With a body featuring a prominent “lump” that begged to be removed, the Apache was the first of a series of oddly shaped Vox solidbody guitars, but it represented the fourth genre of musical instruments that the Jennings Musical Instrument company offered.

Like many European guitar brands of the 1960s, JMI had roots in the accordion business – not a multi-generational family company but as a British import business founded by accordion player Tom Jennings in 1945. By the end of the 1940s, Jennings was in the electronic organ business with a model called the Univox.

In the mid-1950s, as rock’n’roll was bringing the electric guitar to the forefront of pop music, Jennings began adapting organ amplifiers to guitars, and he teamed up with an Army buddy, Dick Denny, to create the first Vox amolifier in 1958.

A year later, JMI entered the guitar business with cheap models made by a British woodworking company. In 1961, the company added an in-house design team to create models worthy of the Voc brand name, and the Apache led this new wave of Vox guitars.