Prior to the introduction of the coffin shaped
Vox Apache 2 guitar, travel guitars were typically small bodied acoustic guitars with short scale necks. Their compact size made it possible to stow the instrument in the overhead luggage bin of an airplane. The Vox Apache Series expanded the concept of the travel guitar by incorporating a battery operated "drum box" and a 1 watt amplifier with twin speakers into the instrument. Despite all their features, the street price of the Vox Apache travel guitars was under $300 in the United States.
The Mark V bass (shown above) was introduced by Vox in 2013. It utilized the basswood body and 22 fret maple and rosewood neck from the Apache 2 bass. Unlike the Apache 2 bass, the Mark V featured three single coil pickups, a five position pickup selector and a vibrato arm. The Apache 2 and the Mark V shared a 24" (610 mm) scale length. A padded soft case was included.
The 2013 Mark V Bass was not available in the United States, but it was offered by Vox dealers in Japan and throughout Europe.