VOX
HDC- 77
BY ADAM PERLMUTTER
Vox might be best known for its super- influential AC30 amplifier, but the
company also has a storied guitar-building
history. The most notable Vox guitars—the
Phantom and Mark VI—were some of the
most distinctive designs of the 1960s. At the
time, Vox found fans among players including
the Hollies’ Tony Hicks (the 12-string intro
on “Look Through Any Window” sounds
distinctly Vox-like) and Brian Jones, who
used the snarky tones of his all-white Mark
VI to add bite to his slide work. More contemporary players including Tom Petty and
Mike Campbell, Echo & the Bunnymen’s Will
Sergeant, Daniel Lanois, and countless psych-rock revivalists have continued to use the distinctive sounds of Vox guitars to widen their
own tonal palates.
So it might have come as a surprise when
Vox largely abandoned its own obvious
design and tone heritage with the premium
semi-hollowbody Virage line in 2007—
forgoing vintage visual motifs and sounds for a
fresh look and highly playable, sonically versatile instruments. Capitalizing on the success
of the Virage line, Vox recently introduced
the less expensive, but equally cool Virage II
series of guitars. We checked out the HDC-
77, a semi-hollow 6-string that is at once
traditional and modern, with its unusual construction and high-performance electronics
and hardware.
New Construction Concept,
Top Craftsmanship
With its maple-laminate top, dual cutaways,
and semi-hollow design, the HDC- 77 owes
an obvious debt to Gibson’s ES-335. But it
also incorporates several innovative devia-
tions that mark a departure from the design
template established by Gibson’s
semi-hollow standard-bearer. Like its
big brother the Virage, the HDC- 77
is curved along both the length
and the width of the body, making
it exceptionally comfortable to hold
when seated or standing. The body is
routed from a solid piece of mahogany so that
two chambers (which are visible through the
soundholes) are formed on either side of two
lengths of wood in the center that Vox calls
tonebars (not to be confused with the tonebars
found on a Gibson L- 5). The laminated maple
top and back are then mounted to this mahog-
any frame—a design that is said to allow the
guitar to vibrate more freely and enhance the
guitar’s tone. And the inversely carved neck
heel allows for unencumbered access to the
guitar’s highest frets and increases the wood-
on-wood area at the joint.
MaxConnect aluminum bridge
Individual coil
switches for neck
and bridge pickups
CoAxe switchable-coil pickups
