Vox Cheetah V267
hollow bodied electric guitar with built-in effects

Pete Townsend on the Smothers Brothers show 1967, with his Vox Cheetah

The Vox Cheetah, or V267, was one of Voxs late sixties semi accoustic models sporting built in effects. Unfortunately the most famous piece of work involving this instrument is its destruction at the hands of Pete Townsend on the American Smothers Brothers TV show. This footage is available on the Who DVD The kids are alright (now available as an extended version, with new footage).

The built in effects are rather interesting, and consist of an E-tuner (plays a quiet E note), treble/bass boost, distortion (mild overdrive to full blown 60s fuzz) and repeat percussion. These are the same effects as on other vox guitars and basses of the period, though some also had a built in palm-operated wah wah pedal too. An identical model to the Cheetah, with added wah-wah was the V268 Vox Ultrasonic.

The original Vox literature describes the ultrasonic like this:

The controls are as follows:

1. Pickup selector switch; neck pickup only, bridge pickup only or both pickups
2. Master volume
3. Neck pickup tone control
4. Bridge pickup tone control
5. Treble/ bass boost control and on/off switch
6. Distortion level control and on/off switch (mild overdrive to extreme fuzz)
7. Repeat percussion speed control and on/off switch

Vox cheetah in action 2.3 MB. I recorded this clip purely to demonstrate the different tones available from the Vox Cheetah - the biting treble from the treble boost, the smooth jazz tones of the bass boost, and the effects; repeater, blistering 60s fuzz, and even the E tuner! Incidently the bass in this clip is a Gibson RD artist bass

Links

• Vox guitar museum
  Official Vox website.
• WHO tabs
  Pete Townsends equipment.
• Vox guitars on Ebay

Back to the VOX INDEX

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