The Vinnie Vincent Forum - Where Freedom Rocks!

Chinese guitars don't have a good reputation, however their quality seems to get better. Mass production guitars with no soul?
Here are the three chinese guitars I own : a Gitane Cigano , Danelectro and Divine.

Love the title of this topic

I only have the one Chinese guitar, I will NEVER buy another.
I think the best 'affordable' guitars of a standard necessary are Korean built.
PLEASE never buy a Tokai Chinese built model..........I did and have spent £££'s on it to rectify why it sounds so poor. New PUs, new tuners, a TOTAL re-wiring, re-soldering, re-fretted, re-built, quality strings and it STILL sounds crap.
The REALLY annoying thing is, Tokai (UK) endorse their Chinese built models!!

I have this Ibanez Artcore that was made in China and I think that it is a very well made guitar. It plays well, sounds good, the Bigsby Style Tremolo stays in tune and it came with a beautiful hard shell case.

This one of my new favorites was given this one as a thank you.. leveled the frets cut a bone nut for it, plays fantastic. I used it to record a jazz thing . I think I will swap pickups at some point.

There you go 1031! You know what I'm talking about!

I have one other that is this Maestro Jem Body with this thick "C" profile neck set up like a Steinberger. This particular guitar is a total piece of shit and would take major work to even make it an instrument. Total money down the drain. Completely unplayable = an ornament Needs an intensive session with the Scratchy Rat or some one like him

Scary!

There would be a big difference with a legit company making guitars in China vs dodgy fakes.

I get very political when western companies opt to use Chinese and other non democratic sweat shops to build their cheap equipment. I hope they all rot.
That said in 70s Japan did a great job. It still pissed me off but at least japan made great products and voted for their leader.
How many Americans and westerners died protecting democracy and now we find it fine to deal with these num skull governments. Lies and wasted history and lives.

My luthier is a big fan of the English brand, Burns Guitars. When he builds a guitar, usually a strat, he'll buy all the original Fender hardware, then build the neck & body himself. One day he decided he wanted to build a Burns, so he priced all the hardware with the aim of doing the body work himself. It ended up cheaper buying the official made in China Burns (with a hardcase!), then it was to do it himself! He said the workmanship is fantastic! I've seen it and the paint is perfect.

I fully understand your comment, Dino. Wouldn't at all be surprised that the "Chibson" Les Pauls are made in the same factory as the official Epiphones?!

Genebaby wrote:There would be a big difference with a legit company making guitars in China vs dodgy fakes.

My model WAS fully endorsed by Tokai (UK) and the serial numbers matched with their database. I had reservations ordering it, hence my contacting Tokai for their advice.
Tokai (UK) were very helpful. Maybe I just got a bad 'un, my 2 other Tokai models (Both Japanese) are faultless

Yeah, that's a bad one there, maybe yours was unusually bad, but yeah, you don't want to try your luck again.

doublev2 wrote:I get very political when western companies opt to use Chinese and other non democratic sweat shops to build their cheap equipment. I hope they all rot.
That said in 70s Japan did a great job. It still pissed me off but at least japan made great products and voted for their leader.
How many Americans and westerners died protecting democracy and now we find it fine to deal with these num skull governments. Lies and wasted history and lives.

shramiac wrote:My luthier is a big fan of the English brand, Burns Guitars. When he builds a guitar, usually a strat, he'll buy all the original Fender hardware, then build the neck & body himself. One day he decided he wanted to build a Burns, so he priced all the hardware with the aim of doing the body work himself. It ended up cheaper buying the official made in China Burns (with a hardcase!), then it was to do it himself! He said the workmanship is fantastic! I've seen it and the paint is perfect.

I fully understand your comment, Dino. Wouldn't at all be surprised that the "Chibson" Les Pauls are made in the same factory as the official Epiphones?!

I know theres a lot of London pride with Jim Burns R.I.P but that scroll head stock never clicked with me. I will say he was one of the best at coming up with new shapes and designs. Some of his stuff you would swear came out of the Italian or Japanese designers.

This one was so cheap, I couldn't help buying it (220 US $). It's a real Fender made in China, brand new. The pots need to be changed, but the rest is fine. I love those P 90's.
I would't have bought it for its original price (700 $ approx.).
Strange world : China making cheap instruments, then big online shops selling them for almost nothing, and me buying that to look after my GAS.

Like it.

My friend, Booger, bought that exact Fender.
Solid guitar but I get squeamish with China-made guitars.

I try to buy American but also have a strong fondness for Japanese quality.