Quote: (01-17-2017 02:37 PM)DamienCasanova Wrote:
Here's the other thread for reference
thread-60286.html
Top Star factory
https://www.aliexpress.com/store/1796319
And it's pretty crazy they could be making these for $150-180 bucks, while they sell here for 10x that. Even with a 35% tariff these Chinese guitars would still be extremely cheap under $250, compared to the Fenders and such. Like you say, there is definitely a lot of room for startup companies offering guitars in this price range to make some cash.
Also, how do you feel about the Floyd Rose tremolo bridge, compared to the regular bridges they offer? Any experience with those? Seems like the biggest downside is it's a bitch to string and tune, but performance wise it seems a net positive. Do you think it's definitely worth it for only $20-30 more?
I can't speak about the quality of the hardware like a (probably) knocked-off Floyd Rose tremolo. The Chinese can do some amazing quality stuff, but they also seem to specialise in 'just-good-enough' kind of stuff. I doubt it would be so bad it was unplayable. I doubt it would be as good as an original though. But maybe I am wrong.
If you are talking about the Floyd-Rose tremolo thing in general then I have to say two things: 1: I am not qualified to answer that question. 2: I can answer that question but I'm extremely prejudiced.
1: Lots of guitarists out there love/hate the Floyd-Rose system. Some thrive on it, others (like me) can not even begin to comprehend it. It's not that far out, but it's pretty too far out for a lot of guitarists, like me.
2: I once had a couple of Floyd-Rose systems on the go. Just gave up. Nightmare system. For someone else. Not me.
I would avoid getting a FR on that guitar. Just because the 30 bucks you are paying will not buy you anything good. If you want to take this root, then do it after playing and owning/borrowing a FR equipped guitar for a few days. Restring it. Hell, try to retune it!
But for 50 bucks or so, well, I would not take the chance. FR are not for beginners anyway. Pick another trem to start with, unless you like it coz you tried it. Even people that use them will tell you they are a pain. But it does have advantages, to the patient, and the on-the-ball types.
Trems are funny. Lots of people don't like Bigsby (not me). Some love Kahlers (me). You need to spend a day or two at least, I think.
As for your first point: yeah, if you can make guitars that cheap once you own the tooling, and your manual workers aren't asking for an arm and a leg, just a fair shake at earning a living to be able to afford to live in a house, and maybe drive a car?
Things are starting up in America for jobs like these. They don't pay much. The question is, do you have a government that will allow you to work in this way and still be able to feed/house yourself independently.
Say what you like but for too long this type of employment was stulted and still-born. If you do what we do in EU - we just tax any profit you make to take it back off you anyway - then it can be a hard game to win.
So many people will just moan and explain and rationalise why they did not succeed in life. But there are others with legitimate grievancies as to how the whole system runs.
I don't know. I just feel like the ground is fertile if the upper tier decisions are made to let us start playing as a race in the garden of eden we are all in.
Then again, those Indonesians are kicking it right out of the park price/quality wise. Even better than the japs. You can't go wrong with Aria at the moment. Part Indonesian/Japanese/Malaysian/Korean - who knows what they are. But just pull one down off a wall and play one if you get a chance.
Machines can wind pick-up bobbins, they can place them in the CNC drilled cavity in the body of the already machined guitar. A separate machine cuts the wood, inserts the frets, levels them, checks them, after it has been painted, by machine of course. Why would humans feel so insecure?
We can't match machines for most things, but a lot of things we can do - like tuning and fine adjustments, well, let's just say we can do them better for now. Automation is set to take over in a paradigm shift to rival the computer paradigm shift, in a few years. But still, we will need to differentiate between what can and can not be done by a human. It will find its own level, like water.
Finding the water line is where the smart money is.
You are pretty much always going to need a fella to polish the frets down though, after the wood of the neck has shrunk a bit in transit/storage. About a Millimeter - not much.
Or maybe you could set up another machine to check, to dismantle the neck, strip the strings, smooth it down, check it, put the strings back on, put the whole guitar back together, tune it. You see where I'm going with this?
We are on the cusp of something for sure. If I figure out what it is, you will be the last to know - I'll be running in the other direction buying stocks and shares. :-)
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