For sale Vantage 960BA 6-string - early '90's

more photos

I should be studying but I'm looking at talkbass bump!

TTT

Wow, the memories! I toured with one of these — IDENTICAL to this one — for more than ten years, and it never failed to deliver. It always played great and sounded awesome, especially after I replaced the pups and circuit with Duncan Basslines. It even survived my half-assed de-fretting. But I finally destroyed it with a terrible routing job to drop in soapbars.

Bump for the memories.

Tim - any ideas on when exactly/how long these were produced? Doesn't seem to be much info available on them.

Wish I could help. I literally stumbled onto mine in an Akron, Ohio music store, and I had never seen one before. I bought mine on a whim, and it just turned out to be my main touring bass for years. I had never heard of them before then, and have never seen anything about them since. All I can really say about them is that they are a VERY surprisingly good bass with more road quality than you would expect. If times was better, I'd grab it myself.

Saturday price drop and trades added bump! Buy this today and I will call you and beat box over the phone for 1 whole minute!

fishstick666 said:

Saturday price drop and trades added bump! Buy this today and I will call you and beat box over the phone for 1 whole minute!

Click to expand...

Now that's an offer nobody can refuse.

Ok, I can see you guys are playing hardball. Let's up the ante: if this bass sells today I will include 2 minutes of beat boxing AND I throw out a few dope rhymes! That's a bargain at any price!

Is this a MIJ Matsumoku Vantage or Korean version?

I'd love to know myself. As far as I know, Vantage Japan had a "made in Japan" on the back plates, but this a neck through, so no back plate. I've been over the entire bass (and cavity) and there's no writing at all. The tuning pegs all say Vantage, and the serial number is S93083196 if that helps. I haven't found anywhere to check Vantage serial numbers.

Anyone?

After seeing the serial number,I'm pretty sure this was made at the Samick PT Factory in 1993.

It is Korean made, and I'm 99.9% sure Cort was the manufacturer of these at the time.

I used to be a Vantage and Cort dealer from 93-97 and my distributor said these both came out of the same factory. Cort also made the Conklin Groove Tools basses too.

These are very well made instruments and highly under rated.

Wow- that was the first six-string I ever tried. Haven't seen one in a long time.

Price drop bump and open to more 4-string trades.

Price drop bump! It's rare, it's pretty, it plays like butter!!! Act before midnight Friday and I will throw in 5 minutes of spoken word!

So here I am on my honeymoon, trying to find info on my new bass.
Not only do I find info, I find my bass was YOUR bass! Talk about a small world! Imagine how i felt checking the serial number on the headstock only to find out the bass I just bought from GC used to be yours... apparently it was purchased from another store and returned to my local store without it's case. I find it interesting how these things travel around; every piece of used gear I have purchased I have always wondered about its' history - now i have one I can say i know a bit about. This is very cool.
in case you care, it has a very good home with me.

oh, and just curious...
1. did it have a name?
2. why did you sell it?

Rock Candy said:

So here I am on my honeymoon, trying to find info on my new bass.
Not only do I find info, I find my bass was YOUR bass! Talk about a small world! Imagine how i felt checking the serial number on the headstock only to find out the bass I just bought from GC used to be yours... apparently it was purchased from another store and returned to my local store without it's case. I find it interesting how these things travel around; every piece of used gear I have purchased I have always wondered about its' history - now i have one I can say i know a bit about. This is very cool.
in case you care, it has a very good home with me.

Click to expand...

That's awesome, and it sounds like it found a good home. And not too far away - I'm in San Diego county and traded the bass to GC - San Marcos for one of the new Gretsch G5123B Electromatics. I've had the Vantage since '93 and purchased it used myself (in Santa Cruz). I always loved the Vantage - the wood work is stunning and isn't that the sweetest low action you've ever seen!?!? I sold it because I just can't go back and forth between a 4 and 6 string, and I'm really a 4 string guy. If I play both, I have to start thinking when I'm playing!

Don't worry - you aren't missing an original case - I traded it in with a Carvin case.

And, it's never had a name, so it's up to you!

*Just one caveat - if you play any Journey songs with the bass, I will have to come repossess it!

Glad it's with another TBer.

We live in East County & find ourselves frequenting both the local GC's.... We usually hit the SM store on our way to/from Carvin. My husband "Buzzkill" has been a huge Carvin fan for years, gigging locally with a couple of their basses. (he's a longtime TB'er, i just joined yesterday so i could post to you)
I'd been eyeballing your Vantage for quite some time...a few weeks i think. i was taken in by the exquisite woodwork, it reminded me of one of the first guitars i purchased when i got started playing just two short years ago. Her name was Shelby, and I traded 'er in to GC on a Zemaitis I fell hard for. i've always missed her since, and the coloration & woodwork on the Vantage is very similar, so we had an instant connection. it is in such incredible shape I had no idea it was "vintage". every time i would go in there i would pick it up and play it because it does play like buttah. then they discounted it to entice me just a few days before our wedding, and i carried it home in my lap. (i always carry a gigbag in my car, but we were cruising in hubby's) i wanted so badly to play it at our wedding, but had already purchased a hot pink Dean for shock value. (we had a Rock & Roll wedding, and we played Montrose & ZZ Top) And i'll have you know i banned all the Journey songs from the DJ's playlist, so no worries there - i only play classic hard rock. I would love to hear stories of where you played/fav songs you played/etc. with the bass.
I thought about re-using the name Shelby but if i ever see her again i'm buying her back. I am determined to someday own an Aston Martin V8 Vantage, so was thinking the name Aston would be cool... fast, smooth and classy....it fits!
i remember seeing the bass you bought @ GC. was it the orange GC limited edition one? i hope you are enjoying it as well. any time you miss your buddy, we can meet up at SM GC for a visit. for some odd reason i love taking my guitars for a ride in the car...