Vintage Guitars is a British manufacturer of

electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...

and

acoustic guitars An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

and

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

s founded in 1995. The Vintage brand is owned by UK musical instrument distributors John Hornby Skewes and Co. Ltd. (JHS), and is based in

Garforth Garforth () is a town in the metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It sits in the Garforth and Swillington ward of Leeds City Council and the Elmet and Rothwell parliamentary constituency. As of 2011, the popula ...

, Leeds.

History

The first guitar series by Vintage called VC1 came out in 1995. In collaboration with Trevor Wilkinson (originator of

Fret-King Fret-King is a UK manufacturer of stringed instruments and musical accessories, originally conceived by guitar designer Trevor Wilkinson in the early 1990s. The company has manufactured a number of electric and bass guitars noted for their dis ...

), Vintage's goal was to manufacture affordable but well-made vintage-looking guitars. Instruments manufactured by Vintage have been used by notable

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

, heavy metal and

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while the ...

musicians, including

Scott Sharrard Scott Sharrard (born December 28, 1976) is an American musical artist widely known as the lead guitarist and musical director of the Gregg Allman Band. A prolific songwriter and talented singer, he has also released several soul-influenced alb ...

Fred Mollin Fred Mollin is an American and Canadian record producer, musician, film and TV composer, music director, music supervisor, and songwriter. He has produced records for Jimmy Webb, Johnny Mathis, Billy Ray Cyrus, Lamont Dozier and America (band), A ...

Billy Sherwood William Wyman Sherwood (born March 14, 1965) is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, singer, record producer and mixing engineer. He is best known for his tenures in the English progressive rock band Yes (band), Yes as guitarist and ke ...

, John Payne,

Dave Colwell David "Dave Bucket" Colwell (born 1 August 1964) is a rock guitarist from the United Kingdom and has been a member of Bad Company, Samson, ASAP, The Eastenders, The Entire Population of Hackney, 720, The Torpedos, Angel Street, Roger Chapman's ...

, Peter Baltes and Nick Kane.

Paul Brett Paul Brett (born 20 June 1947 in Fulham, London) is an English classic rock guitarist. He played lead guitar with Strawbs (although he was never actually a member), The Overlanders, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera, T ...

worked as a guitar designer for Vintage. The brand has collaborated with Joe Doe Guitars. Vintage has designed signature model guitars for

Thomas Blug Thomas Blug, born in Saarbrücken in 1966, is a German musician, guitarist, musical electronic engineer and composer. He also formed his own band Thomas Blug Band with whom he released three albums besides his solo albums. He has also worked wi ...

Jerry Donahue Jerry Donahue (born September 24, 1946, Manhattan, New York City) is an American guitarist and producer primarily known for his work in the British folk rock scene as a member of Fotheringay and Fairport Convention as well as being a member of ...

, Tony Butler and

Midge Ure James Ure (born 10 October 1953) is a Scottish musician, singer-songwriter and record producer. His stage name, Midge, is a phonetic reversal of Jim, the diminutive form of his actual name. Ure enjoyed particular success in the 1970s and 1980s ...

. In 2020, due to the brand's 25th anniversary, the "25th Anniversary Series" of V75, V6H and V100, which are considered Vintage's best-selling models, was released, limited to 100 pieces each. In 2022, JHS gifted a Vintage

acoustic-electric guitar An acoustic-electric guitar is an acoustic guitar fitted with a microphone or a magnetic or piezoelectric pickup. They are used in a variety of music genres where the sound of an acoustic guitar is desired but more volume is required, especiall ...

to a homeless

Malvern Link Malvern Link is an area of Malvern, Worcestershire, England to the north and east of Great Malvern. The centres of Malvern Link and Great Malvern are separated by Link Common, an area of open land that is statutorily protected by the Malvern ...

busker who got his

Yamaha Yamaha may refer to: * Yamaha Corporation, a Japanese company with a wide range of products and services, established in 1887. The company is the largest shareholder of Yamaha Motor Company (below). ** Yamaha Music Foundation, an organization estab ...

guitar stolen.

Reception

Matt McCracken of

Guitar.com BandLab Technologies is a Singaporean company that operates a social music platform, called BandLab, and also owns a variety of music-related brands. Founded in 2015, these include Harmony and Heritage Guitars; ''Guitar.com'', ''NME'', ''Uncut'' ...

noted that "Vintage made its name mixing homegrown design ingenuity with overseas manufacturing to deliver impressive value for money." Dave Burrluck of

MusicRadar MusicRadar is a music website that offers information pertaining to artists and their music. The site features music gear news and reviews, artist interviews and online music and production tutorials. It is owned by British media company Future ...

in his review of Vintage VSA500 (based on

Gibson ES-335 The Gibson ES-335 is the world's first commercial semi-hollowbody electric guitar, sometimes known as semi-acoustic. Released by the Gibson Guitar Corporation as part of its ES (Electric Spanish) series in 1958, it is neither fully hollow nor ful ...

) acknowledged the brand's "copy-cat status", but concluded that "the guitars might be slight in price but ..they are far from generic guitar-shaped objects. For the asking price this semi is excellent as is and maybe with a few personalised tweaks could become a serious keeper."

References

External links

* {{Guitar brands Guitar manufacturing companies Companies established in the 1990s Musical instrument manufacturing companies of the United Kingdom Manufacturing companies based in Leeds

History

Reception

See also

References

External links