Product: Vintage V99 Price Paid: Quid 189
Submitted 12/30/2006
at 05:36pm
by speedwell
Features
:5
Ok. Basic Les Paul layout,
2x humbucker pups,3 way toggle, volume and tone for each pup, tune-o-matic bridge, chery sunburst finish(laminate top) with chrome finish hardwear, green plastic tuners.
Twin humbuckers produce a great sound from thick blues to throaty power chords.I only run mine through a cheap amp (E-bay!) so i can't comment on higher volumes but for the living room guiarist this sounds great.
The tone pots dont give a great deal of variation but set at half way and giving the volume of each pick-up a tweak you can get some great sounds with the toggle set in the middle (both pups switched on)
add a little overdrive and it can produce some gritty power chords.
Left clean it can do Bob dylan justice with a nice folky acoustic tone.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:8
From the box the action was spot on.I have a v300 dreadnought acoustic and the action was incredibley high! Neck feels great only slightly let down by the fret wires which can be felt through the binding when running up and down the neck,but over all the finish is spot on. Upon closer inspection a couple of the vol controls were loose but this was fixed in no time (a good inspection in store before you buy can have this sorted for you).
The laminate top has a nice grain finish and a slight burr flame passing through around the controls which looks great.Back and neck have a deep cherry finish which is also fantastic.
As i said earlier the guitar looks and sounds a million dollars but costs relativley little.
Reliability/Durability
:9
This guitar is vey solidly built but as a consequence is rather heavy. I am only a living room guitarist so i can't comment on it's use as a gigging instrument but i have played cheaper L.P. copies and epiphone Les Pauls and as far as i am concerned this is an exellent well built guitar, the only difference between this and the epi is the weight, but as i said earlier the weight on your wallet will be different as well with an epiphone costing double the price.
Customer Support
:No Opinion
N/A
Overall Rating
:10
Having only been a practicing guitarist for a couple of years i dont have the privilage of playing many expensive guitars but i have played charvel strats,ibanez,hohner,epiphone L.P.s. I would say the vintage feels the best out of these guitars.
It certainly wasnt the most expensive but i would say it has been the best value for money. Before you purchase a guitar you need to get the feel for it and this one seemed to be made for me.
I would recommend any one to try one!
P.S. After reading many reviews on vintage guitars it seems the quality control can be a bit lax at times leading too a certain amount of good and bad guitars. I own 2 which are both exellent instruments but it seems essential to try before you buy.
Product: Vintage V99 Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted 11/10/2006
at 11:14am
by Jeremy
Features
:7
Sunburst finish
Les paul style body
Tune-o-matic style bridge
Non locking tuners
Bolt-on maple neck, rosewood fretboard
2 volume, 2 tone, 3 way pick-up selector, 2 humbuckers
Sound
:8
Sound is everything from very clean almost acoustic clarity to gritty power chords - tone control can make it sound woolly when turned down esp. on bridge pickup so best used between halfway to treble and beyond. Sound suits my very varied(as yet undeveloped) style.
I have recently started using an MG15RCD Marshall with its own reverb in preference to a Line 6 spyderII - Marshall sounds way better!
The guitar sounds melodic unplugged which is a good starting point and there is no 'noise' generated when it is hooked up.
I like the very slim neck, grain of the fingerboard, classy looking headstock and the tone from the pickups. I'm not so keen on the brightness of the sunburst finish and the lack of grain showing through.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:7
Bought this second hand with rusty strings for next to nothing so comments reflect what I've been able to do with this from a poor starting point. I guess its about 10 years old as cream plastic has aged nicely.
Truss rod and intonation way off what they should have been but new strings and a proper set up have revealed a really sweet guitar.
Neck is basically straight but a slight backbow near the nut means that the action is about 2.8mm at the bridge pickup - not as good as my Gibson but still very playable.
Frets needed dressing but weren't too worn
Finish has taken a bit of abuse but scratches and imperfections polished out well - no dings so finish appears strong. No corrosion of metal parts. Pickup selector lever had snapped clean off so replaced with new item easily enough.
Reliability/Durability
:8
I would say that this is just as likely to stand up to performance as an Epiphone or even a Gibson. Tuners do appear to have lasted and do hold tune pretty much as well as my Fender De-luxe strat and Gibson Les Paul Studio. Tune-o-matic bridges, well they are elegantly simple to start with.
Finish does appear to have stood up to being used and stored in a loft.
Customer Support
:No Opinion
Not had any cause to contact supplier or manufacturer and bits are readily available.
Overall Rating
:10
I've been playing a couple of years and really enjoy collecting and setting up guitars. I love how good this guitar is especially when in total it has cost me less than 50 quid. The neck feels better finished than a ltd edition standard Les Paul I had! The sound is easily as good as an Epiphone and different but no worse than a genuine Les Paul.
Sustain is the same as an Epi with a(fitted neck)at about 10 seconds compared to about 20 secs for a genuine Les Paul.
I don't hate anything about it and would definitely replace with another possibly with a fitted neck.
