Vintage Guitars is a British manufacturer of
electric 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, Leeds.
History
The first guitar series by Vintage called VC1 came out in 1995. In collaboration with Trevor Wilkinson (originator of
Fret-King), 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
Electronics engineering is a sub-discipline of electrical engineering which emerged in the early 20th century and is distinguished by the ...
,
Jerry Donahue,
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) 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."
See also
*
Fret-King
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