Little needs to be said to introduce one of the great brands in the guitar world: VOX. It is known especially for its amplification, with a classic British flavor and a prized, unmistakable sound. The best, for many. Starting from such a weighty reference, our curiosity grew enormously when we began to learn about the company's electric guitar developments. Today, fully satisfying that desire,
we've put one of these pieces to the test. Specifically, the Vox Virage that will be given to one of the winners of the 6th Edition of the ISP Música Guitar Solo Contest. Let's check out the “beast”…
Introduction
The 33 series is similar in finish to the 55, solid-body Vox guitars. It is a family of instruments that strives to offer the cutting edge of the technologies the brand applies, keeping the price as close as possible to the musician who has to work hard to afford one. The 33 series is available in several finishes, in maple and mahogany, or mahogany alone, in several colors and in double or single cutaway format. The model we have today is the Vintage Cream with a single cutaway.
The intention of this family of guitars is to achieve the perfect harmony of vintage, the sound most prized by many guitarists, without falling into cheap reproductions of obsolete instruments. Advances in design, ergonomics, assembly, electronics and so on offer more comfortable and flexible possibilities than instruments from 40 years ago. So we detect an effort to deliver quality, tradition, sound, technology and price.
Construction and Finish
The guitar is built with a mahogany body, which gives it good tonal density and tasty sustain. As I mentioned a little above, the general flavor of the instrument is retro, in its design and looks too. Even so, there are many construction details that make the guitar more accessible and comfortable to play, whether standing or sitting. This may sound trivial, and guitarists sometimes overlook it, but the fact that the instrument is well thought out to fit our body and let us play comfortably live, in the studio and so on makes our playing flow more smoothly.
Vox has chosen a 683 mm scale length this time to strike a good balance between harmonic brightness and clarity, as well as comfort in playing our runs.
As for the bridge, we find the VOX MaxConnect, made from an aluminum alloy that maximizes tone and sustain possibilities. They have also made sure to offer a wide adjustment range on the bridge saddle, which lets us install any string gauge; with the right setup, it will work beautifully (whichever gauge that is).
Electronics
This is another of the guitar's most developed aspects. The CoAxe pickups deliver two especially distinct tones. One of them is particularly bright, with a portentous (even divine, I'd say) attack. We get a distinct difference between a cleaner option and a second, more “scrappy” and aggressive one.
To control the pickups (bridge and neck) we have the following elements:
- Volume knob
- Tone knob
- Pickup selector (bridge, neck and both)
- Mode selection (clean and solo)
Service
There are several more details I consider important regarding the instrument. In addition to its technical and acoustic characteristics (which I wrap up below), I think it's important to bear in mind that, if we decide on this instrument, we have the backing of the VOX brand and of its importer, Letusa. Both are heavyweights in the musical instrument industry. That provides certain added guarantees.
Among other things, and so this doesn't sound like an empty echo, I can confirm that the instrument comes in a comfortable, elegant gig bag, soft but with reinforcement on the back to properly protect the guitar.
We also get a manual in Spanish, covering every aspect of the piece we've just bought and a detailed chapter on how to adjust the neck and bridge if we want to customize the string gauge. As standard, we find .010 - .046 sets. Logically, the VOX Virage comes set up exactly for that gauge. If you need to put on a .009 or go for heavier strings, you just have to readjust to keep all the quality parameters the guitar gives you.
The Tests
I plugged the guitar into a tube amp with a 4x12" speaker cabinet. The four-speaker cab gave it a thick, powerful tone, combined with a masterful, excellent brightness from the VOX. I love that bright, full sound and the punch we can get. With the Virage SSC 33 we can play the same note across a wide dynamic range. That is, we have an extreme spread when it comes to playing, and so our phrasing can be full of a great many nuances that would be lost on a flatter, poorer instrument.
The sound strikes me as especially appealing for blues, funk and British-flavored styles. It's a punchy, sharp guitar, yet very balanced. The blend between lows and highs is very harmonic, and playing it is comfortable when it comes to expressing “detail.” It's like when you hit a snare drum: you can get a flat, systematic, repeated hit, or you can find a snare (and a player who knows how) that pulls a thousand sounds out of the same piece, with harmonics, rim touches, denser, thinner, more stick, more definition… That means that in a break, or even without any apparently great flourishes, an impressive amount of nuance comes through. I don't know if I'm making myself clear, but that is exactly what the Vox Virage SSC 33 VC has.
The fact that it has attack doesn't mean it can't be tamed, by cutting treble, choosing the denser pickup, and using the “mode” selector to set up something duller or more cutting. You choose.
Finally, I think it's essential to underline its excellent intonation, tuning stability, ease of finding harmonics, sustain and so on.
Conclusions
There's little left to say that hasn't already been said. Backed by the manufacturer and by a distributor with tradition and know-how. A competitive, “pedigreed” instrument, stable in tuning and tonal balance. Its designer or team has sought to keep the VOX flavor, launching an instrument capable of offering plenty of nuance, good construction and an extraordinary quality/price ratio.
It's probably not one of the most versatile guitars I've tested, but for a good variety of settings and styles (pop, rock, blues, funk, even jazz) it more than holds its own against others that cost twice as much.
Especially if you're into the Vox sound, you can't miss this big guitar. And if you don't know exactly what it's about, go to the store and try it. What it offers for what it costs deserves consideration and, if not, let the winner of the 6th edition of the guitar solo contest tell us about it when he takes it home for free. Haven't sent in your solo yet? What are you waiting for, pal? You could take this guitar home, free, right now.
06/25/2012
