Vintage guitars

[RUSSET]

I bought a Vintage 'Mick Abrahams' Signature SG model earlier this year. It is basically a good SG copy in Matt lacquer, Cherry finish & some mild relic distressing. It has two Wilkinson P90 pickups, double tone & volume pots & a 3-way selector. It cost me less than £300; I can't remember exactly how much, but I think about £260. I have never had an SG before for, so I have nothing to compare it with. I would probably describe the tone as 'Les Paul - Light' . It's a really good guitar, especially for the price paid.

I also have a Fret-King version of the Les Paul Junior in Cherry with two Wilkinson P90s. This sounds similar, except that it has a general fuller tone & a body that is a lot thicker. That one cost between £300-350.

I have an Epi Les Paul Standard in Honeyburst. I was never quite satisfied with the original rather mushy, overpowered humbuckers, so I put in a pair of Wilkinson Vintage style humbuckers of 8-9 K each, & was delighted with the improved tone. OK, it's not a real Gibson, but neither is the cost, & when you wind it up you do get that powerful Gibson - like roar. I'm very happy with all the Wilkinson products I have tried, especially the pickups.

My friend has a cheap Tokai Strat(Chinese) that he picked up for a song on Ebay. He installed a set of Wilkinson pickups & a real Fender bridge/trem, & it sounds superb, particularly for Shads tunes.

Tony.

[hansaustria]

Hi Dave !

I have one Lemon drop - these are old clips but you can hear the Vintage ! I had problems
with the guitar to keep staying in tune in live situations !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMEBhh-7Jbs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alUgxoCbzi4


Hans

[dave robinson]

One difference is that each of the Gibsons' weigh 11kg and the Vintage weighed in at 9.9 kg. I'd be interested to know wher the difference in weight came from, but that said, my Gibson Les Paul weighs in at 10kg.

Dave, surely you mean Ibs not Kilo's.
Graham.

Sorry Graham I read the wrong line on the scales, they are lbs not kg.

[Billyboygretsch]

I think from the tone of this thread that many people are very happy with the quality outside of the big manufacturers in the US. They big guns seem to keep offering gimmicks i.e named models distressing super duper this that and the other. I think the guitar buying public have got wise to extortionate custom prices. Why would you want a 1950s with whatever gimmicks. Many believe that old is best. Remember that's all there was at the time so we got on with it.
There are some wonderful new guitars at great prices. Those with money to spare go for the custom shop fender/gibson.
The problem is nostalgia can be expensive and not necessarily value for money.
Many get an expensive guitar with wonderful effects and a great amp and still want to improve on that sound - what are they looking for?
Remember what we had available in the 60s was what we had and produced wonderful music. Get on with the wonderful array of new gear and don't fall prey to the money grabbers

[dave robinson]

Hi Dave !

I have one Lemon drop - these are old clips but you can hear the Vintage ! I had problems
with the guitar to keep staying in tune in live situations !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMEBhh-7Jbs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alUgxoCbzi4


Hans

Great, thanks for posting Hans.

[dave robinson]

We've been rehearsing using my Vintage V100 and the real Gibson Les Paul Custom and I'm delighted that there's very little to choose between them. They have been truly tested across the spectrum, from sparkling clean to warm jazz through to searing rock licks. At the price difference I am amazed !

[Ryan]

I have a Vintage VSA535-CR in cherry red (it's like a casino shaped style). It has all Wilkinson hardware on it and is a very nice guitar, it's great for Chuck Berry and Beatles style of stuff. I also used to have a vintage SG in cherry red, with gold wilkinson hardware, that was great sounding too, the only criticism i can give about the SG is that it was very neck heavy, ie when loose and just hanging on your body, not being played, the neck would tilt towards the floor and not balance very well. This is the only SG type i've ever had, or ever played, but i have heard that most SG's have this problem, not sure how true this is...
Ryan

[dave robinson]

Because I have a broad leather strap on my SG, I don't get that problem Ryan, but with normal straps you do.
As for folks wondering if the Strat & Teles are as good in the Vintage line up, I don't know because I have Fenders and I'm happy with them, thus never trying Vintage equivelant ones out. I'm interested in Ryyans comment on the 335 & SG styles, I sold my Epiphone Riviera so there's room for one of that type as well as an ES-175 style too.

[AlanMcKillop]

I think that David Martin had good words to say about the Vintage V6, which is strat shaped, some time ago.

[Ryan]

Because I have a broad leather strap on my SG, I don't get that problem Ryan, but with normal straps you do.
As for folks wondering if the Strat & Teles are as good in the Vintage line up, I don't know because I have Fenders and I'm happy with them, thus never trying Vintage equivelant ones out. I'm interested in Ryyans comment on the 335 & SG styles, I sold my Epiphone Riviera so there's room for one of that type as well as an ES-175 style too.

Hi Dave,
my Vintage is the VSA535-CR model, not the 335 as you wrote in your post,(although from what i can tell these 2 are more or less the same guitar, maybe 1 of them is just a newer model) Just thought i'd tell you again in case your trying to look it up
I brought mine new about 3 years ago from a shop called 'Nathan Rose Music' in Wolverhampton. It was in the sale and so i got it for £249, i think it was supposed to be £299, if memory serves me right. They have been doing Gibson copy models for a good few years with Wilkinson hardware on them, they did even do a Gretsch style with bigsby on.
I will post a photo of mine on for you tomorrow, for anybody who is interested. They also did the same model in sunburst aswell.
There used to be a free magazine, in guitar shops, called 'Gear' which did reviews of lots of Vintage make guitars, they were always in it. I can't remember ever reading a bad review of any of these guitars, whether it be SG, LP, Strat, Tele, Casino type, and Gretsch type.
My comments about my vsa535 guitar are... it's a nice guitar and nice to play. It has a nice acousticy feel neck on it (which is easy to play), all the electrics and tuners work fine. No nasty scratchiness or buzzing. The tunomatic bridge works well for intonation and you can get some nice warm sounds from it. Also some good blues rock sounds.
I have only ever played 1 other guitar of this style, and that was a Vantage, which i had a good 15 years ago, but i would say the hardware on the Vintage is better.
As for the Vintage SG type i had... more or less the same. Again a nice sounding guitar, great for bluesy rock. The only grumble i had, was as i said earlier about it being neck heavy, i was always knocking the neck off things, when forgetting to hold it between songs I never thought about using a thicker strap as you mentioned, i probably would have kept it if it wasn't for that.
I always seem to have problems finding out anything about Vintage make guitars on the internet (apart from people playing rock music on youtube) as when you put Vintage guitars into the search engine, it brings up old expensive (vintage) guitars. I don't even know if they've got their own website, i'd love to know if anyone finds it?
Cheers
Ryan