Vox White Shadow Series Guitars and Basses - 1984-86

Vox White Shadow Guitar - "Strat" style Vox White Shadow Guitar - "LP" style

Vox White Shadow Six String Guitars - After their purchase of the Vox brand from Dallas Industries in 1978, Rose Morris (RM) hoped to restore Vox to it's former glory as a broad line supplier of amplifiers, guitars and effects. Guitars had been dropped from the Vox product line in the mid 1970's under the leadership of Dallas Industries. To reverse that trend, Vox rolled out four new guitars made by the Japanese contract manufacturer, Matsumoku, in 1982: the Vox Standard 24, the Vox Custom 24, the Vox Standard 25 and the Vox Custom 25. All four models were equipped with premium DiMarzio pickups. Three of the four models had maple bodies. The Custom 24 and 25 models featured "neck through body" construction and brass bridges. These guitars were designed to compete at the upper end of the market and were priced accordingly.

While it is desirable for a guitar manufacturer to offer high end instruments, a majority of guitar sales will be made in the mid-price range. Rose Morris introduced the Vox White Shadow Series of guitars and basses at the 1984 Frankfurt Musik Messe trade show to offer instruments in this popular sub £200 ($300 USD) price range.

The Vox White Shadow range was also produced by Matsumoku in Japan and included three guitar models and four basses. All shared the same shape sen wood body with pointed cutaway horns, Fender style "comfort contour" body, and an angular lower bout. Sen wood is also known as "Japanese ash," a light weight, fine grained wood that is blonde in appearance. The White Shadow guitars and basses were offered in red, white, blue and black polyester finishes.

For guitar, there was a "Strat" inspired model with three single coil pickups mounted to a white, single ply plastic pickguard and a "Fender style" six point vibrato system (see photos, upper left) and a "LP" inspired model with a pair of "PAF" style humbucking pickups with chrome covers and six point vibrato system (see photos, upper right). The humbucking model was offered with or without a coil tap and phase switch. There was yet another version of the White Shadow guitar (photo at left) that had a pair of humbucking pickups with exposed coils, a three-way pickup selector switch and a fixed (hard tail) bridge. The pickups and bridges were supplied by Gotoh.

The twenty-one fret, 25½" scale removable maple neck had a natural fretboard. The neck was ~1 11/16" wide at the nut, ~2" wide at the 12th fret and had a "C" profile. It was secured to the body by four screws and a chrome plated neck plate stamped "Made in Japan." The headstock featured sealed tuners, string trees for the E/B and D/G strings, a plastic nut and a "bullet" style truss adjustment.

Vox White Shadow Bass Guitars - The White Shadow bass guitar range was also produced by Matsumoku in Japan and introduced by Vox in 1984. The basses shared the same body shape as the White Shadow guitars with pointed cutaway horns, a Fender style "comfort contour" body and an angular lower bout. There were four models, as follows.

Model 2553 - A four string fretted bass with a Sen wood body, 34" scale, split "P-style" pickup with series/parallel switching capability, volume and tone controls, slender 24 fret "two octave" maple neck with a rosewood fretboard, micro-adjustable bridge, sealed Vox branded Grover style tuners, white plastic nut, string trees on the D and G strings, form fitting hard shell case, natural walnut polyester finish and a retail price of £183 (1984).

Model 2550 - A four string fretted bass with a premium mahogany body, 34" scale, split "P-style" pickup with series/parallel switching capability, volume and tone controls, slender 24 fret "two octave" maple neck with a rosewood fretboard, micro-adjustable bridge, sealed Vox branded Grover style tuners, white plastic nut, string trees on the D and G strings, form fitting hard shell case and a gloss black polyester finish.

Model 2552 - A four string fretless bass with a Sen wood body, 34" scale, split "P-style" pickup with series/parallel switching capability, volume and tone controls, slender maple neck with a rosewood fretboard, micro-adjustable bridge, sealed Vox branded Grover style tuners, white plastic nut, string trees on the D and G strings, form fitting hard shell case, natural walnut polyester finish and a retail price of £189 (1984).

Vox White Shadow Bass Guitars (1984-85)


Vox White Shadow "M-Series" Bass Guitars (1985-86)

Model 2551 - A four string fretless bass with a premium mahogany body, 34" scale, split "P-style" pickup with series/parallel switching capability, volume and tone controls, slender maple neck with a rosewood fretboard, micro-adjustable bridge, sealed Vox branded Grover style tuners, white plastic nut and string trees on the D and G strings. form fittting hard shell case and a gloss black polyester finish.

Vox White Shadow "M-Series" Bass Guitars - Vox added three range topping "M Series" models to the White Shadow bass range in 1985 (pictured at left). Two of these models were created by replacing the single split coil "P bass" style pickup on models 2550 and 2551 with a pair of "J bass" style pickups. A five string single pickup bass rounded off the lineup. M-Series basses were available in either a black or white polyester finish. M-Series basses finished in black featured accenting red binding.

Do you have any pictures or catalog images of Vox White Shadow instruments that you would be willing to share with the Vox Showroom? Please email them to voxshowroom@gmail.com and I will consider them to update the information on this page.



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