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NGD: Vox Virage Korina (custom)


jwhitcomb3

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This arrived yesterday. Custom made (1 of 3 ) Vox Virage SC in Korina, made in Japan. I'd seen pictures of these for years, never thought one would pop up for sale. I'm unsure when this was made, but the Virage line ran from 2007 to 2012. There are no markings on this guitar other than the VOX on the headstock. Fully chambered, it is really thick but weighs 6.5 lbs. 25 1/8 scale, medium neck (butterfly inlays), light cast aluminum 1 piece bridge/tailpiece, two DiMarzio 3-90 pickups (made custom for/with Vox), although I think these may have been wound differently from the stock ones (I also have a Vox Virage DC that has the stock pickups). Each has a 3 way switch to change the coils from a single coil, P90, and (mini) humbucker sound, all noiseless. The body is arched both from top to bottom and side to side, so it wraps around your body, making it super comfortable to play. The build is AMAZING. Just getting to know this puppy, but I'm smiling after the first session through my Boss Katana.

Will upload larger pix soon.

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12 hours ago, jwhitcomb3 said:

 

                        I remember those guitars!............................      I played both models at 'TWIN TOWN' guitars in Minneapolis. They were designed by Rich Lasner who did the Weddington and  Pacifica 1412 and 1421 guitars for Yamaha. I thought they were pretty cool and worked well but when I looked at them the price on both............................. they were over 2K! I know they had trouble selling them at that price point ................... and they had them for a quite a long time.........................then suddenly they were gone  so someone got them. Congrats! 

 

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21 hours ago, ARM OF HAMER said:

 I remember those guitars!............................      I played both models at 'TWIN TOWN' guitars in Minneapolis. They were designed by Rich Lasner who did the Weddington and Yamaha Pacifica 1412 ans 1421 guitars for Yamaha. I thought they were pretty cool and worked well but when I looked at them the price on both............................. they were over 2K! I know they had trouble selling them at that price point ................... and they had them for a quite a long time.........................then suddenly they were gone  so someone got them. Congrats! 

 

These came to my attention after the 2010 NAMM show when Vox introduced a line of lower priced guitars based on the Japanese made Virage guitars with similar features (and the same hardware) that were made in Korea: the HDC-77 (hollow, double cutaway), the SSC-55 (solid single cutaway), and the SDC-55 (solid double cutaway). I wanted to try an HDC-77, but no local stores carried them. A few years later a local store had a used SSC-55, basically a solid version of the guitar pictured above with flamed maple over mahogany, and a new generation of pickups. I bought it right away, and continue to enjoy it. A couple years back I found a Virage DC (like a small bodied ES335) on ebay for $899 delivered (with the bonus feature of it having been used on the TV show "Glee," which I hadn't even heard of and still haven't seen). That too is a great guitar. So the Korina one is now my 3rd of this family. Yeah, they're weird. Yeah, I like weird guitars. 

Prices on the HDC-77 guitars have gone through the roof recently, as Prince used one in his stage act toward the end of his life. It's funny, because they now fetch more than the Virage DC, and it was originally pitched as a lower cost alternative to the Virage DC. Ah, fame. 

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Not weird, I'd say unique, don't see them every day, actually I've never heard of them. The quality is almost evident in the pictures, beautiful really. The Japanese build some high quality instruments. Gretsch, Epi Elites, the old law suit guitars etc etc.

Congrats.

 

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Brought this to its first band practice last night. It sounded good. Sadly, too good. This guitar has a big, full voice, far to genteel for my band's trashy surf-glam-punk sound (example below):

It was like bringing a trained opera singer to a campfire sing-along: great voice, just out of place. No worries. I love the guitar, just pretty sure this band isn't a good vehicle for it. 

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An acquaintance of mine has one.  (SC55?) It seems to be pretty snappy sounding overall and quite versatile.  His current band veers from lounge jazz to pretty hard blues and it seems to fit in pretty well whatever they tackle.  A local store had a couple but they disappeared before I had a chance to take them for a spin.

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