Vintage Electric V6 Guitar Icon Series

I tested a cool looking strat copy today, called Vintage V6 Icon. It's yet another inexpensive guitar that impresses. It recently arrived at the local store, so I had to take it for a test run.

What stands out right away is of course the aged look. These guitar look fantastic, that is you like that relic'd look. It's all about relicing here - the body, neck, hardware, pretty much everything is "aged". I like it, I think it's hip.

The guitar sounds good acoustically. It has a little dull sound, a bit mellow and not so much snap. It could be because of old strings, perhaps.

Plugged in, the pickups impressed me somewhat. I need to repeat again this guitar is cheap, so I wouldn't expect it to sound like a high end guitar. It doesn't, but it's not bad at all. I enjoyed all the tones I could get out of the 5-way switch. I played it through a Roland Cube-60, and it was fun. The neck feels great, very much like a vintage Fender, except the wood isn't as good and the one I played had some buzzing problems. I quick look along the edge of the neck showed why - it was not completely straight.

It has Wilkinson hardware, which surprised me considering the price point of these guitars. I would imagine Wilkinson must have lower-end parts as well as higher-end manufacturing. The guitar did stay in tune fantastically well though, but I did not use the whammy bar either.

In summary, the guitar has an incredible vibe of coolness. It looks awesome with that relic look, and it sounds more than decent. The neck feels nice but I can tell that overall the quality control is so-so. I bet that if you play a dozen of these strat copies, you may find one that it really kicks but. That's one thing to keep in mind when buying guitars, especially cheaper ones - not all of them are created equal. Test many of them, and eventually you might find that gem where every part is great and the whole guitar becomes a few notches better than it's sisters/brothers. If you want a cheap strat copy that sounds and looks great, take a good look at Vintage Electric Guitars. There are more models than the V6, so look around. I would give this guitar a 6 out of 10.

Features

Body: Eastern Poplar
Neck: Hard Maple – Bolt On
Fingerboard: Rosewood, V6MRBK Maple
Scale: 25.5"/648mm
Frets: 22
Neck Inlays: Pearloid Dot
Tuners: Wilkinson® WJ55 E-Z-LOK™
Vibrato: Wilkinson® WVC
Pickups: Wilkinson® Single Coil x 3 (N)WVS (M)WVS (B)WVS
Hardware: Chrome
Controls: 1 x Volume/ 2 x Tone/ 5-Way Lever

By Robert Renman - www.dolphinstreet.com

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Posted by Robert Renman on November 13, 2008

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Comments on this blog entry

Zab said...

I must admit I'm a les paul fan, but in the past I owned a V100, and found that it was a great guitar which is very good quality.

However... When I moved over to my les paul, it really was much better.

regards.

Ed - Muay Thai Training Thailand

Comment added on December 16, 2008

Tom said...

Well, these Vintage guitars are a design by Wilkinson, that's why they have all the Wilkinson stuff. Made in Vietnam, so indeed perhaps not 100% QC. Poplar body is probably why it doesn't sound great acoustically. I've got the V100 Lemon Drop (Peter Green model, LP) and it's a really awesome guitar. Great feel on the neck and really excellent pickups (about as close to real PAFs as you can get).

Comment added on December 05, 2008

Csaba said...

I was waiting when you get to Vintage guitars. I owned a VS6CG SG-copy and still own a V100GT Les Paul Gold Top copy. The former did not convince me, the neck was good, the build quality was ok, the sound was useable (but not more than that), but the big problem was, that the guitar was very head-heavy. It was really inconvenient to play it standing, having it hung on my shoulder. Since the sound was not outstanding I sold it.

The V100GT on the contrary is a great guitar. The build quality is great, the P90s sound just great in it. It sounds that good, that I don't even bother about the weight or the thin neck. Yes, these are my problems with this guitar: it is very heavy (I think it is about 4.8-5 kilogramms, never measured. But really heavy), and the neck is too thin for my taste. But I can get used to it, and this guitar - especially for its price - is worth of getting used to the neck.

Once you mentioned in one of your blog entries, that you might try a Les Paul type guitar in the future. Well, here it comes: I would definetly advise to try this one with the P90s. I did not try the ones with HBs, but I had the same HBs in the SG-copy, and I did not like them particularly. But the P90s sound really nice, somewhere inbetween single coils and humbuckers. So if you have the chance to try thi guitar, I would recommend it. And would also be interested in your opinion :)

Comment added on November 14, 2008

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November 13, 2008

Vintage Electric V6 Guitar Icon Series

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