Are you creative with your guitar the barnyard caster

Many of us here play some form of musical instrument and are very creative in their approach on how we express themselves musically.
Here is a video of a guitar who buys a Walmart guitar kit. Enjoy the video, pretty cool.

a reply to: musicismagic

Many of us here play some form of musical instrument and are very creative in their approach on how we express themselves musically. Here is a video of a guitar who buys a Walmart guitar kit. Enjoy the video, pretty cool.

I think you may want to fix this up ... otherwise ... is this guitar alive ... did it use a credit card?

So the guitars are shopping at Walmart

P

a reply to: musicismagic

I bought a couple of books on guitar making decades ago. I couldn't belive all the hours and work that goes into make one, let alone the tools needed! I decided my old Gibson was fulfilling enough.

originally posted by: pheonix358
a reply to: musicismagic

Many of us here play some form of musical instrument and are very creative in their approach on how we express themselves musically. Here is a video of a guitar who buys a Walmart guitar kit. Enjoy the video, pretty cool.

I think you may want to fix this up ... otherwise ... is this guitar alive ... did it use a credit card?

So the guitars are shopping at Walmart

P

Maybe the mods will come by and edit it. Guess I had too much coffee when I wrote the post. Thanks for bringing that to my attention. Too late to edit, although I do think it is funny .

originally posted by: nugget1
a reply to: musicismagic

I bought a couple of books on guitar making decades ago. I couldn't belive all the hours and work that goes into make one, let alone the tools needed! I decided my old Gibson was fulfilling enough.

I got my Gibson also. I actually never thought I'd buy a Black Les Paul Gibson, but I did. It's really strange how much they've gone up in price though over the years.

originally posted by: musicismagic

originally posted by: nugget1
a reply to: musicismagic

I bought a couple of books on guitar making decades ago. I couldn't belive all the hours and work that goes into make one, let alone the tools needed! I decided my old Gibson was fulfilling enough.

I got my Gibson also. I actually never thought I'd buy a Black Les Paul Gibson, but I did. It's really strange how much they've gone up in price though over the years.

I looked at a Les Paul wantabe (Chinese made) that had a price of $135 USD. the finish was excellent and the craftsmanship had no flaws I could detect. I messed around with the guitar and I liked the neck action until I got above the high "E" fret... Then the E and A strings started to rattle as the bridge was set to low or the wrong gauge strings were on the guitar ? I did not plug it in to test the pick-ups so who knows ??

I might have bought it anyway but the weight of a Les Paul plus I have 4 guitars already kinda made me ask myself, "Why?"

Edit to add. I remember when the Japanese were sending people to the states and taking pictures of different brands of guitars and when they first entered the market in the states. That was back when they made good cheap ink pens (early 60s)... Many guitar snobs smirked at their feeble attempts... In just a few years the Japanese were making some very high quality key boards and guitars that were as good as anything we had in the states. For 135USD it would be hard to go wrong with that purchase even if you had to replaced the electronics and pick-ups IMO

a reply to: 727Sky

I was curious about the Chinese guitars also. I bought a Firefly 335 model. As you said, the fit and finish were excellent. In fact, the guitar straight out of the box was really pretty good, especially for the price. The pickups were microphonic and a little weak in my opinion. I had a set of pickups from an Epiphone LP and put those in. I gave the guitar a good set-up and took my time with the string height. The end result was really pretty impressive.

By way of comparison, I had a Gibson 335 Lucille a while back. This guitar looks, sounds, and feels nearly the same, and for under $200. There is a slight difference in tone depth I will attribute to Gibson tone wood curing where this guitar was likely built with wood that was not cured nearly as well. I will end up replacing the pots with US gear at some point but for now it works just fine.

My next project should be fun. I have all the hardware from a Gibson Explorer I had that got some bad body/neck damage. I am going to try putting it in a Chinese Explorer kit and take it to a few shops around here and see if I can pass it off as a Gibson. I intend to keep the guitar when finished, but I think it will be interesting to see if anyone can tell its a Chinese knock-off if it has Gibson hardware.

I build, repair and refurbish guitars. Been doing it for almost 40 years.
Building a guitar from scratch is very time consuming and requires knowledge of several woodworking, electronic and finishing techniques.
Average length of time to build a solid body electric guitar from pieces of wood can take as long as 3 months by hand.

originally posted by: Vroomfondel
a reply to: 727Sky

My next project should be fun. I have all the hardware from a Gibson Explorer I had that got some bad body/neck damage. I am going to try putting it in a Chinese Explorer kit and take it to a few shops around here and see if I can pass it off as a Gibson. I intend to keep the guitar when finished, but I think it will be interesting to see if anyone can tell its a Chinese knock-off if it has Gibson hardware.

Good luck with trying to fool people who deal with Gibson guitars day in and out. They will be able to tell immediately you have a counterfeit.
I know I could tell in less than 2 minutes but I have been handling guitars in a professional capacity for a longtime.

