The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

I have a Vantage VP825, serial number 3084072. I bought it sometime in late 1984 or early 1985. I've been playing it steady for 18 years, it is still in mint condition and it has never been in the shop. These are great guitars!

In terms of the serial number, does the "3" indicate 1983? Does the "84" indicate 1984? I gather that there is a code to these serial numbers that can be cracked. Can anyone help me out with this?

Also, does anyone know what this guitar model might be trading for? I would never sell mine, but I'm curious about the value for insurance reasons.

Thanks in advance.

Info on Uncle Matt guitar serial numbers can be found here in the Models/Lables section:

http://www.therathole.org/guitars/models/serial_no.html

It is almost definitely a 1983 going on the serial number.

If you were to place it on eBay right now you could expect to get anywhere from about $350 to possibly $500 or maybe better.

Thanks for the information. I've been trying to sort this out for a while now. This forum is a great idea.

Yippee! Yet another Kudo! I'm on a roll!

I need to dig through everthing I have here and try to gather enough to unravel the set-neck VS neck-thru mystery on the VP series.

Thanks for the Kudo!

You're most welcome and the kudos are well earned.

On the neck thru question, I can only describe my VP 825. I knew nothing about joining techniques when I bought it.

The neck is made of three pieces of maple laminated together. The centre of section of the body is made of three pieces of maple inter-laminated with two pieces of walnut. The maple in the neck and in the centre section are very clear grained and closely matched. The neck is set into the centre section of the body.

So, technically, it's a set neck but the design is obviously meant to look and sound like a thru neck. In a sense, you still have a neck thru design because you have one assembly from head to toe of carefully matched and joined maple. The sustain on this guitar is excellent as a result.

I could post a photo of my Vantage but it is exactly the same as the one VantageMan63 has submitted.

Hope this helps!

Sorry, I meant to type Vantageman64!

Thank you for the clarification on my name Since the 64 represents the year that I came from the factory and doesn't help to increase my value I am axious to keep it accurate... My wife threatens that when I turn 40 that she's trading me in for 2-20's but I have reminded her that she isn't wired for 220

The only other thing that I think that I might be able to add to this subject is that the "Wings" seem to me to be made from Ash like a baseball bat. I have come to believe this from the chip that is in the finish of mine at the edge of the cover for the pots.