Vantage VP795

Built in 1981 by Matsumoku when they were still making Gibson arch tops. Has 2 independent coil taps from single coil to full on humbuckers. 2 independent pickup volumes and one master tone. Also has brass nut and bridge saddles on the Tune-o-matic. I replaced the bridge pickup with a Seymour Duncan SH-4 and kept the original neck pickup. Wonderful combination! I can achieve a large verity of sounds ranging from Strats to any Les Paul. Just dial it in. The amount of wood work is amazing. The wood is beautiful. Great amount of emphasis in the build, about 42% of the build was by hand. Did I mention 3 piece set neck?

Sounds great on any amplifier I've used. Accepts effects well, this instrument can pull off anything honestly. All about user regarding this. The replacement SH-4 really made this instrument much more capable though. I'm happy I saved the neck pickup.

I've had the VP for years! As you may tell from updated submission. Actions great, the guitars frets are solid. No buzz or dead frets to speak of. I've put serious hours onto this instrument. I've gigged and traveled with her. The whole 9 yards. The only beef I had was that the guitar neck was heavy. So to compensate for this I moved the strap button on the butt of the guitar up about a half inch. This made a noticeable difference. Especially when you have this heavy guitar on for 3 hours or so. It's a good heavy, sounds killer. Will keep up with any Les Paul or Strat.

Amazing. Period. My blondee is 28 years old.

After extensive research I finally filled in some missing links regarding Vantage. A good amount of my information came from eBay while watching Vantage auctions and reviewing old promos. I never knew Vantage was making Gibson archtops in the early 80's for the longest time. The last of the good Vantages were built until 1983. You can recognize them by a cursive Vantage logo and a larger cursive V on the headstock. Can you say underground gold mine.

Obtain one on eBay for cheap. Sink a little cash into it for suitable pickups to accommodate your genre. Add strap buttons and sit on it. You'll love it.

VANTAGE VP795, MY FIRST GUITAR. IT'S TAKEN ME YEARS TO GET USE TO HOW SHE PLAYS. I'VE PLAYED MANY OTHERS BUT I'VE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO LEAVE HER ALONE TO LONG. MY RED LADY HAS HER OWN SOUND. THE WHOLE GUITAR IS STOCK W/ A 3 WAY SWITCH THAT PULLS ME THROUGH ALL THE PICK-UP SETTINGS. INDEPENDENT VOLUME CONTROLS FOR EACH PICK-UP. A SINGLE TONE CONTROL, WHICH I BELIVE IS THE CENTER KNOB? WITH 2 COIL TAPS/PHASE REVERSAL (SAMETHING OR WHICH ONE DO I HAVE?) SWITCHES, BELOW THE 3 KNOBS ( HELP ME WITH THIS, VOLUME/TONE WHICH IS WHICH).

TWO HAMBUCKER PICK-UPS THAT SOUND LOVELY. AS LONG AS BOTH SWITCH TAPS ARE NOT TOWARDS EACH OTHER IN THE CENTER 1><1. THEN I RECEIVE STATIC W/ VOLUME AND TONE TURNED UP. THIS BEING MY FAVORITE SETTING MIGHT HAVE SOMETHING TO DO W/ IT. SHE PLAYS W/ ERNIE SLINKYS ANY SET.

ACTION IS PERFECT. SHE'S BEEN TO TRUE TONE IN S.M., THEY FIXED HER UP O.K. BUT I FEEL AS IF SHE SHOULD HAVE MORE TONE. IT'S NOT THE PICK-UPS. IT MIGHT BE THE ACTION SETTING W/ THE TUNAMATIC BRIDGE OR THE STOP BAR TAILPIECE. BUT A SHOP SHOULD BE ABLE SET THESE THINGS,RIGHT? HELP! I'VE HEARD HER PLAY LIKE SHE SHOULD PLAY.

EVEN NOT SET UP LIKE I'VE HOPED. SHE'LL STILL PUT ANY STRAT, FENDER, PAUL, TO THERE KNESS. ALL THE SOUND YOU WILL EVER NEED. IN THE SHOW OR IN THE STUDIO.

HELP ME SET THIS 795 LADY UP LIKE SHE SHOULD BE. I WANT TO DO AS LITTLE TO HER AS NEEDED TO GET HER TO SING. ANY HELP I WILL TAKE AS LONG AS WE CAN KEEP HER STOCK.

I'D PLAYED HER FOR YEARS THROUGH A PEAVEY SOUNDED SO/SO. RECENTLY IT'S BEEN TROUGH A MARSHALL W/ DIGITECH RP200 AND MAN CAN SHE MAKE PEOPLE SING. SHE'S A RED DRAGON. I LOVE THIS THING. I'M LOOKING FOR SPEC'S; ACTION SETTING'S, WHAT DOES WHAT.

It has a neck through body with 2 humbuckers and a very nice finish. I love that it has a Tune-O-Matic bridge that really made me fall in love with it. When I first saw the guitar I melted, The finish was flawless and the features were perfect.

Fits my music style perfect, The humbuckers were very clear and full of sound. Sounds great distorted and clean, Very nice either way. I run it into a Crate GFX-212T and it just kicks the amp in the ass, This guitar is awesome and something i'm not getting rid of anytime soon.

The action is nice and the finish is even better. The guitar also is very nice to play, Very comfortable.

