VOX WINCHESTER

  • VOX WINCHESTER bass guitar
    VOX WINCHESTER

Overview

Brand name: 

Product: 

  • electric guitars

Dates of manufacture: 

1967

The Vox Winchester is a rare English made electric guitar which has a effects pedal body bolted to a guitar neck. There were a series of three of these style guitars (Repeater, Bushwhacker, and Winchester - named after guns) all were made in 1967 only. All three had a different electronic effect built in but none was commercially successful. As few as 12 may have been produced in total - one was played by Dave Lambert of the Strawbs.

The Vox Winchester pictured above was submitted by Ron Roper - it was part of his brother's collection put together when he was a bass player in a group from 1965-1972. He bought it second hand in Deal, Kent, UK in 1972 for £30 It is slightly different to others on the internet but it pre-dates the Winchester fakes, it even has its original case for this instrument size and serial number stamped at the base of the neck, and still working perfectly.  For 7 more photos of this bass look at the gallery below.

Source:Dave Lambert - Strawbsweb

Specifications (15)

Controls

Controls materialchrome controls
Controls shaperound control
Number of control knobs2 control knobs
Tone controls1 tone control
Volume controls1 volume control

Electronics

Pickups configuration2 single coil pickups

General

Made inUK
Number of strings4 strings

Body

Body stylerectangular shaped body

Fretboard

Fingerboard position markersblock fingerboard position markers

Hardware

Hardware colorchrome hardware

Neck

Neck jointbolt on neck
Number of frets20 fret
Nutzero fret at the nut
Tuner layoutfour-in-a-row tuners

Prices (0)

Reviews (0)

Gallery (1)

Players (0)

7 Comments

Vox Winchester

Hi there,

May name is Martin Kelly and I'm currently authoring a book on Vox guitars made during the 1960's.

The Vox Winchester currently for sale on ebay is a fake and should be avoided. I have personally handled 3 of the original Winchester guitars and own the only Winchester Bass that was built specially for Shirley Douglas during 1967.

The guitar on ebay features an Italian neck from a Vox Maruader and a contemportary Wah casing for the body. Having handled original examples this is clearly a fake. Avoid at all costs.

 

Best regards,

Martin Kelly

www.voxguitars.info

Vox Winchester

I disagree with the description by Mr Kelley. I have personally owned at least two Vox  Marauders and Two Vox Winchesters, and have seen different necks on each. The Winchester on ebay looks good to me. In fact, all they were was Dick Denney putting together a neck and a volume pedal or wah wah pedal. After Tom and Dick left Vox they used a bunch of these Marauder necks on their effects guitars. The wah or volume casing on the one on ebay is gray, which, if I am not mistaken, is old Vox from the 1960s. The contemporary casings are black, again, if I am not mistaken. Well, just my two cents, for all it is worth,  blimey, Colin

Vox Winchester

Yeah, I was one of the blokes working at the machine shop when the Vox chap with the goattee came in with plans for these metal bodies, said his guitar bodies were too small and had orders for bass guitars from some of the beat groups, so he needed larger bodies. We made 40 or 50 of these bass bodies, even painted them and delivered them to his shop, nice chap, had a bunch of odd stuff, see-through amps, odd guitars, nutty stuff. We still have the plans, could make  more if we had some way to sell them, but we don't have necks or other bits needed,  fun days they were, enough for anyone to write about, Fenn

Vox Winchester

I have been playing and collecting guitars for over 40 years and I have had a lot of Vox stuff.  I have been to the UK searching for Vox and other British guitars. It is in poor judgment that you make a statement that a guitar is flat out fake.  I have seen many oddball guitars come out of the front and back doors of instrument shops and factories. Unless you worked there and sat at the bench with Dick you really can’t say for certain if something is fake. 

 

Obviously there is more then one bass since here you have a person that was there when 40 or so bodies where ordered.  In this instance especially, with a guitar documented as being made of leftover parts you really can’t say unless you talked to the person at Vox that made it.  It has all the correct parts for the time.

 

If you have access to Dick Denney or another person from the shop it would be very interesting to show him some pictures of this guitar and get the final word on it. If anything I believe it may be the first prototype Dick first put together.   

vox winchester

If Martin Kelly says it's a fake, it's a fake.

 

No one knows more about UK Voxes than him.

Vox Winchester Bass

I am cataloging my brother’s small guitar collection (due to him going into care) that he put together when he was a bass player in a group from 1965-1972.
He has a Vox Winchester Bass he brought second hand from Deal, Kent for £30 about 1972. It is slightly different than those on the internet but obviously way before fakes were being produced, it even has its original case for this instrument size and serial number stamped at the base of the neck, and still working perfectly. I can send pictures if you would like to see.

Vox Winchester

Hi Ron, yes that would be great. Please send any photos of the bass to [email protected]. I will add them on this page

Nathan