New Guy building Vox Mk III
- DrGonzo
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New Guy building Vox Mk III
Hi guys
i've stumbled across this forum last year when i was building my first guitar (Guild Thunderbird Replica, see pics below) but found help in another forum. I was using all vintage original parts and the best wires i could find and that thing turned out 1000 times better than i ever thought. Nails that juicy, blooming and haunting Surrealistic Pillow tones just perfectly right.
The other day i watched some Rolling Stones clips and suddenly i got hooked on another psychedelic guitar shape. Brian Jones' Mk III... I can't get this thing off my mind and it's the same story with the thunderbird: the original is too expensive (or more like non-existent in this case) and the reissues are too different from the original. I already bought some more or less correct 60's Vox pickups so i guess i'm really doing this
So, first question:
Is there any way to get a routing template for the overall body shape? Or at least length, width and thickness. I think the body of Brian's was longer than the production model. I could more or less determine the measurements from photos, but if anyone has some data please hit me up!
Here's my Thunderbird Replica
i've stumbled across this forum last year when i was building my first guitar (Guild Thunderbird Replica, see pics below) but found help in another forum. I was using all vintage original parts and the best wires i could find and that thing turned out 1000 times better than i ever thought. Nails that juicy, blooming and haunting Surrealistic Pillow tones just perfectly right.
The other day i watched some Rolling Stones clips and suddenly i got hooked on another psychedelic guitar shape. Brian Jones' Mk III... I can't get this thing off my mind and it's the same story with the thunderbird: the original is too expensive (or more like non-existent in this case) and the reissues are too different from the original. I already bought some more or less correct 60's Vox pickups so i guess i'm really doing this
So, first question:
Is there any way to get a routing template for the overall body shape? Or at least length, width and thickness. I think the body of Brian's was longer than the production model. I could more or less determine the measurements from photos, but if anyone has some data please hit me up!
Here's my Thunderbird Replica
- CorporateDisguise
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Re: New Guy building Vox Mk III
I'm going to be no of no help here, but that thunderbird build is beautiful. Good job! I hope it plays as nicely as it looks.
- andy
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- Musjagjazz
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Re: New Guy building Vox Mk III
There was a forumite who visited Brandoni Guitars in the UK who have new old stock of Vox, Eko, etc..
They should be able to get you the parts you need.
Thread
http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/vie ... t=Brandoni
Brandoni Guitars Website
http://www.brandoniguitars.co.uk/vox.asp
They should be able to get you the parts you need.
Thread
http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/vie ... t=Brandoni
Brandoni Guitars Website
http://www.brandoniguitars.co.uk/vox.asp
- DrGonzo
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Re: New Guy building Vox Mk III
thanks guys! it does indeed play like butter. the neck turned out a lot bigger than i wanted, but it’s actually pretty good for simple blues licks and psychedelic lead lines.
that is an excellent link thanks a lot! i actually wanted to build the body to keep costs low, but i have no idea what the routing looks like on the brian jones model. maybe they can provide me photo.Musjagjazz wrote: ↑Sat Jun 08, 2019 7:35 amThere was a forumite who visited Brandoni Guitars in the UK who have new old stock of Vox, Eko, etc..
They should be able to get you the parts you need.
Thread
http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/vie ... t=Brandoni
Brandoni Guitars Website
http://www.brandoniguitars.co.uk/vox.asp
- DrGonzo
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Re: New Guy building Vox Mk III
I tried to send them an email but the server is inactive. does anyone know how to get in touch with them by mail?
- epizootics
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Re: New Guy building Vox Mk III
Welcome to the board!
It might be worth it giving them a phone call, that website looks pretty old...
In the meantime I made you this from a photograph of the actual guitar Brian Jones used - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1p8pfA ... _7ddsxNbWa
As always with templates made from photographs, the headstock & neck pocket need some tweaking to adjust to the actual neck you will use Same with the stainless steel / aluminium pickugard that'll need cutting around the plastic part of the pickup covers.
I am not exactly sure regarding the thickness of the body, but looking at those pictures (https://reverb.com/item/2371573-vox-mar ... 1997-white) of what looks like a much more accurate reproduction than the recent Vox versions, I'd say it looks like a standard 1 3/4" body.
