Old VOX "ORIGINAL " Acoustic guitar , , 50s, ,60s

[rxkevco]

Hi all, ,
My first post on this forum as i would like a little advice on identifying an old 50s (i think ) vox acoustic guitar.
It belonged to my dad who died 3 years ago now, , i have had this guitar ever since.
I still play, and i thank my dad for that, , i play martin, and taylor acoustics, i have a gibson les paul and some washburn and ibinez electrics as well as an ibinez bass . !
I write, record and produce my own music , and upload the songs to my soundclick webpage and have been getting quite a lot of songplays and postive comments. Anyway, , thats enough of an introduction, , lets talk about this guitar.

The guitar, , , right, ,
Its an old vox "original " and as far as i know, its from some point in the 1950s, possible early 1960s and has been dragged from pub to club throught the time my dad was in a few bands.
Its a beautiful sunburst colour with two F holes and pearl (? ) inlays.
The machine heads were changed at some point in the early 70s and overall, its not in the best of health.
I would just like to find out a little bit more about this guitar cos i have NEVER seen a picture of it on the internet anywhere, , and NEVER seen this guitar anywhere isn anybody elses posetion.
Hopefully if i have done this right, , here follows a few pics of the guitar for you to see.








Hope somone can be of some help, ,
Thankyou for looking, kev

[Riotonsunset]

Beautiful guitar.Did Vox Make guitars in the 50's?Roger?

[rxkevco]

Am not really sure about the 50s to be honest.
My mum seems to think that my dad had been playing for years with this guitar when i was born in early 1964. She cant remember if it was bought new or 2nd hand but thinks it came from hessys in liverpool city centre and was bought in the late 50s.

Around about the time my dad had this guitar, his mate johnny fallon, bought a brand new Gibson 335 dot and apparently it had the number 000002 or something the first one belonged to someone called big jim osullivan, and johny fallon bought the 2nd one, , , , a neihbour stole it from his house after he died in the 80s (alcoholic poisoning )and its since been sold despite his families efforrts to trace and get it back,,,,, going well off topic here, , , ,
The VOX is possibly from the 50s, , , dating the first uk 335 dot might be an indicator as they were bought within weeks of each other as far as my older family can recall.

[sneakypete]

yeah thats a beauty, I picked up a 1950 Kiso-Suzuki a couple of months ago here, looks like yours...and the more I play mine the more I love it, they are just so freakin cool. At least mine has a label so theres no doubt about the year, but the model design is very similar. Yours has F hole binding so harder to tell if it`s solid wood, how does the grain matching inside and out look?

[rxkevco]

Right, , my mum is convinced, beyond doubt, that my dad had this guitar when she first started dating him in 1958. As far as she is concerned, he had it for a good few years before then as well so its definetly a 1950s guitar , , probably early to mid 1950s as well ! !

I cant truthfully tell if its solid wood or laminate, but i think it looks pretty solid looking at the grain etc, , but not sure to be honest.

[RogerT]

Well...VOX didn't make that guitar. In 1959 they started marketing their electric solidbodies but in no way is that beauty a product of theirs.

That tail piece is very Hofner inspired and I have a Crucianelli made Vox Challenger with one of those it so it could be Italian in origin. If I am reading right, the sticker reads "original VOX", correct? Of course, we all know that VOX is Latin for VOICE and in this context it is probably meaningless much like a sticker that would read: NEW and IMPROVED!

I don't know what it is. Yet.

[rxkevco]

Hi Roger, , thanks for looking in.

As soon as i knew it was in my dads possesion pre 1958 i had to rule out vox altogether.
Isnt that strange, , all my life playing that guitar and thinking all along it was a vox ! !
My dad had a few hofners after this guitar, , i can remember for sure a hofner president and a senetor but this one, , i dont know.
Is it possible that the whole neck/headstock has been replaced at some point ? ?
I can only ever remember this guitar with the neck it has on it now, , from my earlist memories i can remeber the pearl inlay on the headstock and fretts.
So , , is it possible that its a bastardised hofner then ? ?
What is the neck off ? ? ?

So many questions and only just beginning to unearth some information after all these years , , , , ,keep it coming chaps, i need to know if its worth restoring or indeed insuring ? ?

Heres a few more close up pictures to give you a closer veiw of some points that may be of intrest.

The " vox " sticker, , , I cant believe a high quality guitar would come with a sticker on it, , and i dont believe for a minute my dad would have stuck one on his pride and joy !


The headstock , ,


The neck joint, , All looks very intact and original to me, but i am no expert.


The tailpiece , , Very rusty, , and very original i think.



The rear binding, , , it looks like its either been removed altogether and has worn flat over the years, or never had a rear binding to start off with and has worn away, , looks like layers of laminate, , i think, ,

[jeff mercer]

[sneakypete]

[rxkevco]

[RogerT]

[jeff mercer]

Thats HOPF, Roger..Merry Xmas, all

[RogerT]

[rxkevco]

Ok then guys, , we have established that its a HOPF guitar, , , does anyone know anything about them ? ?
As much as i have been able to find out is that they are german , , and been around since god knows when , ,if its the same company then they were making violins and orchestral stringed instruments since the 1800s, ,

Is it worth restoring this guitar if possible, , and is it worth anything ? ?
Cheers , , , kev

[VintAxe]

Hey rxkevco,

Yeah, it is essentially the same Hopf family that produced violins in the 1800. However, the factory we now think of as Hopf was started after WWII in Taunusstein near Wiesbaden. Willy Hopf started the company and his three sons joined in. Son Dieter was the trained guitar builder and oversaw the production of stringed instruments.

The first Hopf electrics were probably built in the mid 1950s. The 1960s were Hopf's heyday and during the 1970's they steadily decreased production. In the end, they stopped production and began to market Japanese instruments under the name Aztec. However, during this period I think Dieter Hopf continued to produce high quality classical guitars.

The information contained in this reply is derived from Norbert Schnepel's book "Electro-Gitarren Made in Germany". This is a great book on German guitars, just out of print and very difficult to find.