Vintage VSA500CR | Review
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- čas přidán 28. 08. 2024
- Vintage has been producing some terrific guitars at very low prices for a while now, one of their latest iterations being the VSA500CR, a take on the classic 335 shape but with some interesting design choices and a surprisingly high-end feel. Tom Quayle checks the Cherry Red variant out and gives his verdict.
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I recently bought a Vintage Lemon Drop to go with my Gibson LP Tribute, Guild Bluesbird and PRS SE 245. The Vintage has the best sound and playability is superb.
I have one and it's truly fantastic! Incredible guitar. Love it!
Great playing and great guitar. Was thinking of picking one up. This really helped me decide
Trevor Wilkinson has an advantage over other manufacturers in that he totally understands guitar manufacture and he has designed and manufactured a host of guitar accessories, hence you have a line of extremely good value instruments, which having owned about 4 of I can vouch for. This semi is really good. Oh, I should mention that I've owned almost every guitar under the sun over many years and frankly you can save a ton of cash if you purchase a Vintage brand- have it set up by all means, swop out the pups and you'll still save loads of money. After I'd installed Tonerider Alnico II pups in my 'Vintage' style SG (£198) it was as good as my original Gibson model bought in the seventies which cost me about £500 even in those days.
Malcolm, I spotted a VS6 at my local music shop recently for a very good price (sub £200) I have toneriders on a strat and would certainly go with them again, your comment here has set my mind ticking!
@@domformula1 You prob already bought them by now but, in case another player is curious - Toneriders are legit. And I've owned hoity toity boutique stuff. They're not just good for the price. They're good. Period.
Vintage guitars are great. Solid keepers. I have 2. One has been mine for 20 years. No upgrades or repairs needed so far. Not even much fret wear. I love the pickups. Good action and tuning stability.
Tom,
I actually believe that if a broomstick had strings you could make it sound great! Again, awesome demo with fantastic playing!
Chris
Amazing player omg! The guitar seems superb too for that price range! I own a Vintage v100 les p and i love it
Watching this out of curiosity. They are just too big for my liking.
I have a VS6 SG the distressed one, and it's my favourite guitar. Great to play and sounds really authentic when it comes to the vintage voiced pick ups. I got mine used for £80 and now it's my go to guitar.
Only just discovered this brand, that's a good review. I'm liking the story of how Vintage came into being, and the cost and quality are a bonus...👍🔥🎸🎼🙏
Another great demo Tom. This guitar sounds beautiful. I have played / owned a few Vintage brand guitars, and can only say good things about them. Trevor does an excellent job of spec'ing these guitars, and the quality is consistent in my experience. Damn. I've got GAS again . . .
This guitar intrigues me. I might get one some day and Blackmore-ize it, so to say. Chuck the pickguard, change the knobs to black ones and replace the tailpiece with a Bigsby. Pair it with a Vox AC30 and blast Child in Time or Wring That Neck.
Great guitar would love for someone to review the new version of this guitar black vintage VSA500 with the block inlays don't know if it effects the sound but it looks a lot better to me
i have 3 Vintage guitars, a V120, V130 AND VS6 purchased all 3 used for less that £400 excellent guitars for the money
Mr T, Top Qat! you are the Internets hidden guitar guitar god! nobody has your phrasing and tone magic. there isn't anyone with your unbelievable skill
I'd love a one with block inlays on the fretboard instead of dots but vintage are amazing guitars,I own three
Brill review of this guitar.I bought two one in Cherry red and a sunburst on the back of your review.Really amazing guitars for the price, Everything you said about them was true.
a great guitar played by an Amazing guitarist ! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Crazzy Wonderful playing and nice demo too. Thank you Tom!
Tom is such a clean player. I have been after a 335 but never have that amount of cash laying around. Definitely give this a punt. Cheers Tom.
Very nice playing!
my god, sounds great !
Amazing guitars for the money I have a v100 and its so good love them.
I own 3 epi and 4 vintage guitars, had I bought the vintages first I would never have bothered with the epi's and my casino is a converted peerless factory built gtr, and my 335 is an epi custom shop, wish I had bought the vintage as on this video instead😢 Make of that what you will.
