No it's not! It's rather simple for the time! Television and a whole lot more were invented in the 40's, and even computers, spectrometers, and a whole lot more were already around for more than a few decades by the time that thing was made, including transistors and microchips. If anything it could have been much better had they not saved money on the circuit design and components to make it more affordable.
@@xxdfoster Your luthier is obviously not even an electrician! Absolutely no need for resistors in or near the frets, and those guitars that do use frets as actuators to light up LED's only have a thin common ground wire attached to the frets in a daisy chain, and from there to the, LED's which have individual wires through the neck into the control cavity. The saddles are isolated to separate the individual strings too, the rest is all done on a circuit board. They also have less stable necks for having all that crap in them! For anything to trigger synths, magnetic sensors like Roland uses, or piezoelectric pickups under the saddle with a circuit that can distinguish between individual notes and even finer increments to sense and follow bends are way better. The ARP synths of the late 70's could be triggered with a regular guitar, and used as effects processors with multiple envelope filters, arpeggiators... Pete Townshend used one on more than a few songs, as did Hawkwind and others.
The Moog Modular had already being sold since 1964, but it was too expensive and too new. There were other synth brands too, such as Theremin, Martenot, Ondioline, etc.
That's because it isn't tracking the pitch at all. There's a low voltage running through the strings and the frets are hooked up to contacts so that fretting each note completes an electrical circuit (basically the same as if a key was played on a keyboard. In effect, you could tune the strings to whatever pitch you wanted and it would still sound the same in organ mode.
That’s one cool guitar. I can’t believe it was made in 67! That’s very advanced for 60’s tech. Someone nerded out big time but created one cool instrument!
Such an awesome thing! So far ahead of its time, it's a shame they didn't catch on more... of course finicky as all hell, but that doesn't make them any less cool! ^_^
I was around "in it's day", I can assure you it sounded just as horrible and was just as impractical then. I played one in a West End musso hang out back then, nobody was impressed... Ta.
Thank you so much to this labor of love. I have been curious about this instrument since around 1967 or so. It’s been hard to find sound demos. They are fragile beasts and very rare in working order.
I was lusting for one of these in 1967 but didn't have the money. Two years later I got a Gibson Les Paul custom. A fine guitar and things worked out for the best.
@@chasbodaniels1744 Oh yeah. I realized later that I would have wasted a lot of time playing around the the multitude of settings instead of actually practicing.
Haha, I can dig it. Years ago I had a job that enabled me to buy a few pedals, and my practicing went south real quick! Ended up “playing the gear” and not the actual instrument.
This guitar was ay ahead of its time. Some amazing sounds considering the era when it was invented. Love the chords to "She's a woman" on conventional guitar and then "Band on the run" on organ guitar. I guess it wasn't embraced by the pop/rock mainstream, a bit like Lol Creme's and Kevin Godley's Gizmo invention. Great post!
Guitar sounds good clean 🧼. Then when you do the hammer-ons and pull-offs on the strings, it sounds just like a keyboard 🎹 AMAZING video. This is the coolest thing I’ve seen in a while. Thanks 🙏
I have seen this type of Vox guitars when I started playing but I never heard this guitar. This was certainly amazing for it's time.I must have been 11 years old. One thing I remember about Guitars all Necks were different. They varied in comfortability Vox necks felt fat and unfinished. Beautiful futuristic look. Thanks for sharing. c]8-)
It is pretty crazy how many different iterations of guitar synths have existed throughout the ages, yet basicly not a single one of them has reached mainstream success. Some of the coolest IMO were those used by Glenn Tipton in the 80s
If you have to ask that question, it means there is very good reason. And no, it's not cost, we have way more advanced things that are affordable. It's because in practice, it kind of sucks, or isn't as good as other alternatives.
Well, superior.......I guess that is a matter of taste. It does not have the possibility to hit the strings soft or hard, it is just on or off with the sound. And my modern Boss SY1 pedal delivers spunds much softer and much more varied than this.
"VOX. it's what's happening!" That is some kind of boss rig! Boy does that take me back. Back in the '60s I would've drooled over such an axe. In retrospect that organ setting sounds almost as obnoxious as the Phantom body shape looked. I did sort of like Brian Jones' V223 teardrop 12 string. Man o man!
What a fabulous thing. Speechless! The downside is nobody would notice if you were being electrocuted. I’d like Sparks to write a song using it. Mercy.
В СССР в середине 70-х в журнале "Радио" #1 1976г. была статья (автор Кетнерс),в которой было описание с подробностями,как изготовить такую гитару.Я делал такой упрощённый вариант в виде ножной приставки.Было круто....
I got to see the prototype of this at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (behind glass, unfortunately) that was supposedly owned by John Lennon. Pretty amazing bit of kit, thanks for demonstrating it.
Amazing to see one of these in such great condition and actually still working! The basic idea is still great, and I do wonder why it isn't still used. With modern circuitry it would be possible to create a wholly contained instrument. Actually, when I come to think about it I think there have been many attempts to replicate the idea. Nice video!
One of the guys I learned to play from played a Vox Super Bee with bass ,, treble and mid boosts , a wah by the bridge palm operated and a fuzz ...there may have been other gadgets. So cool to see this !
I used to have a one almost identical to that back in the 70’s, same colour but not quite as many switches, it was a Phantom 12 special, which obviously denotes a 12 string, it played really well, although a little awkward to play on your lap, and as a 12 string a bit limited, I did a straight swap for a 62 sunburst ES175, which I always wanted, and still have
It would be interesting to know if anyone used it on any records. In Italy the Dutch singer guitarist (naturalized Italian) VAN WOOD in the sixties - seventies had an organ guitar full of effects that he had built. With it he recorded some famous songs from that period.
I remember reading about it in a few rock magazines in the late 60s, including one where Hank Marvin mentioned it. That's the last I heard about it until viewing this. It almost seemed like the initial enthusiasm died out as fast as it came on.
Very cool video and instrument thank you for sharing! Can’t believe it’s from the sixties. Yeah we can do LOTS of stuff now, but, well we went to the moon back then too, very imaginative in my opinion. Liked your Wings song too.
They did make this in a 12 string version, and it was a pain in the A$$ trying to keep the strings and the organ tuned together. That version also had a Bigsby and a palm wah, and a string dampener.
@@Captain-Nostromo Well, you kind of adapted to all that stuff around the bridge, even though it wasn't very comfortable. You could rotate the palm wah lever 180 degrees around so it would be out of the way, but the heel of your palm rested on the screw head that held it onto the rocker arm. The most tricky thing was being careful where your fingers were on your picking hand, as it was to easy to flip the mute when you didn't want it. Just too much clutter in a small area.
Wow!! That sounds really great and looks like a blast to play! Does it take some practice to get it to not freak out? They'd sell tons of these if they hired you to demo it back in the 60's I bet
Very cool, reminds me of those synthesizer keyboards that you held like a guitar and were used quite extensively in the 1980s when electronic bands hit the music scene. Its functions could be replicated with today's electronics fairly easily, but the way you're playing it in this video I'd think the control knobs might be better on a separate panel/keyboard midi-type controller thing (does that make sense?) on a stand near the player. Didn't the Beatles use something like that on a few of their tunes back then? Now I'm curious, I'll have to look into it.
John Lennon was given one by vox but they didn’t use it it was given to a roady and was on exhibit at a pop up John Lennon exhibit about 10 years ago in nyc I believe Yoko is in possession of it now it was white.
