Welcome to the Vester Fan Site I hope you will enjoy your stay.

This site has been born out of sheer fascination for Vester guitars, an unknown famous brand I discovered some 4 years ago.
Feel free to send me an e-mail if you like to communicate about matters concerning Vester guitars,  but please refrain from provocation in any way.
For further information please read the Legal & Contact page.

If anyone who visits this site has any knowledge, photographic material or otherwise concerning Vester guitars which he or she likes to share, do not hesitate to contact me at blackguard@upcmail.nl.

The Vester Fan Site gives an insider's view on what has been accumulated uptil now about Vester guitars. I don't pretend to know it all, so in matters where I was not fully sure I avoided fantasy and just kept it as clean as possible.

The Vester Fan Site is a free, non commercial site made for viewing pleasure, so enjoy it.
Please be aware that loads of time have been spent on research and updating this site, which is a procedure
that I intend to keep up for a long period to come.
You may expect updates and additional information on a regular basis.

If you wish to make a voluntary financial contribution, however small, in order to cover the funding of keeping this site alive and kicking, there is a page with a donation facility.
Thank you very much.
GEISHA, The Netherlands.


1. Vester Guitars:

Vester was a music instrument manufacturer specializing in guitars and guitar amplifiers; part of the Samuel Music Company, based in Effingham, Illinois USA.
Rather than manufacture the instruments themselves, Vester used imported instruments, which were made by Saehan Guitar Technology, a subdivision of Zaozhuang Saehan Music Co. Ltd. in South Korea, now known as Sunghan Music.
Following the Vester Corporation´s initial success in the marketplace, was the company´s sudden and unexpected demise. In a move similar to the Gibson lawsuit versus Ibanez, the Fender Corporation began prepairing a legal action against Samuel Music Comp. in 1994, for allegedly basing the Vester brand on a "sound-alike" for "Fender"; even going so far as to cite the typefont used in the logo was identical to Fender´s trademarked font.
Samuel Music, lacking the funds for a prolonged legal battle, settled the matter out of court and sold out all remaining stock. (from Wikipedia)


Fender Logo and Vester Logo.

2. What´s it all about:

I have a strong personal preference for the Vester Tradition Series Guitars, in which the Telecaster, Stratocaster, Precision and Jazz Bass models are most prominent.
Next come the Les Paul, SG and ES335 copies.
You will find ample photographic material about all these items.

Other Vester guitar series, like the Stage series, many acoustic models, super strats and modern bass guitars will be there too.

Illustrations, some from original Vester brochures, will show the different models, colors and nitty-gritty detail. Technical stuff will be there, but no too much. 


1993 Vester Brochure.

Please keep in mind, the history on Vester guitars is somewhat vague, documentation is also scarce. Therefore there are lots of “stories” in circulation, a couple of those are neutral and therefore presumably the most accurate, but many others vary from fantasy to blatant lies.
The latter mostly pop up when someone who is selling a Vester guitar wants to over promote his proposition.
I will do all I can to give the best information there is to have. I cherish quite a number of Vesters, knowing them inside out, and collected thousands of photo’s; that is my main source. 

What you need in advance is some knowledge about guitars and especially about names, types and what they look like. You don’t need to be a guru, but some understanding of guitar terminology is mandatory.

Fender, Telecaster, Stratocaster, Precision and Jazz Bass, Gibson, Les Paul, Explorer, SG, ES335, Flying V, Tokai, Greco, Ibanez,  Fernandez, Squire and Epiphone are registered trademarks. I used these names for reference purposes only.

I am not a lawyer but where I come from misuse of such properties is something which can get you into trouble. In the end Vester bit the bullet as Fender threatened with legal action. This necessitated Vester to change the look of  their “vintage” models, resulting in a dramatic drop in sales figures.
After trying to survive in the more flashy hard rock Super Strat guitar segment, the curtain fell and the brand disappeared completely around 1995. 

The fact that Vester made what I consider pretty good copies in rather limited numbers, my estimate is no more than a few thousand Tradition guitars worldwide, makes it ever so interesting to write about it and more fun to own one.

What Vester did was nothing new, other mainly Japanese guitar manufacturers like Ibanez, Fernandez, Greco and Tokai produced what is now commonly known as the “law suit era” guitars. The heydays ran from the early 1970’s up to the early 1980’s, by then bitter contests in legal proceedings put paid to that era.


