EdwardMarlowe

The innards look pretty good here, though of course there is the question mark about a 'review special' as with any brand:
 

http://www.shijieguitars.com/home-products-index-catId-16.html

Found this on Youtube, production video from the factory. Looks likes sort of Gordon Smith  type affair - not entirely 'hand made', if you want every last bit done 'by hand', but not a huge plant affair:
 

I'm going to be interested to see what the UK guitar press makes of this; for all the accusations of going easy on advertisers over the yeas I've always found the likes of Guitar to be pretty reliable as to what's worth looking at. The thing that caught my attention here is the attention to the details - the trem isn't just a copy of the Fender version; brass block; that stripe in the neck... Sure, they're Fender "copies" to a great extent, but there seems to have been a lot of thought gone into how they would do their version, even down to the 12" radius as standard, rather than just copying the Fender norm of 9.5. 

8 hours ago, Kiwi said:

I'm really curious to know who might be making them.  There are only a handful of Chinese companies that do quality builds.  I've found the rest of them just rush things and try to get away with sometimes school boy errors.   Having said that, the parts are pretty simple and if he's finishing them off by hand and assembling then quality might not be such a problem so long as the wood is seasoned properly.

It seems to be a small custom shop, building their own stuff, it's not contracted out at all. They did have an agent for a bit doing all their sales, but they've taken that back in house. They're in Guangdong,  if I recall correctly; they're certainly based not too far from the Epiphone factory, though they're not making them there. Could be they drew some of the expertise from there, though. The concept is really sound: a custom guitar that would cost over two grand from the US for less than half that - but they certainly will have to face down the stigma of Chinese manufacturing stereotypes in the West. Same old same old - the West orders cheap crap from China, China obliges, and then the West thinks China can only offer cheap crap. I've been saying for years (based on experience out there) they're just as capable given the budget and materials.... this might be a chance to prove that theory!  Web talk seems to be evenly split between folks who have one and love it, and folks who refuse the believe a Chinese guitar could be any good (and haven't played one). I'm hoping now they have UK distribution that I'll get a chance to try one out - I wouldn't buy one unseen, but then to be fair I don't think I'd buy any guitar unseen. If they are really all that and I had one and loved it, there would be a temptation to buy a second; I really like the 'standard' versions, and I'm very much a single coil guy. The relic'ed versions look pretty cool, though (I'm not normally a relic guy - I can admire them, but my aesthetic preferences are more geared towards the vintage look as was back in the day when those guitars were new rather than forty years old and beat tae feck)... there'd be the temptation to have the relic'ed version of the same colour, perhaps with the HB in the bridge, almost as if it was the first guitar at a different stage in its life. I'm not normally a HB guy at all - for years, the HSS layout has been a deal breaker to me - but I've actually really warmed to the look of it on these. I also like that they have the original layout in terms of tone features - would put it at another variation from my existing Strat. I've been planning for a while to pick up a Player Strat once I sell some stuff, but I'm toying with the idea of one of these first. They're certainly different enough that a Player would still slot in nicely for variation. My current Strats are my original 1994 US Standard (an anniversary year model, but the left handers made that year were for whatever reason not given the additional anniversary badge that went on all the right handers) and a Squier Std I modified with GFS lipsticks, but the latter is going to be parted out and sold off. I'm actually going to shift the bulk of my collection (around 13 currently; only keeping the Strat, my CIJ Tele and a Brandoni P Bass), including amps, so I should have a nice little bit of cash to play around with, and I'd be happy to take a punt on one of these Shijies as long as I can play first and be sure it works for me. Thereafter, who knows.... if Fender get their act together and extend the Mod Shop to the UK (an idea I was pushing  on forums twenty years ago, I wodner if someone at Fender ever saw that, ha...), that might even supplant the Player.... 

On 28/12/2020 at 22:08, Dad3353 said:

800€ for a Tele copy..? Hmm... I'm not seeing the appeal. 

Depends how you bracket it, I suppose. The design intent behind these is to provide something closer the quality of the Custom Shop - i.e. a two grand Tele - rather than the production line Fenders. The quality of materials all seems to be there. They are shooting to be a similar operation to Suhr or Tom Anderson, who both sell Tele "copies" for about three times that price. Obviously the saving here is that a good wage in China is much lower, given relative economies, than the same in the USA. (Which is not to say these people are being exploited; I know Chinese academics who chose to work for a Chinese university rather than a job in the UK. On paper, they earn 50% in China what they'd have made here, but relative to the local economy they have a much higher standard of living than they could possibly have afforded in London, or most other major UK cities.) 

