Vox Bassmaster Bass

Vox announced the introduction of their first guitars and basses in a 1960 magazine advertisement with the tag line, "A New Approach, the first of the new range of Vox guitars." The launch included six guitars (Consort, Escort, Ace, Duotone, Soloist and Hawaiian) and two basses, the Contour Bass and and the subject of this page, the Bassmaster.

Several years later, the 1962 "Vox - Choice of Leading Artists" catalog offered a significant number of new six string guitar models and specifically, four basses: the premium level Phantom Bass and Symphonic Bass and the entry level Clubman Bass and Bassmaster.

The 1962 Vox catalog described the Bassmaster as follows: "A fine bass guitar, red or sunburst finish. Special low frequency circuit, VOX pickup, separate tone and volume controls. Vox compensating bridge and tailpiece.

Like most Vox guitars and basses from this era, the Bassmaster was equipped with chrome plated Vox V-1 single coil pickups. The Bassmaster utilized two of these V-1 pickups in a most unusual way. While most two pickup instruments provide switching for pickup selection to maximize tonal variation, the Bassmaster did not. The Bassmaster pickups were hard wired to each other in parallel so one could not choose to operate or blend either pickup independently. The Bassmaster offered only two controls: one 250kΩ linear volume pot and a 250KΩ logarithmic tone pot coupled to a .05uf capacitor.

The pickups and controls were mounted to the pickguard. While single ply white plastic pickguards were used in early production, three ply white/black/white laminated pickguards would be incorporated later. The pickups were secured to the pickguard with spring loaded screws, enabling pickup height adjustments. Most Bassmaster basses, as the one shown at left, used a pickguard mounted 1/4" output jack for connection to the amp. However, instruments from earlier production often came equipped with a screw-on coaxial antenna style output jack mounted to the edge of the bass. This insured that one would need to purchase their replacement guitar cables from Vox.

The bodies and necks for the Vox Bassmaster bass were produced for Vox by one of two UK furniture sub-contract manufacturers, Stuart Darkins & Company of Shoeburyness, Essex or G-Plan of Hemel, Hempstead. Body and neck components were then shipped to JMI for final assembly.

Earlier Bassmaster basses had laminated plywood bodies while later production used solid mahogany. Production dates were stamped inside the neck pocket. The Bassmaster Bass was offered in a choice of either red, white or sunburst finishes.

The Vox Bassmaster featured a rosewood topped, sycamore neck with a 30" scale. The twenty fret neck was quite slender, only ~1⅜" wide at the nut and ~1¾" wide at the twelfth fret. Four individual, open gear tuning machines were incorporated. A zero fret improved sustain. The neck did not have an adjustable truss rod, it was equipped with two embedded steel rods for reinforcement.

The compensating bridge/tailpiece used on the Bassmaster was similar in concept to those used on Fender basses, allowing both intonation and string height adjustments. It included a removable chrome plated cover with a Vox logo.