60's VOX guitar schematic needed.

[OlympicPhil]

I've got an old 60's Vox guitar in my worshop - I believe it's an Ultrasonic V268 - it's got a treble/bass boost, built-in hand-controlled wah-wah, distortion and repeat percussion controls, and resembles a Gibson 335 in appearance.

The repeat percussion isn't working, and the owner (Youth - ex-Killing Joke bassist, now a producer [of the #1-hitting Embrace album amongst others]) would like it sorting out.

If anyone happens to have a schematic for the electronics of these guitars I would be very grateful for a copy.

I've emailed Vox, but who knows when or if they'll get back in touch or whether they'll actually be able to help.

Thanks in advance,

Phil

 

[ToobieSnack]

hmmmm
I've been playing guitar a long (very long) time and i have never even heard of this guitar. ( I'd like to see pics )

I think you have a rare bird there...and finding a schematic ,well, i think you may be out of luck on that one...but who know's maybe you will get lucky...maybe watch ebay and try to see if another pops up there...maybe the owner will have some info for you.

you may have to go into some reverse engineering ar just start replacing suspect parts until it works. arethe parts easily read/well labeled?

what is the layout of the electronics ...eg PCB or point to point...one section or several different sections...modules????
It is possible to draw you own schematic although it may be a bit awkward it may be your only choice. just depends on the accesibility of the parts and the emensity of the undertaking.

if everything else is working identifying the module/section in error would be the first obvious step. I'm sure you agree here.

ALSO:BTW what the heck is a "percussion repeater" is that another name for an echo? , a tremolo? rhythm track? metronome ....i don't know...haha????

anyway good luck

post some pics...that may help your cause emensely.
if you need help posting the pics or need a temporary pic host PM me and I'll help you.

overall,,this sounds like an interesting guitar lookin forward to pics and more info.
later
ts

 

[Gus]

Look for R.G. or Zvex at Aron's stompbox page. They might know something about it. I believe I have seen a Post or two from R.G. here maybe you can PM him.

Also look at geofx.com

 

[OlympicPhil]

The "Percussion Repeater" I believe is supposed to be a delay-echo.

I've never seen a guitar with so many controls... it's ludicrous.
Reverse engineering is nice and easy for most guitars, but this one's just crazy... the components are sandwiched between two circuit boards, meaning that I have to un-solder half of the circuit to see what's going on in there.

I've been looking round the web for info on this guitar, and apparently they weren't exactly sought-after at the time, more an in-between guitar... not a beginner's guitar, not pro, as they were essentially re-badged EKO guitars from Italy, but I know Youth uses it a lot (he likes his old, mad, vintage gear... he's got a really mad white Supro guitar with 6 little black pots on it [watch out for a video by a new band called Kubb - they use it in the video ] which has a really nice tone if you play the buggery out of it (use lots of ridiculous vibrato) but is essentially a "players'" guitar - stick it in the hands of an avarage guitarist and it sounds god-awful, give it to a really good player and it SINGS).

Anyway, enough of random vintage guitars, (much as I'd like to chat about them all day), I really need this schematic top get started on this guitar.

Phil

 

[Vikki]

Here's my 1962 Vox Phantom super, it has mostly the same effects as the guitar you describe. The repeat unit just seems to switch the volume up and down much like a tremelo effect only a bit more abrupt, i think the circuit is driven by a couple of germanium transistors wired in some sort of multivibrator sort of arrangement chopping the audi on and off. One think to check is the function switches they do go open circuit on odd poles.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/vikki227/phantom1.bmp
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/vikki227/phantom.bmp
Regards
Vikki (UK)

 

[OlympicPhil]

For a second there, I thought your .bmp files were the schematics.
Thanks very much for the info anyway... knowing it's a tremolo rather than a delay will help considerably.

I could still do with a schematic if anyone has one - it does look like there may be more models out there with this thing on, so please reply if you have a schematic for a "repeat" or "repeat percussion" control for any old Vox (or Eko) guitar.

Thanks again everyone for all your help, it's greatly appreciated.

Phil

 

[Gus]

http://www.voxamps.co.uk/support/circuits.asp

Maybe a circuit fragment from one of the organ schematic?

Geofex has a nice effect repair writeup.

 

[guitarandampnz]

Howdy,

I'm a newbie here (I've been reading the forums and meta's, trying to catch up on prior art before posting!), but I'm fairly familiar with guitar(s) like the one you're working on. The Vox built-in effects were essentially all available as outboard units (many were those plug-in-to-the guitar-jack-and-leave-it-hanging style things that were pretty common in the mid 60's), and the schematics for all those are available for $5 each at North Coast Music:

http://www.voxshowroom.com/northcoast/vox/schematics/fx.html

I've purchased schematics from them before, and they're OK quality for $5, especially for something like a simple amplifier or effect unit that fits nicely on an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet.

It looks like you would need 4 of them--the combined treble/bass boost, the distortion, the wah, and the "repeat percussion," so it would cost you $20--may or may not be worth it, depending on whether you ever plan to work on one of these guitars again!

The only problem is for some reason, they only let you buy 3 at a time (maybe because they consider it a service they provide, although $5 for a couple of photocopies and postage seems like an OK margin, even given scanning & cleaning up originals). Anyway, they're pretty helpful if you contact them, and will probably be able to figure out exactly which schematics you need (there seem to be a few different versions of the distortion, for example). If you explain your application, they may flex on the 3 schematic limit.

Sadly, I don't know of any source for free copies of these, although versions of the wah and distortion may be available around some of the effect building sites like GEO, etc. Hope this helps!

 

[guavatone]

Johnny come lately.... 8)
For Posterity:

Vox Effects
http://filters.muziq.be/schematics?page=5 / find Vox
http://schemas.narod.ru/vox.html
http://www.schematicheaven.com/effects.htm / find Vox
http://www.sugardas.lt/~igoramps/voxvalve.htm / Vox Valve Tone V810

Vox Organ
http://www.combo-organ.com/Schematic...entalV301H.zip
http://www.reinout.nl/?page_id=80
http://www.schematicx.com/tags/organ
http://www.theamericannight.com/voxproject/project.html
http://www.vintagevibe.com/misc/Vox Continental.pdf / Vox Continental
http://www.vintagevibe.com/misc/vox ...ontinental.pdf / Vox Super

http://www.cem3374.com/docs/Manuals/Vox/Continental_SM.pdf
http://www.cem3374.com/docs/Manuals/Vox/Super_Continental_Schema.pdf
http://www.cem3374.com/docs/Manuals/Vox/Jaguar_Schema.pdf

 

[mad.ax]

The Vox repeat percussion effect was called V809. Here's  some review of this effect which has also been made by Walco an Jen:
http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Effects/product/Walco/Sound-Go-Round/10/1

But I guess you'll be more interested bu the following link which shows the schematic!
http://analogguru.an.ohost.de/193/schematics/Vox_RepeatPercussion.gif

And here is the Walco variant which is different:
http://users.rio.com/senorris/wsgr.gif

Both those links comes from a thread on electro-music:
http://electro-music.com/forum/ntopic-22620.html

Another thread about the V809 on freestompboxes :
http://freestompboxes.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=2687

Axel

 

[vintagekiki]

https://music-electronics-forum.com/showthread.php?t=39569&p=385933&viewfull=1#post385933

Vox vintage guitars with built in effects

Vox vintage guitars with built in effects