Very reliable, Sturdy and strong guitar. The hardware is doing well and I know I could depend on it for a studio session or live. Yes, I would use a backup because you never know when a string will break.

This guitar is very soild, beatiful and sounds even better. I'm not giving this guitar up anytime soon and I got it free from a uncle because he stopped playing and the guitar was just resting in his basement. One hell of a guitar and what makes it better is that it's free!

Guitar was bought in mid 1980's. It is a left handed model and made in Japan.
It is a solid body guitar with characteristics resembling a Gibson style guitar.

It has independent volume controls for each pickup, a 3 way pickup switch, single tone control and two phase reversal switches. Two humbucker type pickups.

Satin finish three piece body. Walnut colour with blond centrepiece.

Original tuners unknown. Recentley replaced with new Shaller tuners.

Solid sounding guitar for when noise is needed
Run through a 220 watt MHB (Australian amp) power amp using Quadraverb GT and Zoomfootswitch

Variety of sound able to be produced due to pickup configuration and phase reversal.

Action determined partly by wider neck than Strat syle guitars.I use Jazz strings with a .012 high E

Guitar finish is of a high quality with good accurate matching of woods.

Extremelly solid guitar. Mine has survived all these year with the original finish still in good condition.

Playing 13 years. Also have 1970 Fender Jazz Bass, 1980 Ibanez V300L and one of the last of the Japanese Fender Squier Silver Series strats.

Exact same guitar as previous review. An incredibly beautiful piece of work. A friend once commented it looks like an old style wooden surfboard.

It sounds just like it looks - beautiful. I do three very different styles of music and it suites them all perfectly. I have a cutting-shred sound for rock 'n' roll, a god-awful high squeel for noise/experimental and a rich, full tone for ambient pieces. No other guitar I have ever played can properly replicate the noises I get out of this thing.

I bought it used and it has been fantastic since 1994. Very good shape for it's age (only problem is a tuning peg which needed to be replaced after I sheared it during an intense show).

If you don't slam it against things, this guitar is quite tough. I beat the living heck out of it, and it will not be injured during normal use, nor during a good deal of abnormal use.

Vantage is long, long out of business and it's a crying shame.

This is the best guitar ever made. It looks good and it sounds better. If it were stolen, I would find the thief and destroy him. I plan on buying another because if I keep playing it like I have been, even the mighty Vantage will be destroyed.

However good you think your Fender or Gibson is, this is better.

Vantage VP795, Set neck, looks like ash body wings with maple center, bought in 1979, dual humbuckers, no covers, 3 way toggle switch, coil taps for each pickup, rosewood fretboard, multi piece maple neck. Changed pickups to a dimarzio neck and seymour duncan bridge in 1985, tuners to sperzel locking tuners, added phase switch for pickups, replaced pots with old "hot pots" from 70's, neck has gloss finish like early Fenders, medium jumbo frets, tunamatic bridge and stop tailpiece, chrome hardware, neck feels like fender boatneck with 15" radius fretboard, 24 2/4" scale, 22 frets, average weight for an electric, well balanced, extremely confortable to play, super glossy natural finish (nitrocellulose?), set neck

Original pickups squealed like a pig, the old Dimarzio and SD get a great sound thru ANY amp. Sound is about as close as you can get exactly inbetween a strat and a les paul, with the split coils and phase switches, can get just about any necessary sound. I mainly use a Fender Blues Jr for small gigs and a Fender Super 60 for the larger ones. Sounds great dirty or clean at all times after 20 years of gigs and studio work.

Over the past 20 years, this guitar has been tweaked and aged (wood seems to settle and dry over time on a guitar, maybe that's why older guitars seem better). Pickups are adjusted approx 1/4" down from strings, amazingly maybe I have the one and only vantage, or maybe the way it was played and stored over the years, intonation is dead perfect and I can leave it in the case for months open it, and it's still in tune!!!!! The wood on this axe is pretty much perfect and very attractive. The rosewood used on the fretboard must be premium wood or like other old guitars, the finger dirt and sweat has filled in the pores making the neck lightning fast. Frets were perfect since day 1. Brass nut was perfect since day one. Always used GHS .010-.046 strings...the best! Setup was tweaked over 20 years and this guitar has zero fret buzz in a dead quiet room with no amp and no bad frets. (No Joking!)

20 years of gigs, maybe 1000 studio sessions, safe to say the guitar is extremely reliable for a guitar that was $250 new in 1979. Finish never cracked, peeled, or chipped (Or I just take care of this baby very well) This is the most dependable axe I have over the 5 Gibsons and 12 Fenders I have!!!! (Unbelievable) I actually have been offered as high as $2000 for this axe over the years. I'll be buried with it. Even the case latches work fine. I am now 42 years old and can say they don't make 'em like they used to. To be fair, Other Vantage VP795's I have played don't even come close to this one. I must have just gotten lucky and got that magic axe that comes by once in a lifetime!!!!! Everything is stock except the pickups and an added phase switch.

Customer support? Who would I call? The dealer is gone, Where exactly IS Vantage???? I do my own setups and the wood is still perfect.

Playing since 1967, have Gibson SG, Firebird, Les Pauls, Fender Strats, teles, Basses, Takamine and Ovation Acoustics. If it were stolen, I'd cry for a year then used the Firebird (Guitar #2 as I label them). Don't think I could find a well playing Vantage VP795 again! Originally chose the Vantage OVER a Gibson and Fender. Guess over the years, it became my trademark Axe!!!!