Diamond in the rough if you want to put in the work.

So this is actually my second Vintage V100. I owned a V100 AFD that needed A LOT of work. I'm talking full on fret filing and fret job. This V100IT thankfully didn't need all of that but it needed some help. The construction of the guitar and the hardware used is all really good. All Wilkinson Brand stuff to boot. Guitar neck has Long neck tenon (which is rare, even on American Les Paul's and single cuts), good woods used here, real mahogany and a thick maple cap with a nice maple veneer. The neck is comfy, has a 60's profile with a 10 inch radius. fretwork needed some help though, had to file down a few frets that were causing buzz and round off some of the sharp fret edges. Even did a full fret polish. After that I set the neck straight and did a basic set up & Intonation on the guitar and it was ready to rock! Good pickups too, the Wilkinson stuff for the money is fantastic (hardware and pickups). Had a few tool marks on the fret board but nothing that hindered playing.

The electronics on here are my biggest gripe. These guys all use those cheep mini pots. Yeah, they are 500k but they are a pain in the ass to work with. I wanted to swap out pickups on this guy for an EMG Revelation set and found myself sweating bullets trying to solder the pickups and new capacitor connections on those tiny pots. The wiring was almost a literal rats nest of wires and was that cheap thin wire you see in a lot of lower quality imports. If you can, I would replace all the pots and capacitors (basically all the wiring) on here to get the most out of this thing. Thankfully the interior had shielding paint, it was dead quite when plugged into my amp.

Despite the gripes I had (and the four star rating), with a little TLC this guitar really kicks ass. It's a good guitar straight up with a good setup. However where I feel this guitar shines is as modification platform. This guitar has it where it counts in the construction and materials used, it's an ideal modding platform for import Les Paul's. Again, and I can't stress this enough, the Construction is solid. The quality of woods used is good and hardware are all good to great. All the hardware on these guitars are Wilkinson brand stuff, the pickups are Wilkinson brand stuff and that is a huge plus. You don't have to replace a lot of hardware on here, even the nut here is a well cut Tusq XL graphite nut.

It also weighs like a real LP, feels & looks premium. Like I mentioned before, the neck is a 60's slim type of neck with a bit of a rounder radius (great for chords and slinky blues). The radius's you'd see on beginner type of guitars is what is you would find on Vintage V100's but don't let that deter you from trying one. Your mileage may vary with that but I think it's kinda fun. I know for some folks a certain radius might be an issue, but for me, it was really easy to play and get around the fretboard.

If you find the right Vintage V100 that doesn't have a lot of fret issues I'd definitely recommend picking one up. Already played this guitar out numerous Sundays for worship gigs and it's by far my best sounding guitar and in a lot of ways is my number 1 guitar despite the four star rating. It has mojo, I can beat it up bit since it cost me less than $300 bucks used and about 500 total with a pickup swap and upgrades.

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