“Only they who believeth in their guitar quest shall be granted passage”

Category: guitars

Guitar Authenticity Check
Guitar Authenticity Check is a must-to-do thing when we buy a guitar, whether it’s new or pre-owned one. Why? because counterfeit is one thing nobody likes it, include us, guitarists. Unfortunately, this issue has been among us in decades, and it’s really important for us to take serious measurements about this.

personally, and professionally(!), I don’t hate customized guitar by luthiers, I kinda like the way they set their own standards on how a guitar is supposed to be. But I really hate if my friends (or even myself) found out that they paid TOO MUCH for fake guitar.. and one more thing, there’s almost nothing i can do about this counterfeit issue.

BUT, i think i can help a little by sharing my notes about Guitar Authenticity Check. Recently I helped my friend buying a guitar and the result was quite great. It’s Epiphone Les Paul 100 guitar, cherry sunburst with pickguard, very lovely.

I knew (as everyone else does) that Epiphone is one of leading brand in guitars, and for couple times i found epiphone parts such like backplates were sold separately, yes, it has counterfeit-risks.

so I’ve checked all detailed parts and found out few details which might very useful for us. Here’s the pic:

although there’s no serial numbers carved or printed on headstocks and neck, I found it labeled under the bridge pickups, yup, there you have it. I’ve checked the serial number on epiphone serial number decoder at guitardaterproject.org and this guitar is made in Indonesia on november 2010 by Samick Factory. quite nice info right? also i found out “Epiphone” brand carved/molded on stop bridge, tune-o-matic bridge, below pickups, even on mono jack socket. well done, Epiphone.

based on those, I made some notes, at least for my own standards, when i want to buy a guitar

Guitar Authenticity Check points
- Get the guitar images and other info from its official website. there we will get its specs, and the closest guitar model looks
- Get the sound samples from videos/youtube reviews. we can also get the guitar physical appearances there
- compare it directly by try the guitar first before we decide ANYTHING. nothing beats the real sound and the playability/actions when you need to decide whether buying it or not
- bring your friend who is also a guitarist to get more proper considerations
- always choose trusted seller, if it’s not possible, ask the seller to provide the guitar authenticity info and proof. remember, it is you who hold the money, keep that in mind always
those words above just might be not enough, but i think those could be useful as basic considerations. good luck and have fun playing guitar! 🙂
March 7, 2016
Relic Guitar, The DIY Art of Aging
Relic Guitar is an itch for guitar lovers. Guitar relicing idea is always contagious. Sometimes we just love to see an old guitar with fully working parts, decent actions and playability which are difficult to find. Or the vintage image on guitar is so sexy, so we feel good when we play it. The senses and vibrations from old wood are just irresistible and I fell for those reasons.

I bought an old-cheap guitar for this. It’s a strat branded “vantage” on its headstock.From what i’ve learned when i got it on my hands, this guitar actually has a decent neck profile, while its body is plywood. Yes, it’s a plywood body guitar. It came so dirty with motor oil smell on it.

I read some articles on the internet, saying this guitar is korean made while it was on matsumoku (japan?) era. the headstock is similar to other matsumoku guitars product.

well, I’m not good at conclusions, here’s the pics when i first got it:

My best guess for this guitar series is Vantage stratocaster vie 10. the body and neck were good, but not for the other parts. so i change them with new ones and did relicing the guitar. basically i just messed up with it 😀 so here the results:

relic guitar Vantage Stratocaster vie 10, before and after

does it look good? well, for me it’s just an amateur job done by me for the sake of curiosity. The pickups were default and I’m so happy with the way this DIY relic guitar sounds.

I’m not interested explaining about how i done this project, but I DO have something to say after doing this.

here’s some thoughts on relic guitar :
- The Art of Aging Guitars is NOT that easy. To make guitar looks old and worn is one thing which is different from destroying things. We need to research on how it’s made; the materials, the finishing types, then we do research on how make them look aged, not destroyed.
- Guitar parts are NOT CHEAP. surely we can find cheap parts anywhere on the net, but the durability and low quality cheap parts are just making thing worse. Arrange your budget for DIY relic guitar project.
- Do this project with proper amount of time. rushing it will make us loosing the learning moments. take some espresso and begin reading relic’d guitar stuff. it will help us to get exact image for the guitar.
- Know our limits. if we just don’t get it about things, ask to a luthier and get educated. This is the real purpose of this project. knowing deeper and understand the closest real value of a guitar and compare it to the way it sounds and played. If we don’t get it, let other people educate us.
well, this relic guitar project is the most intensively fun, entertaining project I’ve done so far. I remembered when i wanted this project result would look like Steve Ray Vaughn relic SRV stratocaster guitar, but I’m glad i didn’t. this relic guitar design looks much lovely with my sweat on it
March 6, 2016
Made In PRC guitars and gears, really okay?

