David's excellent adventure at a Chinese guitar factory

[DeathJag]

Thank you for the awesome read!! I love your style of writing-with-photos.

[DrQuasar]

Thank you for taking the time to share. Amazing to see China from this perspective.

[Embenny]

Is it just me or did those red telecaster necks have Fender logos? I don't recall seeing any MIC Teles with red finished backs of their necks in the latest catalogue

Amazing photos, and thanks for bringing us through the factory with you! That was super cool of you to share. Gives you a lot of perspective.

[Jaguar018]

This was so great, and all the non-guitar parts were just as cool.

[shadowplay]

That was a good read, don't fancy going there at all but much like bad restaurant reviews being more interesting than good ones it made good reading.

D

[Dok]

What a wonderful post. I am really struck by all of the landscape photos. Everything looks so... barren. I'm curious as to whether that's just a result of winter weather or just what the vegetation/landscape looks like in that particular region or what.

[antisymmetric]

Thanks for taking the time and trouble. Fascinating!

[jakeisjake]

that was a lot of fun! thanks!

and it's nice to put a pic to your posts.

[AwesomeWelles]

Great post - thanks so much for tsaking the time and sharing!

I travelled the Southwestern/Western part of China for a couple of weeks and then attended a wedding in Beijing in May. It really was an amazing trip and I can relate to a lot of things you say.

China really is a black box to many people in the West as it's not really on the map as a top travel destination, which makes it very rewarding if one actually does travel to China. It also means that folk (at least here in Germany) tend to be quite ignorant about China, especially the fact that the country is so advanced from an infrastructural and technological standpoint compared to the West (one thing you mentioned too).

The Chinese in general really are not used to meeting Westerners. We would get stared at so much (even in the large cities such as Chengdu, where it took us 48 hrs to see another Westerner) that you have no chance but ignore it after a while...oh yeah, and the selfie thing

One thing I loved was the omnipresence of food (and great food that is) - there's restaurants, street food EVERYWHERE. Food is one of the most important thing in Chinese culture it seems. What I didn't love was the constant amount of spitting people, especially men, do. It's said to have a cleansing effect but it's really annoying if you're not used to it culturally.

I found China and its people really rewarding...it's an amazing country if you adjust to some things along the way and just accept that the Chinese have a different understanding of privacy and individuality. If you can't get past that, China is probably not for you.

[kapepper]

Fantastic post!!! Thanks for sharing!!

[mediocreplayer]

This was a great adventure and a great post. Thank you so much for taking the time to write it!

[jimboyogi]

Really interesting post David! Loved all the pics too.

I was lucky enough to visit China a couple of years ago, and also found it fascinating. And delicious.

So glad you got to have such a great visit to Julia's guitar factory!

[dinosaurkale->]

this post was awesome. thanks for sharing

[Steadyriot.]

Is it just me or did those red telecaster necks have Fender logos? I don't recall seeing any MIC Teles with red finished backs of their necks in the latest catalogue

Amazing photos, and thanks for bringing us through the factory with you! That was super cool of you to share. Gives you a lot of perspective.

I think they're Fender FMT Telecasters in a limited color called 'Crimson Red'. All the ones I can find online say made in Indonesia tho'..



Also: this thread is amazing David! Thanks for sharing a bit of insight with us.

[cmatthes]

Great post, and one that I'll be checking back to catch more of the videos!

I drunk purchased a Chinese copy of a Rickenbacker 360/12 c63 a month ago, not knowing anything about it except that they finally got the body correct and it looked incredibly close to the real deal from the pics. I realized what I had done the next day and scrambled to cancel the order via AliExpress - apparently, the builder I was ordering from didn't offer cancellations however.

I was more than pleasantly surprised when the guitar arrived a couple of days ago. It is actually a decent instrument and with a few minor tweaks and changes, it'll be gig-worthy. It also came from Changle (Sutong Custom Instruments) and made the journey to DC in under a week. More to come on mine, but I'm happy with the purchase.

Thanks again for sharing the cool story!!