#1
|
|||
|
|||
Vox V2000-DR - D28 style high end acoustic guitar
I have a Vox V2000-DR acoustic guitar that's built in the Martin D28 style. It has a solid spruce top, solid rosewood back and sides, with ebony bridge and fretboard. It has a Vox 'Real Acoustic Sound' preamp and it is made in Japan. It's a guitar that seems to have slipped under most people's radar, perhaps largely as a result of the 'Vox' name that sits atop the headstock and the fact that it was made in very limited numbers - 12 pieces I understand - for the Japanese market. I'm in the UK and I understand that a couple of the guitars made it to our shores. As a manufacturer of amps, understandably most people would expect a Vox acoustic guitar to be a sideline project, a budget model, but not so here. I believe the RRP for the V2000-DR was around £2000 ($3000). I have seen a review of the guitar dated April 2010, so I guess that was the date of manufacture. Vox branched out into acoustic guitar amps a few years ago, so maybe the V2000-DR was produced in limited numbers to bolster the launch of and to demo the new amps.
I would like to know more about the guitar, particularly which Japanese luthier or company built it? It is extremely well made in high end Japanese acoustic guitar tradition. I'm wondering if it was made by Takamine or maybe Yamaha?
__________________
Experienced guitar tech and singer/guitarist based in the midlands, England. McIlroy AJ50 Yamaha CPX-1200 Yamaha CPX-700/12 Yamaha LS16 Yamaha FG-300 Yamaha FG-580 Vox V2000-DR + electric guitars.. |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Interestingly, as I just discovered, the guitar has a strange truss rod adjustment allen wrench size. It is situated under the end of the neck, accessed via the soundhole. 5mm and 3/16" wrenches are too small, and 6mm and 7/32" are too big. That suggests that a size of 13/64 (5.2mm) would be about right. Trouble is, I can't locate either wrench!
Maybe this weird truss rod adjuster size is a pointer to the manufacturer?
__________________
Experienced guitar tech and singer/guitarist based in the midlands, England. McIlroy AJ50 Yamaha CPX-1200 Yamaha CPX-700/12 Yamaha LS16 Yamaha FG-300 Yamaha FG-580 Vox V2000-DR + electric guitars.. |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
I can't help you, but maybe the shape of the bridge would also provide a clue?
Great looking guitar. I'd love to have it in my hands for a while to check it out. |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
Well, if the shape of that bridge means anything to anyone - it doesn't to me - then I'd like to hear from them. I think it's probably unique to the guitar.
Re the truss rod wrench, I've ordered a 5.5mm wrench, hopefully it will be the correct one. Out of interest, if it is a 5.5mm wrench, maybe as that is a somewhat uncommon size that it will throw some light on the manufacturer? I believe that some Martins use 5.5mm, but I doubt if the guitars were made by Martin. Who else uses a 5.5mm truss rod wrench?
__________________
Experienced guitar tech and singer/guitarist based in the midlands, England. McIlroy AJ50 Yamaha CPX-1200 Yamaha CPX-700/12 Yamaha LS16 Yamaha FG-300 Yamaha FG-580 Vox V2000-DR + electric guitars.. |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
Ok, got the 5.5mm hex wrench today, it's too big. So, given my previous talk re sizing, that means it has to be either 5.2mm or 13/64". Trouble is, I cannot locate either of those two wrenches on the internet. I mean, I could file a larger wrench carefully to fit, but (other than to meet my needs) why should I?! Surely whoever made this guitar used an available wrench to set it up? They didn't 'file one up to fit'. And the Truss rod itself must have been built to use a certain size of wrench. This is frustrating!
__________________
Experienced guitar tech and singer/guitarist based in the midlands, England. McIlroy AJ50 Yamaha CPX-1200 Yamaha CPX-700/12 Yamaha LS16 Yamaha FG-300 Yamaha FG-580 Vox V2000-DR + electric guitars.. |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
Perhaps built by Washburn.
I have no clue about the truss rod. Are you sure it's hex?
__________________
"Vintage taste, reissue budget" |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
Ha ha. After all, it was a 5mm wrench. I'd been trying to insert various size wrenches into the hex adjustment hole, but as the strings were fitted, I couldn't actually see that the truss rod was totally loose, so any wrenches that went into the hole - regardless of whether it was the right size - simply turned as if it wasn't 'biting'; ie too small. Obviously any wrenches that were too big simply wouldn't go into the hex hole. It was only when I removed the strings that I could actually see what was happening, and that the 5mm wrench was the correct size. Oh hum..
Anyway, anyone got any ideas as to which company/luthier built these guitars?
__________________
Experienced guitar tech and singer/guitarist based in the midlands, England. McIlroy AJ50 Yamaha CPX-1200 Yamaha CPX-700/12 Yamaha LS16 Yamaha FG-300 Yamaha FG-580 Vox V2000-DR + electric guitars.. Last edited by steveyam; 12-27-2015 at 08:21 AM. |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
Anything in particular that makes you say Washburn? Indeed is there such a thing as a 'Washburn guitar factory', or like many do they use one or more of the many 'unbranded' guitar manufacturers in the far east?
__________________
Experienced guitar tech and singer/guitarist based in the midlands, England. McIlroy AJ50 Yamaha CPX-1200 Yamaha CPX-700/12 Yamaha LS16 Yamaha FG-300 Yamaha FG-580 Vox V2000-DR + electric guitars.. |
#9
|
|||
|
|||
Hi i have one of these too, and all i know is exactly what you've written sadly , i always thought they might have been built at the same factory as the Virage ,FujiGen Gakki .
Be interested to know of any details you get re Fishman type of electrics etc or anythin at all cheers Bill Last edited by bill rand; 02-04-2016 at 12:45 PM. |
#10
|
|||
|
|||
How do you find it plays? what do you think of the tone? this is the only acoustic i have so nothing to compare it with
|
#11
|
|||
|
|||
i guess i will never know
|
#12
|
|||
|
|||
Try emailing Vox?
|
#13
|
|||
|
|||
There are/were a handful of Japanese companies that made a vast number of guitars under commonly seen labels. Matsumoku might be the one for Vox. They also made Epiphones at one time along with Aria and Alvarez-Yairi, and a dozen or so other labels.
There's also Fujijen Gakki, couple other companies that I can't recall offhand that were making all those so-called 'lawsuit' guitars. Their higher-end builds, like this one, were pretty respectable guitars at about 1/4 the price of a guitar from a major American mfg. Nice score!
__________________
Larrivee L-10 Custom Larrivee DV-10K Larrivee L-03 Taylor 412K ('96) Yamaha LL16-12 (SOLD) PRS 'Studio' (SOLD) Rickenbacker 660-12 (SOLD) Fender USA Deluxe Strat Fender USA Roadhouse Strat Fender MIM/USA Partscaster Fender MIM Nashville Tele Kelsey Custom Hardtail Strat Fender MIM P-Bass |
#14
|
|||
|
|||
these retailed at just under £2000 though, so certainly not cheap
|