Vintage VH51FP

I bought this second hand and it was stock, same as the others reviewed here.

I play a lot of styles and wanted a conservative looking Floyd Rose equipped guitar, on the face of it it suits my playing.
The pickups are reasonable, they wont set an old valve amp on fire but through an FX processor they are convincing.
It is'nt noisy and sounds fairly well balanced, i'd say it sits more comfortably in Classic Rock territory than Metal. It will easily cover most other basic styles.
My only complaint is the bridge pup could be a little livelier. If this is going to be your main guitar then you would gain a lot swapping this pup out.

It came to me in good condition. The finish is good for a guitar in this price range and the neck feels good. Its a fast neck making lead work easy and mine came with low action.
Not sure about the visible truss rod adjuster though, that reminds me of budget 1970's Japanese guitars.
On the negative, the routing looks rough under the tremolo and the Floyd Rose is'nt great... more on that later.

Aside from the Floyd Rose i think this is a gigging instrument, i think you could depend on it but a back up is with any Floyd equipped guitar is a good idea.
Now to my biggest disappointment... the Floyd Rose. Its a patent model on a budget guitar, fair enough. But if it wont stay in tune whats the point?
The springs look poor quality so i will try swapping them first, the knife edges dont look worn but you can see the trem has had some use and i suspect its some cheap cast metal. So based on that i dont think this part of the guitar would last.
Its a shame, this is a nice guitar and Vintage have let themselves down here.

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I've been playing roughly 20 years, i own a lot of guitars and lots came and went in that period of time as well. In the past i have owned various Floyd Rose equipped guitars but this time wanted something less pointy and more conservative looking. This fits the description, but unfortunately the Floyd Rose will limit you. Steve Vai techniques send the tuning out straight away, its okay for Hank Marvin shimmers at best.
I love the way it looks and what it could offer, but at a similar price the Squier Stagemaster is a far better guitar minus the feel of the neck.
Maybe after changing the springs things will improve but despite the fact i got this cheap and knowing it is a budget guitar i cant help but feel disappointed.
The neck is great, the finish is good, its a good weight and it sounds balanced but Vintage... that trem spoils a potentially great guitar.

This a Peavey/Music Man Eddie van Halen copy, two cutaways, rosewood fretboard on a maple neck, body unknown wood, two Wilkinson zebra humbuckers, one vol, one tone, Floyd Rose licensed bridge, locking nut, black hardware, deep wine on a flame maple-looking top. The finish is ok - mine is scuffed in a couple places.


The nice thing about this guitar is the very pleasant neck - quite thin, I'd say, with medium frets, but true and fast. People are funny about necks, so if I say my 1976 Ibanez Destroyer neck is better but the Vintage is nicer than my (ex) 1994 Jap Strat, then you might have an idea of my preference.

I changed the front pup for a Matsumoko MMK 45 because they are the dog's bollocks, and it splits really nice.

I play every week, and this is my gigging guitar, as well as the cheapest one in my house. It stays in tune, it would stay in tune a lot more if I ever set it up. I bang it about and it sucks it up without sulking. The hardware is fine. The wilkinsons are not particularly special, but fine for the price.

The guitar rings quite clearly, maybe due to the maple face, but whatever it is, there's a fair twang off this one.

I play from Midnight Blue through Lenny to Peg to Oye Como Va and the guitar responds pretty well to my demands, throw it through a Pod and a little Roland, whaddya want?

Action is low enough, but it's no slick flayer. Generally, you could say it's not a lavishly appointed piece of luthiery, but it's no 1977 Hondo plank, either. You would have to admit for the price it is an extraordinarily well-turned out piece of work.

This is pretty robust, and has a nice solid feel to it. It has a Floyd Rose, but I gig it without a back-up, as I like to live dangerously. I have never broken a string on this live, and of course, now I will on saturday night...prolly lose an eye doing it, too...

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Playing 29 years. This is by no means the best etc... but I have to say it suits my purposes, it stays in tune, it even has a bit of personality with the MMK 45 in the neck. For a beginner, how bad could this be? For a medium level player, it has a possibilities. It earns me money every week, and never lets me down. One of many such, but this one's mine.

as far as i know mine is one of the Pre-wilkinson range of guitars (2003ish), made in Korea. flamed maple top, slim maple neck (we're not talking wizard II slim, but its definately not clunky) with rosewood fingerboard, 22 frets, A deep purple finish and cream binding finish it off. the headstock is sprayed purple aswell, with a PRS Esque shape (3+3 machine heads). the hardware is all no-name generic, but does an adequate job (the machine heads are actually pretty good!), with 2 tremelo springs (which are pretty weak, adding 2 more improves it substantionally) and a licensed floyd rose and locking nut. 2 'zebra' coloured pickups, volume, tone and 3 way switch for the electrics. Its based on a Peavey Wolfgang as far as i know, but i liken it more to a Tele style body

I play a wide range of music, from metal to Indie to emo pop. With the humbuckers it's hard to get the softer sounds, and the stock bridge is a little weak, but with the neck humbucker and a little bit of overdrive (from an Ibanez PD7 bass distortion) you can get a pretty nice blues tone, coaxing a metal tone is harder, but It can be done. for the price, it does what I need it to do. I added a steward Macdonald golden age 12K humbucker to the bridge which improved tones a fair bit and gave it a bit more 'oomph'. virtually silent when not played.

