# Octaves, Zouks, Citterns, Tenors and Electrics > Four, Five and Eight-String Electrics >  12 string vox mandoguitar

## Ken Olmstead

Stumbled across this video and I really like the sound he gets out of this thing. He plays a slide solo later in the vid. Thought it had some emando interest.

Vox 12 string mandoguitar played by Ry Cooder.

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## Spruce

Yeah, I've got a Hammertone Octave 12, which is based on the Vox Mando-Guitar....

Very useful instruments.....

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## man dough nollij

That's a trip-- I've been listening to his stuff for a long time, so I expected him to be an old guy by now. I guess he would have been 60 at that concert-- he sure doesn't look it.

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## Spruce

That show in Santa Cruz was 21 years ago.....

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## Ken Olmstead

I think that clip is from 1987 according to the description. He sure has a great sound going there with the gospel back up singers and all. Very cool!

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## man dough nollij

D'oh! It says December 17th, 2007, but I guess that's just when the clip was posted.

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## Martin Jonas

Well, this is presumably how the Eko 12-string I posted about in the Ebay emandos thread is meant to be tuned and played. Does anybody know how Ry tuned that thing? Standard guitar one octave up?

Martin

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## mando.player

I was at the Allison Krause/Robert Plant show the other night and Buddy Miller had two or three of these that he was playing on and off through the night. I think I had more fun watching Buddy and Stuart Duncan than I did the rest of the show. It was a good time.

Stuart played an F shaped electric octave among other things.

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## Perry

Ok thanks now I gotta get one!

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## johnsmusic

Hammertone is no longer in business. Phantom Guitars is making them now. http://www.phantomguitars.com/ $699.
               John

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## Spruce

_"Does anybody know how Ry tuned that thing? #Standard guitar one octave up?"_

Sounds like open tuning to me. #What key is he in? #I don't have an instrument handy here....
Sounds like A, so I'm guessing E A E A C# E bottom to top if he's in A....

That clip is from a rare film made by Les Blank of Ry and Band in Santa Cruz. #Some unusual players (for Ry) in the band that night, including Van Dyke Parks on tic-tac piano, and Steve Douglas on sax. #Try to run down a copy if you can....

_"Ok thanks now I gotta get one!"_

Do yourself a favor and get a Hammertone. #(I just Googled "Hammertone", and a few came up for sale....)

They quit making these the last time I checked...

Anyway, the original Voxs never really did play right, with intonation problems galore.
That Eko is cool, but might suffer from the same problems.
It's a tough instrument to get "right", and the Hammertone nails it....

I went through a Hammertone phase about 3 years ago, and bought 3-4 looking for the "right" one.
Put one up on sale on E%&y, and lo-and-behold, Tom Petty gets ahold of me and says "if we give you 2 front row tickets to our show at the Gorge, will you hand deliver it?"

Duh.... #  

So-ooo, if you see Tom (actually Mike Cambell plays it these days) with a green Hammertone onstage, that's my old one....

Ted Beringer made me an acoustic version, and it's a killer little axe. #The scale is too small, but it works fine on tape...

These things are deadly effective on tape, doing all the things a Ricky 12 will do, but they stay out of the way of the vocal a lot better...

Here's a pic of Ted checking out the Hammertone that went to Petty, with his acoustic version right in front of him on the table...

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## Spruce

> Hammertone is no longer in business. Phantom Guitars is making them now. http://www.phantomguitars.com/ $699.
>  # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #John


Get a Hammertone....

They just _kill_ the Phantoms, or anything else out there....

And you can get a used one for 6-800.00....

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## Hans

Don't much care what he's playing...he can do no wrong. Thanks for the posting Ken!

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## jefflester

> ...I think I had more fun watching Buddy and Stuart Duncan than I did the rest of the show. #It was a good time.
> 
> Stuart played an F shaped electric octave among other things.


Pretty positive it's a guitar.

http://www.mandolincafe.net/cgi-bin....t=53740

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## johnsmusic

Spruce, here is another guy making them. Looks like Buddy endorses these. www.teoguitars.com/

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## Spruce

Yeah, those look cool...

8-900 bucks or so from what I can tell...

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## Paul Kotapish

David Lindley uses a lot of the original Vox mandoguitars on the El Rayo X recordings and in performance, too. Last time I saw the full band at the Fillmore they opened the night with both guitarists playing those things--killer sound.

Joe Veillette makes a great acoustic version of this instrument, too, although he tunes it to a high D rather than the full octave.



Check it out here.

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## Jim MacDaniel

As an alternative, Jerry Jones has the Danelectro-esque Neptune Shorty in their line-up. (You can hear an MP3 sample from <a href="http://www.indoorstorm.com/Jerry_Jones_Guitars_Neptune_Shorty_Octave_12_Strin  g_With_Gig_Bag_Turq_Our_Gj055-p-3719.htm

l" target="_blank">this dealer</a>.)

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## johnsmusic

Here is Teo Guitars Myspace with sound samples.
www.myspace.com/teoguitars #John

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## Jim MacDaniel

...and if you must have a retro color, Phantom offers solid colors as well.

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## delsbrother

> David Lindley uses a lot of the original Vox mandoguitars on the El Rayo X recordings and in performance, too. Last time I saw the full band at the Fillmore they opened the night with both guitarists playing those things--killer sound.


Here's a clip with Vox (though Dave's on e-zouk and steel):

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