Some of us found this out and start saying things, some stay quiet. Well, let’s start with the abbreviation first. P.R.C stands for People’s Republic of China, so Made In PRC means those guitars and amps are made in China. Yes, all the famous guitars and amps brands those have this label are making their products in china. we could be surprised by it,but it’s a common industry’s strategy called overseas production.

How can this even happens? surely we can imagine the almost same thing happen to fast food brand. they have recipes and patents, so they can sell the fast food to all over the world in fresh condition and precise product quality. but what happened to guitars and amps? they are not FOOD! guitars and amps are supposed to be someone’s lifestyle!… correct.. so is food. food is lifestyle.

It is likely emotional rather than rational. Of course we want the real taste of American built guitars such like fender or orange amps made in U.K. we feel that our love and loyalty is completely betrayed by the brands just by seeing “Made In P.R.C.” label behind our gears. Unfortunately it affects us in guitars deals subjectively. No, it is not wrong thing to feel like that, but let’s make wide searches and get a bigger vision about this Made In P.R.C. stuff.

In the last decade, China becomes a huge source of industry. China has materials, tools, workshop and workers to do things with minimum running costs, while in USA and Europe, those elements are getting expensive. With rapid technology shared worldwide like now, china takes this opportunity into maximum efficiency and high target in quality competitions. there’s nothing wrong about it besides the living wage issues in china. they are just developing rapidly, that’s all. and if we believe that science belongs to the world, this is not anybody’s fault. But exactly that’s the main reason. the world balance is changing its weight. Now, guitars and amps from china are coming to houses and stages all over the world.

Enough about industry and world economy. Let’s talk about the product quality. Personally, my gears are almost all Made In PRC. my Gretsch G5236 is made in China, my Orange amps TT15JR is made in P.R.C., I have Boss GT-8 made in Taiwan and more of this kind of stuff. I don’t really care about the differences between china or Taiwan or somewhere between both (sorry. it feels like they change names into taiwan, china, PRC as marketing strategy to boost sales. 😀 ) but i do have my attentions in Korean’s made such like My Fender SE Telecaster Spalted Maple (great guitar). I don’t have USA guitars, yet, since i have few disappointment on Fender Stratocaster Highway One made in USA. so far, my empress multidrive pedal (hand-made in Canada) and Celestion G12EVH (made in U.K) satisfy me. and so the Made In PRC. I love how they sound.

yup. just like that, i picked my own gears and i love them because i know how they sound. I don’t really care about where it’s made, but i really DO despise counterfeits. faking people’s name and get money because of it means take away someone’s salary and discredit the hardwork and quality. The ironic thing is, China has this counterfeit issue, too. big one.

I really do hope people stop making counterfeits and start their own brands. i present my big RESPECT to anybody who do that
September 2, 2015
Eko Guitars N(e)XT series Electro-acoustic steel strings

My another gears update is an electro-acoustic guitar. I found it on local shop, while i was surprised about how this Italian chitarra brand appeared here in my city. Surely i gave it a try and i found myself like it. the sound quality and the price are somehow equal (plus few advantages) to my ears, so when it comes to comparison with other guitars in its price range.

this is what i got, the factory default:

actually I am impressed by things eko guitars has by factory default. The acoustic steel strings are great! feels like newly installed and vibrate the tones equally (though i can’t get used to it anyway, gotta change them with electric guitar strings). i got mono-jack cable and one Allen wrench for adjusting the truss rod. pretty neat for made in P.R.C guitars, and i guess that’s why Eko guitars, an italian guitar brand could came to my house.

when it comes to comparison, i picked yamaha apx500ii as its rival, and this Eko N(e)XT guitar won… it has more serious saddle bridge than apx and the eko guitars preamp delivers equal tones, (my apx500ii doesn’t have middle tone, which i need them most for my solo playing)

my first tryout on stage were my last night gig. i was fully satisfied, and i can see this guitar could do few more things after i set something up for this. you can check eko guitars at www.ekoguitars.it and i’m sure you will get more details, meanwhile i will set up things for the vlog. see ya

Update

now I have proper video for this guitar checksound. Here the guitar sound samples using TZ Audio Stellar X3 condenser mic:

September 1, 2015