Ta meeold. Very fine playing and guitar.
This sure is good guitar for the price. I checked this before aiming for the Sire H7 which is probably priced higher. The flame on the Sire is really amazing though. Anyway, comparing the sound I think Vintage is very responsive but sounded too twangy or snappy if that’s how you described it. It just lacked that rounded edge sound compared to Sire or even 335. I mean it is great guitar, but I might still go to Sire H7 for the 335 feels.
Conclusion: this guitar is worth buying!
I was looking at the Sire H7 but then I discovered that the nut width is only 40mm. Whaaaat! Far too narrow for me. Vintage guitars are fantastic value for money. I currently have the Vintage Lemon Drop.
@@kingstumble I agree.. the 40mm nut width is making me nervous. Good thing I can try both in the store I am visiting. I’ve been watching different reviews lately, which makes me lean toward getting this instead. Also, this guitar is around $270 cheaper than the Sire H7. Let us see to which I’ll fall in love with...
@@kingstumble Sure it’s narrow. Looking forward to also get my hand in one of these Vintage guitars. Good thing we have local seller in our place at a good price also.
I really like the Wilkinson Vintage guitars.
My next guitar is the kind you're reviewing here.
I have the P90s equipped Vintage tobacco burst.
Great review 👌
very, smooth, very humble. thanks brotha
Does anyone know if Tom has any solo music or playing in a band. So I can find his music?
Great playing! Scary!
dude is a great player
Great guitar. And awesome player!
Tom could make a fucking broomstick sound like gold
I already own two Vintage guitars (one regular V100 and one AFD V100), so I can definitely testify to the quality of these instruments, but... Someone has to have at least something negative to say about the VSA500? I'm super close to getting one, but I'm also considering an Ibanez AS153, and I can't help but feeling that there has to be something extra that the Ibanez will give considering it's about twice as expensive?
The pickups will most likely be a bit better and Ibanez tend to go for much flasher ornamentation.
Ok, it is probably late, but my answer might be useful for somebody else.
I have this guitar and also an Ibanez semi acoustic (AGR 73T). So I can compare them.
Vintage wins on hardware quality. These Willkinson tuners, saddle, pots, toggle switch is better quality. Much better, I would say.
Playability is nice for both. My Ibanez has a Gretsch style neck. Feels very comfortable. Vintage has a different feel, but still very good.
Ibanez wins on the ornaments. That guitar has a nice binding. As for the Vintage the binding is very simple. Mine also has some esthatic problem with the binding at an f hole. I bought it on eBay as new. That was the only problem I had and I can live together with it. In a store I would have asked for another guitar.
As for the pickups it is not possible for me to choose. My Ibanez has Filtotron style mini humbuckers, which I like very much. But these Willkinson pickups in this guitar are really nice as well. They are dynamic, open sounding. Not muddy at all. Quite powerful pickups, but still have nice clean sound.
I just picked a vsa500w up off the used market. No wear on the frets so it must have gathered dust in a corner before going back on sale. I was looking for a well made semi-hollow guitar husk that I could rebuild with my choice of hardware and electronics. I considered sire's larry carlton H7 and a couple other asian made 335 copies. I went with the vintage because the guitar doesn't weight as much as the boat anchor 335 clones I tried out. The vsa 500 comes with Wilkinson Vintage Voiced WOCHB pickups which are ceramic 7k neck, 13k bridge, not alnico as this review stated. The money goes into guitar production. All these value guitars have the cheapest hardware and electronics. The big question for me was, which one offered the best guitar husk? I can replace cheap hardware but if manufacturing was shotty, not worth fixing poor craftmanship after the fact. Everything gets removed. That means the bushings that hold the saddles and tail piece (made from pot metal) go too. For pickups I have a gibson classic 57 bridge pickup that is sitting around and picked up a SD pearly gate neck pickup off the used market(its price was reduced because nobody wants a black pickup, nickel covers costs more). Going with a 50's wiring scheme and locking tuners. Total cost is $625 after everything including vsa500w has been purchased. Went with a gotoh aluminium tailpiece (just like pre 60's gibsons) on this and faber ABR saddle and bushings. Keep the nut. Hipshot locking tuners. I wanted to post this as allot of reviews here seem to just accept the manufactured parts and wiring scheme. The guitar only gets better (or worse stays the same) as the stock hardware and electronics are upgraded. How much better I will find out soon enough. Parts still inbound. This guitar project is more an experiment to answer this question than anything else:how much better can I make it? I don't gig, no band, and holding onto my day job. Last concert I went to was last month and it was electronic music (Fever Ray)...
