LeftyBassist.com

https://reverb.com/item/67637583-left-h ... e-set-neck

Woosh!

I love symmetrical shapes. That’s the kind of bass I’d like to make.

Having said that, I had a Vantage acoustic at some point in the 90s—worst sounding acoustic I ever owned. Solid concrete blocks couldn’t have been less resonant. I’d totally forgotten about it until I saw this photo. Ugh.

Why is there such a pronounced dark line on the front of the bass, but none on the backside of that wing?

That's the shadow of the G-string.

I wouldn't let that experience with a 90's Vantage acoustic discourage you. By the early 90's, Vantage manufacturing had moved from Japan to Korea (Samick). Then as the 90's decade progressed, to Indonesia- and then various other eastern locales with declining quality- so hard to say where that acoustic might have come from.

The "classic" era of Vantage was the line built in Japan by Matsumoku from around 1977 thru 1987. According to Matsumoku the initial Vantage "concept" was to design and build a product line that would showcase its manufacturing abilities, pride and expertise. That late 70's -late 80's line was produced to a very high standard of materials and craftsmanship that certainly met their goal. The solid body Matsumoku era Vantage guitars are imho some of the best bang-for-the-buck instruments money can buy, both then and now. I've had several, and still have a couple of these VP795B basses hanging around. The sound of the double P pickup arrangement on these will give you as powerful and fat a P bass tone as any Precision I've heard, and with somewhat more versatility.





*Also of note is that the VP795B is actually a very comfortable mid scale (32 1/4") bass, not 34" long scale as was stated in that Reverb listing.

I have one, I got used in the early 90;s so I suspect it was made in Japan still to this day I remember how amazing a bass it was for such a low cost.

Now I see... that would have been one hellavuh crack if it wasn't a shadow!

These are excellent, well-made instruments. Matsumoku quality with appointments that will remind you of the Aria Pro II SB line at the time (also made by Matsumoku). I just picked up a red one in Dec. last year. (Just like the one Carmine has pictured). Interestingly, though, the description on these basses indicated that they were set up to be vol/vol/tone, but mine came vol/tone/tone. (I wish it was vol/vol/tone to allow for gradual blending of PUPs).

The only well known pro player I've found who played a Vantage (albeit, rarely) was Lemmy, though he played the single PUP VS-600P model:

Absolutely, PJ- you can see the Vantage/ Aria Pro II family resemblance here. Much of that classic mid-eighties era of beautiful multi-laminate tone wood bodies and neck- thrus, etc. from brands like Aria, Greco, Ibanez, and Yamaha were directly attributable to or influenced by "Uncle Mat", but I'm sure there is still a lot of general misconceptions around vintage Japan built instruments where the higher profile brand name may be familiar, but the actual manufacturer is not:

Matsumoku produced guitars (and/or or parts) for Aria, Vantage, FujiGen Gakki, Hoshino Gakki (Ibanez), Nippon Gakki (Yamaha), Kanda Shokai (Greco). Washburn Guitars contracted Matsumoku to build some of its electric guitars and basses from 1979 through 1984 (though Yamaki was the manufacturer for the early Wing series). And in 1979 Matsumoku also began to market its own guitar line under the Westone name (Westone Thunder 1A active Bass, 1982):



In addition, American-owned Unicord contracted Matsumoku to build most of its Univox and Westbury guitars, as did Norlin (parent company of Gibson) for Epiphone guitars. St. Louis Music Company imported Matsumoku built Electra Guitars. J. C. Penney sold Matsumoku-built Skylark guitars through its catalog division. Matsumoku also built many Memphis, Westbury, Guyatone, Westminster, Vox, Cutler, Lyle, Fell and more...

But unfortunately, Matsumoku had to close down operations in 1987, so the brand names above reflect their involvement up to that point only. Into the 1990's and beyond, many of those brand names were sold and/ or changed manufacturers multiple times, thus the wide disparity in quality and sound from what Matsumoku was building back in the day.

I've never seen that Lemmy pic before, cool (Mark "The Animal" Mendoza in the background, clearly in awe of Lemmy's performance) !

Love the pronounced wood grain on these instruments! Which brings me to a question: were they dying the grain in a black stain first to get it to "pop" more?

My very first bass was a Westbury Track II righty flipped. I butchered it though, yanking the frets out (poorly) and painting it to look like the Partridge Family bus. Traded it for an old Dr. Rhythm drum machine, like a dope. I missed it so much I ended up buying another one off ebay about 15? years ago:



There's that Matsumoku style headstock again.

Well I really like the looks of them. I keep threatening to build a bass, and that design is perfect. The double PB pickup configuration is interesting.