NGD: VAG Custom Pro USA [Valley Arts Content]

[narad]

Got some good lighting today so figured I'd do a double NGD. I realize this is probably not for everyone here, but have you heard of Valley Arts Guitars? One of the successful USA boutique guitar brands of the 80s, who just as they were becoming super successful around 1990/1991, but had their shop burn down in an unrelated arson, and were sadly too underinsured to get things operating smoothly in-house (and were subsequently sold to Samick, then Gibson). Here's a promo from back in the day:

https://valleyarts.guitars/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/valleyartspromo.mp4?_=1

I love everything about this sort of promo / nostalgia / and I'm big into the late 80s LA scene and gear, so I've always had an eye out for one. Then the other week, I found one at a second had shop in Japan, and it was even from the "golden era", back from before the acquisition, so I had to to give it a shot.

VA (or VAG as they're called in Japan...) were known for going all out with super nice materials. That and a love/hate headstock (seems to be a theme among USA socal builders). At the time nice materials meant a lot of full figured maple body strats, birdseye maple necks, high grade ebony boards, etc. This one is a bit different, and pretty rare carve top. It has a flame maple top, but thick enough to be a body on a non-carve top, and a flame maple neck. It has an 85/SA/SA pickup set, and I do really love the 85. Maybe it doesn't work so well to modern music, but it's like instant 80s fusion tone. It has a herringbone style purfling around it, and overall has a bit of a Pensa Suhr vibe. It's finished in a teal-green color with gold hardware, which, honestly is not my vibe, but I think is still pretty nice in a more objective sense. It's very sleek. I kind of wish I could refinish it into a more subdued color, a black or dark purple or amber would have been great, but... vintage VAG... probably not a good idea.

The fit and finish, apart from natural aging, is just top notch. What I'm impressed with is the balance is really nice, I would say comparable to a Vigier excalibur I used to have, and with basicalyl all other guitars ranking somewhere noticeably below. Very surprising given the materials, but the body is overall quite slim. It also sounds great and has a natural resonance and just musicality to it. Just unplugged you know it's a great instrument. Maybe you hear this a lot in an NGD, but for me, top 5% in terms of sustain.

The downside, as there always are with vintage, is that the frets are about due to be replaced, so there's a whole big surprise expense to it. It plays well in spite of that, but it doesn't play that well. And the binding/clear has cracked int some places, especially around the jack.

Still I would say the quality that VAG was known for is apparent throughout, both in the overall impression and materials, but also in subtle carvings and details that just makes the guitar feel like a very well crafted instrument. This is just sample size of one and I don't know how anyone makes consistently especially musical instruments -- lord knows my ESPs vary a lot -- but if all VAGs are like this then I would recommend checking them out for sure, and I'm also hoping to try out another at some point, probably the more typical super strat style. Would be great to see some random metal guitar with a VAG drop-tuned and with a battleworn BKP or something in there

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[narad]

A couple leftover detail shots:

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[HeadlessHou]

Amazing flame on that neck , that back shot reignited the Xotic GAS I had…

 

[gasolinedreams]

That's a nice looking vag, you've got there.

 

[Yul Brynner]

Jesus Christ that's a sexy VAG.

 

[Edika]

I'm surprised they didn't go full maple body as that is one thick piece! Seems to be more of it than the other wood forming the rest of the body.

It oozes quality without even knowing what it is. The headstock is not as bad as I thought it would be when I reached the photos. Not super great, but the description really got my imagination into overdrive lol.

If they went by VA, it's quite unfortunate, and hilarious, that they were known as VAG in other countries. So many innuendos to be made and saucy comments to be made, as the last two posters demonstrated .

 

[narad]

Amazing flame on that neck , that back shot reignited the Xotic GAS I had…

Ah yea, tbh the lighting and camera is doing a lot of work there. I saw some Xotics recently and the flame was just constantly present / this is just the angles. It's slightly gloss vs. the Xotics satin.

If they went by VA, it's quite unfortunate, and hilarious, that they were known as VAG in other countries. So many innuendos to be made and saucy comments to be made, as the last two posters demonstrated .

Yea, VAG makes sense if don't know english and english slang Actually even the model numbers for some M-series (JP domestic VA production) in the old catalogs have model codes with VAG in the title, so I can see why it became the standard abbreviation here.

 

[cardinal]

That is AWESOME. And 24.75" scale? With a Floyd? I love it so much.

When I first started playing, my uncle who was a touring guitarist for years based in LA said to get a Valley Arts if I ever could.

 

[ZLE]

I remember more than 30 years ago watching Steve Lukather's instructional video. And I don't know about now, but back then modesty wasn't Steve's strongest virtue.He seemed to use more
processing than Space Shuttle and he was rocking one of those and the guitar was so in your face, that I still remember everything about it: the flashy top, the gold Floyd

 

[prlgmnr]

Thanks for showing us your VAG

 

[USMarine75]

I’ve been GASing for a proper VAG for years. I missed grabbing one when they were down to $800-1k on the used market.

Interesting side note (that I know you already know @narad ). After the fire they sold alll their remaining stock to Samick. Samick used it to build guitars until it ran out. I have a Samick Strat that most definitely has a VAG neck on it. The flame on both the fretboard and neck is ridiculous. Plus the ultra thin neck profile doesn’t match anything on any other Samick I’ve ever seen or played. So this is my temporary fix for my VAG lust until I can find the right one to permanently settle down with.

 

[narad]

That is AWESOME. And 24.75" scale? With a Floyd? I love it so much.

When I first started playing, my uncle who was a touring guitarist for years based in LA said to get a Valley Arts if I ever could.

