Two major issues defined the progress of electric guitars for most of the seventies. 1) Companies outside North America vastly improved the quality of their guitar manufacturing and 2) Companies inside North America – namely Fender and Gibson – took their eye off the ball and did exactly the opposite. By this time, many guitar manufacturers from the Far East had 10+ years experience under their belts, and the improvement in quality began to shine through. Univox, Kawai, Silvertone and Domino were starting to deliver guitars that – from a price / quality point of view – were beginning to eat into the markets that Fender and Gibson dominated. Not only was the manufacturing quality improving, but the quality of the REPLICATION was reaching new highs. The lawyers at Gibson started to get restless, and young guitar players like myself were also getting restless I could not wait to go out and buy a UNIVOX Les Paul for 1/5th the price of the real thing! Damn, it was so inexpensive that I could almost afford to smash it on stage! Cool! But as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. Towards the end of the 1970’s, Fender and Gibson were loosing market share. That is why we hear so much about the “ Lawsuit ERA” guitars. Late in the seventies, Gibson Guitars won a legal battle for patent infringements, which over time, shut down all but a few “copy” guitar manufacturers worldwide. This allowed some elbowroom for Gibson and Fender to rethink and retool their operations to fortify their position in the market. To avoid the same problem happening again, Gibson bought Epiphone and started building some very nice Imported Copy Guitars! Fender opened facilities outside North America under different brand names like Squier. Below: Here is a typical selection of 1970’s Fender and Gibson copies. These were all imported from Japan under different brand names. Also a sweet ’74.
This circa 1965 Vox model V257 Mando- Guitar is a rather unique instrument. Essentially, the V257 is a short scale 12-string guitar. By tuning it an octave higher than a 12-string guitar it has a mandolin sound but plays like a guitar. Vox V257s were in production from. It has a lusterous sunburst finish. The back of the headstock says Made in Italy by Vox in white lettering. It was built by the Italian company, EKO, located in Recanati, Italy They made a variety of instruments for Vox in the 1960s. George Harrison used a Vox V257 on the song Words of Love. It has a six digit serial number, 305324, engraved on the chrome neckplate. The body is made of birch and the neck is maple with a rosewood fretboard. The 20 fret neck has a zero fret and is 1 11/16 at the nut and a neck scale length is 15 1/2. Overall length of the Vox is 28 and it weighs 4.6 pounds. There are two single coil pickups, a volume and a tone control with a three way pickup selector switch. Other features include chrome hardware, a white three ply pickguard, Grover style six on a plate open back tuning keys, a fully intonatable fixed bridge. The only non-original part is the end pin which has been replaced. The bridge cover is missing leaving two tiny holes on each side of the bridge. A small corner at the top of the pickguard on the treble side is broken off. There are three narrow finish cracks on the top, one on the back, assorted dings and scrapes mostly on the the back lower edge. The Vox Mando- Guitar is a unique instrument for a guitar player and is very collectable. It comes with the original black hardshell case with white trim and a gold lining.
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