Vantage AV-315

Made in Japan in 1970s. 21 thin Frets on maple bind neck.
Solid top, Glossy Mahogany stain finish on solid body. Wood is unknown, but it is very light. Shaped like a stratocaster, but with pointy horns.
Humbucker at Neck, Single Coil at Bridge, like in some telecaster models.3 way pickup selector, 1 volume, 1 tone control. Also, a coil tap switch for the front PU. NEAT! The Volume control is too close to the rear pickup for me. so I pulled out the cap. And it looks cooler that way.
This guitar has a pretty high output and it can overdrive the tube amp really nicely. I don't know who made the pickups. Passive electronics.
Bridge is like a tremolo-less strat. String thru body type.
Tuners are okay. they feel a bit rigid, but they haven't gone out of tune badly yet. Neck is thinner side of medium size. but I don't like glossy polyurethene finish.
picture can be seen at
http://www.therathole.org/guitars/models/vantage/avenger/avenger.html
mine is exact same color as in that page.

I will probably take this guitar as a backup. just because it's so old and frets are worn. I am thinking about lightly scalopping the fretboard, but have any of you seen that been done on a maple fingerboard??? let me know at whiteelectricviolin@yahoo.com

Sound of the guitar is on a bright side. like a strat. but like I said before, the output is pretty high and it drives my fender twin very nicely. None of my other guitars did that.
Humbucker on the neck side gives fat and bright sound, it's like the best of strat and Les Paul type. This guy also allows a coil split for single coil at neck position as well.
In the middle to use both pickups, the coil tap switch can be used for your desired sound.
Bridge pickup is great too.

Now I am wondering if the pickups have been switched to something else by the previous owner(s)... It doesn't look that way.

Since I got it used, I am not aware of factory setup. But the action was way too high. I carved the grooves on the nut deeper with small files and a little thin saw made by X-acto. Also, the frets had vertical grooves (in the direction of strings, perpendicular to frets) Some were pretty deep, but I filed them down. I had to make sure that one to another frets are balanced to avoid fret buzz.
Bridge is easy to adjust with allen wrench, but after all this, I realized that I like Tune-o matic bridges better. I like some distance between the strings and the body. I like the strings close to the neck though.
Woodwork and finish seem fine. the paint is thick. I could see from one paint chip that fell off from previous owner's accident.

If there is one thing I think is retarded on this guitar, it is the way they put the strap button. the top one (near the neck) is put on the inside of the horn facing the neck. When I put the strap on it, the strap gets in a strange shape. But there's more. This poor guy is put on with such a short screw and it came off very easily. It must have come off before and the seller of the guitar never told me about it. I relocated the button on the back side of the body on the horn, with the longer screw. If you get one of these guitars, I highly recommend doing what I did, before dropping the guitar. Since the body is so light, it is somewhat head heavy. Get used to it or do not get this guitar.

Other than that, I think the construction of the guitar is fine.
I can see the tuners going bad, because it feels a bit rigid. Could I add oil for smoothness???

This is the backup guitar for me, but since it sounds better than my main guitar, I considered making it the main one...

Vantage is no longer its own original company. the brand is purchased by, and current models are manufactured by a Korean company. Their website had no information about older models.

I have been playing since 1990. Self taught. Been in bands since 1995.
It is a great gear for it's price. You won't find too many guitars from 1970 for this price. It's not a bad guitar at all, as long as you are willing to deal with fixing the nut groove and strap buttons. I love working on gutars.
If the guitar was stolen or lost, I would like to replace it depending on my financial situation. But I am always into trying new guitars, so i might move on to spend money on other guitars.
Great guitar for it's price, but I recommend trying and seeing the actual thing before you purchase it. Ebay can be tricky. There is always something you might forget to check or something maybe in unexpected condition. But I like this guitar. Looks just different enough from other guitars.

Other guitars I own are, Epiphone Les Paul Signature (highly recommended), Epiphone Scroll SC-450 (like SG but better!), Fender Jazzmaster reissue, Yamaha SGV-800, Yamaha RGX 320, Fernandes WS-1000, Sigma (by Martin) Acoustic/electric.