Any success stories for Chinese guitar purchases?

jake_the_pake

Has anyone had any luck with importing some of the guitars you see on the likes of AliExpress/Alibaba? 
Any absolute horror stories? Any reliable alternatives to the above sites? 

I'm more intrigued than actually interested in buying, I just can't imagine a) the guitar arriving in one piece/at all and b) it being remotely close to 'good' if it does show. Interested if anyone has other experiences?

alcxam

They're cheap chinese made guitars. You buy one, they send it to you. If you're lucky you'll get Epiphone quality at half price. These days, they're pretty good, if truth be told. The more you spend, the better they get. Hardware and electronics would probably benefit from upgrading, but that's a common thing people do to even USA custom shop instruments...

steer

Fender make some guitars in China. Very good they are too. There are therefore factories in that area of the world that have the ability to produce decent guitars. 

However, I assume that you are referring to the fakes and knockoffs. In which case, I would not bother. There are so many really great budget instruments available these days, I dont understand why someone would feel the need to buy a knockoff - and have no guarantee of quality and little or no rights to refund / return if the instrument turns out to be a turd, or indeed a turd with a broken headstock. 

skullfunkerry

The only experience I've had of anything like that was about 10 years ago when the Chinese Ibanez fakes were flooding eBay to the extent that the actual Ibanez site had a disclaimer on the front page about them; a friend was thinking of buying one (not knowing that it was a fake, just that he'd been offered a Jem for a really good price) and wanted me to have a look at it first.

To be fair it looked good and played nicely (this was only unplugged, he brought it to me at work to look at), but there were a couple of things that gave it away... can't remember what they were now, but they were small enough that a lot of people wouldn't have noticed.

As I said, I don't know how it sounded plugged in, and obviously we had no idea about tuning stability/hardware longevity etc - my friend didn't buy it purely because I told him it was a fake, so we never found out.

breakstuff

Seem to remember someone, though can't remember who, having a Dave Grohl Trini Lopez built by a company in China a couple of years or so back. 

He gave them his specs and they built it to order.Turned out pretty well If I remember correctly and at a really decent price.

darthed1981

Given you can buy a Harley Benton (or an Eastcoast from the cartel's new batch) for < £200 with full after-sales support, why risk it?

Fifty9

It’s an avoid for me.

Buy used legit Asian made one. Squire, Harley Benton, vintage, Tokai, Epiphone etc. 

Adam_MD

@guitargeek62 had a pretty interesting story with his Dave Grohl trini lopez inspired build.  He should have some good insight on this. 

rossi

Chinese craftsman are getting good and some are really good but there is no guarantee that you will get a good one .At least with the big boys like Harley Benton Squier etc you get  a certain level of  quality .On the other hand you dont get fake name either.One day probably most of the big names will be produced in China with a US custom shop only so that Chinese millionaires can buy the real thing .Its coming.

guitargeek62

Cheers @Adam_MD! ;

I did indeed order one a few years back. It’s all documented here, but I’m not sure I’d recommend it to anyone unless they were a) absolutely sure they couldn’t get anything similar from existing sources, or b) happy to risk the money overall. That said, it was a lot of fun, and I came out of it with a cool little guitar that I still enjoy playing, a lot. The big caveat there is that I’ve replaced every scrap of hardware that it shipped with!

Build thread:
http://thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/11943/custom-chibson-experience

prowla

There have always been great craftsmen in China, probably better than most other countries in the world.

However, they are not manning the factories which produce the cheap knock-offs and counterfeits.

If you buy a Chibson expecting to get a lovely '59 equivalent, you are in cloud cuckoo land!

viz

I bought an 18-string from one of those sites - initially I was unconvinced the seller actually had the guitar in question so asked him to take a photo of the guitar next to himself holding a piece of paper with the word ‘wolf’ written on it, which he duly did (except he wrote wols) and it arrived and it’s absolutely fine. 

rossi

guitargeek62 said:

Cheers @Adam_MD! ;

I did indeed order one a few years back. It’s all documented here, but I’m not sure I’d recommend it to anyone unless they were a) absolutely sure they couldn’t get anything similar from existing sources, or b) happy to risk the money overall. That said, it was a lot of fun, and I came out of it with a cool little guitar that I still enjoy playing, a lot. The big caveat there is that I’ve replaced every scrap of hardware that it shipped with!

Build thread:
http://thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/11943/custom-chibson-experience

i did this to an Epiphone Dot SE .I changed everything except the wood .Did a fret level  as well .It played superbly and sounded good I sold it as it was bit heavy for an old Fart like me and I didnt know I was super anemic for years either .

Adam_MD

Thanks for posting the build thread @guitargeek62 I enjoyed skimming through that again and had forgotten the Starbocks mug 

SNAKEBITE

guitargeek62 said:

Cheers @Adam_MD! ;

I did indeed order one a few years back. It’s all documented here, but I’m not sure I’d recommend it to anyone unless they were a) absolutely sure they couldn’t get anything similar from existing sources, or b) happy to risk the money overall. That said, it was a lot of fun, and I came out of it with a cool little guitar that I still enjoy playing, a lot. The big caveat there is that I’ve replaced every scrap of hardware that it shipped with!

Build thread:
http://thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/11943/custom-chibson-experience

Read through the thread, great story.

thomasw88

Alan george guitars on facebook brings in a load of guitars from china periodically and gets them road ready.  They are very cheap.
I bought a telecaster from him a couple of months and its actually really good for the money.   the pickups are crap but the rest of the hardware bar the nut is usable.

I'm currently modding the hell out of it ie replacing all the hardware, and putting a b-bender on it.. 

mark123

@guitargeek62 ;
your link does not work to old factory any tips or factory recommendations ?

57Deluxe

lets face up to it, there are going to be more and more major brand models manufactured in China and other sub continent areas. The more we get used to not distinguishing between price points so that we can have THE logo at least on the headstock, then it will not go away.

ESBlonde

A friend of mine bought an electric 12 string delivered for under £100!

He changed the bridge and gave it a setup. I played it last night and it is quite playable. If it was your only guitar I would perhaps have reservations, but for what it is and what he wants to do with it it's a cracker.

longjaw

thomasw88 said:

Alan george guitars on facebook brings in a load of guitars from china periodically and gets them road ready.  They are very cheap.
I bought a telecaster from him a couple of months and its actually really good for the money.   the pickups are crap but the rest of the hardware bar the nut is usable.

I'm currently modding the hell out of it ie replacing all the hardware, and putting a b-bender on it.. 

I bought a Tele off Alan for £90 - it has one the most comfortable necks I've ever played. There are few flaws on the body (what look like a couple of dents under the finish).

I changed the nut and pick-ups on it too, and it's a great gigging guitar.

Sassafras

I suppose if you like your guitars made by poorly paid 10 year old children it's ideal.