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Vintage Advance AV1 H Electric Guitar

 

Review of the Vintage AV1 by The Man in the Jar

Features of the Vintage AV1

Tuners - Wilkinson branded Kluson-style vintage tuners, covered not sealed, with white plastic vintage-style knobs. These worked very well with a firm, smooth action.

Headstock - A variation on the 3-a-side Gibson paddle style. Many people complain about "non-standard" headstocks on Les-Paul-type guitars. This is simple snobbery and I feel this headstock fits just fine with the overall balance of the design. 

Nut - The white antiqued plastic nut is accurately cut.

Neck - A nice chunky neck, just as the guitar's overall style would have you expect. I found it had more in common with a Gibson 335 than a Les Paul. It's an extremely playable neck, very comfortable in the hand. The grain of the mahogany shows through the cherry stain finish in a very attractive way.

Fretboard - The dark rosewood fretboard has a wide stripey grain. The fret markers are a direct copy of Gibson block inlays. The binding is antiqued and carries side dot-markers.

Frets - Medium frets with a nice flat profile.

Action - Very good straight from the box, low and fast.

Body - The mahogany body has a maple veneer top that flames discreetly through the cherry sunburst finish. The top is carved into a lovely bulge that supports the pickups. The back has comfort contouring on the upper edge. The front is bound in antiqued white. What moves the whole thing out of Les Paul territory is the extent and curve of the lower cutaway that finds an echoing notch on the upper bout. This is very reminiscent of Rickenbacker's sweeping curves on their 330's and 360's. The body is quite thick and consequently the guitar has a good weight on the strap. 

Bridge - Standard, time-honoured Tune-o-matic and stoptail. Intonation is individually adjustable and string height is set by the screws at each end of the bridge. 

Pickups - Two Wilkinson-branded covered chrome humbuckers sit in cream surrounds.   

Controls - Three knobs sport gold tophats. One is the volume control, one is the tone control and the other springs a pleasant little surprise. It's a progressive coil-tap that works in all pickup positions. At full-on the pickup(s) selected run as humbuckers and at zero they are single coil. The usual three-way selector switch sits on the upper bout. 

Strap-buttons - There are two medium-sized buttons in the usual places. The one on the upper bout edge is a bit further away from the neck than it needs to be, so make sure your strap is not worn-out or you might see your new Vintage swallow-dive to the floor. Strap-locks or a new strap will see you alright.  

Output Jack - On the lower edge in a Telecaster-style bucket.

Finish - Really good throughout.

 

Sound of the Vintage AV1

Through a Laney valve amp with the drive cranked up the Vintage supplied all the rock tones you could need or expect from the Les Paul stable. Ease off into the clean channel and the progressive coil-tap really comes into its own, opening up lots of blues and even jazz tones that have a lovely mellow timbre.   

 

Overall Impressions of the Vintage AV1

I sort of expected to dislike this guitar, but having played it and discovered the flexibility of sonic variations offered by the progressive coil-tap I have to say I've been won over. That coil-tap puts it a slot above a standard Epi Les Paul for those players that need a few more voices to play with and aren't two fussed about owning an exact Les Paul clone.

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