All the hardware has been swapped out. I've been tweaking the truss rod as this guitat was shipped across the country and it adjusting to a difference humidity/environment than before. I kept the same strings and retuned and played after each mod install. There were no mods so far that were total game changers but incrementally each upgrade improved the acoustic response of the guitar. The only mod that wasn't a drop-in install was the faber e-serts for the abr bridge. I needed to drill out the existing bushing hole out. That was the last upgrade and now the whole body reverberates when I strum an open E chord. The hipshot locking tuners only use one of the two previous tuner holes. I filled the 6 tiny open holes with a matching wood filler. Its still visible to a discerning eye but its filled now. As a stock guitar the same E chord created very little acoustic response before. The neck and body now reverberate on the open chord. Single notes have more sustain and presence. I like it! Before, single notes sounds thin to me. I haven't plugged into an amp yet. All these evaluations are of the unplugged sound. I'll check back in once the electronics are overhauled. Rechecking the receipts, I'm up to $725 for the total project including the guitar itself vsa500w. I don't expects anything else is needed to complete this project.,
Thank You !!! You convinced me ..!!! Im on the pension and i need some guitar to have fun with !!!
Just picked one of these up used . Mine was an original model before the changes were made. They really are very nice guitars for the money. Are they as good as the real deal? No I don't think so.
The sound is a little "one dimensional" to my ears and while I found the bass to be rich and full , the treble was a bit meek and thin. Keep in mind I haven't even set this up yet and and haven't played a semi in awhile.
Fretwork was very good even if a few of the higher frets felt a little rough. Still no dead spots or choking on bends. Stayed in tune pretty good. But good god, for the money? you can't go wrong!
Seriously want a second guitar for when your drunk friends wanna jam, or your playing in some crappy dive on a Tuesday night? Grab one! You could upgrade this and make it really sweet but that isn't even called for.
The Chinese are catching up quick. They are knock off kings as we all know and this no different. If they keep going at this rate they might give American builders a real headache in the near future. Witness all of Gibson's recent issues with money management and quality control complaints.
End result? Wish they had these when I was starting out!
I recently owned a Gibson Goldtop....it wasn't perfectly constructed by any means...
could be my second guitar.....nice video!Thx a lot!You´re an excellent player!!!
Nice playing
I was with you up until you said "low profile" frets. I've been refretting Gibsons for years for just that reason, no point putting $300 into a $500 guitar just to make the first set of frets work for me...pity.
Does it have a centre block?
Why don't any of these Utubbers ever mention what kind of potentiometers, capacitors and wiring that are in budget guitars?
I'd love to see an es339 from Vintage guitars.
I think a lot of us would, Lukas
Sounds really authentic. Such a versatile design.
Thank you for this video...:-) I will try one of these..:-) Blessings to you..:-)
Very nice ... thanks!
Fantastico chitarrista e ottima chitarra.
staggering video!
Can you do the vintage VE900MH... ?
Which guitar case is compatible with this model ?
is there any way to id if it's an original vintage guitar or not?
This or Epiphone Dot?
Is it staggering?
Try one
That will answer your question
Does anyone know what the fuck he did at 4:58 that was magical
0:21 the lick?
Great effort put in to cover that this instrument is bit out of tune. ;) Probably setup related as in most cheap instruments. Except that amazing skills Tom!!!!!
What is the weight of this guitar?
Maybe the companies have learned that if their fretboard is rough, it will instantly be called out.
Awesome
If n when I bought this I'll be certain to let you know.
sounds great, i admit
JHS Version 1 of the 535 were straight copies but they have stopped making them (since the Gibson cease and desist letter) and you can only get them on the secondhand market.
