Very impressed with this Vintage guitar

Voxman

Went to a garden party last night & had a jam on my friend's Vintage VSA535. I've always thought of Vintage as cheap & not very well made.  But I was very impressed with this one. It retails at £379 and as far as I can see the finish was excellent, nut nicely cut, good string spacing, and a great action with a rosewood fingerboard and no fret-buzz or choking on bends.  Pick-ups sounded really good too, and all the knobs/selectors & machine heads felt good & stayed in tune beautifully.  The neck was superb - really comfy.  

I tell you guys, nowadays you really don't need to spend a fortune to buy a really good professional sounding & playing guitar.  This Vintage would put more than a few 'name' brand guitars at 3-4 x the price to shame and having played a couple of the Epiphone versions at similar price, this makes them sound & feel like a piece of junk by comparison - there's just no contest in build quality, set-up & tone. 

lustycourtier

Sounds like you were drunk. 

Voxman

lustycourtier said:

Sounds like you were drunk. 

Nope, just open-minded.  - booze came later

Sassafras

I've got one of these. AV-2.
It cost me less than a £150 and it's one of my favourites. Most people who've tried it have been pleasantly surprised by it's versatility.

mbe

Looks slightly better now they have done away with the Bart Simpson headstock.

Voxman

mbe said:

Looks slightly better now they have done away with the Bart Simpson headstock.

Didn't realise there's been a change - both look OK - I think I quite like the Bart Simpson headstock though.

lustycourtier

Voxman said:

lustycourtier said:

Sounds like you were drunk. 

Nope, just open-minded.  - booze came later

I do jest, I've played quite a few and some are really good. The AFD ones were good 

EricTheWeary

My Vintage bass is a bit knackered but you have to make a fair leap in price to get anything notably better.

They have a few endorsers and whilst they probably don't all play them all the time I remember Eric Bell having one as his main guitar for a while. Midge Ure was using one before they got him a sig model ( probably a better guitarist than many might realise if you only know him from Ultravox or Band Aid). 

My issue is that for some of the more recent models there's a bit of overdesign - lot of knobs and different functions; not my kind of thing. 

stimpsonslostson

I've had a few Vintage guitars over the years. They were all good guitars- easy to play, good sounding & well finished, but I never really gelled with any of them apart from the SG Jr clone I still have. Those are excellent but hard to find as Gibson put a stop to em. 

My only real criticism of the brand is the name "Vintage". I can see why they did it though. Every search for "Vintage Les Paul" "Vintage Stratocaster" or even "Vintage Guitar" will show their products. 

Voxman

EricTheWeary said:

They have a few endorsers ...

Yup, my friend is one of them - he's a professional Elvis (Elvis Schmelvis) and 'rat pack' (Ricky Lopez) performer - you'll see him with some Vintage guitars on the site:

http://www.shmelvis.com

stimpsonslostson

Voxman said:

EricTheWeary said:

They have a few endorsers ...

Yup, my friend is one of them - he's a professional Elvis (Elvis Schmelvis) and 'rat pack' (Ricky Lopez) performer - you'll see him with some Vintage guitars on the site:

http://www.shmelvis.com

Ian Savage had an endorsement deal with them too. 

cliddell

I just sold a Vintage VHE100 a few months back. I bought it as "shop soiled" a few years ago to use as a sacrificial guitar to safely practice setup stuff (mainly truss rod adjustment and fret dressing). When it arrived, it was superbly setup, no sharp/rough spots on the frets. I switched to heavier strings, and the damn thing still didn't need adjusting.

There were some very minor cosmetic blemishes, but nothing that affecting playing, and nothing you'd spot without a special effort.

My only complaints were that the pickups were rather dull, even for 'buckers, and I didn't like the balance of it on the strap.

The only reason I sold it was that with an Eggle Berlin and a PRS S2 Mira, my shorter scale, humbucking "needs" were more than adequately covered, without the hassle of swapping out pickups.

(I do agree about the shonky brand name, though!).

midlifecrisis

i have 2 vintage acoustics which are great, i had a vintage les paul style which was ok, nothing special and i had a vintage flying V which was lovely, i like vintage brand stuff but agree its a daft name.

Lozboy

I have always been impressed with the Vintage brand.

EricTheWeary

stimpsonslostson said:

Voxman said:

EricTheWeary said:

They have a few endorsers ...

Yup, my friend is one of them - he's a professional Elvis (Elvis Schmelvis) and 'rat pack' (Ricky Lopez) performer - you'll see him with some Vintage guitars on the site:

http://www.shmelvis.com

Ian Savage had an endorsement deal with them too. 

Yeh, I had meant to mention that oddly enough. 

rossi

A ll the ones I have played have been good .The only one I own is the very quirky  black Zip and  though it has  the very odd twin strat humbucker pickup  is a very good guitar.It cost me 30 quid off Gumtree  .It has a far lower string action  than many ten times the price and a great bluesy vibe .The tele  V52 i played was very nice too .I have fancied their Donahue model for some time now .Trevs stuff is well designed and made for its price point .

mbe

I bought a Zip for playing slide and I had to shim up the nut the action was so good.

You're right it does have that element of desperation in it's sound so well fitted to the Blues. 

UnclePsychosis

I used to have one of their Jazz basses, it was a great wee instrument and I had at least two or three soundmen at gigs ask what it was because it sounded so good. 

Probably shouldn't have sold it but I got GAS. Oops. 

Always fancied a Zip, never found one locally though 

Three-ColourSunburst

Aren't some of these guitars sold under the Vintage name also sold at little more than half the price by Thomann under their Harley Benton brand name? For example, aren't the Vintage V100AFD Paradise and the Harley Benton SC-550 Paradise Amber Flame pretty much the same guitar? 

strumjoughlamps

I have had a few Vintage brand in my time, pre and post Trev Wilko.. always been impressed with them for the money, especially the VS6 SG I should have never sold.

prowla

I had a Vintage SG on my shopping list for a while; however, after I recently sold a couple of guitars and had some spare cash, a real Gibson came up instead.