From low price, all the way to fairly high end... Chapman...

darthed1981

I like my Chapman Cap10 btw...

But it only cost £500.

sawyer

How can they say its "a beast of a guitar," if it doesn't seemingly even exist yet? Lot of money for an Indonesian built guitar. He must expect a healthy profit on this. Depreciation would be huge?

tony99

sawyer said:

How can they say its "a beast of a guitar," if it doesn't seemingly even exist yet? 

Well it's obviously a mythical beast isn't it, like the Yeti or Chupicabra. Not Bigfoot though, he's not mythical I've seen him.

Tex Mexico

sawyer said:

How can they say its "a beast of a guitar," if it doesn't seemingly even exist yet? Lot of money for an Indonesian built guitar. He must expect a healthy profit on this. Depreciation would be huge?

There are prototypes, but yeah, it's a super-t with bare knuckles in and a fancy top, it's not like you couldn't achieve that for half the money.

Chapman have championed the idea that the quality of mass-produced far-eastern instruments has skyrocketed and the builders they have out there easily rival Western manufacture, and that's a legitimate argument when you're turning out guitars at a Mexican Fender price point.

I suppose in one sense you could see it as pioneering that they're prepared to make a guitar over there at this price point, but it is ultimately asking the buyer to take a lot of the risk.

ThePrettyDamned

Philtre said:

I might consider it if it had "Total Fucking Knob" as the signature on the headstock.

Rabea comes across as a nice guy to me... And a great player. 

ThePrettyDamned

It's a nice guitar with some premium features. USA pickups, hipshot bridge, stainless steel frets (which is hugely attractive and probably increases the price a lot), tusq nut, quality tuners...

In theory. Just need to wait for them to exist! 

Philtre

ThePrettyDamned said:

Philtre said:

I might consider it if it had "Total Fucking Knob" as the signature on the headstock.

Rabea comes across as a nice guy to me... And a great player. 

I'm sure Rabea is (a nice guy). His name isn't on the headstock, though. I wouldn't want a guitar with "Rob Chapman" on the headstock any more than I would want "PewDiePie" or "Peppa Pig" on it.

prlgmnr

darthed1981 said:

MagicPigDetective said:

What happened to the British Standard range? Did they ever make/sell any? It’s all gone quiet on that front.

Long story short, the British luthier who they worked with bailed when faced with the volume of orders, apparently.

I suspect this is 100% true but not for the reason they want to imply by stating it that way.

Sassafras

darthed1981 said:

MagicPigDetective said:

What happened to the British Standard range? Did they ever make/sell any? It’s all gone quiet on that front.

Long story short, the British luthier who they worked with bailed when faced with the volume of orders, apparently.

What, he was scared of the thought of making just 2 guitars?

p90fool

They're competing with Duesenberg at that price point for a Far Eastern guitar, but without the caché, original hardware costs or a huge US marketing push. 

It'll never be built. 

Philly_Q

HarrySeven said:

soma1975 said:

Buying the signature gear of people who are only known for making videos to sell you other gear. 

In a single sentence, you’ve encapsulated a significant chunk of the zeitgeist, like the proverbial “famous for being famous” quote.

A huge proportion of the students I work with would accept the above concept without question.

Moving it away from the guitar world, that's what YouTube "influencers" are all about.  It's inexplicable to old duffers like me, the influencers seem indistinguishable from those who follow them, but people earn fortunes.

tony99

Philtre said:

I might consider it if it had "Total Fucking Knob" as the signature on the headstock.

I put your suggestion through to their production team and they said they'll compromise and put "Tone Fucking Knob" on one of the controls, how's that?

Musicman20

ThePrettyDamned said:

Philtre said:

I might consider it if it had "Total Fucking Knob" as the signature on the headstock.

Rabea comes across as a nice guy to me... And a great player. 

He probably is a nice guy, and yes, he can play well. However, how many other people does that apply to? Thousands no doubt....maybe more.

What we tend to forget is that everything about their online presence is to push a brand and/or to make money. Fortunately for me I am very cynical when it comes to business and I see right through any sales talk. 

The other thing is, have any of these players been in good credible bands as writers/contributing to songs for years? Not just a dude playing session work etc...because again there are a lot of people capable of that. 

