Vox was once a name that commanded great respect and interest as one of the top '60s British guitar manufacturers. Now the Vox logo sits as a name on Japanese-produced instruments that seem content with life in the second division of the Japanese league — albeit nestling around the top — with seemingly little ambition for promotion. The White Shadow range has already established itself as a cheapo value-for-money range of basses and guitars retailing at under £200. The M series comes into top the range with two guitars and a fretted and fretless bass. Options on the guitar include locking or non locking trem and white, red or black colour schemes with black or gold hardware.

Construction

While this guitar can in no way be described as original in design, at least the construction, design and finish are all of a high standard. The body shape obviously started off as a Strat and has finished up with slightly longer and thinner horns, heavily radiused sides and edges and usual front and back contouring. In other words like a host of other Jap Strat-derived instruments. That isn't to say that the shape is unpleasant either visually or practically; working within such a limited design brief it's a very respectable result.

Of course the neck is a bolt-on job as one would expect for the style and price — a glued neck or straight through design invariably raises the price between £40-50. However, the neck itself is a smart piece of work with a 24 fret black end Rosewood board with wide section frets and small pearl-like dots on the face and side. The dimensions of the neck all fall in line with the typical Jap styling and it has a full oval curved profile — indistinct but nonetheless comfortable and perfectly playable. What lets so many guitars down in this price bracket is the fretting and the set-up, but that can't be said of this Vox. Each fret has been carefully installed and profiled leaving only a few sharp ends. Finally the frets have been highly polished which not only gives an expensive appearance but also aids string bending. What's more there is no trace of polishing compound left in the grain of the fingerboard — another more than common slack practice. As for the action it's perfectly standard and playable.

While the wood working is excellent on this sample, the hardware is only adequate. The unmarked M6 copy machine heads do the job but the trem system is another kettle of maggots. Basically it's a Strat-type unit with six saddles adjustable for height and intonation mounted on a boring rectangular base. The two 'E' saddles have grooves to hold them (and presumably the others) firm. The pivot is provided by two posts which also act as overall height adjustment. Unfortunately the rather boring appearance of the trem is made worse by its action and set. Three springs hold the unit in place and not only make the action stiff but tip it too close to the body allowing virtually no upward movement. This also has the effect of throwing the trem arm up too high away from the body, a fact that isn't helped by the acute upward bend of the black chrome arm itself. Obviously a little experimentation is needed with the springs and the shape of the arm to get the best out of this system.

As to what type of pickups are fitted — this is unknown, but there are humbuckers tastefully hidden away in matt black plastic covers which look very posh. They are standard sized and mounted in pickup rings so replacement would be simple. Internally the wiring is clean using cheap Jap components, screened pickup cable, but no cavity screening.

Predictably the sounds produced from this guitar are not out of this world but they are perfectly usable. In the full coil mode, we have a strong back pickup with a clear full tone and plenty of top; the neck pickup in the same mode could do with a little more edge for clarity and does lean towards the 'woolly' on the bass notes. In the single coil mode, we have a volume drop and an expected emphasis on the higher frequencies. In this mode the back pickup is razor sharp but the neck unit is still a little soggy. However, with both pickups on in the single coil mode we have a very tasty 'out-of-phase' Strat tone which, if it had a little more 'transparency', would be a real killer.

Mind you the trem system was a bit dodgy, but battling with new strings and an unlubricated nut never does justice to the system. While I'm not one to knock the no doubt under-paid and overworked person who set this guitar up, I do wish a little more string stretching and nut lubrication had taken place before the guitar was let out of the warehouse.

Where the guitar scores highly, however, is on the general playability which is excellent. The action was smooth and slinky and sustain and intonation were good. The balance and feel of the guitar are factors also in its favour and barring the trem, it's certainly one of the better playing instruments in this price range that I've tried.

