That China Stuff…

*February 6, 2023

I’m going to be honest, I don’t know how this article is going to go..there is a lot I can say about this topic – from personal experience, reading reviews and being in different industries and there will be a good possibility that I will jump here and there writing this one out. I’ll try my best to keep this guitar related but I will examples of things which won’t be.

I’m going to start off with saying that stuff from China is hit or miss…it really depends on that manufacturers quality control …if they even have one. Maybe it’s low standards, but that could be any manufacturer in the world.

When I was in the car scene, we used to have this saying about car parts, “cheap, fast, reliable: pick two”. I think that is with anything these days even but it seems like everybody is trying to make a quick buck no matter how they do it.

The big issue is that China is manufacturing stuff not caring for copyright or patents and ….anything else. They make fake rice which is selling as real rice or back a few years ago CITES raised red flags over Indian Rosewood. One of those reasons was because China was producing fake Indian Rosewood.

Legit Stuff

Before I go and knock a ton of stuff, I do want to say that there are some legit stuff out there. An example is Joyo: they make guitar amps, pedals and probably, some other things. I actually owned a Joyo Bantamp Zombie 2 head (Mesa Boogie copy) and the matching cabinet – and I will say, it’s a decent head for the price. It sounds great, came with a switch pedal and was very easy to dial in settings. After having this for a short time, I purchased a Mesa Boogie Mark V 25 head and I can tell you that I’m still trying to dial in settings.

There are a few other brand names that seem to have a decent reputation such as MusicLily and Donner. I’m sure there are more out there but trying out products are the way to know first hand because reviews are sometimes questionable as well.

Same thing, different brand

One thing you will see probably anywhere is lots of the same stuff but just from a different brand. There are a lot of items out there with this case scenario…like I said, everybody trying to make a quick buck. I guess this would be no surprise as about 90% of car oil filters are made at the same place. It’s just the labelling that is different and probably the price too.

I remember back at the end of 1999, I went back to Hong Kong and went to an electronics store. I overheard a sales conversation where somebody bought a DVD or VCD player and the question that was asked by the sales representative was “What brand do you want it to be?”. The player was unbranded and they just put on a sticker/decal on of whatever brand you wanted.

Made in China

Wilkinson is a newer hardware brand (to me) – I didn’t even hear about the brand back when I started playing guitar in 2001. I did a little research into this one and found out that Gotoh is behind their parts manufacturing. BUT – huge BUT, the products are made in China and not in Japan like Gotoh hardware. From reviews, Wilkinson products are very hit or miss. I’ve read reviews about tuning machines not having the hole for the string to go through even drilled out. Even with that, if you ever had that issue with a new product regardless of brand, you can simply return it for a replacement.

Years ago, I purchased a Behringer acoustic amp – made in China (of course). It’s actually really decent and for a great price (it was about $100). I only jumped on it for the price since I’m not a big acoustic guitar player and I preferred to go with something that was cheaper. I know another guitar player that says the Behringer stuff is decent stuff for the price. And this was only back in 2018.

So again, it’s a matter of quality control on things.

There are a ton of finished guitars appearing on Amazon and those that don’t really know anything about guitars think they are great. Those that do, know that they need a little work.

From experience and verified by Jeremy Hamm when was at one of his courses: Even a brand new guitar, right out of the box would need a setup and quite possibly a fret leveling.

Knock Offs

There will be a lot of knock offs in the market. Some sellers will state that their items are knocks off with “KO” in the title or description. Some won’t, so it would be a matter of somebody that actually knows what to look for and purchasing the item to find out.

When I see a description that claims that the item is “original” on AliExpress, I seriously question it because I know they will even go so far as to copy packaging to make products seem legit. Usually there may be a word or two misspelled.

Guitar strings is something I see a lot of people purchasing on AliExpress – especially “Elixirs”. You can get a pack of “Elixirs” for as cheap as $3 and change. Despite the typo on the package (read from reviews), a lot people believe they are legit. One reviewer even claiming that he put the strings under a microscope to confirm that they are actually coated. Sure, they can be coated…but with what?

I remember seeing one seller showing that the Elixirs had a holographic sticker on it to show legitimacy. As far as I remember, Elixirs don’t have a holographic sticker on the package. I guess I will have to check.

