woodwork sourced from outside the Dartford factory) basically ran like this:

(a) Stroller - one pickup near the bridge, wooden bridge, small bar tailpiece, beech neck with flat, non-cambered, fretboard, small vaguely Strat-style body and headstock (cheap tuners fitted)

(b) Duotone - same as the Stroller but with two pickups and extra controls

(c) Shadow (at one time known as the Dominator) - body and neck as above, but still two pickups and a fixed tremolo instead of the bridge/tailpiece arrangement

(d) Dominator (as Shadow bit with three pickups).

The trouble is that as you say, the names of these models were switched about and transferred to different spec guitars and even - just to make it more interesting - to each other. It's almost as though Jennings were having a laugh at the expense of guitar archaeologists 55 years in the future.

But... and it's a big but... in January 1960, the Stroller and Duotone (there was, as yet, no Shadow, for good reason) had small single-cut bodies (reminiscent of the Guyatone/Antoria guitars) and a two-sided headstock. Definitely no Fender cpyists.

The restyling to Stratocaster "looks" came about only after The Shadows started to have hits with guitar instrumentals and became such an object of emulation, whilst Fender Strats were the equivalent of about £3,750 in today's prices.

So... the photo is all-important. If you like, I can enquire of the world's greatest authority on Vox guitars...
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Re: 1960 Vox Duotone

Postby JimTidmarsh » Fri Jul 21, 2017 9:15 am

I remember my mate in my schoolboy band had a red Vox guitar in about 1962/3, although I'm not sure of the model.

One thing I do remember, though, is that it didn't have a jack plug (as you mention, Dave) but a connection that resembled more of a TV aerial plug.

It didn't play particularly well, the action being far higher & more uncomfortable than my 'inferior' Top Twenty, which I still have.
That also cost my parents 29 guineas in 1962!!!
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Re: 1960 Vox Duotone

Postby Iain Purdon » Fri Jul 21, 2017 1:07 pm

dave robinson wrote:my dilemma is whether to re-string to try it out on stage, or just leave well alone and hang it up as a piece of interest instead


How fascinating. My tuppeny worth would be this.

If the strings are of as much interest as the instrument, I'd be inclined to take it on stage in its present form as a second guitar. At a suitable point in the show, switch to it and try it out on a crowd pleaser. You could always tell your audience the story of it after you've used it.

If it's not a runner, hang it up in your personal museum.
If it goes well, restring it but keep the old ones and try it again.

Anyway, great story!
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Re: 1960 Vox Duotone

Postby dave robinson » Fri Jul 21, 2017 1:52 pm

Sorry about the size of the picture, I don't know how to get it smaller - I'll look into doing that. :)
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Re: 1960 Vox Duotone

Postby dave robinson » Fri Jul 21, 2017 2:50 pm

JimN wrote:Have you got a picture to post, Dave?

I certainly remember the Duotone you mean from a few years into the sixties. The range of the cheapest Vox guitars (with woodwork sourced from outside the Dartford factory) basically ran like this:

(a) Stroller - one pickup near the bridge, wooden bridge, small bar tailpiece, beech neck with flat, non-cambered, fretboard, small vaguely Strat-style body and headstock (cheap tuners fitted)

(b) Duotone - same as the Stroller but with two pickups and extra controls

(c) Shadow (at one time known as the Dominator) - body and neck as above, but still two pickups and a fixed tremolo instead of the bridge/tailpiece arrangement

(d) Dominator (as Shadow bit with three pickups).


The trouble is that as you say, the names of these models were switched about and transferred to different spec guitars and even - just to make it more interesting - to each other. It's almost as though Jennings were having a laugh at the expense of guitar archaeologists 55 years in the future.

But... and it's a big but... in January 1960, the Stroller and Duotone (there was, as yet, no Shadow, for good reason) had small single-cut bodies (reminiscent of the Guyatone/Antoria guitars) and a two-sided headstock. Definitely no Fender cpyists.

The restyling to Stratocaster "looks" came about only after The Shadows started to have hits with guitar instrumentals and became such an object of emulation, whilst Fender Strats were the equivalent of about £3,750 in today's prices.

So... the photo is all-important. If you like, I can enquire of the world's greatest authority on Vox guitars...




Hi Jim, this is none of the above, I wouldn't have wanted one of those at my age as they looked awful to a young lad who had just seen The Shadows on Crackerjack. I chose this one because of the beautiful shape and it's resemblence to the Stratocaster in my eyes. I had also been visiting local music shops for a year or two before this was bought for me and I did manage to play this same model in sunburst which was amazing compared to my acoustic Egmond. I didn't realise until now that this model hit the stores in 1960, but the chap I bought it from says it was in January of that year when he bought it.
He may be mistaken of course, but one thing is certain, his was an older one than mine because of the strange connection, as well as the old 'Stroller' knobs, similar to the Hofner 'teacup' style knobs on the McCartney bass. The knobs on my own Duotone were smaller white plastic ones with fluting from top to bottom. I have investigated the vintage guitar pages and found these and I figure that Vox changed the jack socket to what we now recognise and fitted smaller white tone and volume knobs. I do have some Hofner 'teacup' knobs but they are quite different when placed side by side with the similar Vox knobs. As always I'm interested in any facts that you may stumble upon, you are of course right there are quite a few different shapes of Duotone. Mine is in the Vox catalogue named 'Instruments of the stars' or something like that. There are also pictures of the 'Soloist' with single pickup, 'Ace' with tremolo arm and twin pickups and 'Super Ace' with tremolo arm and three pickups, all with the same body shape and long headstock of my Duotone. That format never happened again as each developed their own shape. Interesting stuff, happy days. :)
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Re: 1960 Vox Duotone

Postby dave robinson » Fri Jul 21, 2017 3:10 pm

This is the socket that I had to swap for a 1/4" jack before I could plug it in to play.
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Re: 1960 Vox Duotone

Postby cockroach » Fri Jul 21, 2017 5:21 pm

Interesting stuff!

I had a red Vox solid with one pickup in the late '60's/early '70's- only used it at home as it wasn't stable enough tuning wise etc to use for gigs...

Very cheaply made but so were a lot of cheap late '50's/mid '60's guitars...better than nothing back then!

Regarding the Vox output jack, I recall that some German made electric guitars also had odd multi pin sockets to fit what I seem to remember were called DIN plugs..?
And some had the mini phone jack plugs and inputs- often because the cheap guitar bodies were not deep enough to fit standard phone jacks and sockets. Bloody nuisance- you needed different leads to fit different guitars!

Looking at Dave's Vox, the bridge is like a Telecaster but seems to be what they call 'top loading' nowadays i.e. the strings don't go through the body to the back..also the pickups look a bit like Tele neck pickups with the plain chrome metal covers...albeit engraved as Vox..

It occurs to me that so many guitar parts are very standardised these days- guitars used to have all these different hardware parts individual to each maker- tuners, bridges, tailpieces, vibrato units, pickups, knobs and switches etc..

I'd think carefully before using it on stage Dave...nostalgia ain't what it used to be!! :)
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