Japanese "law suit" headstock of a Les Paul guitar by Tokai.


Vester Les Paul headstock.

I must underscore that Vester guitars were no part of the above period. Firstly Vesters were American guitars made in Korea, and a law suit against them was never filed. There was only a clear threat of legal action and that was apparently enough to shut down a small scale business. They stood no chance anyway.
Vester only made the Tradition Series in the late 1980’s early 1990’s.
In fact Vester copied the copycats, thereby more or less creating the Korean “law suit era”. I have no full proof but several build indications make me suspect that a Vester Tradition Series might be a copy of Japanese “law suit era” guitars, which in itself were copies of major American brands like Fender, Gibson and Rickenbacker.
So a U.S. company copying Japanese copies of American guitars in Korea. 

In order to counter any proliferation of Asian good quality copycats, Fender and Gibson themselves set up guitar factories in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia and China. Fender launched the Squire brand and Gibson revived the name of Epiphone to fight the Japanese and Koreans on their own turf. And that is where they met Vester.
At this moment in time the Chinese “law suit era” is the third stage.



Fender Jazz Bass headstock and the copy Vester made. 

One former musical instruments seller from Germany told me he had Fender guitars hanging on
the wall on one side of his shop and Vester guitars facing them.
He related that it was not easy to sell Vesters, but when the headstocks changed because
of Fender's legal intervention, the situation became really bad.


The impact on Vester headstocks after Fender's legal intervention.
Left: pre "law suit"  Stratocaster and Telecaster headstocks. Right: post "law suit" examples.

4. Serial numbers, neck plates and dating: 
I get a lot of e-mail questions from Vester owners, asking for issue dates in relation to a serial number of their guitar(s).
Please observe that no factory record of serial numbers and or exact issue dates of Vester guitars has surfaced uptil now.
Next it must be stated that Vester made many if not to say too many different electric and acoustic guitar/bass series, models and variants, spread over all corners of the globe, which makes it hard to structure the whole bunch.
This causes a lot of problems in researching and establishing facts and knowledge.
Of course I will do all I can to get the real factory information someday. I am still trying.
In the meantime I will keep on collecting serial numbers from all around the world hoping it will give
more clarity and insight. Slowly some patterns are beginning to show.

These are the number sequences I have found uptil now:

A. E7XXXXX numbers stamped on a bar in the center of an embossed metal plate.
These are used on guitars and basses from the Stage, Maniac and Concert Series, most have
"Presented by Vester Guitar Technology" plates, some have "Presented by Seahan Guitar Technology" plates.
Vester plates are found in the series running from E700000 uptil E799999.
Saehan plates are only amongst the series running from E700000 uptil E730000.

Some plates, Vester as well as Saehan, especially in the lower numbers, are a bit thinner and the embossed text is quite flat.
In the higher numbers, starting around E730000, you will find the plates are slightly thicker and the embossed text is deeper and more pronounced. These plates also tend to lose their black paint quite easily because of sweat, corrosion or heavy use. Sometimes the paint is removed deliberately.
See below, also note the Saehan plate and the Vester plate.





I also discovered a difference in the type font with which the numbers were stamped.
See these two examples:

 
Top: condensed and more pronounced font. This example looks pretty decent but these condensed numbers are almost never in a straight line; some are even all over the place.
Below: wider and thinner font. Generally these are stamped in a straight line.

B. Five digit serial numbers, stamped on a flat chrome steel Vester plate.
The next group of serial numbers are only applied to electric guitars and basses from the Tradition, Stage, Catalina and Voyager Series.
Guitars from these four series are copies of Fender Stratocaster, Telecaster, Precision and Jazz Bass models exclusively, no other Vester models carry such a plate.

In principle all plates are equal in thickness and size, but yet again there are subtile differences.
For instance:
- Most are chrome plated, a few are gold plated.
- As with the above mentioned E7XXXXX numbers, Vester used condensed and wide fonts.
- Some numbers are stamped deep and clearly recognizable, others require a magnifier.
- Only a few numbers are stamped in a perfect straight line, but most  "dance" around.
- Numbers are stamped off the middle or more to the bottom of the plate, but always below the word Vester.
- The placing of the word Vester varies from very close to the screw holes, to 0,5 cm below them.
- Generally these plates show 9xxxx numbers but a few 6xxxx number plates have surfaced.
  Someone even claims he has a Tradition Tele, with serial number 11148, but I have no proof of that.
- Some of these plates carry no serial number at all.

