Here's
one of those pawn shop guitars I mentioned earlier. I got this in a deal
along with a Line 6 Duo-Tone 50+50 amp. This thing is near mint and was
rarely played. Before production moved to Korea the Vantage line was also
made by Matsumoku in Japan. Don't let the simple features fool you, this
axe plays like butter!
.
I'm
not sure, but my guess is it rarely got played because it couldn't be tuned
or into'd. I guess at the factory the fret slotting jig slipped or the
end of the fingerboard was cut wrong as the distance from the nut to the
first fret was greater than the scale dictated. Anytime open and fingered
strings were played at the same time the open string's pitch was a bit
flat. I had to shave about 1/32" from the end of the fingerboard to bring
it back to scale. It tunes perfect now and the intonation is dead on. The
original pickups are packed away safely. That's an Aria Pro II MMK 45 bridge
pickup in the neck position and an OBL in the bridge position and the coils
on both pickups are wired in parallel as opposed to the standard series.
Two words: IT SMOKES!
.
The
samples are not exactly the best, but be nice, I never said I could play!
I use several CDs to practice with and for neck pickup I used a slow blues
backup to best illustrate the sustain, smooth creamy tone, bite, and flexibility
this guitar has. I picked a bit more up-beat backup for the raw power of
the bridge pickup.
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