Know anything about Vantage Guitars?
W. Russell Nix
I recently came across an online auction in which a Vantage
classical guitar (model #VSC 20CE Cutaway) is being auctioned off. From
the pictures, it looks to be a pretty nice guitar but I can't find out
anything about Vantage or this particular guitar.
Have any of you heard of this company? Do they produce a good
quality instrument? I know that I may be stretching with this one but,
have any of you played a Vantage classical (preferably this model)?
What did you think of it? Would you rate it as a beginner,
intermediate, advanced, or professional quality instrument? I suspect
that it wouldn't be considered "professional" since it does have built
in electronics and it is a cutaway model. Classical guitarists are a
bit picky when it comes to being guitar purists. For that reason a lot
of professional CG'ers wouldn't dream of touching a guitar that was
asymmetrically shaped (i.e. cutaway) or had built in pickups and
controls. For that reason I think that this model could be considered
advanced at best.
Finally, do any of you have any idea about how much this guitar
should sell for if it is in very good to excellent condition?
Any help that anyone could offer me would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks so much in advance!
Russell
--
W. Russell Nix
Texas A&M University
Political Science Department
Peter MacDonald
<wrn...@pop.tamu.edu> wrote:
>Hi everyone!
>
> I recently came across an online auction in which a Vantage
>classical guitar (model #VSC 20CE Cutaway) is being auctioned off. From
>the pictures, it looks to be a pretty nice guitar but I can't find out
>anything about Vantage or this particular guitar.
> Have any of you heard of this company? Do they produce a good
>quality instrument?
----------- snip --------------
Info from the Blue Book of Guitars, 4th ed.
"Instruments currently produced in Korea. Original production was
based in Japan from 1977 to 1990.Distributed by Music Industries
Corporation of Floral Park, New York since1987.
"This trademark was established in Matsumoto, Japan around 1977.
Instruments have been manufactured in Korea since 1990. Vantage
offers a wide range of guitars designed for the beginning student to
the intermediate player."
They don't list a model VSC 20CE, but they do list VC20 CE with these
specs:
"classic style, cedar top, round soundhole, bound body, wooden inlay
rosette, ovangkol back/sides, nato neck, 12/19 fret rosewood
fingerboard/tied bridge, ovangkol peghead veneer, 3 per side gold
tuners with plastic buttons. Available in natural finish. Current
mfr."
"single round cutaway, piezo bridge pickup, 3 band EQ with volume
slider control".
MSRP $439. Used prices range from $325 for 100% condition to $110 for
60% condition.
Haven't played one, can't comment directly. Just quotin'.
Peter
sipth...@gmail.com
I would add that there were two Matsumoku (the parent company of Vantage, Westone, etc.) factories in the seventies/eighties, one of which made crappy copies of strats, les pauls, etc, but the OTHER of which made some pretty great-sounding guitars with more advanced electronic options -- split coil/reverse phase, some HSH (humbucker-single coil-humbucker) ones with push-pull knobs for coil tapping, etc.
I have a Westone HSH that I've modified so I can get Strat, Les Paul, Peter Green reversed-neck pickup aounds, with all phase relationships and an indpendent single coil with its own volume knob, a concentric pot for the neck and bridge tappable humbuckers, a master volume for those two separate from the single coil, and a master-out volume for the entire ganged output. VERY happy with it.
Also has a sculpted heel that's very nice for high fret work.
One of these branches was based in St. Louis, and the other in California, I think, not sure which was which.
Anyone who remembers more, I'd love to hear from you... and I'm always on the lookout for HSH Matsumokus... even parts.
Tony Done
> On Saturday, September 19, 1998 12:00:00 AM UTC-7, W. Russell Nix wrote:
> I would add that there were two Matsumoku (the parent company of Vantage, Westone, etc.) factories in the seventies/eighties,
one of which made crappy copies of strats, les pauls, etc, but the OTHER
of which made some pretty great-sounding guitars with more advanced
electronic options
-- split coil/reverse phase, some HSH (humbucker-single coil-humbucker)
ones with push-pull knobs for coil tapping, etc.
>
>
>
Where did you the info about two factories? - The Matsumoku factory was
in Japan, Nagoya maybe, not the US.
I have a 1982 Westone Rainbow 1, 335 knockoff. Very well made except for
the tailpiece, and a little dark sounding. I put in some brighter
pickups, SD Jazz, and coil switching options
--
Tony Done
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=784456
http://www.flickr.com/photos/done_family/
dsi1
don't know anything about them but I used to search eBay for them over
10 years ago because they were under-valued and could be had for a
couple of hundred bucks. Oddly enough, that would probably be around the
time that the message you're responding to was posted. :-)
Tony Done
dsi1
through eBay. It's a great guitar. Boy, that was a steal!