This is where the guitar was poor. the frets were very, very sharp on the treble end of the fretboard, and one of the screws on the bridge was dodgy. However, a quick filing and replacing the screw on the B with the one from the e sorted that problem. the bridge pickup was very very slanted, and had to be forced out because the routing for it was slightly too small, so unless you're keeping it stock expect to take a sanding block to the offending areas. The covers over the electronics and the bridge at the back are very, very tightly fitted, so if you're forever fiddling with the electrics or trem springs you'll either need to replace them, leave them off altogether or attempt to sand them to fit. The trem springs are sturdy, but I never use the trem and have it blocked off. The saving points for the guitar are the machine heads. Despite being a generic no-name, they are very, very sturdy! The locking nut is of an acceptable quality too. Some of the routing is sloppy, mostly where the bridge sits and in the electronics compartment, but for the price it's reasonable. also, if you're looking to replace the pickups, you'll either have to trim off the excess metal from the humbucker plates or route the body to fit.

It holds its tuning well, and having gigged my 2 Vintage basses I would trust this, they hold up well for the price, would probably withstand a gig aslong as it wasn't a screamo band throwing it around! Despite being a licensed bridge it is pretty sturdy, and the strap buttons are acceptable, as mentioned before the Machine heads are of a brilliant quality, the locking nut is reasonable (does it's job). The finish seems nice and thick for a guitar this price

I've never dealt with JHS (Distributors for Vintage)

I bought this as my first guitar, being a bass player for just over 3 years now. despite noticing the obvious flaws with the frets I bought it, and it was a good investment. with D'Addario 10's it sounds reasonable. I own 3 other basses, a Cort C4, Vintage V940FL and Vintage EST96AF. Something to ask before buying it? for the trem bar! haha. If I lost it or it was stolen I would probably invest in something better, since I think these are out of production now. I love how it's a copy of EVH's Musicman/Peavey guitar, which looks relatively like a Telecaster (to me). If it had a Wilkinson trem I would consider it more, not really a fan of floyd rose tremelos!

Well it has 22 frets, 1 tone, 1 volume control, 3 way pick up selector, with Wilkinson double coil pickups.
Not sure what the body is made of but the fretboard is rosewood.
The body is a Peavey/Ernie ball style i think, with a Floyd Rose Bridge.

I play Iced Earth, Dreamtheater, Symphony x and other various metal styles. This was my first guitar and I'm very comfortable with playing it, it sounds quite good with a reasonable amount of distortion on and has a nice warm clean sound when using the neck pick-up. One problem i have found with it is when you are using the high frets on the top strings it tends to get a bit tinny, but this is maybe due to fret wear.

When i first i think the action was quite high but was easily changed (although I had to hunt around for an allen key) I had to get the tone control changed because it went on me quite quick.

I have played this live a few times and it has been fine, I haven't snapped any strings live "yet" and I don't think i'd want to due to the amount of time it takes to change them with the Floyd Rose. One problem is that using the Floyde Rose makes it go out of tune quite quickly which has led me to stop using it on this guitar.

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When i went to buy this guitar I remember it being the most comfortable to play at the price, and that was when I didn't have much of a clue about guitars.

Bought new in 2003, this guitar has a floyd-rose licensed tremelo with locking nuts at the top and fine tuners at the tremelo end.

Two humbuckers with a three-way selector switch, volume and tone.
The body is cherry-like wood, rosewood fretboard on bolted thru maple neck.

Neck is medium thickness, fairly easy to play. A short guitar with a big cut-away that fits into those neat rectangular guitar cases.

Very fat sound, especially on the neck-pickup. Less variation of sound than my Vintage SG, but still quite a range of sounds.
I would say that the ultimate treble is not as cutting as some, it probably needs a pickup with a coil switch fitted one day.
Tremelo stays fairly well in tune now.

The basic guitar is made extremely well. However, it does have some rough edges compared to my SG from the same company. Firstly the tremelo springs were way too feeble, and I replaced them with new ones that turned out to me much stiffer. It was un-tunable before, after the spring mod (about #5 DIY) tuning was easy. Slide a spacer under the bridge to lock it, tune it on a meter, then adjust the springs to perfect top and bottom Es. Job done.
The other slightly rough edge is that the plastic inserts are fitted as if they are never going to be removed, so need to be shaved with a knive so they pop out easily when you fancy tweaking the spring tension.
The fretboard is not totally smooth, the edges of the fret-wires catch the fingers and just need smoothing out a bit. I've had this on a real Gibson SG though - it's quite common.
The finish of the lacquer, wood etc is perfect.

Once set-up it is pretty solid, everything seems to be bolted together properly.

