Vox 33/55/77 Series

Vox introduced the Series 33, 55, and 77 in 2010 — Korean- and Indonesian-made instruments that shared the Virage II's electronics, hardware, and 3D body curve at significantly lower price points.

The Series 55 and 77 carried the same CoAxe pickups, MaxConnect bridge, wiring, controls, (slightly simpler) inlays, and tuners as the Virage II. The body shapes track closely: the SSC-55 follows the Virage II single-cut silhouette but as a solid body; the SDC-55 uses the same silhouette in a double-cut configuration. (The Virage II double-cut silhouette was used on the Series 99.) The HDC-77 doesn't replicate a Virage silhouette exactly but shares the 3D curve and uses a double-cut body with more angular horns. List prices in 2010 ran $1,700 for the Series 55 (street: ~$999) and $2,000 for the HDC-77 (street: ~$1,399), against the Virage II's $2,999 list. Additional colors were announced in 2011.

The playability difference between the Japanese Virage II and the Korean Series 55/77 is real but modest — closer to normal instrument-to-instrument variation than the gap between, say, a Fender and a Squier. The hardware and electronics are identical, which matters.

The Series 33 (SSC-33 and SDC-33) was made in Indonesia and shared the Series 55's hardware and electronics at a further reduced price point (~$700 street in 2010). The differences are cosmetic: simpler inlays, no pickguard, and a single CoAxe mode selector rather than two. Build quality is consistent with the 55 — the Indonesia origin is not a quality indicator here.

One footnote with market implications: the HDC-77 was the last production guitar Prince played; he owned seven of them. That association has pushed resale prices for the HDC-77 considerably above the rest of the Korean-made Series 55/77 line.