A couple of examples:


From top left to bottom right:
- Chrome plated, low Vester with wide font, unclear 9xxxx number off the middle.
- Chrome plated, high Vester with wide font, average clear 9xxxx number at the bottom.
- Chrome plated, high Vester with wide font, clear 6xxxx number off the middle.
- Gold plated, high Vester with condensed font, average clear number off the middle.
- Chrome plated, low Vester with condensed font, clear number off the middle.
- Chrome plated, no number.

Why no number? My guess is these are guitars that might have been built in the final phase
of Vester's existence when probably all 5 digit numbers were used up. Or maybe just a production inaccuracy, you name it. Fact is I have seen them mainly on Catalina Series Stratocasters.

There are more Vester neckplates without a serial number, they are also different in shape, see below.
These plates were never meant to carry any number at all and are to be found on Ambition and
Maniac Series guitars and are either chrome plated or black anodized.



C. Five digit serial numbers stamped in the back of the headstock.
The next group of serial numbers can only be described as the most randomly applied number
sequence one could imagine, spread over about two dozen different types, models, variants and series
of electric guitars and basses. A proverbal jungle.

Presumably these "headstock" numbers were allocated at the very end of the production
process on the basis of first come, first served.
For instance, number 12345 was given to a Les Paul, next comes 12346 on a 5 string modern bass,
then 12347 on another Les Paul, followed by 12348 on a Custom Shop Super Strat  and so on.

Almost all "neck through body" or "glued in neck" Vesters have these headstock numbers and you will
find them on:
- Double neck guitars.
- 12 string guitars.
- 4 and 5 string modern basses from 8 different models, series and variants.
- Copies of Gibson Les Paul, SG and ES350 models.
- Super Strats from more than 10 different models, series and variants.

As a further exception to the "non" existing rule, there are some necks with a sunk set screw mounting that also have their serial number on the headstock.

It also seems some guitars were given a serial number on a sticker on the back of the headstock, the heel
of the neck or the cover of the electronics compartiment, but I have no proof of that. Most stickers seem to "disappear" anyway.
The latter is not to be confused with stickers on the back of the headstock with the type number of the relevant guitar.

The "headstock" numbers run from 00001 upto 99999.
Most 9xxxx and a few 6xxxx numbers are allocated to the above mentioned Tradition, Catalina,
Voyager and Stage series Fender models, but 9xxxx series number on headstocks are present.
I have no proof that double issued 6xxxx or 9xxxx numbers, or any number for that matter, do exist,
but you never know.

Again some numbers are clearly recognizable while others require a microscope to determine what they are. Likewise, different fonts were used.
Here are a couple examples:



Top left to bottom right:
02667 on a Maniac Super Strat.
66753 on a Les Paul.
26497 on a 6/12 string double neck.
53932 on a 5 string bass.

D. Seven digit serial numbers on oblong metal plates.
Only four of these numbers have come into my possession uptil now.
These were found on a Super Strat 1400, a Witch and Maniac Modern Bass model,  they have a 900xxxx sequence.
Any further information on this is unavailable as yet, but again it shows that the jungle of serial numbers
becomes even bigger as the relevant guitar models also appear in the series mentioned under C.
Here are two examples:


Left: 9003487 on a Witch Bass                              Right: 9003518 upside down on a Super Strat.

E. Serial Numbers on acoustic guitars and basses.
This concludes the chapter on serial numbers.
Somewhere in the beginning of my story on serial numbers I mentioned something like
"Vester made many if not too many models, types etc. etc."
Well that certainly applies to the acoustic section; it is almost impossible to nail them down in ways
of series, types and models.
In those cases where people ask me where to find a serial number of an acoustic, I tell them to look
into the soundhole to the place where the neck joins the body.
If there is any serial number on an acoustic it must be on the butt end of the neck, and if it is not
there, sorry,  but I have no clue whatsoever.
In some cases an acoustic guitar was supplied with a certificate showing a number but those are
seen mainly on high end Limited Edition Custom Shop models.