I mean no offence, but none of the Rob/Rabea/Pete projects are that exciting, in my eyes. They can all play, lots better than me, but that IS their job.

soma1975

HarrySeven said:

soma1975 said:

Buying the signature gear of people who are only known for making videos to sell you other gear. 

In a single sentence, you’ve encapsulated a significant chunk of the zeitgeist, like the proverbial “famous for being famous” quote.

A huge proportion of the students I work with would accept the above concept without question.

I think it was Confucius that said 'yeah but students are idiots though'. 

Tex Mexico

Philly_Q said:

HarrySeven said:

soma1975 said:

Buying the signature gear of people who are only known for making videos to sell you other gear. 

In a single sentence, you’ve encapsulated a significant chunk of the zeitgeist, like the proverbial “famous for being famous” quote.

A huge proportion of the students I work with would accept the above concept without question.

Moving it away from the guitar world, that's what YouTube "influencers" are all about.  It's inexplicable to old duffers like me, the influencers seem indistinguishable from those who follow them, but people earn fortunes.

It's a weird one, isn't it, this "influencer" thing, kind of like the cyclical "famous for being famous" thing which I believe Big Brother started, where contestants from the regular version would later appear on the "celebrity" version; now we have a marketing model where product demonstrators are being positioned as celebrities in their own right.

In a way I don't think Massaad has any less right to a signature model than for example Eric Johnson, who in my ever so humble opinion is a noodling musician's-musician with garbage tone and yet rubs shoulders with the true greats in the FMIC artists' catalogue - Massaad at least plays with flair and panache and sounds like he knows how amplifiers work.

I think really the issue here is that gigantic price-point for even a well-specced far-eastern guitar. Expecting Massaad, an unsigned player with a modest youtube following, to carry that seems a big stretch. Even Kirk Hammett's latest sig is £150 less.

grappagreen

In a way I don't think Massaad has any less right to a signature model than for example Eric Johnson, who in my ever so humble opinion is a noodling musician's-musician with garbage tone and yet rubs shoulders with the true greats in the FMIC artists' catalogue - Massaad at least plays with flair and panache and sounds like he knows how amplifiers work.

I think you make some valid points with the exception of this one  

Tex Mexico

grappagreen said:

In a way I don't think Massaad has any less right to a signature model than for example Eric Johnson, who in my ever so humble opinion is a noodling musician's-musician with garbage tone and yet rubs shoulders with the true greats in the FMIC artists' catalogue - Massaad at least plays with flair and panache and sounds like he knows how amplifiers work.

I think you make some valid points with the exception of this one  

I'm aware its an unpopular opinion. I just don't rate Johnson at all.

grappagreen

Tex Mexico said:

grappagreen said:

In a way I don't think Massaad has any less right to a signature model than for example Eric Johnson, who in my ever so humble opinion is a noodling musician's-musician with garbage tone and yet rubs shoulders with the true greats in the FMIC artists' catalogue - Massaad at least plays with flair and panache and sounds like he knows how amplifiers work.

I think you make some valid points with the exception of this one  

I'm aware its an unpopular opinion. I just don't rate Johnson at all.

All opinions equally valid in my eyes..

idiotwindow

Interesting that Eric Johnson has been brought up. He seems to be travelling in the opposite direction and IMO is in danger of being better known nowadays for his signature guitars (I think there are three signature Strats in the Fender catalogue) than for his actual music.

Tex Mexico

idiotwindow said:

Interesting that Eric Johnson has been brought up. He seems to be travelling in the opposite direction and IMO is in danger of being better known nowadays for his signature guitars (I think there are three signature Strats in the Fender catalogue) than for his actual music.

Yeah, I only really became aware of him as I'm in the market for a strat and like twelve guys told me to get an EJ. Judging by all the hype surrounding his signatures I was expecting to have my hair properly blown back by this low-key innovative tone wizard. What I discovered instead, it seems to me, is the reason I only ever hear people talk about him on guitar forums.

NB: I said this on tdpri and the backlash was so strong I got banned. So just in case: I'm not saying other people shouldn't be into it. It's just my opinion.