Yup, should have mentioned - 24.75". So I don't have to feel bad about redundancy with other strats

I remember more than 30 years ago watching Steve Lukather's instructional video. And I don't know about now, but back then modesty wasn't Steve's strongest virtue.He seemed to use more
processing than Space Shuttle and he was rocking one of those and the guitar was so in your face, that I still remember everything about it: the flashy top, the gold Floyd

That's pretty much exactly the one I'm after, despite not being a particularly big Lukather fan. But you can tell the shop had a great relationship with artists. When it burned down, a lot of artists called to check how the guys were doing, and they did fundraising and stuff to help them get back on their feet.

Coincidentally, I think Lukather has a VA that's painted like an outer space scene.

Thanks for showing us your VAG

Anytime, boys

I’ve been GASing for a proper VAG for years. I missed grabbing one when they were down to $800-1k on the used market.

Interesting side note (that I know you already know @narad ). After the fire they sold alll their remaining stock to Samick. Samick used it to build guitars until it ran out. I have a Samick Strat that most definitely has a VAG neck on it. The flame on both the fretboard and neck is ridiculous. Plus the ultra thin neck profile doesn’t match anything on any other Samick I’ve ever seen or played. So this is my temporary fix for my VAG lust until I can find the right one to permanently settle down with.

So I heard Warmoth was making the VA necks pretty much up through the fire period -- I know they were at least early on. They mentioned it in one of the 24.75" scale neck videos. In Japan there's M-series, which I think was domestic parts, but there's also a higher range that typically goes for 150,000-250,000Y, and has Warmoth necks (stamped Warmoth), so that's pretty legit actually. The bodies could be as well, I have no idea, but they're quite nice. So that's another option. I'm hoping now I have at least a semblance of USA VAG experience, would be nice to see how it compares to the domestic one. God dammit.

 

[budda]

I have seen a couple come up for sale here and there but not being an 80’s gear nut I have not been tempted. I’ll relay the next one

Looks fun!

 

[narad]

I have seen a couple come up for sale here and there but not being an 80’s gear nut I have not been tempted. I’ll relay the next one

Looks fun!

This is the one I missed out on last month or so. It sat all summer for a price I thought was outrageous...was just getting up the energy to travel 50 mins and check it out, and it was gone :'(

I like when they have the logo on the body too

 

[BlackMastodon]

Came for the comments, stayed for the beautiful guitar I've never heard of.

 

[ADADAD]

Once again, more accurate than ever: Nice Warmoth bro.

 

[Sermo Lupi]

The 80s was such an interesting era in guitar development. It's this mish-mash of specs (sometimes in great ways) and the material quality of super strats back then is hard to beat. After checking out Valley Arts a bit more, you can see other guitars like the Guild Liberator Elite were trying to tap into the same design ethos.

The thickness of that maple cap is absurd, even more so considering the depth of the carved top. I like the attention to detail on features like the sunken knobs, the engraved/cast branding on the bridge and neckplate, and the gold touches throughout, especially the purfling.

What's interesting about the under carve for the Floyd Rose is that it doesn't outline the bridge too carefully; it's a bit tighter on the other VA you posted but both have the same design where they don't start at the bridge posts and flare outwards as they extend away from the pivot point. I actually quite like it. How they've softened the edges of the route looks great.

Did you ever determine the exact year?

 

[narad]

The 80s was such an interesting era in guitar development. It's this mish-mash of specs (sometimes in great ways) and the material quality of super strats back then is hard to beat. After checking out Valley Arts a bit more, you can see other guitars like the Guild Liberator Elite were trying to tap into the same design ethos.

The thickness of that maple cap is absurd, even more so considering the depth of the carved top. I like the attention to detail on features like the sunken knobs, the engraved/cast branding on the bridge and neckplate, and the gold touches throughout, especially the purfling.

What's interesting about the under carve for the Floyd Rose is that it doesn't outline the bridge too carefully; it's a bit tighter on the other VA you posted but both have the same design where they don't start at the bridge posts and flare outwards as they extend away from the pivot point. I actually quite like it. How they've softened the edges of the route looks great.

Did you ever determine the exact year?

The liberator looks great! But yea, that's pretty spot-on what I like. If I could snap my fingers and have it refinished, I'd have it in exactly that color. Hamer is another brand I like -- the Californian models were often full figured maple bodies (+27 frets / slant neck pickup).

I don't know the exact year. It should be 1990-1991 based on the VA registry page serial numbers.

 

[Sermo Lupi]

The liberator looks great! But yea, that's pretty spot-on what I like. If I could snap my fingers and have it refinished, I'd have it in exactly that color. Hamer is another brand I like -- the Californian models were often full figured maple bodies (+27 frets / slant neck pickup).

I don't know the exact year. It should be 1990-1991 based on the VA registry page serial numbers.

Those Californians are great. Leon Todd has one that pops up in his videos now and then if you haven't checked his stuff out already.

On a semi-related note, do you know which manufacturer first started carving underneath the Floyd Rose and when? Usually you hear that Steve Vai started it, which he credits to a mod he performed on his Green Meanie Charvel in 1985ish. But, unless Vai meant his more extreme lion claw route, which fans then misconstrued with all forms of under carves, you can find routing on Floyd Rose-equipped VA guitars at least as far back as 1984, if not earlier. And I'm sure Valley Arts weren't the only ones experimenting with it.

 

[Andromalia]

Valley Arts were pretty weird for me, knew nothing about them but they were the priciest strats in the catalog we got from the biggest shop in Paris back then. And I couldn't really tell why from the 3 cm picture printed on bad paper.