[PaulS]

Has anybody heard of a brand called Quest, made by Vantage in Japan. A friend gave me this guitar to fool around with called a quest mini guitar. Yes mini guitar, almost a tenor. The guitar is about 3/4 scale and actually quite amazing. One HB with coil split, volume & tone. Bolt on maple neck RW fretboard. A small guitar with a large attitude. I'll take a pic and post this weekend if I can get a chance. I've seen some older Vantage guitars (mij) that were quite nice in the early eighties.

 

[Xanadu]

My friend has a vantage. It's the bigest piece of shit I've ever seen.

 

[PaulS]

We've seen that in just about any brand of guitar, sometimes you find a good one here or there, looking at this quest I can not find any build flaws, the neck after 20 some years is still straight and no buzzes. The intonation is right on and it doesn't feel to bad even at a short scale. I have yet to plug it in but that I'll do today.... A bass player I played with several years back had an old vantage Bass and again it felt good and he made it sound good... This is something that may get my daughters attention as I noticed a bit of air guitar going on a while ago.

 

[Milkman]

I've always thought of Vantage as cheapo guitars, but on reflection some of the models I've seen had characteristics that you see on high end brands, like neck through, multi wood laminate bodies et cetera.


I'd like to have a look at some of those with a more open mind. Sure you'd probably have to gut them and put good electronics in them but maybe they're not as bad as I remember.

 

[PaulS]

I actually found this guitar on a google search. I have included the link if your interested but I will try and take a few better shots and with one of my others so the size is seen....This is not a vintage thing, just something different.

http://www.matsumoku.org/models/vantage/quest/mini/pics.html

 

[Zeegler]

Early Vantage guitars were made in the Matsumoku factory and were most certainly NOT crap. In fact, the quality easily rivaled that of USA made guitars. They are probably better than 99% of the imported crap on the shelves currently. (BC Rich, LTD, etc, etc.)

 

[Xanadu]

plus i'm fairly certain, just by weight, that it's made out of concrete. The things weighs more than my 6-string bass.

 

[Mahogany Martin]

I had an older Vantage bass. It looked pretty much like the VP model from this site http://www.matsumoku.org/models/vantage/vp/vp.html (VP820B). I thought that it looked pretty nice with the maple centre pieces on the body. And Xanadu, I don't remember it being real heavy (it may have been but it's not something that I noticed really).

The only problem I had with it was the bridge. I had it replaced and it was fine. And like you said PaulS, this bass was old but the neck was straight, no buzz and things like that and the intonation was pretty decent.

 

[Accept2]

After Uncle Matt, Vantages were made by Kasuga until 1990. I dont think many Kasuga Vantage guitars left Japan though. The brand was later sold I believe and production was moved to Korea. Its interesting to note that the Ricos were initially involved with the Korean Vantages and were planning something with the brand. A few models did get released that were designed by them............

 

[PaulS]

This model was MIJ by Matsumoku. I agree that the build of this would rival a lot of North American guitars. The frets are excellent, no burrs, no edges and nicely crowned. The fretboard needs a litlle cleaning but the rest is in near mint shape. Also has fairly decent hardware as in tuners, bridge and pots. Still to check out HB. The interesting thing is going to be what I tune it to.

 

[Xanadu]

I played a vantage guitar in long & mcquade. And this was alright. Used, but it played alright, and it had a good sound. Looked solidly built.

 

[Ripper]

A guitarist in another band out here plays two vantages, early 80's vintage, neck through and excellent instruments, well made, great sounding. A buddy of mine had a Quest a few years back, it was kinda of shaped like an Ibanez x-series. It was a pretty decent guitar too.

 

[GuitarsCanada]

This is interesting, I come across these Vantage guitars all the time in the pawn shops. i never give them any consideration. I guess I should check them out a little closer. Might find a good deal. They are normally very cheap.

 

[Ripper]

Paul you're right about the prices, I know this fellow only paid $150 for one and $125 for the other guitar. Pretty good deals for neck throughs that are very well made.

 

[david henman]

...i have a made in japan vantage acoustic that i bought new for $90 at the music box in montreal (in ndg) at a closing out sale in '85. the guitar sounded great when i bought it, and has improved with age. if it was a piece of crap, it would have fallen apart long ago, as it has seen over twenty years of serious abuse.

i played a made in japan vantage electric for may years, but stupidly sold it.

-dh

 

[chimo]

this is all interesting, I've not seen a Jap Vantae or a Vantage that I'd want to touch, nevermind play....

I'm going to have to pay more attention, I always thought that they'd be nice to bring on stage to smash...

 

[Accept2]

Thats because most guitars by most companies are trash. Most companies produce 100 budget guitars for every quality guitar they produce. Vantage made some great quality guitars, but only during a certain time period. That time period pretty well came to an end 20 years ago...........

 

[PaulS]

Here is a couple pics of the mighty mite... sounds awesome thru an amp. lovely single coil sound and a hot HB.

 

[SCREEM]

very cool guitar Paul :rockon2:

 

[JerryPhilPigpenBob]

What about the VE series??? - anyone play a vantage or more specifically a VE 565 or 470 or 545 model? They look awesome, but that is secondary to sound of course...

http://www.matsumoku.org/models/vantage/ve/ve.html