Vantage VKS-11/BKS

Made in Indonesia i think, not sure what the body is. it has a volume, tone and 5 way pickup selector. Finish is a nice tri sunburst, and it had 24 frets, so it was obviously designed for mostly lead. get a guitar with hhmbuckers if youre playing rhythm. It sounds kinda weak compares to my 74 les paul copy in that department.

I got this as a first guitar from my parents, and this axe is as light as a feather. It plays ok,i play it thru a Peavy Rage 158. every other out of the 5 pickup selectors buzzes, and my tone knob came a bit loose after a few months of playing. The pickups werent the best, but hey, they werent horrible either. the rosewood fretboard played nice, the action wasnt too high. overall, it sounds alright.

The only problem i have here is that the tone knob kept coming loose. other than that, sweet finish, good setup and an extremely light guitar.

Live playing with this one is not reccommended. maybe as a backup, but it would be risky. It is dependable, but probably just for practicing with.

Sweet guitar overall, good for starters, but get a heavier more durable one if you do ever play live. Trust me, i can say that from experience

-Year = no clue It was purchased as a b-day gift in the fall of 2000 so my guess is maybe 99 or 98?
-"Made in Indonesia" sticker nicely displaed on the back of the head
-There are 24 frets on this guitar
-Laminated top no doubt.
-One volume knob and one tone knob, I felt kinda cheated at first that I didn't have two tone knobs but that left me about a month after I bought it. A 5 way selector switch finishes the controls
-Pickups are S/S/S
-I have no clue of the make and model of pickups, they sound nice for a $200 guitar
-I have no clue as to active or passive electronics, my guess is active.
-I have no clue to the body wood, it's light as hell so it must be some light wood or a mix of woods and glued together
-Strat style body
-bridge looks the standard type on strats everywhere with the whammy bar,
-neck is really thin & maple, in my 2nd year guitar course at high school there were a few 'virtuouso' guitarists that loved to play their scales on my guitar when I'd bring it in
-mine came in a box that was from a Ibanez guitar and that came with an allen key and instructions for a floyd rose ibanez, I still laugh at that one
-the cord plugs into the bottom of the guitar, not the conventional "on the body" strat position for the plug, I've always thought that was cool.

Mostly I play Rush, Zepplin, & other Hard Rock music to just jamming out stuff. I like the way the guitar sounds until I try to play something that really requires a humbucker pickup and then it sounds sub-par.. I used to plug into my computer and use Revalver but now I use a Zoom 606 guitar pedal, it sounds pretty good thru it and I just run thru my computer again and labtec 5 watt speakers.
More of a strat style sound when you strum, it's a good sound, not much buzz thru the speakers but when I have the whammy bar in place sometimes that rattles a bit. The whammy bar depressed is okay, the G usually goes a bit out of tune if i hit the wammy bar but not really bad at all. Fret buzz seems to be non existent for me and this guitar. You can hear electronic buzzing when on one of the three single pickups, the two combo choices give you no electronic buzz, but then again I'm sitting in a room with a computer, monitor that adds alot of noise, fan, light, etc... It's suited me perfectly for playing 7 years.

This was my first electric guitar and so far 2nd guitar for 7 years I've been playing. I had no clue about the action until about 1 year or so down the road. I like it nice and low and it's really been easy to adjust, changing the strings is simple, taking apart the pieces of the bridge to and clean during full string change is also easy. The guys in my guitar class said it was a really killer guitar in terms of looks and playability, and I took pride that mine was really clean (dunlop guitar polish) and had no rust on the strings near the nut that this one guy's Ibanez had, yuck. Bookmatched top, none, it's just painted a red/black fade with a white pickguard that's showing signs of yellowing with age. As far as I know the guitar had no flaws, above the "Made in Ind." sticker is a baseball-like sticker reading "OK / inspected by 1-3329 / 003" so I assume that it passed quality control ok.

I don't gig in a band but I did take it to a house party at college. It survived the drunken nightmare of people watching me play, me letting others play and the works. Almost had a full cup of beer spilled on the brand new Zoom 606 pedal, not good, but it survived, my guitar only getting splashed a bit and it cleaned right off. I've had my share of dings from where I'd smack it into a table or something, usually I sit and play by the computer. Strap buttons have been more than loyal for the years I've owned it, only once the bridge strap button broke off, I put some wood glue and toothpicks in the hole to give the screw more bite and it's held together since. Definitely dependable, haven't had any problems whatsoever with it. If I were to gig live it would be great to have a second guitar. Finish wise, other than one nice ding that took the paint off, the finish has been great, dunlop guitar polish does wonders, but I must say lines are starting to appear where the pick hits the guard and the finish. Hardware seems to be holding up for 5 years so far I am in no rush to replace the pickups or tuners.

No clue about Vantage as a company, only after about 2 years I started researching Vantage guitars and found out they are under Samick so I've never dealt with them. Warranty, I have no idea if it was ever under warranty and obviously it's 5 years I've had this guitar so no point asking about it, the store where i got it is no closed too.

I still remember the day I got this thing, I remember going to the store and picking up about 3-4 guitars and this one was really light. I plugged it into some big amp that I didn't know any buttons controled and played it. It sounded ok and I thought, okay lets get it. It's served me great for my years of playing and I don't think I'll ever get rid of it. It's gone thru me getting punched in the face after some punks tried to steal it from me to pawn it for money, 3 years of college and me bringing it to a few parties, so there's just too much personal history for me with this guitar. Who knows if I would have bought the same guitar back long ago. I basically chose it for the price cause it was one of the cheaper guitars in the store and that was the budget at the time. I don't think I'd want anything else on this guitar, not much more to ask for from a strat copy. In terms of other gear I own the previously mentioned Zoom 606 guitar pedal, a Montana acoustic guitar (my 1st guitar) and a cheap Hondo mini amp.