Allow 3 letter words in the search

This is a limitation of the default mySQL fulltext search. Kemper would have to change the setting ft_min_word_len to 3 and then restart the mySQL server and rebuild the entire fulltext search index. 3 letter minimum would make the search index considerably bigger, that's why administrators are hesitant to do this.

Instead you can append a wildcard * to your search term, for example vox* or evh*
Of course this workaround isn't perfect because it will show other terms as well, like voxengo. But maybe this helps you a bit.

Rig Manager allows 1, 2, 3 letter searches.

Just out of curiosity I performed a search for "vox" (no inverted commas). The system returned threads were the word did not appear at all, such as this one.

The letters v, o, and x appear on that page. (they are all in the first post).

you mean that under the 4-letter words the engine searches for the single letters?

<facepalm>

LOL Thanks dude

Does the search go all the way back?

IDK, but it seems threads I know exist, I can't find with key search words. I usually have better luck either using Google, or going through my post history.