I got my first bass at the ripe old age of 14 back in 1984. It was a brand new transparent red left handed Vantage Avenger and about the coolest thing I had ever laid eyes on at he time. I played it in my high school jazz band and even took it on a school trip to California where we played gigs at Disneyland, Knottsberry Farm and Seaworld. In the summer of 1985 I took a jazz improv course at the local college and figured I was getting pretty proficient as a bassist by the end of that summer. Well things changed, I switched instruments the next year, traded in the Vantage and focussed on guitar for several years before returning to the bass in my early twenties. I always regretted having sold off my bass. I never saw another lefty Avenger again like this one until a few months ago, 32 years later, when this very familiar looking bass popped up on Craigslist in another city.
I studied the photos and could clearly see that the bass looked completely stock other then the fact that it was sporting "V" shaped Ibanez strap pins which I had installed on my bass back in the day. Well needless to say, I had to get her back. The seller told me he had the bass for over 20 years and had never modded it in any way and had actually never even changed the strings! The factory brown hard case that came with it originally was long gone but I bought it sight unseen and trusted the seller to ship it to me on a Greyhound bus. She arrived looking a little rough but all original including the Ibanez strap pins. No doubt this was my bass!
I soon had her stripped down, cleaned, frets and nut dressed and decided to use some gold Dunlop strap pins and knobs I had lying around to spruce her up a bit and match up with the original brass nut and bridge. The tuners were the only thing that needed replacing as the factory Vantage labelled Gotoh's were falling apart. I ordered a set of Hipshot Ultralites and a Hipshot gold string retainer to match and they arrived today. They fit perfectly using the factory screw holes and she is good to go. Neck is straight and comfortable with a very "P" like profile, the ash body is light and resonate and despite being a slightly shorter scale bass, she makes for a very punchy and thumpy P-bass! I couldnt be happier to have found her unmolested as so many of these old basses have been modified beyond repair and leftys are pretty much impossible to find at the best of times. If anyone else out there has been reunited with an old friend, would love to hear your story.