I suspect the biggest challenge they're going to face is prejudice about Chinese manufacture, given the "China makes crap" stereotype, despite the fact they make what the West orders! If they can pull it off, though, it will be a very significant move in the market, given how major a manufacturing nation China has become for almost everything else. 

On 19/12/2020 at 08:24, GisserD said:

If I could like that twice. I would! 

Thanks for the Frank and comprehensive distillation of the tech.

As ever, viewer emptor, but I've discovered over the last few months that Youtube can be a fantastic resource for this sort of information. ONly problem is I'm now wild keen on spending significant money on a Shijie STE....

content://com.android.chrome.FileProvider/images/screenshot/16091911806661275422068.jpg

content://com.android.chrome.FileProvider/images/screenshot/16091912028751606406301.jpg

content://com.android.chrome.FileProvider/images/screenshot/160919122066076764646.jpg

Scguitars.co.UK 

Anyone had a chance to try one of these Chinese beauties? Lots of positive buzz around. I'm hoping they do lefties...

Ah - according to Wikipedia: 

"Lace Sensors are true single-coil pickups; however, internally they are different from classic single coils. The chief difference is that, like the pickups used on the Fender Jaguar, the coil is surrounded by metal barriers which are designed to reduce electro-magnetic interference such as power line hum. According to the manufacturer, these barriers also help concentrate the magnetic field, allowing weaker magnets to be used, which results in less string pull. Less string pull, in turn, means truer pitch and intonation, and superior sustain."

So it's more a different means of putting together a sc pup... Looks to me like it broadly speaking puts the coil between magnets rather than wrapped around it...
 

Seems Fender dropped them when they got their own Noiseless series developed. I remember a lot of Neanderthals howling that the Laces weren't "proper" pickups because they had no polepieces, but lace sis develop a "Holy Grail" model with fake polepieces on it for that market. 

On 14/12/2020 at 15:06, EliasMooseblaster said:

Well, quite - I'm certainly in no hurry to dine in the Pizza Express next time I pass through Woking!

No sweat. 

Wilkinson do seem to be the obvious go-to for quality bits on a budget....  I see quite a lot of that stuff on eBay if you hunt. Other option might be to buy a used Vintage or Squier guitar and strip the parts you need, sell what you don't. If there's a fair bit you wat to use that can see you come out ahead (I regularly see Squier necks sell for more than complete guitars!) but otherwise if it's only a bit or two I'd hunt Wilkinson. 

Amazon has a good range of Fender bits, nit sure if they have Wilkinson too. 

Possible. He's always seemed pleasant enough, but he *is* pally with Prince Charles. Never trust anyone keen to hang out with royalty. 

Never played a lace sensor equipped guitar. I do recall they worked differently to a traditional pickup - they weren't just 'hidden posts', but don't remember the details. How do they sound? 

Nice. The bullet casing is a clever idea - it looks much more 'finished' than leaving a hole. 

On 10/11/2020 at 12:04, EliasMooseblaster said:

I've not bumped up against it myself, but I did pick up a little anecdote when I was shopping around for a resonator on Denmark Street. There was a Dean in one shop which really looked the business - tri-cone, all-metal body, etc - sadly, it was about double my budget at the time! The chap in the shop told me that a guitarist had been in a few months previous and absolutely loved it, but then he said he wouldn't be allowed to use it. Apparently said guitarist played in Jools Holland's band at the time, and the word from on high was that if he wanted to play a reso on the show, it had to be a National or a Dobro. Which, if true, struck me as a bit ridiculous: the only thing which looked noticeably different about this Dean was the badge on the headstock, and would viewers really write in to complain if there were a different maker's name on the head*?

* Actually yes, yes there is probably someone sad and bored enough to write to Auntie Beeb about something so trivial...

Interesting. Can't have been a product placement issue, as though pp is legal on UK TV since 2011, the BBC are still not allowed to do it (a big push for the legalisation was to bolster dwindling advertising revenues for commercial channels, while the Beeb of  course retains a guaranteed revenue stream from "the unique way in which the BBC is funded, by you, the viewer".  Could be snobbery, could be the 'right look'.... I wonder if it's also an endorsement thing. I remember hearing tell of how BB King would politely decline when invited to autograph Fender guitars because of his endorsement deal with Gibson.  Some endorsement deals are more exclusive than others. 

Personally, I'd avoid pricey replacement pups on a cheaper guitar where it's more of a hassle to revert to standard (contrast with a stat type...). 

