Chinese custom guitar - dipping my toe in to test the water

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Chinese custom guitar - dipping my toe in to test the water

Post by sookwinder » Fri Apr 08, 2016 2:01 am

There has been lots of talk (for and against) the emerging Chinese made guitars. Some of the negative talk is based upon copyright issues and down right fakes that get touted as the real McCoy. The waters get a little murky when one realises most of the major manufacturers use Chinese guitar plants to build their lower end product these days anyway. The Les Paul my nephew bought a couple of years back is an Epiphone LP made in China and given the cost difference between that and my Gibson USA made LP, I would be happy with the Chinese made version. In short the quality of guitars manufactured in China has improved by leaps and bounds over the past ten years. Sure you can still buy shit and many times those crappy guitars are also built for a market, for a slice of the guitar buying population that only wants to spend $100 on a guitar. But as I have seen with the Chinese made Hofner Club Bass I bought late last year (for my nephew) there are also superb sounding and built guitars and basses coming out of China. Some with legitimate western brand headstock labels, some with not so legitimate headstock labels and some with local Chinese labels.

So ... given how cheap these Chinese guitars are I thought I'd stick my toe in the water and order a custom built guitar. I also selected a seller that I knew was actually a guitar factory (not some middle man sourcing what ever they can from the various wholesalers). This would limit me to the style of guitar/bass the factory manufactured, although most Chinese guitar factories it seems do have a large range of models, styles and genre' (jazz, rock, traditional, acoustic.)

I also thought I should order something that is outside my comfort zone. So no Offsets, no strats, no 335 or 125 or Casino style hollow/semi hollow electrics (although I did see some awesome models available) no teles. And what ever I decided to get, I wanted it customised ... something unique. Given the low cost of the guitars themselves, any customisation should be damn cheap.

I decided I'd order a customised Les Paul style guitar from the Chinese guitar factory that I bought the Hofner Club bass from.
Now I am not really a LP guy, so my logic is that if this guitar excites me, then it must be good. I already have an awesome Gibson high end LP with normal HBs, so... I have decided to ask whether they can locate mini HBs and effectively build me a Les Paul Deluxe.

On the website of the guitar factory I was looking at they had mini HBs on some of the jazz style guitars (floating bridge hollow bodied) and on the FIREBIRD style guitars. But not on the Les Pauls. When I asked about fitting mini HBs there didn't seem to be any problem, I was just told it may take a little longer to get the CNC programmed for the LP style body. I also asked about slightly different style PUP mounts (more like the style used in the Epiphone Rivieras rather than the style usd on the LP Deluxe). This took a couple of emails but with the use of photos it was sorted. They even said they'd try and get the mounts in an ivory colour rather than black plastic for me. Wow! great !

The specs are:
- 2 x MHBs
- kluson tulip tuners (with greenish buttons)
- ebony fret board
- mother of pearl inlay markers on the neck markers
- flamed maple ( but not overtly book matched or what ever its called)
- white binding on neck and body
- honey coloured light weight mahogany body
- Seafoam green coloured body
- my own headstock label in mother of pearl
- my own headstock decal
- MADE IN CHINA on the back of the headstock ... yes I asked for this specifically !!!

So there is nothing that even comes close that anyone could claim this is a fake or counterfeit item. In short it is as if i went to a locally guitar builder and said "build me one of these please"

I also asked whether they could send me some photos of the build as I explained I wanted to share them with my friends. I get the feeling this isn't a normal situation, but given I am probably the first westerner to ask for this they politely said "yes, OK".

I sent them a mock-up of what I wanted for the headstock label. I sent them large high resolution TIF files of the artwork.
Image

Below are the photos from the factory as the guitar is being manufactured ... apparently the hardware is going on this week.

Image

Image

One of my friends was interested in a "tree of life" inlay and so i asked the lady I am dealing with
"do you have only one or do you have a number of different "tree of life" inlay designs
she sent the photo ... wow..
Image

Just compare the original artwork I sent for the headstock logo inlay to what they have created. It is amazing what laser cutters can do these days
Image
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Re: Chinese custom guitar - dipping my toe in to test the wa

Post by mackerelmint » Fri Apr 08, 2016 2:05 am

Yeah! I was hoping we'd get an update on this sometime soon. This is really cool, I can't wait to see how it turns out!
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Re: Chinese custom guitar - dipping my toe in to test the wa

Post by sookwinder » Fri Apr 08, 2016 2:12 am

Next set of pics

Image
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Re: Chinese custom guitar - dipping my toe in to test the wa

Post by Firecat » Fri Apr 08, 2016 3:40 am

I'm curious to see how this turns out. Can I ask you what the total cost of the guitar is?

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Re: Chinese custom guitar - dipping my toe in to test the wa

Post by Con-Tiki! » Fri Apr 08, 2016 3:42 am

this is ridiculous.
i want to order "WOOKIE 2"!

i even love the color.
(Christopher, also)
I've been to one World's Fair, a picnic, and a rodeo, and that's the stupidest thing i ever heard come out a pair of headphones.