I'm not saying you won't get away with it but there are only a few guitar builders in the world who are skilled enough to make a nearly perfect copy of a production guitar.
Ask Slash. He was playing a guitar which everyone believed was a 58 Les Paul sunburst until it was looked over thoroughly when it was discovered it was counterfeit. The guy who built it is held in high regard due to the skill he used to create the guitar.
Like I said good luck!!

a reply to: 727Sky

The chinese clones are usually referred to as chibsons.

They vary wildly in quality but I've seen a fair few people buy one and then pay a few hundred for it to be fine tuned and fettled, resoldered and better pots and some upgraded pickups and ended up with a really decent instrument at a fraction of what it would cost for a real branded version.

a reply to: americanbuffalo1

Well, Slash is an idiot. So he is not a good example.

I have also been handling guitars for 45 years. I have owned many Gibsons including the Explorer the hardware is from. If every single part on the guitar down to the screws for the pickguard are straight from a Gibson that eliminates most of the things people look for right there. A proper neck/body, the right weight and no scarf joints, will put it past most experts. Especially if the truss rod is right. Any guitar can be refinished, but with cellulose it will be harder to point out a fake. And in case of a disaster, any guitar can have a replacement neck.

With all that I bet I can fool most people no matter how hard they look for errors. All the finer points of determining the legitimacy of a guitar are well known. Being an Explorer there are no bindings to look at. Being from the 80's it was originally one of the decal models so the finish is not as easy to point out as fake. Yes, with enough motivation a person could check wood density, etc. But that is well beyond the capacity of most people.

Let me put it this way, I know I can fool anyone at GuitarCenter...but that isn't saying much...

Edit: I wanted to add that with laser measuring and cnc production, anyone can very precisely duplicate any guitar to within a thousandth of an inch. Its not that only a few people can do it, its that only a few do. Its fraud. I am not doing this to try to sell it. I just want to make it as "right" as I can. Even Gibson deviates from Gibson rules once in a while. I bought the Explorer in question new. When it got damaged and I took it all apart I noticed that from the front, the fingerboard looked fine. But when I removed it from the neck there were dozens of small inlay size holes all up and down the fretboard as though it had been used as a stop piece for a drill press. This was straight from Gibson. No one would look at that and think it was legit, but it was.

a reply to: Vroomfondel

I don't doubt you could make something exceedingly close to an original. Yes I agree Slash is an idiot. If you have been dealing with guitars as long as you have you know the little details which matter. Many don't realize details which are factors to consider.
Gibson, especially during the Norlin years had wide discrepancies within many of the model lines. The trick as you likely know is the what and why of the discrepancy and how to identify. Or in a counterfeiters case what you need to include, exclude or substitute.
Like I said good luck! I would love to see what you come up with and what kind of reaction you get!

a reply to: americanbuffalo1

You are definitely right. It takes someone very knowledgeable to find every little variation. Most people don't stand a chance.

Honestly, I am kind of torn between making it as original as possible or going with a full custom build. I am leaning toward custom. The Gibson hardware will just add an extra level of quality to the build. It will be fun either way. :-)

originally posted by: Vroomfondel
a reply to: americanbuffalo1

You are definitely right. It takes someone very knowledgeable to find every little variation. Most people don't stand a chance.

Honestly, I am kind of torn between making it as original as possible or going with a full custom build. I am leaning toward custom. The Gibson hardware will just add an extra level of quality to the build. It will be fun either way. :-)

If you like, I'd like to see how you approach this with pictures. I'll give you my email through PM if you like.
In this country we have a pawnshop that is nationwide called " Bookoff " with other names attached to it. I can and did buy les paul and strat copies for under 50 bucks all the time. I would buy the ones that I knew I could repair and collected quite a few. I had intended to bring them to the flea market, but then Covid hit and the flea market closed for 2 years. So I just brought them back to the pawnshop. Did I make a profit... well, yes I did. I actually gave a Morris acoustic 1980 all wood model to one of my students. He was interested in guitar so I just gave it to him. On Reverb I see they go for over 300 bucks.

a reply to: musicismagic

No problem. It might be a little while before I get started, but I will do this project. I have two others ahead of it. Both of those require rebuilding wood taken from the body for some unknown reason.

One I can fix with a dowel and some putty and a new paintjob. The other is going to be tough. It is a Jacaranda body that was VERY poorly routed for a triple pick-up arrangement. Normal size pick-up surrounds don't cover the hole.

Where there is a natural finish I can fix small chip-outs, especially on fretboards, very convincingly with little to no sign there was ever a problem. But something this big, I am kind of at a loss as to how to proceed. I really don't want to have to paint this body, the wood grain and color is beautiful. But that gaping hole is just plain obnoxious.

It's amazing, I love guitar