View Full Version : F vantage mandolin
Hi there: somebody in Santiago, Chile close to where I live (Valparaiso) is offering a brand new pacrim F style mandolin with the Vantage brand on the head for close to US$400. I saw it once in a showcase but I didnīt touch it or play it. I suposse it is solid wood.... it looks like the older Samick SM50s, so I assume it should be like the ones made by Samick earlier on in Korea. Besides south american mandos, I do already have two A stile solid pacrims: an older Kentucky KM200S, an oval hole Samick SM40s and two US made mandos: an older solid Stradolin and a Flatiron 2MW. I have been looking for info on these Vantage instruments but besides of being a japanese brand bought by samick in 1990....I haven't found anything worthy on this mando so far... so my question ahead....Is this Vantage F mando worth its price versus its sound? how it is compared to other pac rim such as those I already have.....
Thanks & salu2,
The 'Vantage' are produced by Matsumoku, a Japanese company. They say on their site "Aria Pro II and Aria as well as Vantage and Epiphone are now produced in Korea". From their product list they seem to be producing a popular priced selection of products, not top of the line. For example they produce some Washburn (whose mandos are Chinese made)
http://www.matsumoku.org/models/models.html
Even though they now seem to produce guitars under the Vantage brand, they use the name Aria/Aria Pro II for Mandolins and Banjos. That does not mean that in the past the Vantage name was also for mandolins.
Desert Rose
Apr-13-2007, 6:51am
Just to be clear
The Matsumoku factory went bankrupt twenty years ago and exist only in memories
The site of the factory was made into a city park over fifteen yeaers ago (I drove by it about two hours ago )
Scott
Just to be clear
The Matsumoku factory went bankrupt twenty years ago and exist only in memories
The site of the factory was made into a city park over fifteen yeaers ago (I drove by it about two hours ago )
Scott
Even though you know the factory is not in Japan, their web site says the production is in Korea. What do you think? Do they still produce anything? The web site says they had made or have made Washburn's (specifically guitars), but here again they say that the production is in Korea. My recent Washburn mando has a made in China label.....
8ch(pl)
Apr-14-2007, 4:19am
I saw a new Vantage A style, made in Korea 7 or 8 years ago. Played quite well.
Desert Rose
Apr-14-2007, 5:18am
Matsumoku was a typical oem maker
THEY have dissapeared but of course that doesnt effect their customers lives at all they just find another oem factory as stated
Scott
Dan McIntyre
Apr-14-2007, 3:17pm
My first mandolin was a Vantage, 2-point, oval hole that has a Korea sticker on the back of the headstock. My son traded a set of vintage drums for it at a guitar show in Dallas about 5 years ago. He probably got ripped off but he had several sets of drums at the time and had heard me talk about maybe trying to learn the mandolin and so thats how I got started on the mando. I still have it and play it quite often. It's not a bluegrasser but it plays nice and sounds decent for a pac rim. I don't know if it is solid woods because it has binding everywhere, even the sound hole has binding around the inside edge. I suspect it is laminated. I could post a picture if anyone is interested. It's at work so it would take a couple of days to bring it home and take a picture. I haven't heard of any other Vantages until this post, so I was surprised to see a post about Vantage mandolins.
8STRINGR
Apr-15-2007, 6:42am
I remember when a firend of mine and I had our eyes set on a couple electric guitars we had seen hanging up in a Mall music store that both had the "Vantage" name. I bought their Bass and he bought their electric guitar. Both were in transparent, Candy Apple Red and both played very well.
I didn't know at the time that they manufactured any mandolins (coarse, at the time I wasn't into Bluegrass). I would've been curious myself to how well they played if I had been at the time. Anyway, I still remember that company name. I had sold the bass long ago due to other interests due to our neighborhood jam sessions ending.
Not sure if this is exactly helping you in your decission but I do know first hand that their electric instruments was a great buy for us kids still in High School....several years ago. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/coffee.gif