Product: Vintage V99 Price Paid: 179 (UK pounds.)
Submitted 02/25/2006
at 05:06pm
by Jack
Email: jackhayman at hotmail<dot>com
Features
:6
Late 2004 / early 05 run of the mill les paul copy.
Rosewood fingerboard, trapezeoidinlays. The higher inlays are uneven, and they look very cheap, but with a guitar for this price, what do you expect?
Body and fingerboard binding, 22 frets, three way selector, hum-hum pickup configuration. Ugly 'snot-green' tuners, wilkinson made, very cheap and they don't hold tuning very well, easily replaced though. Two volume controls, two tone controls, all of them rug against the body and crackle loudl when adjusted plugged in. All the basics of a Les Paul, nothing high quality.
The reason for it being a six is because it doesn't offer anything new or unseen. Their's nothing that sets this apart from other guitars. I don't see how anybody can give a guitar a ten when it only offers basics.
Sound
:5
It's cheap, that's the only way that you can sum it up. You get what you pay for, it's not a saying that I use very often, but with this guitar it's true. The neck pickup is very bassy, not very clear. The bridge pickup is very noisy, you can get a nice distorted powerchord sound out of it, if you're into Blink182 or any other pop-rock bands that use powerchords. But other than that, it's a little dull.
Clean, it's very dull. There's little sustain, very muddy and not very variable tone-wise. There's only two settings with the controls: Full and off. Anything inbetween sounds exactly the same. And you get a very load crackle out of them when they are adjusted when plugged in.
If yu do get this guitar, change the pickups immediately. It needs it, I'd make a point of chaging the pots and the selector too.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:4
I'm not going to pretend that i wasn't happy with it when i got it. I was over the moon. It was my first electric. (And has been my only for about a year, now. Although that's not out of choice.)
But, as I've matured into the world of guitaring I've come to understand some of the faults that this guitar has. And it has alot.
Out of the box, it's very bad. The Frets are uneven, causing the note you are playing to be muted by the next fret. This is only a problem with the higher frets, though. But it's a problem none the less.
There's alot of fret buzz with the open 'G'. It's very noticable, and very annoying.
The quality of build is terrible, there's glue spilt all of the fretboard, across the binding and onto the body. The fingerboard has been cut into where the frets were trimmed, even past the binding. The tuners are very flimsy, and feel cheap, don't do a very good job, either. The nut hasn't been made very well, and pinches the strings, which makes it a hell of a nuisance to tune.
The truss rod cover was lop sided, too. And the pickup selector is set at a wierd angle, it's more sideways than up and down.
In fact, the only thing that can't be faulted is the paintwork. There's no parts that have been missed, and it doesn't look that bad. But god damn it, it is.
The balance is off, too. When sitting down, make sure you're on a bench, or have a stool next to your right leg, to stop this thing falling off your lap. It's very bottom heavey, which makes it almost impossible to keep on your lap while playing.
The input jack is impossible to keep in place, too. It's always loose, and I've tightened it many times. Oly a small problem though, it's never fallen out.
I don't include action with this, as it's a matter of preference, and is easily changed with the tune-o-matic bridge.
Reliability/Durability
:7
Thsi guitar is very, very heavey. It's about twice as heavey as my uncles Gibson LP Custom. And that's a heavey guitar in it's own right. It could take alot of damage, and cause some, too.
I haven't caused any dents in this yet. Which i'm surprised at, my other two guitars (A Crafter Acoustic and a no-name bass) have accumilated a few nicks and dents in their time.
I wouldn't, however, gig without a backup. Especially with this guitar. (I wouldn't be gigging with it in the first place, unless I wanted to trash the stage after, which i most certainly not do with a more expensive guitar.)
It's got a seven because it's built like a rock, but the electronics I simply do not trust. Along with almost everything else with this guitar.
Customer Support
:No Opinion
I haven't dealt with Vintage, and I never will be, unless I'm asking for a refund.
Overall Rating
:4
I'm not going to kid myself here. I'm not a very good guitarist. But i know what's playable, what isn't, and what isn't worth playing. This fits under the latter two. Do yourself a favour and stay away from Vintage. You and your wallet will thank you. Because you'll either need to replace this, or modify it to hell. Both is costly.
I've been playing for three or four years now, I play through my Marshall MG3dfx, and I own two other intruments - as mentioned earlier. I have experience with other guitars, though. My uncle is a keen player and owns a collection to be proud of, including Fenders Gibsons and some local custom made beauties. I've also played many bottom of the line guitars, no-named replica's of popular designs that all put this guitar to shame tonally and quality-wise. So don't just assume that I have no experience with guitars and disregard this, you may thank me for it.
Go with an Ibanez, or another more reliable manufacturer that has a long running history of quality intruments. Don't be lured by the les paul design as I was. For the love of all that is good, please.
If you have any more questions, mail me. I've included my email with this review.
Product: Vintage V99 Price Paid: #159 (pounds)
Submitted 01/03/2006
at 05:44am
by Mike Pheasant
Features
:8
Doesn't say where it was made.
