Stickman393
Well-known member
Y'all I have a confession to make.
Recently, I'm aftaid, I've lost my head.
And I gotta say; it's not so bad.
Recently, I'm aftaid, I've lost my head.
And I gotta say; it's not so bad.
Off With Their Heads!!!!
- Thread starter Stickman393
- Start date
tegendemuur
Well-known member
Stickman393
Well-known member
Stickman393
Well-known member
Strandbergs are great.
Mine...mine are significantly cheaper. I've personally strayed from...ah...anything worth over a kilobuck recently. I don't want to have to baby my guitars. I want to be able to work on them, play them, bang em around and still have em play and sound great...without worrying about their potential resale value.
Each of my three (one six, two sevens, all multiscale, SS frets, tight tolerances, thin finishes, neck reinforcements, yada blah) came out under $500.
I generally adhere to a similar philosophy- I’ve never ventured into the 4-digit range. I was considering it, but then I bought amp parts from byoc. I’ve gotten a lot of cool shit at just under a grand though. 98 Trace Elliot T-Bass, 99 US P-Bass, 80 ES-347, two US reverends…
Really would like a headless at some point.
Really would like a headless at some point.
Feral Feline
Well-known member
Stickman393
Well-known member
Of course Gibson would make a headless guitar with 3/4 of a headstock.
For fucks sake. You gotta take more than just the tip.
For fucks sake. You gotta take more than just the tip.
Aentons
Well-known member
I think that was just a prototype. The production had the full headstock
that's what she heard!
Back to almost serious, guess it's all a matter of tastes, Les Paul's 1st couple 'guitars' were a 2x4/2x6 gouged out for 1-2 humbuckers and the holes drilled for the tuners.
Feral Feline
Well-known member
Les Paul gets so overlooked for his contributions to the recording process and industry, all because he let Gibson put his name on a guitar... 
I remember when he died and I was listening to radio the next day. It was just a little blip about being an influential guitarist and building a home studio.Les Paul gets so overlooked for his contributions to the recording process and industry, all because he let Gibson put his name on a guitar...
He invented that shit!! He was a pioneer!
I got to meet him once. I flew to new york city after I graduated high school specifically go see him play at the Iridium. Such a great show.
Stickman393
Well-known member
Pioneers are overrated.
I mean, respect. Dude did some cool shit. But I subscribe to a worldview that...had it not been mr Paul who had wrapped some wire around a magnet and slapped it under the strings...somebody else *absolutely* would have.
There was a need in that time for amplification, and a ton of folks were simultaneously working towards improved means of amplifying signals. He's just one of many.
I appreciate an inventor. I appreciate inginuity. But life has also taught me that emphasis on a single individual tends to miss the forest for the trees.
Eexcept for the inventor of the guillotine, without which we would never have been able to imagine headless guitars. Which is what the thread is about.
Grumble grumble...kids..lawn...
Also, did y'all know that the French don't have a word for "Guillotine"? It's true. The more you know.
I mean, respect. Dude did some cool shit. But I subscribe to a worldview that...had it not been mr Paul who had wrapped some wire around a magnet and slapped it under the strings...somebody else *absolutely* would have.
There was a need in that time for amplification, and a ton of folks were simultaneously working towards improved means of amplifying signals. He's just one of many.
I appreciate an inventor. I appreciate inginuity. But life has also taught me that emphasis on a single individual tends to miss the forest for the trees.
Eexcept for the inventor of the guillotine, without which we would never have been able to imagine headless guitars. Which is what the thread is about.
Grumble grumble...kids..lawn...
Also, did y'all know that the French don't have a word for "Guillotine"? It's true. The more you know.
Nostradoomus
Well-known member
Agreed. Propping a few people up on a pedestal above all others is dehumanizing.
Yeah, I agree with all of that. Let’s get back to it
I wanted to revive this. @Stickman393, What do you do to research these Chinese guitar companies? Or is it just more looking at reviews on aliexpress/amazon and youtube reviewers?
Stickman393
Well-known member
There's a few that get overall good reviews. I took a chance on my first Eart because it was 200 bucks on Amazon and had some impressive specs (ss frets, roasted maple neck, roasted mahogany(ish...probably) body. I ended up throwing locking tuners, new pickups and a Wilkinson trem on it, mostly cause I wanted black hardware.
After that I did a deep dive. NK guitars got rave reviews: I bought my first six string multi scale to begin with. Then I got one of their 7 string multiscale guitars. Then I took a chance on an MC Tang 7 string multiscale that I snagged for a song.
AliExpress was where I picked up those three. The thing to keep in mind: only buy from the official stores, even if it looks like someone else has the exact same thing for like 50 bucks less. Not worth the risk, even if they have good reviews it could be a triangulation scam. NK guitars, MC Tang, eart all have official stores in there.
They'll be having their 11/11 sale pretty soon here. If you're interested, I'd wait till then. That's when they tend to have the deepest discounts.
Threads on message boards asking for opinions are often crowded by folks who take a jingoistic view: there's strong anti-china sentiment out there. Some for legitimate reasons (human rights abuses, expansionist tendencies, etc) some for not-so-legitimate reasons (impotent anticommunist fervor, racism).
It looks to me like all the instruments I bought originated in Shenzen. I wouldn't be surprised if there's one factory there that is cranking these things out to semi-custom specs, as all the above brands seem to have similarities.
There are a few weirdnesses with these: the action and intonation is generally off from the factory. There may be some minor finish issues. The pickups are decent, but tend to need swaps for my tastes (except for MC Tang...theirs seem to be clones of the BKP aftermath).
But for the price...under half a kilo buck...yeah. A little setup ain't nuthin.
After that I did a deep dive. NK guitars got rave reviews: I bought my first six string multi scale to begin with. Then I got one of their 7 string multiscale guitars. Then I took a chance on an MC Tang 7 string multiscale that I snagged for a song.
AliExpress was where I picked up those three. The thing to keep in mind: only buy from the official stores, even if it looks like someone else has the exact same thing for like 50 bucks less. Not worth the risk, even if they have good reviews it could be a triangulation scam. NK guitars, MC Tang, eart all have official stores in there.
They'll be having their 11/11 sale pretty soon here. If you're interested, I'd wait till then. That's when they tend to have the deepest discounts.
Threads on message boards asking for opinions are often crowded by folks who take a jingoistic view: there's strong anti-china sentiment out there. Some for legitimate reasons (human rights abuses, expansionist tendencies, etc) some for not-so-legitimate reasons (impotent anticommunist fervor, racism).
It looks to me like all the instruments I bought originated in Shenzen. I wouldn't be surprised if there's one factory there that is cranking these things out to semi-custom specs, as all the above brands seem to have similarities.
There are a few weirdnesses with these: the action and intonation is generally off from the factory. There may be some minor finish issues. The pickups are decent, but tend to need swaps for my tastes (except for MC Tang...theirs seem to be clones of the BKP aftermath).
But for the price...under half a kilo buck...yeah. A little setup ain't nuthin.
