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 # 306987, sunburst polyester finish, mahogany body, maple neck with rosewood fingerboard, black gig bag 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; the strings were originally designed to be tuned in unison, not the octave arrangement of a conventional 12-string. The idea was 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 any clue how to play mandolin! After production moved to Italy that idea seems to have been obscured and some of these now surface originally set up with a conventional 12-string nut, strung with 3 octave and 3 unison courses. This example is factory set up in the original pattern, with double (not octave) stringing on the bottom courses.
Rolling Stone Brian Jones was given one of the first samples, and 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 example in stock.
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 nicely original, complete and relatively clean overall. There are some small dings, scratches and scuffs to the finish but hardly any of the typical checking almost inevitable on the Eko-made instruments. The pickguard has shrunken up less than many with no cracked corners but the Vox logo is somewhat rubbed away. 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 very nice little player, with an awful lot of chime in its octave-strung setup. The original case is missing but it includes a recent gig bag. 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; the strings were originally designed to be tuned in unison, not the octave arrangement of a conventional 12-string. The idea was 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 any clue how to play mandolin! After production moved to Italy that idea seems to have been obscured and some of these now surface originally set up with a conventional 12-string nut, strung with 3 octave and 3 unison courses. This example is factory set up in the original pattern, with double (not octave) stringing on the bottom courses.
Rolling Stone Brian Jones was given one of the first samples, and 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 example in stock.
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 nicely original, complete and relatively clean overall. There are some small dings, scratches and scuffs to the finish but hardly any of the typical checking almost inevitable on the Eko-made instruments. The pickguard has shrunken up less than many with no cracked corners but the Vox logo is somewhat rubbed away. 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 very nice little player, with an awful lot of chime in its octave-strung setup. The original case is missing but it includes a recent gig bag. Overall Excellent Condition.