It might be worth it giving them a phone call, that website looks pretty old...
In the meantime I made you this from a photograph of the actual guitar Brian Jones used - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1p8pfA ... _7ddsxNbWa
As always with templates made from photographs, the headstock & neck pocket need some tweaking to adjust to the actual neck you will use Same with the stainless steel / aluminium pickugard that'll need cutting around the plastic part of the pickup covers.
I am not exactly sure regarding the thickness of the body, but looking at those pictures (https://reverb.com/item/2371573-vox-mar ... 1997-white) of what looks like a much more accurate reproduction than the recent Vox versions, I'd say it looks like a standard 1 3/4" body.
Last edited by epizootics on Mon Jun 10, 2019 9:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
- DrGonzo
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Re: New Guy building Vox Mk III
Wow very nice thank you so much! i must admit i'm surprised by the measurements! the body is shorter and narrower than i expected. also i had no idea about the 24" scale length. are you sure about that? i thought it was more or less a stratocaster knock off construction wise! to get an original neck would be even better if it's such a special scale lenght..epizootics wrote: ↑Sun Jun 09, 2019 5:02 amWelcome to the board!
It might be worth it giving them a phone call, that website looks pretty old...
In the meantime I made you this from a photograph of the actual guitar Brian Jones used - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1WEvTg ... ZI_4OamO6u
As always with templates made from photographs, the headstock & neck pocket need some tweaking to adjust to the actual neck you will use Same with the stainless steel / aluminium pickugard that'll need cutting around the plastic part of the pickup covers.
I am not exactly sure regarding the thickness of the body, but looking at those pictures (https://reverb.com/item/2371573-vox-mar ... 1997-white) of what looks like a much more accurate reproduction than the recent Vox versions, I'd say it looks like a standard 1 3/4" body.
yeah i thought about giving them a call, but i live in switzerland and international phone calls can be pretty expensive. they probably wouldn't be too happy about picking up the phone when i call them..
- DrGonzo
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Re: New Guy building Vox Mk III
that one in the reverb link is the one i was going to use as reference. best photos i could find so far.
- epizootics
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Re: New Guy building Vox Mk III
Well, that's where things cloud up - I have seen three scale lengths on three different Mk IIIs reissues so far - 24", 25" and 25.5". Shame there are no measurements on the patent (https://patentimages.storage.googleapis ... 208949.pdf)
I went with the Vox re-issue for that, but there might be some more diggin' to do...
I went with the Vox re-issue for that, but there might be some more diggin' to do...
- DrGonzo
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Re: New Guy building Vox Mk III
so is it unknown what scale length Brian's actual guitar has?
man that would be a real bummer if the Brandonis had a ton of necks and stuff and i'm unable to contact them. maybe i'll try to call them next week.
man that would be a real bummer if the Brandonis had a ton of necks and stuff and i'm unable to contact them. maybe i'll try to call them next week.
- epizootics
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Re: New Guy building Vox Mk III
Well, that's kind of interesting actually. If you look at the Vox guitars sold by RetroFret here - https://www.retrofret.com/search.asp?so ... eSold=true - it seems the Mk. VI was available in both 25.5" and 25". No Mk. 3 unfortunately. My guess is the discrepancies between the reissues starts with the originals having varied over time.
I wanted to give Brandoni Guitars a call next week anyway, and it's pretty much the same for me as calling a French line (I seem to give phone calls to England a lot these days). I can ask them and keep you posted. I'm pretty sure they'll have something to say about scale length too...if they are still in business!
I wanted to give Brandoni Guitars a call next week anyway, and it's pretty much the same for me as calling a French line (I seem to give phone calls to England a lot these days). I can ask them and keep you posted. I'm pretty sure they'll have something to say about scale length too...if they are still in business!