5. Buying, selling, trading and the value of Vesters:
In as much as I receive requests for information on issue dates of Vester guitars, people often approach me with the seemingly unavoidable question: "what do you think my Vester is worth".
No offence to anyone but frankly I don't care about the value of your guitar, and even less for how much you might think you could sell it. So you better not ask me.
I will try to explain this attitude as good as I can.

Ever since this site has come alive the reputation and popularity of Vester guitars has grown worldwide to some extend. But it has a downside.
Because it seems this growth brings a sudden and startling price tag along; something which the Vester Fan Site does not want to get involved with in any way. Let me remind you this is a non-commercial site.

But tweaking and pushing the dollar is a collected art people tend to exercise, thereby forgetting that they are forcing up prices and values implicitely.
Short term profit with long term consequences, for in the end we may all pay the price.
Some expensive lessons learned from the credit crisis of 2008??
A lot has changed over time, notably common sense.
Please observe, the information in this site is purely factual and is never intented to be used as an argument to promote certain market movements, or to be used to sell your Vester guitar.

I have seen Ebay ads with fragments of text distilled from the Vester Fan Site information.

Like if I say: there are about 5000 Vesters of type A made, someone selling an A type Vester
says: "this is a very rare guitar with only a few thousand examples made worldwide".

Or if I say: there are some Vesters with no serial number on the neckplate, an owner of such a guitar
might think hey, I have got one very special guitar, because that Vester Fan Site man says so.

The word "law suit" in connection with vintage electric guitars has sometimes doubled or tripled prices. Which is absolute rubbish as only one law suit in the history of vintage electric guitars has taken place: Gibson vs. Ibanez.
To me "law suit" refers to certain phases in guitars history, it added nothing new or special to the
guitars as such.

It is a free market, I fully acknowledge and enjoy that myself, so do what you like, but please respect the neutrality of the Vester Fan Site.
If you want to mention this site in your ad, it is okay, but only as a non-aligned source of information.

6. Lester or Vester:
In my (large) database of Vester pictures I have stored some photos of "Vester" guitars with a somewhat dubious logo. To be precise the logo reads: Vester California I Model. (see pictures below)
I have searched and searched but I could not find any information on a Vester California model anywhere.
In my mind grew the suspicion that it could be a bogus Vester guitar with a substitute logo which can be easily made with waterslide decal paper and a decent inktjet printer.
This presumption was strengthened when I found some more pictures of a headstock with a  damaged logo
which looked more like Lester; but still I was not fully certain.

Until 14 days ago when I got into contact with a Vester fan in Germany, his name is Detlev, who asked me if
I knew about Lester guitars and whether they had something to do with the Vester brand.
He told me that he owned a Lester California Model P bass once and next he sent me some excellent pictures.
That gave me the opportunity to compare and draw the conclusion that a Lester must be a totally different brand which uses a logo that looks a lot like the Vester logo (and thus the Fender logo as well).
I don't know if the Lester brand intended to copy the Vester brand or more likely: just another Fender
clone.
I certainly don't  understand what makes people substitute a Lester logo for a Vester logo and pass it
on as a real Vester guitar.
From Detlev's pictures one can find out that a Lester P Bass looks  quite a decent instrument which
optically compares very well to a Vester or any other P Bass copy for that matter. So what's the use?

If anyone has more info on this subject, do me favor and let me know, thanks.
Now enjoy the pictures.

That dubious Vester California I logo on a P Bass.

Another dubious Vester  logo on a Stratocaster advertised on Ebay as a Vester California.


A damaged Lester California I model logo on a Stratocaster.


Headstock with clear Lester logo on Detlev's P Bass.


Detlev's (ex) Lester California I P Bass.


They ARE different.


7. Finally:
Last year May I wrote a small booklet on Vester Tradition guitars. I never published that for reasons of possible copyright problems and the market would have been small anyway to make it into a viable undertaking.


Booklet, written May 2008.

However during the past period a whole avalanche of Vester material has come my way which made the creation of this site worthwhile.
This site will be updated regularly, click on the update link and go check it out

Thanks again for your interest in the Vester Fan Site and do not hesitate to contact me if you have any question or want to make a (financial) contribution.



Me and my daughter Roza, keep on playing and rocking those Vesters!!!!!!