22 Frets, twin pickups,3 way selector and tone and volume dials for eachpickup.
Pickups are Wilkinson, not heard of them, but then i didn't know Vintage before.
Tunomatic bridge.
Sound
:9
It sounds great, for anyone and any style really. It sounds really nice clean and great with distortion. I Use it with a Carlsbro Kickstart 35 Amp. Sounds as good as an epiphone, but I haven't played a Gibson so I couldnt say.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:8
I havent had to change anything, The action was fine, It's a bolt on neck but that doesnt affect the quality of sound. the paintwork's fine. It all looks fantastic, looks expensive.
Reliability/Durability
:9
It's great for playing live, for gigging it's great because at the price you don't have to be really bothered about it being scuffed or stolen like you would a gibson.
very dependable. I won't take a backup to gigs anymore.
Customer Support
:No Opinion
N/A
Overall Rating
:10
I've been playing for a few years now, and used four or five guitars, I've played Epiphones and this is easily a match for sound and look, for the price you can hardly grumble.
I was put off to begin with because Vintage is owned by the people (JHS) who make Encore.
Don't let that get in the way. Go and try one in your local music shop and try an Epiphone aswell, theres about #150 difference and this is by far the best for your money.
Product: Vintage V99 Price Paid: 160 (#)
Submitted 07/20/2004
at 03:41am
by Martin Page
Email: martipageuk at hotmail<dot>com
Features
:7
This guitar has all you need : The classic twin humbucking pickup layout with 3-way pickup selector, Tune-O-Matic bridge, contrasting cream scratchplate, neck and body edge binding, tulip head tuners. A 22 fret rosewood fingerboard features crown shaped position markers. Bolt-on neck fixing.
i have been playing a couple of years and have used many guitars this has been my favourite. I was offored to trade with a freind for it, he was gonna give me a "Dean ZX" a guitar i have pictures of "Dimebad" from Pantera using, but i turned it down because i love my V99.
Sound
:8
I use it for EVERYTHING from Slipknot to Pinkfloyd, you name it. it is so versatile. It sounds brilliant clean with about 50% reverb and just as good with 100% heavy metal distortion.
I am running it through a Boss V-Wah, Boss DS-2 Distortion, Boss DD-3 Delay, Digitech Turbo Flanger and then into my Peavey 112 Bandit.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:7
When i got it all i had to do was tune it, normally i have to ajust the action and stuff like that, but this was fine.
Pickups were fine.
The onley problem was that it had some black lines down it looks like faint paint lines, but think its the grain.
One day i tried to clean the neck with a little water and the varnish or whatever it is on the neck just washed off. So from then on i started usein "Fast Fret" (that stuff it great for anything)
Reliability/Durability
:6
I play it live and its fine, my most reliable peice of equipment.
All the hardware works fine, Everything is long lasting.
The only thing i have changed it that i put a strap lock on it because the strap buttons are in an anoying place (to me) they are on the curve of the front body (like most Les Pauls i think)
The last gig i did i didnt take a back-up because i trust this guitar.
Customer Support
:8
I have only e-mailed them once and that was to ask if i was able to remove/replace the pickups safeley and i got a responce stright away, no problems.
Overall Rating
:8
Not a perfect guitar but it competes with Gibson and Epiphone. If you are on a budget and want a Les Paul: GO VINTAGE!!!
Product: Vintage V99 Price Paid: 199 (#)
Submitted 12/13/2003
at 11:54am
by matt schofield (worthless newbie)
Email: devilchild16uk<at>yahoo dot co dot uk
Features
:8
les paul copy made 2003, dont know where, vintage are very elusive. it has 22 medium frets, 3 way selector switch, humhum pickups - generic factory shit. body is mahogany, finished in cherry sunburst, tuneomatic bridge, usual tulip tuners, rosewood board, comes with a lovely brown cardboard box.
id like for it to have better pickups, but its a budget brand so i cant expect much for this price
Sound
:8
i play mainly metal (metallica, iron maiden, etc) through a marhsall mg series amp - the guitar is never noisy even when im breaking the walls with volume. the sound isnt too varied, but i cant comment too much on this section because im only beginning - so i dont know whats what
Action, Fit, & Finish
:4
actions is fine, the pickups are terrible, the neck pickup wobbles around
the guitar's fifth trapezoid fretmark isnt even straight, and the pickguard doesnt appear to be smoothed off very well at all
no flaws wih paintwork
Reliability/Durability
:10
it will withstand live playing, but i wouldnt play something this cheap in a gig.
ive knocked it around a little bit and there is no damage whatsovever
its very solid and the paint looks set to last
Customer Support
:10
not dealt with them
ive took out an extended special warranty
i will give the people at jhs 10 here because ive dealt with them before at work, and theyre very fast
Overall Rating
:8
im still a beginner, so itd help for a better player's opinion, but, this is still a very great guitar for people just starting out - provided their pickups dont wobble
if it was stolen, id buy this again over the epiphone lp standard
i love the way it looks and feels (generally expensive)
i kinda wish it was available in a more metal colour, though
lovely disrorted!