The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Hi everyone, I've been a lurker for a while.
I recently traded an old Korg Poly-800 keyboard for this Vantage Entertainer.

My question is which model am I looking at?
I've so far been unable to find anything more than the serial number. (Which I don't have with me at the moment)

Is this a VE470, VE545 or VE565? How would I determine this?
It's about the size of a Les Paul has a set neck, all gold hardware, the small switch near the volume controls appears to be a coil cut.
And it weighs a ton. It's in pretty decent shape aside from the fact that someone's puppy must have been teething on the headstock at some point.
Came with the original Vantage hard shell case.



Here's a sound clip...http://alpha.redeemer.ca/~cknowles/media/Shuffling.mp3

Thanks
Chris

Oooh, nice! I see what you mean about the specs; all very confusing but just looking at it I'd say that yours is a VE470?! Squid'll be along shortly and he'll know....

Welcome here; the home Uncle Matt's best guitars!!

That's a VE-470 alright, no doubt about it. And by the looks of her, in pristine and all-original condition!
I'm jealous
Just obtained another VA, but a VE is still missing from my collection, and I'd love to have the one you're showing us here (thanks for that, we love to watch Vantage-porn )
The sound clip sounds fenominal, I can imagine you'll never sell this VE to me

_________________
http://www.GuitarDir.com has been hacked by some mindless fool, destroying years
of gathering info on guitars by non-commercial guitar lovers. Why?

Thanks! I'm glad you liked the clip. I've learned that it's harder to describe
tone than it is to demonstrate it

I traded a co-worker for the guitar, he never played and I thought he deserved to hear
what the old girl could do so I mixed up the track using only a drum machine and the
Vantage.

That clip was all Vantage, rhythm guitar, base and lead.
Base was done using my Digitech RP250 to transpose the sound.
Rhythm guitar is using the coil split and just a touch of reverb to give a jangly sound.
Lead is through a screamer overdrive and the bridge pickup.

I wish I could say the guitar was pristine, but it wasn't exactly. As I mentioned
the headstock has tooth marks on it. Also the binding had separated in a few places
and the lower bout, the top had separated from the back. These two problems
have already been fixed and you wouldn't know there was a problem unless you
took a real close look at the lines in the binding where they aren't quite together any more.
I couldn't stretch it all the way back and had to fill slightly using the StewMac baking soda
and dye technique. I missed a bit on the headstock drop fills and there are some witness
marks still left, it's perfectly smooth but you can see little halo's where the teeth had
left their marks.



BTW does anyone have a source for 2 left side tuners? There are 2 non matching
replacements on there right now and it would be nice to put it back to original.

Here's a representative shot of the binding before repair

The gold plating is pretty faded as well.



My plan is to clean up the stop bar and bridge, then get them re plated in gold again.

Ha, I bet shipping to Holland is probably pretty expensive!

Chris

All in all, though, it's in pretty good nick. Who the hell would bite a guitar?! On the headstock?! I like the slightly faded gold etc.; gives the guitar some mojo - evident in the sound - the gold plating on my VA is pretty thin now too, but I won't have it re-plated; it looks like a 29 year old guitar that has been doing what it's supposed to!

Yeah, it is, unfortunately. And after that, the local authourities want their import-part of the ancient Japanese product being imported, too (plus taxes on the shipping costs ) So much for encouriging world-wide trading ... And John; a puppy would

_________________
http://www.GuitarDir.com has been hacked by some mindless fool, destroying years
of gathering info on guitars by non-commercial guitar lovers. Why?

..not in my bloody house they wouldn't!! And we had a breeding kennels for a long time; Manchester Terriers are about as bitey/chewy as you're gonna get, too!!