fox54 wrote:
Well. I'm also from "this side of the pond", in fact..
To be more precise, from Northern Europe..
Spare me ... another viking!
Good to have you here, Fox54
I have here with me VA-800, VA-900, VA-900b, VA-912, VE-565 and a couple more Vantages. About two years ago I sold my Ibanez Artist semi-solid (can't remember the exact type), but the Vantage VE-565 is still here ... beside my Vantage-fetish, that does say something ... there's a few non-Mat's guitars here that I won't part with (like an Ovation deep bowl 12-string 1115 'Pacemaker', and an amplified acoustic bass guitar (Vantage South Korea), but for the most part my Japanese Vantage's (in my humble opinion) took on most of their more expensive counterparts, including the 'big brands', and came out on top. (price/performence taken into consideration). Maybe not the best money can buy, but very high quality, especially the ones originating from the early 1980'ies.