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Hello everyone,
Does anyone have any experience with older Vega guitars? There' s a 50's C-26 for sale for a reasonable price. Apparently these are all carved. How do they compare to Epiphones and Gibsons of this era? I'm after a guitar with a good acoustic volume.
Was considering a Loar LH-600 before but would prefer a vintage guitar. Included with the Vega is a DeArmond FHC pickup too.
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11-07-2017 08:11 PM
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Vegas were generally low-end guitars, and an old used on would be hit or miss. You would need to try it to find out whether it's worth anything. There are collectors, of course, but collectors rarely play much.
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I own a Vega archtop with a small, 14-1/2" body.
I love it for its size. Doesn't matter that it has no remarkable sound.
Mine doesn't have a truss rod. Its top is almost certainly pressed but solid.
Mine needed frets.
Vega was in business for a long time making, selling & stenciling many instruments.
Miles played a Vega horn for while in the early days.
Great if you know what you are are doing but beware the neck angle, among all the other things.
Sorry, I know this doesn't help much. Best of luck to you!Last edited by rabbit; 11-08-2017 at 03:37 AM.
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This is the guitar in question:
Done some googling - there really isn't very much in the way of detailed info about these guitars anywhere.
They're asking similar money to a Loar LH-600. This is from the 50's apparently.
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Here's one I found, possibly of use for price comparison. These folks (Tall Toad) know their guitars:
Tall Toad Music
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See, it's not old and used, it's "vintage". Calling it vintage at least doubles the price. This is driven by collectors with more dollars than sense, but I don't know of anything to be done about it, other than refusing to pay the vintage tax. Few are willing.
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The vintage guitar market has been around since the folk-boom of the early 60s. It's not driven by "collectors with more dollars than sense", nor the oft-cited "collector who can't play" or any other boogie man. It's driven by supply and demand economics. Complaining about it is akin to complaining that a Mercedes, or any other luxury good is over-priced, or saying that a Rodin sculpture is only a work of art because art collectors say so.
Originally Posted by sgosnell
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Prices are driven by what people are willing to pay, and what people are willing to pay is driven by perception, and marketing.
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?Thank you, I found the previous post preposterous but frankly don't wanna be in any mud throwing contest with someone. Originally Posted by customxke
Big
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Check the big V neck ....
I couldn't handle it
Nice guitars tho , rootsy
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Originally Posted by pingu
There was a real pretty old blonde one hanging on the wall at Starving Musician for a while, and you're right - big V shaped neck (no truss rod I assume). It's a style of guitar only some older cats probably like. Not like buying an older L-5 or Emperor Regent Deluxe...
Anyway here is a video of a cat playing a C-26, in searching on YouTube there are far higher model numbers with fancier specs. Enjoy
Big
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For about six months, I had in my possession a 1939 Vega C 66 (it looked essentially identical to the 1940 model pictured below). It was no low-end guitar. Vega, a premier Boston area manufacturer of great tenor and plectrum banjos in the golden age of the four-string banjo, made some guitars that were comparable, say, to the Gibson L-7 of the period. (Only the one-piece back of the C-66 made the 30s era Vega offering less desirable than the Gibson counterpart. It was more like a 60s Gibson in this aspect.) As I recall, the C-66 had a trussrod, but it was hidden under the fingerboard--not uncommon when Gibson had the exclusive patent.
I greatly enjoyed the Vega. I believe that Laurindo Almeida used a Vega as his choice of electric guitar in the 1950s, IIRC.
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Not all 'Big-V necks' are created equal.
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It's more the fact that this is a carved solid wood guitar at a very reasonable price point than the fact it's "vintage". Sorry if the original post was a bit misleading, it wasn't my intention. They're asking $1300 AUD including the Dearmond FHC pickup - this seems like a good deal for a carved top USA made instrument of any age. Originally Posted by sgosnell
That being said- it's in a different state to where I live so it's not possible for me to really try it but I would be willing to risk it if the opinions regarding these guitars was favorable from the forum. I've asked to see a few more photos of it.