- Musjagjazz
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Re: New Guy building Vox Mk III
I think the 50th anniversary reissue MkIII in 2007 was more faithful to the original Brian Jones model than the 1998-2001 reissues. It had a 25.5" scale length with a zero fret neck. There is also the pickup output, body length and width, etc. mentioned as well as the type of tuners used for the reissue listed below:
This 12 1/4 inch wide, 1 3/4 inch thick Northern Hardwood solid body guitar is a limited edition of just 100 guitars produced by the Vox Custom Shop in 2007 and weighs 7.30 lbs. The unique teardrop shaped body has rounded edges and a black padded cloth pad on the back secured by eight fasteners. One-piece, four-bolt maple neck with a nice fat nut width of just under 1 11/16 inches, a scale length of 25 1/2 inches and a wonderful thick profile. Rosewood fretboard with zero and 22 original medium-jumbo frets and pearloid dot position markers with a pearloid inlay "57 - 07" at the twenty-first fret. The face of the headstock has a "VOX" decal in black. On the back of the headstock is a black decal with "Vox / 50 Years of Golden Tone / Since 1957". There is also a black circular label with "Custom / Vox / Shop". Individual Kluson Deluxe style tuners with oval metal buttons. Single 'Butterfly' string-tree across E & B strings. Serial number "570778" stamped in black on the back of the headstock. Two single-coil Vox Alnico magnet pickups with six pole-pieces set in white plastic with metal surrounds with nicely balanced outputs of 5.90k and 5.88k.v
https://www.frettedamericana.com/produc ... y-teardrop
http://www.voxshowroom.com/us/guitar/57-07_guitar.html
Found the parts list for the Italian made Mark VI but maybe the MkIII used the same pots and caps?
http://www.voxshowroom.com/us/guitar/mark6_1.html
This 12 1/4 inch wide, 1 3/4 inch thick Northern Hardwood solid body guitar is a limited edition of just 100 guitars produced by the Vox Custom Shop in 2007 and weighs 7.30 lbs. The unique teardrop shaped body has rounded edges and a black padded cloth pad on the back secured by eight fasteners. One-piece, four-bolt maple neck with a nice fat nut width of just under 1 11/16 inches, a scale length of 25 1/2 inches and a wonderful thick profile. Rosewood fretboard with zero and 22 original medium-jumbo frets and pearloid dot position markers with a pearloid inlay "57 - 07" at the twenty-first fret. The face of the headstock has a "VOX" decal in black. On the back of the headstock is a black decal with "Vox / 50 Years of Golden Tone / Since 1957". There is also a black circular label with "Custom / Vox / Shop". Individual Kluson Deluxe style tuners with oval metal buttons. Single 'Butterfly' string-tree across E & B strings. Serial number "570778" stamped in black on the back of the headstock. Two single-coil Vox Alnico magnet pickups with six pole-pieces set in white plastic with metal surrounds with nicely balanced outputs of 5.90k and 5.88k.v
https://www.frettedamericana.com/produc ... y-teardrop
http://www.voxshowroom.com/us/guitar/57-07_guitar.html
Found the parts list for the Italian made Mark VI but maybe the MkIII used the same pots and caps?
http://www.voxshowroom.com/us/guitar/mark6_1.html
- DrGonzo
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Re: New Guy building Vox Mk III
that parts list is very interesting thanks! i‘ve never heard of a 100k pot in a guitar before. should this compensate dark pickups? i already bought a pair of the original pickups. 5/6ish and 7.8k output. i‘m thinking about using the weaker one in the bridge position and crank that sucker way up to the strings. i think low output pickups are key to authentic vintage tone.
for the scale length i‘ll probably go with whatever neck i can get. unbound dot marker rosewood fretboard is preferred for cosmetic reasons.
what does „northern hardwood body“ mean? different species or is it a secret? i was thinking about a swamp ash body for some tele jangle..
@epizootics
that would be incredibly nice
for the scale length i‘ll probably go with whatever neck i can get. unbound dot marker rosewood fretboard is preferred for cosmetic reasons.
what does „northern hardwood body“ mean? different species or is it a secret? i was thinking about a swamp ash body for some tele jangle..
@epizootics
that would be incredibly nice
- DrGonzo
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Re: New Guy building Vox Mk III
what do you guys think of a 1/2 tele bridge instead of the strat bridge? i think it would look cool and i can hear a little tele twang in Brian‘s Teardrop tone