Vox Shadow Guitar - 1961-1962
Shadow photos courtesy Doc Sigmier and used with his permission

The six string, single pickup, first-generation "Shadow" electric guitar was introduced by Vox as a student grade model in the 1962 Vox "Choice of the Stars" catalog.

Cliff Richards exploded onto the British music scene with his 1958 hit, "Move On." Along with his back up band, "The Shadows," featuring Hank Marvin on lead guitar, Cliff Richards generated a string of hit records in the UK from 1959 through the late sixties. John Lennon once stated that before Cliff and the Shadows there had been nothing worth listening to in British music.

Hank Marvin and the Antoria LG-50 Guitar

Many young UK musicians aspired to play the same Japanese made Guyatone LG-50 guitar as Hank Marvin of the Shadows. By 1960, JMI contracted with Guyatone to supply LG50 guitars that were privately labeled with the Vox logo to meet this demand. After about a year, Vox started to produce their own guitars in house, eliminating the need to import the LG-50 from Guyatone. A new "Shadow" model by Vox was introduced in the 1962 "Vox - Choice of the Stars" catalog and is shown at left. The outline of this 1961-62 Vox Shadow body mirrored the shape of the original LG-50.

The 1961-62 Shadow guitar featured dual chrome plated single coil pickups along with one tone and dual volume controls. A single pickup version, the "Stroller" was also offered.

The headstock of the 1961-62 Shadow guitar was equipped with a "three on a side" strip tuners with plastic buttons. The name "Shadow" appeared in green script on the top of the headstock. The nineteen fret bolt-on neck included a 1⅝" wide slotted plastic nut with a zero fret. Rather than having an adjustable truss rod, the neck was reinforced with an embedded steel rod. The Shadow utilized a basic string claw tailpiece and a floating wood and plastic bridge.

The laminated plywood bodies and rosewood topped sycamore necks for the 1961-62 Shadow guitars were fabricated for Vox by Stuart Darkins & Co, a furniture maker in Shoeburyness England. These parts were then shipped to JMI Vox facilities for assembly.

The Shadow guitar first appeared in the 1962 Vox product catalog where it was described, "With the same basic specification as the Stroller model but with additional controls which provide a wide variety of tonal effects. Red or White cellulose finish.."