While later Vega solidbodies would stray further from Gibson designs, the Westerner’s appearance remains faithful enough to fool a lot of people at first glance. The mahogany body was finished in natural except for the gold top, clearly showing inspiration by the Gibson Les Paul. Introduced by 1954, the Westerner was Vega’s first attempt to create a guitar with a solid body (excluding lap steels). This particular model, however, is easily the closest that Vega ever came to directly copying a competitor’s product. Vega’s engineers usually followed their own muses, even when building around bodies by Harmony. Still, some models betrayed more inspiration than others. Previously, guitar builders might have taken strong inspiration from others but they generally added their own twist for example, the Guild CE-100 was clearly based on the Gibson ES-175, but the pickups were very different and the guitar felt distinctly like a Guild.

This “copy era” began in the early 1970s when Japanese factories began producing guitars that rivaled Gibson and Fender instruments (among others) in appearance and quality. Guitars built today consist mainly of copies or near-copies of classic models this is so common that all the old brands are overtly recycling their own designs from decades past. But the serial number shown is all wrong for an American Vega of the 1930's, and the font used for those numbers is different than the American originals, too. Genuine American Vega guitars had their serial number stamped into the end of the peghead, just as on this guitar. There is no evidence that Vega actually made banjos prior to buying out Fairbanks. Q: Did Vega make any banjos before buying out Fairbanks? BR A: There are a very few Fairbanks made banjos (several of them Regents) with pre-fire serial numbers circa 22900, stamped simply 'Vega' in an oval border.

Vega mandolin banjo serial numbers