UlricvonCatalyst wrote:benecol wrote:I warn you now - it'll be shit. Fairly sure all these Vox copies are churned out of the same factory in India (seen them under umpteen different brands, the most famous of which is Phantom Guitar Works); much as I've wanted to like them (I'd love a Vox Phantom), they've been dreadful, resembling a guitar in the same way those TVs for display purposes only you see in Ikea reesmble real TVs.
There are some exceptions to this rule, though. Eastwood did a short run of Teardrops and Phantoms in their early days, but were quickly slapped with a writ to cease and desist as Phantom Guitar Works bought the rights to manufacture copies from Vox. I guess in light of the recent Eko reissues that their agreement has timed out. Or was it just limited to The Americas?
There's a Brian Jones signature model - a limited run, authorised by his estate - too, which is a good authentic copy of the real Mark VI - all the others fail in some way or other.
The EKO copies are licensed by Phantom Guitar Works. Who are licensed by Vox.
The Brian Jones signature models are manufactured by Hutchins, which were basically slight upgrades to the Alden models, all from the MUSE RD factory in China. They aren't
that bad. The Aldens were originally as low as £120 or something daft when they were being sold by Cranes Music in Wales, and I'd say for that price you'd have been hard pushed to find a guitar that looked quirky AND could actually be played by somebody without bionic arms or tone deafness.
Vox still make their own teardrops and phantoms, but they're sort of like beginners guitars with speakers built in. I'd like to get one just to see if the actual guitar is worth modding, but I'd rather not take the risk.
The Phantom Guitarworks models are half decent (funnily enough I got to play one recently) but they're still mass produced; for the prices they charge you'd expect them to be special handmade runs or something, but they're really only a small step up from the Alden/Hutchins models while four times the price. (Like Eastwoods, in fact, which I suspect a good few, if not all, are made in the same MUSE RD factory alongside Alden, Hutchins, Gould and Jay Turser, and yet somehow manage to accumulate an extra 100% markup on their brothers and sisters by the time they make it into shops).
