Guitar manufacturers at times introduce instruments with unusual body shapes to gain attention and noteriety for the brand. Some examples of past strange guitar body shapes include the Gibson Flying V and the rectangular Gretsch G6138 Bo Diddley guitars. Vox was no stranger to this practice. They introduced the coffin shaped "Phantom" guitars and basses in 1962 and the teardrop shaped "Mark III" guitars and basses in February 1964. Soon after came the three pickup Vox "Apache," another oddly shaped guitar seen in the catalog image at left. It debuted in the fall 1964 Vox "Pop People with the Top Sounds" product catalog. The body of the Apache resembled that of a misshapen Vox Mark III teardrop guitar. The tip of it's head stock had a whimsical upward curl. Vox resurrected these Apache body and head stock shapes in 2024 with the introduction of the APC-1 guitar. With it's built-in one watt analog amplifier, digital effects, E-tuner and rhythm machine, the battery operated APC-1 was the successor to the similarly equipped Vox Apache Series travel guitars and basses from 2011. These earlier guitars were offered in either the Phantom or Teardrop body style. The head stock of the Vox Apache Series guitars displayed the Apache name alongside an image of a Wright Apache biplane. While Vox refrained from including the "Apache" name on the APC-1 headstock, they still included the illustration of the Apache biplane (see image below). The APC-1 was a 24" scale, 22 fret guitar with a poplar body, maple neck and a purple heart fretboard. Purple heart is a long grained hard wood grown in Central and South America that is actually harder than rosewood.

The circuitry that generated the suite of battery operated features on the APC-1 was mounted beneath the pickguard. Power was supplied by 6 x AA batteries that slipped into a compartment on the rear of the guitar. The APC-1 was equipped with a single humbucking pickup and an internally mounted one watt analog guitar amplifier with Gain, Tone and Volume controls plus a Boost switch. Four digitally generated effects were also included: Chorus, Tremolo, Delay and Reverb. Tektonic Audio Labs provided a 4.6cm wide response speaker and two passive radiators to create extraordinary sound quality. The speaker components were isolation mounted to avoid feedback issues. The internal rhythm machine offered 11 genres, each with 3 variations, totalling 33 patterns. Tempo and Volume controls were also included.