Guitar Fetish  - guitarfetish.com - do a nice range of fairly affordable pickups, including HB sized p90s and all sorts of oddball and Gretsch-types that might give you a different, more sc sound if you're looking for something other than typical HB mud.   They do have a bunch of wiring diagrams or suggestions, though they also sell pre-wired looms which look pretty good. Another thing they do with a bunch of their pups is a lcik-system with a smallish jack where you jut click the pups into place without soldering... not directly tried them myself but heard good things about them - a pretty cool way to chop and change at the turn of a few screws if you wanted to try out as bunch of different pups... 

A friend and I went sopping for a dirt pedal for her years ago. In the end it came down to the Coloursound fuzz, the Boss Blues Driver, and the Marshall Bluesbreaker II. All sounded good, but we agreed the best of the bunch was number 3 -which also turned out to be the cheapest. The great thing about pedals these days is that it doesn't cost much to get a pedal which is durable enough to last for awhile - around £20 now. And once it's durable, everything else is wholly subjective - from the cheapest £20 Chinese import mini-pedal to a £400 boutique, handmade job. 

This raised a chuckle from me. Years ago, I went amp shopping, asked what the Marshalls were like, and the guy in the store - trying his sales pitch - gave me a full on "Oh, you'll love this, they're great for that Guns 'n' Roses sound." He looked aghast when I said "oh, oh dear. Have you got something else, then?" Horses for courses. 

My sonic tastes have moved sharply away from Marshall in the last twenty years, but I never found their quality lacking. Main thing I'd suggest is  - if and when possible -go to a guitar store and try as many different amps as you can with *your* guitar. Some maps work great with some guitars, others less so. 

The Valvestate range are pretty good at capturing the "Marshall Sound" as far as I remember, though there are also plenty of alternatives out there, especially with modelling amps now. Buy the sound you like, though - don't fall for perceived versatility if you know for sure there's only one sound you'll ever use. Equally, the point above about 100watters is well made. Literally nobody needs 100watts nowadays. You'll only end up with an expensive looking bit of novelty furniture you can't play in the house. IMO, 5 tube watts (10-15solid state) is plenty loud enough unless you're playing with a drummer and no PA. I have one of the older Vox Valvetronix 120w models, size of an AC30, capable of 2 x 60w in stereo. I've never played it higher than the 2 x 1watt setting in the house. Big maps are overrated; in ten years time, I expect amps will start to disappear from stages, mostly replaced by preamp pedals into the House pa. Already happens more often than you'd think. 

If I was going to rewire an LP,  I'd set it up like a Gretsch, i.e. one volume for each pup, a single master tone for both, and a single master volume overall. 

As a rule, I tend to find a sweet spot with a tone pot for each guitar and leave it there; I'd much rather, one a tow vol guitar, have a third master volume so that I could find the right volume balance between the pups and then raise or lower overall volume direct from the guitar without having to go to the amp, or rebalance relative pup volumes every time. 

Not a fan of tapping pups and such - I may be a Stat fan, but there *is* such a thing as a guitar having too many options imo. Might be worth considering other options too, though- like a  HB-sized p90. A lot of folks like the combination of a p90 in the neck and a bucker in the bridge. (Personally, I'd prefer the other way around, but that's to individual taste). 

At that price, you could hardly go wrong. Probably be able to get most of your money back on ebay if you don't like it. Normally, the best way to sell second hand F types is part them out, but the HBs seem to hold a surprising amount of their new price as complete guitars on the eBay. 

Oh, very much so. Sometimes, though, you get brief trends - like the Squier Protones and some others. At some point, though, I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and  sell my Epi at market rate. That's the big drag of budget guitars - sometimes you do fall in with one that's really quite special, much better than the regular norm, but the 'brand' still limits its value. Same reason I thought Gibson made a big mistake with the Elitist / Elite series Epiphones. I'd have been willing to bet a lot more people would have bought an affordable  "MIJ Gibson" than an expensive Epiphone. 

On 19/11/2020 at 00:20, Kiwi said:

The price of Rockman X100's has exploded in recent months.  They used to be snaggable for a hundred quid but now asking prices are around £350-500.  A quick search on YouTube will reveal a slew of videos posted in the last 6 months by vloggers which will have probably been driving demand.  

Why?  

Def Leppard used them to record their Pyromania and Hysteria albums at the behest of producer Mutt Lange.  

Interestingly Mike Shipley (RIP), the engineer on those albums, has publically slated the sound quality of the units. He emphasised how much eq-ing was needed to get them to sound right. Phil Collen didn't recommend them for use live use either and this was all years ago.   But nevertheless those prices have climbed... 

