JHS Vintage VRS100 EB Review

History:

Purchase: I've been looking for a PRS copy for sometime and went to a small local dealer on spec to help get a friends Floyd rose trem into shape. The dealer was very helpful and I noticed he'd just aquired a Vintage dealership. He'd a few models in stock and was expecting more. At first I was generally trying stuff I was familiar with such as Les Pauls and Semi Acoustic 335 style things that were all second hand and not all were Vintage. I then tried an Cherry Sunburst VRS100 and found I couldnt put it down. I paid £239.00 after a small haggle which I felt was well worth it.

What I Like About This Unit: What I was immediatley drawn to was the build quality for the price, excellent. The cherry Sunburst stands out with deep laquered finish and gold hardware. All the lines were smooth and well finished, and were nicely coordinated. The body size and weight were nice, not too heavy and the feel of the neck reminded me of a strat rather than a Les Paul feel, very easy to get a full grip on for thumbing the bass E string. In terms of the eletrics I really liked the coil tap feature which splits one of both coils in accordance with the 3 position switch. The simplicity of one tone and one volume control also appealed. This enabled a simple control over a sound that could be either full on Humbuckers or nice and thin high end at the two extremes. When the coil tap was in use you could vary the sound on one pick up easily to drop in or out of a slightly rich sound. This appealed to me as I'd been looking for a guitar that can cover a wide sonic range so to speak.

What I Do NOT Like About The JHS Vintage VRS100 EB: The only real dislikes I have are the toggle swithc being a little on the flimsy side. This may or may not suffer with long term gigging, but is easy to replace. The other areas where doubt is creeping in is the Trem. This is a standard style unlocked trem and is sensitive, which may lead to problems in the future with tuning. However these are not apparent at the moment. The only dislikes I have of the body are the fret size, these could be slightly wider and flatter than they are and are reminiscent of thinner sharper necks found on strats.

Vintage VRS100 EB Quality: Having said all the above about the build quality it has to recieve 9 of of 10 from me for the cost. The finish is excellent and the parts are good quality and well fitting. The machines are solid and petite. The neck is rosewood and perhaps alittle lacking in finish by way of neck dots however there are plenty of discreet pieces of abalone to keep me happy!. The humbuckers arnt covered and perhaps create a little dust trap,but these are minor issues in relation to an excellent and well finished machine.

Summary: Overall I've found very little to critiscise and bought the guitar based on the level of quality over cost. This guitar costs £249 retail and is easily comparible with the low end of the PRS range,like the santana etc. The sound and responsiveness also added to my overall impression of getting value for money and basically provided what I was looking for. I havnt looked back as yet and I dont intend to buy a PRS.

Rating of this product: 5

This JHS Electric Guitars Review Submitted By: Dave Perryman

Date: 2004-02-23