“Ernie Balls” strings are also a popular item on AliExpress.

Guitar Parts

I do check and purchase stuff from AliExpress, Ebay and Amazon and I will say to NEVER, EVER BUY clothes from AliExpress – that stuff is just terrible in quality. And, NO, I don’t purchase fake items to sell as legitimate products. I would purchase some guitar parts or even tools to test out. And some things are pretty decent, especially when you pay A LOT less for the item.

Again, with the whole China making anything and everything – I purchased a couple fake EMG humbucker sets for $30 or something like that. These were purchased for the kit guitars and I’ve tried one set. It’s not bad for the price and the reviews said the same thing – not that I know what EMG 85/61s are supposed to sound like. Jason came over one time and tried that particular guitar out, he said they weren’t bad for what they were.

After looking around a lot, I have found that it’s possible to make a guitar from a bunch of premade parts for cheap. The cost would be significantly cheaper but the only thing that would set you back is the quality.

I purchased some premade bridges and a neck to use as reference pieces. The neck seems decent and is semi finished. It would just need a final shaping, sanding and finishing.

The classical bridges on the other hand, are not useable if you wanted to put it on a guitar. Most of the holes where the strings go through were not drilled in the correct spots: some holes being too low but most of them being too high. I am not sure what they are doing wrong but it is not good for the purchaser. Besides being visually bad, I would guess the holes that were drilled too high would eventually pull right out of the wood because of the lack of material.

I have purchased tonewoods from AliExpress and honestly, they are pretty good quality stuff. The thing that really kills it is the shipping and taxes. At that point, some tonewoods is still worth it; others..not really worth it at all. Tonewoods can be worth it if bought in a larger quantity but you always need to do your price shopping. Especially for Amazon.

What are you looking at?

Another thing I’ve noticed of the Chinese sellers is that they will post stock photos of a product, post pictures of *what may seem to be a legitimate product or they couldn’t be bothered to take actual pictures of the product itself so it will be photo chopped in whether it’s clothing, tools or whatnot. This is only for some products, I don’t search for that much stuff out there so this is just from my general browsing.

To go along with the ones with the stock photos, they most likely have copied and pasted the information – whether it is legit or not to the actual product is beyond me. Some other items will have information that just doesn’t make any sense or may be very vague or have contradictory information in the title and/or description.

I have also found that some items won’t have dimensions of the product: in some cases, that’s very important to what you are buying.

You will see multiples of the same item for sale by different sellers for different prices but all with the same pictures and information. With all of it being the same, there is really no way to compare one to the other seller.

In the first case of having pictures of legitimate items – maybe some Japanese brand models or toys, maybe some guitars by big named companies – these would usually be obvious when people posts reviews and pictures: the quality simply won’t be there compared to the legitimate item. Some just look like a they weren’t even trying.

There will also be a ton of fake feedbacks for sellers in AliExpress. A typical method of fake accounts giving 5 star feedback to the seller but no review. I’m sure it’s not only on AliExpress but it’s a way to try to get trust going. I understand why but I don’t agree with it.

The second case of photo chopped items is pretty sad if you ask me. How hard can it be to set up a tent or wear a head band? This scenario makes me question the actual product right off the bat. It’s even worse when they enlarge the item to ridiculous proportions: selling a small flash light and photo chopping it to make it look like the size of a telescope in somebody’s arms.

Another scenario would be fake stuff….hard drives that actually say it’s X capacity when you check it on computer but can’t actually store a 1/4 of the stated capacity. Gizmos that supposedly do something but are just two wires to light up an LED inside a plastic case.

One thing that I seriously can’t figure out is a ton of people buying those bogus products that are supposed to help your fuel economy for your vehicle but have been proven to be just gimmicks.

By that time, they already have your money. Even if you wanted to send something back to China, it would cost you more money than you probably paid for the item including shipping.

There will be few sellers that actually post pictures of the actual product they are selling. The example I can give here is an Ernie Ball Music Man guitar: it looks like a Music Man guitar unless you know what you are looking for besides the fact that it’s a tenth or less of the price of a real one. Visually, it looks pretty good but that’s all I can really say about. I don’t know how it really plays or even sounds.

There are a lot of things for sale out there: some are going to be better than others but it’s all a big gamble.