Product: Vantage 418FT
Price Paid: GBP 40 USED
Submitted
02/15/2008
at
04:34am
by
XonXoff
Features
:
7
This is a typical "superstrat" guitar with slightly more angular features that a normal strat. One volume and two tone controls, and a 5-way switch control the H-S-S pickup configuration, and the locking nut and Floyd Rose step up to the mark in the hardware department.
Rosewood neck. Nothing special, nothing bad. Feels reasonable and does the job as do the tuners.
Strange oil-on-water style finish under a rock-solid coat of lacquer.
I've struggled to find info on this guitar which is partly why I'm posting this review. I'm pretty sure this is not one of the Jap Vantage guitars made in the 70's and 80's but is one of the later ones made by Samick.
Sound
:
7
Straight into my Rocktron preamp on a clean setting this guitar surprisingly has some nice character which is quite rare for the cheaper end of the scale. The typical clean strat sounds are nearly there. The humbucker is a little plain but is reasonably powerful and isn't muddy like some cheap ones.
When I kick in some distortion/overdrive the humbucker comes to life and sings. The single coils are still usuable but lose some of their vibrance.
But generally - not bad, not bad.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
7
Finish looks good and generally the guitar is well put together. The pots are a bit crackly - but that's common when a guitar is getting on a bit and hasn't been used much (like this one was before I got it).
Action is good. Not the lowest I've ever played, but actually not bad. Better than my Epiphone superstrat, but not as good as my real strat.
Reliability/Durability
:
7
I didn't buy this guitar to use live. I bought it to leave laying around the house instead of my "nice" guitars.
I don't seen any reason why it couldn't be gigged with but I never play live without a backup.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Can't find much info on the net.
Never had to deal with Vantage or Samick.
Overall Rating
:
7
I've been playing for 30 odd years and I have quite a few nice guitars and some lesser guitars. I've bought some cheap guitars and then immediately moved them on because they are pretty poor. This one I will probably keep for a while because it actually does the job in terms of playability and sound.
So, I'm happy with my Vantage.
