Vox Tornado, sunburst, made in Italy 1967. Vox introduced their iconic amplifiers in 1957, and by the early 60s were also offering guitars and basses to a booming Brit-rock scene. By 1964, demand was such that they moved production on most of their guitar line to the Eko facility in Italy, so this beauty was made there just a couple of years later. One super obvious highlight is the neck: it's a three-piece laminate maple job, a similar idea to the Ibanez wizard neck a couple of decades later. It's still arrow-straight after all these years, and is pretty quick and easy to move around on as it's carved to a very agreeable vintage C shape. The truss rod and frets are in good shape too, impressive for it's age. The body is fully hollow, a pleasing light weight and blessed with comfy proportions, so this makes a great little couch guitar as it's loud enough to hear but small enough to lounge about with. The single pickup is pretty impressive too: plenty of output, chiming highs, heaps of punchy attack. I really enjoyed plugging it into a cranked AC30 and getting some riffs out, it's a lot of fun to play and hear. The other thing I love about this is the quirky styling: the three tone burst on the sides of the body, the headstock apparently shaped like a tornado, the cute little button tuners... aw, it's adorable. It's fair to say these don't come up often around these parts. Let's finish with some John Moreland: "my baby's a Tornado in the endless Oklahoma sky, spinning devastation and singing me a lullaby."

Model: Vox Tornado
Made: Italy, 1967 approx, Eko factory
Finish: three tone sunburst, gloss poly
Body: laminate maple (unverified), fully hollow, 76mm deep, 380mm across
Neck: 3-piece maple, rosewood board, 42mm at nut, 25.5" scale, 15" radius
Weight: 2.325kg
Mods: none
Pickups: Vox "six pole high frequency extended range pickup", fairly hot, 1x single coil
Case: basic non-original hard case

Cosmetic condition notes: minor finish wear. The headstock has some scuffs on the end and both edges. The neck is clean and smooth in the hands, minor dimples on the back only. The back has some light scuffs on the back and bottom edge and near the neck plate, plus some dimples in the elbow area. The sides have light scuffs on both horns and elbow area and some dimples and scuffs near the jack. The front has a minor dent near the binding in the elbow area, dimples near the knobs and play wear on the guard and horns. Overall: very good condition (8/10).

Playing condition notes: The neck is straight, intonation is good, action is low, truss rod works. All electronics tested and working properly. The frets look pretty reasonable for their age, 7/10 for fret life left. Setup with fresh 11/49 Moonshiners strings.