03/11/2019 Guitars: Vox Custom 24

String King Guitar Works - London, England

07722 053165 [email protected]

Home About Services Contact Us Blog

Featured Posts

Guitars
Vox Custom 24
September 5, 2017 | John

In 1992 the flat on the North

Peckham Estate I was living in
was burgled and my Westone
Vox Custom 24
Thunder Jet was stolen along with September 5, 2017
a Session 90 amplifier. Of course,
I’ve regretted their loss but the
theft of the guitar and the fact that Recent Posts
I was insured allowed me to seek
out a replacement. The new
What's Been On The
instrument I found in a guitar Bench: February '18
shop in Brixton, London was a February 15, 2018
Vox Custom 24. It is, quite simply,
a bit special. When I was lucky November '17
enough recently to spend some November 30, 2017
time learning with Crimson
Guitars, I based my new build on Vox Custom 24
the shape of the Custom 24.
 
 
September 5, 2017
I knew next to nothing about this
guitar for the first decade I had it. It was a Vox, but where was it made,
what was it made of, who designed it? A partial answer was supplied by a
friend of a friend who had an original Bell catalogue advert for the 1982
Vox production series.
 

https://www.stringkingworks.co.uk/single-post/guitars-vox-custom-24 1/5
03/11/2019 Guitars: Vox Custom 24

Although it does contain an error regarding the electronics of the Custom

24, the advert filled in a lot of the gaps. The Custom 24 is part of a set of six
guitars that Vox brought out that year which were in the catalogue until
1985: four electric tenor guitars and two basses. Of the four tenor guitars,
the Custom 24 is the top of the range. It has a through neck construction,
which, allied with a brass nut, provides long sustain. The guitars were
well-received by the press but didn’t sell as many as they should have
because their release coincided with the boom of electronic music and
the commonly held misconception at the time that ‘rock was dead’.
 
The Custom 24 has an comfortable ebony fretboard on a 24 3/4″ neck.
According to the advert the body/neck is made entirely of hard rock
maple. I am not so sure – to me it looks like there is some mahogany
involved because there are woods of different shades laminated in the
construction and some thin slices of walnut or something similar between
the large slabs. On the other hand it is seriously heavy, so it could well that
the slabs are entirely hard rock maple of varying shades. On the subject of
weight, I was proudly showing it to a friend recently who remarked on
how heavy it was. He couldn’t believe that I had rehearsed and gigged it
for years. Well, it was the only guitar I at at the time and I just loved playing
it. It’s also a tough old axe. When it was my workhorse guitar it got some
abuse and it emerged with very little to show for it.
 
The shape of the Custom 24 is somewhere between a Gibson SG and a
Yamaha SG, although it has more of an offset at the neck. The body has a
beautifully swept belly carving and the through neck carving allows very
comfortable access at the high end. The control cavity covers on the back

https://www.stringkingworks.co.uk/single-post/guitars-vox-custom-24 2/5
03/11/2019 Guitars: Vox Custom 24

of the neck are brass – no expense spared with this guitar, which was
clearly intended as what was called in those days a ‘Les Paul killer’. To be
honest, I’ve played a few Gibson Les Pauls and nearly all of them are no
better (and sometimes not so good).
 

In recent years, I found out that this

guitar and its colleagues were designed
and built by Matsumoku in Japan (which
explains some of the high quality detail).
It’s never been properly confirmed but
the body design is thought to be one of
Nobuaki Hayashi‘s creations. Nobuaki
(who worked under the name H. Noble)
was responsible for many innovative
designs coming out of the Matsumoku
factory in the 80s, especially under the
Aria brand. Nobuaki is still producing
some very strange designs under his own
Atlansia brand.
 
 
 
 
The pickups in this guitar are beasts. Vox
fitted twin blade Di Marzio X2N Power Plus humbuckers and even Di
Marzio rate these as their loudest pickups. That said, you can dial in a nice
warm clean sound if that’s your cup of tea. In the 90s I wanted loud
(what’s changed?) and these suited me fine. One thing I did do with the
guitar more recently, which is the only modification I have had to make, is
change the tone capacitors for paper-in-oils, which seem to really suit the
X2Ns. Like most factory guitars (even the high end ones) not much
attention is paid to the quality of the tone capacitors and this had the usual
green film caps in it, which is the only area where I can see any skimping
on quality. I don’t know why manufacturers pay so little attention to this as
they are saving, literally, pennies and compromising the final sound of the
guitar.
 
While the guitar boasts the usual two tones, two volumes control
arrangement, this guitar also has unusually delivered electronic extras,
designed by renowned master luthier Adrian Legg, who was working for
Rose Morris (who owned Vox at the time). Along with the three-way
selector switch, there is a series parallel switch for each pickup and also a
phase in/out switch. Most people are unable to make head or tail of the
unusual layout of the electronics in the Custom 24 and I have yet to see a
schematic. Out of the range of guitars produced that year, this is the only
one with this sort of arrangement and it gives the guitar a wide variety of
tonal possibility.
 
I have also owned a Standard 25 from this Vox range and it wasn’t
anywhere near the Custom 24 in terms of quality. I have never seen a
Standard 24 in the flesh but it looks like a lower end Custom with its set
neck, plastic nut and simpler electronics as well as a strat-style tremolo
bridge. 

https://www.stringkingworks.co.uk/single-post/guitars-vox-custom-24 3/5
03/11/2019 Guitars: Vox Custom 24

 
I was glad to see recently that Vox themselves have finally got around to
acknowledging their early 80s guitars and there is now a page on them on
their website. In their official history book, the otherwise excellent The Vox
Story, their lack of knowledge about their company history was such that
they said the Custom 25 was the higher end guitar (it isn’t, it is the 24).
 
If you see a Vox Custom 24 for sale and you have the cash, don’t hesitate –
buy it (before I do). It’s a great example of the best of Japanese luthiery in
the 80s.

If you've got a guitar problem you'd like us to have a

look at, contact us for a free assessment.

Tags: Guitars Vintage Guitars VOX VOX Custom 24

 
  Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

0 Comments Sort by Oldest

Add a comment...

Facebook Comments Plugin

https://www.stringkingworks.co.uk/single-post/guitars-vox-custom-24 4/5
03/11/2019 Guitars: Vox Custom 24

© 2019 String King Guitar Works UK

07722 053165  [email protected]

https://www.stringkingworks.co.uk/single-post/guitars-vox-custom-24 5/5