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entresz,
I offer this as, er, encouragement in your pursuit of a "carved solid wood guitar at a very reasonable price."
I've got two old Gibsons that can be described this way and they represent most of the debt burden I'm carrying and
really can not afford. Big deal, soon I'll be gone but I'll have enjoyed my fiddles.
Neither are status models but both are quite old, sound good and have many stories to tell, I'm sure.
I'm privileged to carry the debt and own these guitars. Whatever the result of your adventure, the 'ladies'
and I are pulling for you.
Good luck & watch out for the clams!
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My opinion, FWIW, perhaps nothing, is that these guitars can be good, or bad, and it's impossible to tell from pictures. It may be a bargain, and it may be a total loss, so I don't know how to advise you on that. I wouldn't buy it without trying it, or at least having the option to return it for a full refund, but I'm not you.
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+1sgosnell
My first experience with Vega was as a teen. I was playing tenor banjo. A friend (and phenomenal tenor banjo player) had a Vegavox. Wow. I played it and thought, "If I ever..."
My first experience with a Vega guitar was the C-66 I mentioned. A friend brought it over to my house to evaluate and left it there for months. I had other archtops around, including Gibsons, and determined that the Vega was a very well crafted, great sounding and playing archtop guitar.
I would be very reluctant to pull the plug on an archtop acoustic guitar that I hadn't personally evaluated.
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I think given that I can't physically go there to properly play it and evaluate it I'll pass on it.
Thanks for the tips and encouragement!
What I'm really after is something like a pre 53 Epiphone Triumph. I'd better keep saving those pennies.
The Loar guitars tempt me too but I feel like if I bought one, even if it was a good one, I'd still be lusting over an old Epi.
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Hi guys, late to the party with this one but I'm seriously interested in Vega instruments and thought it would be worth sharing.
Most of the C- and D- series Vega archtops I've examined have 25 1/2" scales. This makes them a very different proposition from the 24.75" Gibsons and Epis. They tend to sound sharper and 'edgier'. Vega also seems to have been ahead of the curve on neck profiles: the better instruments from the 30s have rather slender necks for the period.
I've had all manner of problems with the neck on my own Vega archtop, which I bought cheaply on the assumption that I could get it reattached properly. (It actually took the attentions of two different luthiers to sort it out.) My impression is that the Vega truss rod design is not as effective as the Gibson, especially on big jazz boxes.
It's worth mentioning that the early, WWI-era Vega mandolins and banjos were off-the-scale brilliant. The cylinderback mandolin is a particular favourite of mine, with a neck joint design which anticipates the work of Greg Smallman by several decades. I've had four or five through my hands and have never seen neck problems. That's unusual in a century-old mando. Apparently this can be traced to the work of one David Day, an acoustic engineer whose career seems to have paralleled that of Lloyd Loar. The flat-top Vega guitars of the period are much less innovative but very likeable.
If I had to summarize, I'd say that Vega made a storming start in the last century and slowly lost their way over the successive decades. Sadly, the drop in quality seems to coincide with the move towards jazz and electric instruments.
Best, NP.
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Not to nickpick, but vintage Epiphones always used the 25-1/4" scale.
And the one vintage Vega I've worked on- a '52 C-56(if my memory is correct), was a fine sounding guitar, even with the pressed top, and laminated back.
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You learn something every day! I don't know the Epi marque, which I thought shared the Gibson scale length. Thanks, Dave.
My own Vega has a carved top, and sounds excellent. At least some of its sustain owes to mandocello conversion, but it is remarkable. On bad days I think of taking off the neck and having a new one built on the same body.
The degree of consistency between arched tops by different makers has always seemed remarkable to me. My guess is that top-carving was a specialist task and that those who had it were able to move between companies with relative ease.
NP.
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