| Reviewer
| Jon Casselman
|
| Experience
| 35 plus
|
| Review date
| July 31 2003
|
| Manufacturer
| Vox
|
| Model
| Constellation IV
|
| Price
| $530.00 US
|
| Item owned for
| 2-5 years
|
| |
|
| Bass type
| 4 string fretted
|
| Neck join
| Bolt-On
|
| Neck construction
| 3 piece
|
| Fingerboard
| Bound Rosewood with 21 Frets
|
| Body
| Teardrop Semi-Acoustic Bass
|
| Finish
| Sunburst
|
| Pickups
| 2 Vox Ferro-Sonic Single coil
|
| Hardware
| Vox original Chrome
|
| Electronics
| Passive pickups with active built-in effects
|
| |
|
This bass was designed and manufactured in the mid 60's. Although, the
designs were created by Vox (UK) and Thomas Organ (USA), their guitars and
basses were manufactured in Italy by two different guitar manufacturers.
One was Olivero Pegini Co. (EKO) and the other was Crucianelli. The
Teardrop and Phantom guitars were made by EKO.
The Constellation IV has a Semi Acoustic Teardrop body design and features
three built-in onboard effects. It's scale is 30" and has two Vox
Ferro-Sonic pickups. The bass balances nicely and is very comfortable to
play. It's neck is fully bound and has position markers all the way up it.
It's also narrower than most bass guitar necks which makes it very easy
and fast to play. My experience with this neck is that it suits medium
gauge strings such as 45-65-80-105. Should and neck adjustments be
necessary, the neck is supported with a T-shape truss rod which is fully
adjustable and assessable at the body-neck joint on the front side of the
bass.
My bass is finished in Sunburst with a fully double bound body. The bass
has a backpad on the back of it to protect the wood from belt and buckle
rash and also to cover the electronics pocket where the onboard 9 volt
battery resides.
The battery provides the power to the built-in effects which are G-Tuner,
Distortion and Bass/Treble Boost. Each effect has a on/off switch to
activate the effect. The Distortion and Bass/Treble Boost also have a
separate control knob to control the amount of the effect.
The bass has two high output, wide range Vox Ferro-Sonic single coil
pickups which are hot!! They're controlled by one volume knob and two tone
knobs along with a three-way pick-up selector toggle switch.
These effects are a lot of fun and give the bass added personality. The
Teardrop body design, thin neck and large headstock make the bass standout
by itself. My bass is Sunburst but these were available also in Cherry
which is beautiful if you can find one in good condition.
Vox provided the Constellation IV with a nice hardshell case that works
well to protect the bass and looks pretty cool as well. If you are going
out to buy a Vox, try to make sure the original hard shell case is
included. If not, then a generic new case will fit it.
| Construction
| 95% | 
|
| (Especially for a mid 60's made instrument.)
|
| Appearance
| 95% |
|
| (Only a Vox could look like this! Teardrop forever!)
|
| Playability
| 98% |
|
| (Just a lot of fun, great.)
|
| Sound
| 98% |
|
| (Outstanding, versatility uncompared)
|
| Value
| 95% |
|
| (These are going up in price yearly, get one now!)
|
| Overall
| 95% |
|
| (Great bass, great sound, fun to play!)
|
This page is part of the BGRA
The BGRA is generously underwritten by David King.
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