1990s Valley Arts Custom Pro SuperStrat-style Electric Guitar

Shreddin' time! This Valley Arts Custom Pro "Bent S" was made in the last few years of the original company -- before it was sold to Samick and import models began to be made. The serialization and features suggest it's a '91 or '92 made right before the sale of the company. There's a Valley Arts fan website with plenty of details -- check that out here.

It's boutique in the top-flight, acrobatic-playing, aggressive sort-of way early-'90s fancy electrics are. The body is a two-piece hunk of quilted and curly maple, the neck is absurdly-birdseye and figured maple, it has an ebony board, gold hardware throughout, a Kahler whammy system that acts like a Floyd, locking nut, two Duncan single-coil-style pickups, and a big old Duncan bucker in the bridge. It's, shall we saw, rawk-ready.

It gets brownie-points for a deep, translucent emerald-green finish, too!

Also: I apologize for my lousy demo for it -- this deserves someone who can wail on it -- which is clearly not in my bag of sleepy-demo tricks.

Repairs included: setup and adjustments.


Body wood: two-piece solid figured maple

Bridge: Kahler-made Floyd-style

Fretboard: ebony

Neck wood: super-figured/birdseye maple

Pickups: 2x Duncan single coils 1x Duncan humbucker


Action height at 12th fret: 1/16" overall (fast, spot-on)
String gauges: 50w-11 with umwound G

Neck shape: slim-medium C

Board radius: 10"

Truss rod: adjustable

Neck relief: straight

Fret style: medium-wider


Scale length: 25 3/8"

Nut width: 1 11/16"

Body width: 12 1/4"

Body depth: 1 5/8"

Weight: 7 lbs 14 oz


Condition notes: it's in good shape and was recently serviced a bit by my friend Mr. Jason Twigg-Smith right in-state. I had to tweak the setup a bit, though, as the owner had been keeping it down-tuned and so it needed to get adjusted for standard pitch. There's plenty of light playwear throughout the guitar including mild-medium scratching/buckle wear on the back of the guitar and minor scratches, tiny nicks, and tiny dings on the edges. Overall it looks nice, though, but it was definitely played. The hardware shows tarnish here and there as well. As far as I can tell, it's completely original. The frets have only the most minor of wear and I'm guessing it's had a level/dress job in its past because of that.


It comes with: a good hard case.




























Comments

Jay Careaga said…
That’s a one piece Quilted Maple body.
VAs didn’t go two piece bodies until they sold too Samick.
That’s a Studio City built guitar.
Jay Careaga said…
That’s a Studio City built VA with a one piece Quilt body.
They didn’t do two piece bodies.