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Re: Chinese custom guitar - dipping my toe in to test the wa

Post by sookwinder » Fri Apr 08, 2016 4:11 am

Filipe wrote:I'm curious to see how this turns out. Can I ask you what the total cost of the guitar is?
Their LPs range from US$222 - $239, delivered to your front door ... ie. free shipping.
(Cases are extra)
So I am thinking it'll be under $300 - $320

I'll probably get a case as well ... they cost about $98 but that includes shipping .. so the case on it's own when bought for a guitar plus the free shipping should not be anymore than $40-60

All up this is what it has cost me on shipping alone for some of the guitars I have bought from overseas !
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Re: Chinese custom guitar - dipping my toe in to test the wa

Post by sookwinder » Fri Apr 08, 2016 4:17 am

I haven't been "pushing" them to get it quickly because this is a custom order and I get the impression that although they have been doing all these extras on their guitar builds anyway, they have had little exposure to western customers ordering custom features, let alone providing artwork for unique items. Plus we have just gone through Chinese New year and the "Ching Ming" festival (grave sweeping festival) ... so when it comes it comes.

When I eventually get it ... I will get James to come over and we can do a proper review for everyone.
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Re: Chinese custom guitar - dipping my toe in to test the wa

Post by mikeyjames56 » Fri Apr 08, 2016 5:34 am

This is actually really cool. Definitely following this thread!

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Re: Chinese custom guitar - dipping my toe in to test the wa

Post by StevenO » Fri Apr 08, 2016 5:51 am

Very cool! I've been very impressed by some of the craftsmanship coming out of China. They're really talented. It's not all junk, thankfully. Eastman guitars, for instance, and even Dream cymbals have all been fantastic quality and for a good price.

I'm a little bit apprehensive about supporting these companies though. I was considering getting into furniture and instrument making as a side business but with all the inexpensive and great quality stuff coming from China, I don't know how I'd even begin to make a peofit. I certainly couldn't compete.

Still, I'm very interested in this build. Looks great!

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Re: Chinese custom guitar - dipping my toe in to test the wa

Post by mediocreplayer » Fri Apr 08, 2016 6:12 am

Have they been making the guitar for the past seven years? Some of the photos have "2009" on them.

Looks good though! What is the name of the factory and how do we get in touch?

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Re: Chinese custom guitar - dipping my toe in to test the wa

Post by fuzzjunkie » Fri Apr 08, 2016 9:36 am

I'm curious about the quality of wood. It certainly looks nice from the photos as does the construction. Better than basswood at any rate. Were you able to specify a weight range for the body?

There are a lot of restrictions on wood and other materials used for musical instruments in the US and EU, but I imagine that China is more lenient. Of course import restrictions could limit you receiving said instrument if it had endangered mahogany or ivory, etc, in it's construction.

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Re: Chinese custom guitar - dipping my toe in to test the wa

Post by sookwinder » Fri Apr 08, 2016 6:55 pm

I sent them an email and I used with bullet point single sentences ... when some one is reading in a second language it is best to get one thought/idea per sentence. I also sent photos for examples of colour for the body I(front and back) and the neck. Again... a photo is explain a lot.

As far as weight is concerned, I just asked for a lighter (not heavy) body.

Yes I agree their wood looks pretty good. While rummaging around in the website I fell over their profile. Obviously take the self promotion with a grain of salt but I was interested that the company started out as wood growers/suppliers years and years ago....
PROFILE:
WELCOME TO THE GROTE GUITAR FACTORY - SHANDONG CHINA
For more than forty years the team at GROTE GUITAR FACTORY have been involved in the production of professional musical instruments, from the selection of the woods, to the design and manufacture processes [both contemporary & traditional], the finishing & customisation and finally the sale of the instrument to you the customer.

The company started out as a supplier of high quality ”tone woods” used in the production of musical instruments, primarily for major South Korean acoustic guitar and bass manufacturers. Approximately two decades ago we started the manufacturer of electric guitars and basses. Production was initially focused on Jazz and semi-hollow style guitars, but has now flourished to encompass many styles of hollow, semi-hollow and solid body guitars and basses.

From a small base of 10 employees, we now have 80 dedicated staff who manufacture instruments and cases for European and American OEMs, which are sold throughout the world. Our guitars and bases can be found in guitar stores in countries as diverse as the USA, United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil and Japan.

For those guitar buyers who want something that is a little different from everybody else, a guitar that stands out in a crowd, a guitar that is truly unique … we have a guitar customization team who can customize the guitar to your requirements, including logos, fingerboards, inlays, hardware and paint finishes.

At Grote Guitar Factory we know you love playing great guitars … we love building great guitars.
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Re: Chinese custom guitar - dipping my toe in to test the wa

Post by mackerelmint » Fri Apr 08, 2016 7:03 pm

They couldn't have picked a worse name than "Grote".
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Re: Chinese custom guitar - dipping my toe in to test the wa

Post by sookwinder » Fri Apr 08, 2016 7:25 pm

I asked them about GROTE .... you would not believe the reason if you read it in a book or saw it in a movie.

They were told they should use a western name ... by someone. (I can't recall what their chinese name is, but I didn't think it was that bad when I read it)
they wanted to call themselves "GREAT GUITARS" .... you know Great Wall and all that crap
But some other company or shop in China had already used that.....

They then discussed this with the Korean Guitar manufacturer/brand they were dealing with/supplying who told them to use GROTE
wtf :fp:

So a person who doesn't have English as their first language took advice from other person who speaks a completely different language that also isn't English.
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Re: Chinese custom guitar - dipping my toe in to test the wa

Post by mackerelmint » Fri Apr 08, 2016 7:44 pm

^^^

Oh, wow. ;D

If these guys do good work, I may end up asking them to make me an SG Jr. in white. With "何美茛" (my name) on the headstock in a cool font. Seems like it would be worth the 300 bucks or whatever.
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