THE BASS

More in the style of the existing White Shadow instruments, this new addition is certainly a flashy/trashy looking beast. The black and red colour scheme is, of course, a direct steal from Washburn but 'ethics' isn't a word that means much in the Jap vocabulary, especially in cheap manufacture. However, the body shape shows another asset of Japanese design — the ability to reverse a piece of tracing paper, take an approximate plan of a Jazz bass and reverse the bottom half and before you can say Who flung dung — a new(ish) shape is born. Still, in practice the shape proves very comfortable with the extended lower bout acting as a forearm rest for Jazzy fingerstyle playing. The slab front appearance necessitated by the red binding is a very fashionable look these days, although somehow the lurid red makes for a rather cheap look.

Once again a 24 fret full 34" bolt on neck is featured with atypically ordinary profile — round and inoffensive. While certain aspects of this bass may pertain to the Fender Jazz, unfortunately the neck falls in the grey area between that of a Precision and a Jazz — neither as wide or flat as a Precision or as slim and delicate as a Jazz. Mind you, the fretting and fingerboard are of a high standard, the Rosewood board is closely grained and left brown(!) while the frets are of the same gauge and shape as the six-string, although not as well polished. The headstock has the similar reversed character of the six-string though this time, the truss-trod adjustment is at the bass of the neck and impossible to access without removing the neck itself.

The set-up on this bass is once again perfectly standard and acceptable, although there is a bit of buzzing on the lower frets on the bottom 'E' string. Access to the upper frets is good although not remarkable and the black nut is set slightly on the high side again.

Still, a glance at the retail price puts the design and workmanship into the 'good to excellent' bracket and certainly the quality of the black finish belies the price.

The black (anodised?) hardware is chunky and robust. The M4 ma-type machineheads have split string posts and work well — no problems here. The bridge is a very solid business-like affair with four square saddles with a deep central groove to take the string. Each of the saddles have height and intonation adjustments and the base plate has shallow grooves to hold the saddles in place and stop them slipping. As is usual with this type of bridge, the strings are anchored at the back of the bridge and do not pass through the body.

Two single coil Jazz type pickups are fitted both with black covers and the usual four screw adjustment facilities. The placing of the units is fairly standard in bridge and middle positions. The control configuration is good too, with a master volume and master tone plus a pan pot with a centre detente placed nearest the bridge. With this facility a vast array of tones are available with one control as opposed to two volumes as is standard on a Jazz bass, for example. The jack socket is placed on the face of the guitar (the side would have been nicer) but overall the control configuration is well placed and soundly thought through.

I was certainly surprised by the tone of this bass and by the versatility of the sounds. There are a lot of sounds here and while none of them are really showstopping, none are naff. The pickups are bright and clear although the string response was a little uneven with the 'A' string very slightly lower in volume.

Conclusion

These guitars would certainly suit the less-experienced players who care not only about their playing but also the look of their instrument. Likewise songwriters and home recordists could do far worse for the money than either of these instruments. My criticism of the guitar is aimed at the trem which I'm sure with a bit of work could be made to function far more effectively — in a word Vox are doing themselves no favours with this system. With the bass, the uneven string response could be a bit of a niggle and without adjustable pole pieces on the pickups there isn't a great deal that can be done about it. Mind you even if you were to replace the pickups with a medium-priced set and get a repairman to sort out the tremolo you'd still be getting value for money. However, I think it is Vox, or distributor Rose Morris that should attend to these relatively small problemsto realise the full potential of these instruments.

As the market becomes more and more flooded, and let's face it, I can't see any signs that the Japanese guitar industry has any intention of slowing down — it becomes more and more important for small details to be attended to. Fashions will always change but the important factor is sound and playability. On that count these Vox instruments score highly, but maybe not quite highly enough.

FOR: Price, looks, construction and design
AGAINST: Trem system, non-adjustable pole pieces on bass.

VOX WHITE SHADOW SIX-STRING — RRP: £198
VOX WHITE SHADOW BASS — RRP: £211