... as will anything else seen as quintessentially top 40 eighties rock.  Hamer Steve Stevens signature models for example.  Prices of Fender Stratocaster Elite, Plus and The Strat models are climbing despite well documented tuning issues on the earlier versions.  

I noticed recently that my old 1994 US Standard Strat would now sell for more than I paid for it (though not necessarily adjusted for inflation). Mine's a lefty, which makes it rare for that year - also, the left handed ones never had the anniversary badging that the "normal" version shipped with. 

What are the kids playing these days? I'm totally ignorant of the mainstream now. Used to have a really good handle on it via the NME, but I quite reading that in 2007 when it had become all synth bands I'd never heard / didn't like.... they left me, I didn't leave it... I think the last number one I could honestly tell you was Christmas 2009.... 

I'm hoping in the next few years that the Korean made Epiphones become a "thing" like the ProTone Squiers. I've got a beautiful one that I'm in two minds aboyt parting with, but if it made me a decent lump of cash to pour into a new Fender or a Korean Gretsch..... 

Undoubtedly, pointy guitars are going through their "Les Pauls in the mid eighties" phase! The one part of the world that the eighties retro trend doesn't seem to have reached yet is guitars... 

23 hours ago, Matt P said:

i'm a huge fan of the Yamaha Pacifica range but your mention of Steve Vai whammy bar use would tend to sway me more to suggesting something with a floyd style trem, the vintage style ones on the pacifica (and 99% of strats) is fine for a bit of wobble or some gentle bends but for anything more a well set up floyd (or similar) will keep in tune a lot better.

there are plenty of options in your budget for a good solid superstrat, an Ibanez rg is the first one that springs to mind, then there's Jackson and Washburn a well as BC Rich if you fancy something pointier.

Superstrats were very popular in the 80's and early 90's so there are loads on the market. my first guitar was an Aria MA20 which has a floyd style trem, decent pickups and a lovely thin fast neck, i still have it and it still gets used even though i have much more expensive instruments available to me now.

 

Matt

Pointy, Floyd guitars have been out of fashion for a decade or two now, so now is a good time to be buying used ones. Eventually they *will* come back round - everything does - and value will go up. 

In truth, I've never found the need for enough whammy abuse to put a two-point Fender trem out of tune (they hold up surprisingly well), but if you don't mind taking the additional time it takes to restring (which in any case decreases with familiarity), for what it does and the extremes it allows, the Floyd Rose is not to be sniffed at. 

On 13/11/2020 at 15:17, wishface said:

What do you mean HB?

 

ezbass has it - a humbucker pickup. 

The one thing that put me off the Yamaha was always the HB in the bridge, though a HB size p90 could be nice there.... 

For something more traditionally Strat-like, I'd also look at the Squier Std, or Squier's CV range. The CVs look pricey for a Squier, but bear in mind they're aiming much higher up the tree than the standard MIMs. They're also holding use values pretty well (lefties, at least). Have a look too at JHS's Vintage Reissue and Icon series S-types. Surprisingly nice guitars, at least as good as the CV Squiers and sometimes the entry level MIM Fenders too. 

On 08/11/2020 at 19:44, ezbass said:

Hmm, interesting. New projects have certainly dictated a perusal, and often purchase, of new gear. However, these choices have rarely been dictated by genre/audience expectation, more by something I feel was missing in the gear at the time. Having said that, one band I was in was a rockabilly inspired outfit. I initially did this with a couple of PRS’s and a Tech21 Trademark 60 and then a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, which were more than adequate, but as we went along I started to look at hollowbodies and eventually ended up with a Gretsch, Bigsby equipped hollowbody and a Fender ‘59 Bassman reissue. This was not influenced by the look, but by the tone. Nothing sounded better for the music we were playing and started my love of hollowbody guitars fitted with Bigsby trems. My dream guitar would be a Gretsch 6120, but I can’t justify the cost, thus my current Epiphone, main squeeze.

I'd adore a 6120, though I will eventually settle for a 5240, the Korean--built equivalent (basically the MiM Fender Equivalent in Gretsch terms). It's interesting how Gretsches have become the quintessential rockabilly guitars, though that's really more a revivalist thing. According to everything I've read from "those who were there", Telecasters were actually much more common right at the start.... Shows how you can't beat a good Tele. Even the leads on Purple Haze were recorded on a Tele!  Which is a ways from rockabilly... 

Yeah,  inreality they're quite a lot cheaper than the Squier CVs which they at least equal.