So how much is this "staggeringly" good price you mentioned 50 times but have yet to reveal???
On the distributors web page (JHS) its £349
Great demo Tom, as usual!.. Mine comes tomorrow!..
I'm sure they sound great, but a player like that makes any guitar sound great. lol
True, but that should also be a lesson for players that you focus on technique rather than shelling out $3000 for a guitar in the hopes that it will make you a better player by virtue of it's (over)price(d) tag.
What a show off, flashy bastard you mean? With zero feel
This or a Gretsch?
THIS.
The reason JHS has made the design changes is not primarily to improve access to the frets but to comply with a cease and desist letter from Gibson. They needed to make the changes to allow them to continue making 535 style guitars.
Tony smith Gibson is making old style outdated design garbage lately, chambering the pauls and adding robot tuners to the headstock when what they should have been doing is fixing the tuning problems with their design. The vintage V6 for instance has a staggered string block in the back to compensate for the saddle intonation position distances that helps tuning stability. Don't you think Fender should have been working on this?
I couldn't care less what Gibson are doing as I would never buy a US made guitar as they are all outrageously overpriced and overvalued compared to the SE Asian or even the Mexican made competition. These days the only people who buy US made guitars are brand snobs, or people who have more money than sense because those in the know are aware that you can get just as good quality for a tenth of the price if you look elsewhere. All the top bands who use Fenders and Gibson's get them for free anyway as they act as brands ambassadors, so its only the stupid punter playing in his bedroom who has to play full whack for one. What the American guitar companies did do though was back in the 50's come up with some classic designs that have never been beaten. What I want is exact copies of these designs at competitive prices, this is what the companies like Vintage should be concentrating on not these compromise designs that look ugly and unbalanced.
Vintage make great guitars at unbelievable prices - Makes you wonder why you have to pay so much more for top brand guitars. After all, it's not the name tag that produces the sound or makes a guitar playable!
...well if you just want to play they're fine, if you want to pose, that's a different matter.
JHS Vintage (since Wilkinson joined the team in 2005) have been producing some fantastic guitars for the money especially if you can find the Semi and SG versions that have all been discontinued, that were straight copies of the American classics, then you're laughing. The newer versions that have offsets and extended bouts have such a strong effect on me that they make me want to physically puke when I see them! I hate them with a passion but its not JHS's fault but Gibson's because of their threat of legal action against JHS who want to expand into the biggest guitar market - the US. So JHS make changes and they tow the line. We punters lose out because its us who end up having less choice. What we want is good quality reasonably priced straight lifts of the classic designs that have never been surpassed like the ES335. JHS use to do this but now their hands are tied and they are producing travesties as an alternative which isn't really an alternative.
great, american tone.
I dont feel right, unless he says ‘price point’ multiple times 😂
Petty.
I don’t think he says ‘petty’ that often, to be honest
He doesn't have to--it's all over you like flies.
My deepest apologies, I wasn’t aware you were a fully fledged member of the CZcams - comment police....
Arsehole
@@bobbillnolan7644 He thought himself a wit, and he was half right.
Can it chug tho!? 😂
can get a cheaper model
The body size isn't right, you needed to show the back of the guitar which is horribly asymmetric. Vintage have enlarged the bottom of the guitar at the bout near the volume knobs. This is now so bulbous it makes the balance of the guitar in a guitar stand poor and awkward. This was another design change forced on Vintage by Gibson however, it cant be dressed up as a design improvement like the offset horns. Vintage would still be producing exact copies of the 535 like the Version 1 they were producing a few years back if they had a choice but Gibson stopped them via their cease and desist letter and threat of legal action.
The offset horns and body bulge and lack of symmetry is a disaster and a monstrosity, those changes look awful which is a shame because other than the design changes its a great guitar.
it's barely noticeable. they look great, and at least they don't cost a mint.
... You make it sound like qwasi modo
Vintage irritate the hell out of me, I say either copy the classic designs or do something completely different, not some half arsed copout because you're scared of Gibson.
Tony smith calm dowm