Early 80's Matsumoku made Vantage Avenger AV-3. Strat type guitar w/ a lightweight alder body, maple/maple neck, vintage size frets, 6-screw trem bridge, and three uninspiring pickups.
I'd taught myself to play on my sisters acoustic learning songs by ear. I picked the Vantage out because it was comfortable to play. My parents took notice and bought that guitar as a Christmas gift at the end of 1980, mid way through my freshman year in high school.
Before that school year ended I'd had the bridge position routed for a humbucker and installed a Seymour Duncan JB. For the five years that followed many guitars came and went around that Vantage. It became what electric guitar sounded like to me and it played effortlessly. It remained as my primary guitar until the summer of 1986 and I only gave it up because the frets were played out. Rather than refret it I gave the guitar to a close friend who still plays it today (though it has seen other changes over the years it still sounds amazing.
I thought knowing the guitars specs would make it easy to find a Fender Strat as a starting point for a replacement. I was wrong. I've been through plenty of Strats and similar guitars over the years trying to recapture the sound of that guitar. At the end of 2004 I talked with Tommy at USA Custom Guitars about helping me put together a guitar that would make for a worthy replacement. By the end of January, 2005 I had finished assembly and it worked. Played acoustically side by side with that old Vantage the similarity in tone was striking! The new USACG Strat differs in some ways of course but the base tone is spot on. I won't be letting this one go.