Any reputable sites for rep guitars?

[Martyd3]

Thanks.

 

Marty

[droptopman]

Thanks.

Marty

There is a thread in the gentleman's lounge under bytes bits and babes.

Sent from my droptop using telepathy.

[horace derwent]

There is a thread in the gentleman's lounge under bytes bits and babes.

 

Yeah,

 

exactly  here

[rrari1]

check out the china guitar sceptic website and youtube videos.  http://chinaguitarsceptic.com/

 

If you sign up to the forum there are reviews of various sellers.

[sul]

I have 6 guitars 3 of them  are self build, two of them are re-made of Gibson rep, I hate rep guitars thats why there is no Gibson sign on headstock.  Just some nice looking  x unknown brand name. But from same factory as yellow Gibbys are made. No point to buy them, unless you can  do a lot by yourself.

Pimped rep LP price can go up for 600-700 usd and for that price you will get new low end Gibson LP from Thoman or elsewhere or used gen  or Lawsuit made in Japan...

 

Let me start with "problems".... by first look they all look more or less good, reality is that all is needed to change. I did it becouse I like  work with wood/ guitars and I did want to see how good they can be. All done, they are pretty good.

Ok, here we go, it is basically  all about rep guitars not only about rep LP :

 

- Headstock tuners holes are no good- to big or too small. Tuners are 99,9% crap, even if the stay tuned, they look like sh@£it.

- Trussrod usually can be adjusted but it is  often too short ,99%  of reps probably have this flaw, difficult or sometimes very difficult to adjust tryussrod. Usually they will have a trussrod what can be adjusted, sometimes trussrod is glued in... then you will have a problem...

-Nut is plastic, not good by sound vise or by look, it is deffinitely needed to change

-Frets levelling is needed 90% done if talking about rep guitars, sometimes frets are wider that fingerboard, you will hurt your fingers

-Fretboard insert`s are not made of abalone or mother of pearl, chap plasic- however palstic looks also quite ok also sometimes....

- Neck are made of 2 or mostly of 3 pieces- IMHO that not "all bad" thing, if from one pieces made neck, then you would have same problem as original, neck will be broken sooner or later. But by visually and cosmetically they are not good, if dark paint, then probably ok.

- Finishing... body and neck-headstock, needs to be sanded and re polished, then probably ok, from factory...no good. From distance ok, close look, lot of flaws.

- Sometimes neck and body joint is no good, lot of them have neck not parallel to body level.. Neck joint is same as Epi will have, usually same construction

-  Sometimes  frets  are not in right places on fingerboard, not possible to tune, my two yellow LP`s does not have this but I have heard  that it is also a common problem.

- Cavities are very badly done, I just shielded my guitar`s cavities becouse it will look better after that not that this was needed...

-All and I mean ALL hardware needed to be changed, sometimes pickups are ok, if you play hardcore metal with uber  high cain distortened amp pedal, but normally they are crap and very michrophonic-so they will screm and hoot.

- I you like to add HQ hardware you have to re drill all holes, switch hole, pots holes....+ made switch hole wall thinner for switchcraft switch, pots are usually some low end chinease crap mini pots- however they will work, wiring is total BS- will work  somhow but wire is low end,  soldering is no good, almost always there is some stange noise.. bad soldering-double grounding -ground loops.

- Bridge is too  far away from bridge pickup( or bridge pickup is too close to neck picukup- take as you like), you cant use without modification original pickguard, by look placing  it is different than original. Bridge post are fat, not  slim as US G LP, you can use adapters, but they still look fake.

- And body... usualy made of 3 or 4 or 6 or... pieces... you will probably have picture by now what they really  are. If you will have body of two pieces thats good, if on piece thats good.  But 3 ot 4 or... no. Usually wood is not best quality,  backside and upper side are covered with thin vineer... and sometimes all is covered with vineer- side areas  also, you cant understand what is under vineer or how many pieces is made making guitar body.. Belive me, there is nothing HQ there...

- Cavities covers are differently sized as gen, not possible to us gen covers.

- Finishing, paint or whatever it  is is very thick... and very plastic like, it will not age like gen guitars... hard to relic or polish  it also.

- Some minor thing more-no good trussrod cover by look or by size, some minor cracs and non matching filler is used etc etc...

 

- +Bindings are usually quite HQ

 

... what I like...

 

+I can all do as I want, I will choose hardware, pickups, wiring( I will use 50 wiring if LP).

+Wood by sound wise is good for guitar. Not "table wood"

+Usually if noted that neck and body is mahagony, they are mahagony, by grain not same as US LP mahagony, but still some Honduras or China or some different mahagony.

 +-Upper layer is usually never thick maple...it is veneer..  but again, I dont see a problem, some custom shop gen G LP s are made also as all mahagony... so for me this is not a problem usually.

+The look by size and shape quite same as gen-main reason why I  did that work... I like LP shape not that "Gibson" name

+Fingerboard are mado of rosewood usually

 

You cant compare rep watch and rep guitars... guitars are waist of money has thay are from facory.. needed to do a lot of modifications. The are like low end canal street watches.... waist of money.

 

Better option is to us HQ guitar KIT and make all  from start...

Edited November 26, 2014 by sul