It was a steal at the price, it needs a good set-up (ideally by a professional) first, so factor that in before purchase. A very nice guitar when sorted, I would consider buying one again if I lost it.
I like the compact outline, good balance on the strap.

i've no idea were it is made.but i reckon om korea.it has 22 frets and has a really cool maple top.it is obviously a van halen [peavy] copy but for #160 i'm not complaining.basic controls 1x vol 1x tone 3 way toggle.with 2 double hums...it has a liecensed floyd double lock trem,which do's have issues mainly that the damed bar won't stay locked in position i.e eddie style. the only problem i had with it was the trem needed set-up it was to high of the body.aloughth at some point i will replace it with a real floyd.ifound the neck a little narrow but i am now use to it.

it is a fantastic guitar for the money and if your a van halen fan it's a fantasy come true.i run it into a digitech rp100 then into a kustom kla 20 so the fact that pick-ups are a little laking in sustain is a moot point alought it's lacking in a little treble[sounds a bit chokey] i fixed it with a little EQ.but i'm used to single coil sound..

as i said before i had to re-set the trem up as the model i tested was the shop model and that was perfect[something i find more common now]while the one i purchased was untouched the box had'nt even been opened.i did'nt find any flaws period and the maple top is perfect.

this guitar has become my main guitar now replacing my 10 year old fenix strat[a great guitar]which has now become my no.2...
as befor the only pain i find is the bar won't lock down for long.it come loose after some vai style trem abuse. so i may drill into the
bar bolt and put in a grub screw. i would gig with this guitar and looks good on a stage,but since i'm studio based it is'nt important.

one years warranty. but as usual the guitar assistant know sod all about guitars...

this guitar is a steal by before they dissapear

The whole guitar is clearly based on the Peavey EVH model and I assume, due to the low price, it is more than likely Korean made.

The body itself is solid wood (redwood?) and not ply as found with many of the instruments in this price range. The body is finished off with a more than reasonable flame maple top and white binding. A purple dye and plenty of laquer adds the finishing touch.

The neck is maple and feels fairly narrow to me with an average D shaped section and is finished with a satin laquer. The rosewood fingerboard has dot inlays and side markers. The 22 medium guage frets seem to be accurately leveled and finished, but are not polished. The headstock is maple veneered and translucent purple to match the body. The three per side machine heads are die-cast and chromed. Pickups are both humbuckers and seem to be of reasonable quality and tone. They too match the design of the Peavey EVH as they have the Zebra finish (one side black one side cream). The tremolo is a licensed Floyd Rose and is match with a locking nut. 1 volume and 1 tone knob, a three way toggle pickup selector and side mounted jack plug.

For a guitar in this price range, it's not bad at all. Of course the pickups lack the big power output and huge tonal range of a Duncan Custom or Di Marzio Evolution, but still they give a good fat sound and are perfectly useable. The bridge humbucker provides a nice edgy tone, but does tend to lack in sustain although the bridge itself probably contributes to this quite significantly. The neck pickup is better by comparison, giving slightly more sustain and a really smooth bottom endy sound for those emotive Gary Moore solo's. One unusual point of interest is that the volume pot doesn't kill the sound when turned down to zero, it goes from about halfway (on a normal guitar) to full. Although this doesn't affect the sound, it does tend to get on my nerves and I will be replacing the pot soon.

Action: As usual, straight from the factory and with a lot of retailers not having a decent guitar tech, the setup is pretty poor. It's playable, but once you move up to the 18th fret and beyond you find that most notes will choke on the fret above. I have a feeling that a trip to a good guitar tech for fret levelling/polishing and decent setup is in order.
The Floyd trem works OK, but with only two springs it does have a tendency to go slightly flat after use. I think the addition of an extra spring is definately in order. One big gripe is that the routing of the trem spring cavity from below is too shallow. This means that when you push the trem down hard, the springs grind quite harshly on the edge of the wood preventing smooth movement. I have rectified this myself with the judicious use of a sharp chisel and some sandpaper and sloping off the offending area.

Fit: Again, as usual straight from the factory, it's always always worth checking that screws and fittings are tight (especially neck bolts). I did have to tighten a couple of the nuts on the machine head capstans as the heads were a bit wobbly. Neck pocket is nice and snug and all neck bolts were nice and tight.

Finish: The flame maple top is not AAA quality, but nevertheless is attractive and the dark cherry/purple dye makes for a good finish. The only flaw with the finish is a small chip in the laquer nest to one of the neck bolt recesses. Apart from that, the finish of the whole guitar is excellent.

Overall very well put together, which is again unusual for a guitar of this price.

Having only had it for a few weeks I can't really comment.

I have been playing for around 15 years and have owned/borrowed/played quite an array of instruments for every price range and I must admit that I am very impressed with this instrument. Previously to this guitar I owned an Ibanez RG550 LTD which cost me #800. The Vintage makes an absolute mockery of the Ibanez in both production quality and sound. This just goes to prove (for me anyway) that as with most things, there is a huge 'brand' premium to pay for more well known makes.
My advice would be: Buy one, have it set up by a proper guitar tech, sort out the trem cavity problem, replace the volume pot, replace the pickups (if you really want to) and live happily ever after, safe in the knowledge that you have spent a (relatively) tiny amount for a monstrous guitar.