Trade Tang Guitars?

[BoneNut]

With the thousands of halfway decent guitars floating around on the used market for next to nothing, why in the world would you support the Chinese black market? You could be helping some guy down the street pay his mortgage by buying his used Epi instead. {censored} Trade Tang.

Because some players just NEED the name on the headstock and that's the most important thing of all to them. That's the only reason I can think of as why these clowns are still in business.

When even "expert" here are now fooled, imagine folks outside of the community. "Look! My dad bought me a Gibson!"

[Volf]

Trade Tang guitars are inexpensive, but eventually play well. This will involve some work, but the payoff is worth it. I started buying ES-335 copies with the Gibson headstock. They were able to do custom work, so I asked for the stop tailpiece to be moved down a few inches. I was going to make a replica of the ES-347. I swapped the electronics, pickups and TP6 Tailpiece, real Grover tuners and a number of other items, installed a coil tap. Then I had to set up the guitar. These guitars need a little fret dressing, truss rod adjustments and intonation. I built about a half dozen of these and sold them as replicas for around $950 each. Everyone loved them. I eventually built one for myself. I also bought their L-4 CES and I had them build an L-5 Custom Florentine Cutaway and a black LP Custom with block new, binding and headstock binding. Once I finished correcting errors and adjustments from the factory and swapping parts, I have a really beautiful LP Custom. All of these guitars stand up to professional use. All of the parts that I pulled from all of these guitars were Epiphone, and they were shipped from the same city as Epiphone factory. Interesting coincidence. I really like these instruments. I play them all and forget the they are replicas. I find myself treating them with the same reverence as if they were authentic.

[voltyr]

I also had to make pickguards. This is a lot of work without a router. This is the part that I hated.

 

[mrbrown49]

11 hours ago, Volf said:

Trade Tang guitars are inexpensive, but eventually play well. This will involve some work, but the payoff is worth it. I started buying ES-335 copies with the Gibson headstock. They were able to do custom work, so I asked for the stop tailpiece to be moved down a few inches. I was going to make a replica of the ES-347. I swapped the electronics, pickups and TP6 Tailpiece, real Grover tuners and a number of other items, installed a coil tap. Then I had to set up the guitar. These guitars need a little fret dressing, truss rod adjustments and intonation. I built about a half dozen of these and sold them as replicas for around $950 each. Everyone loved them. I eventually built one for myself. I also bought their L-4 CES and I had them build an L-5 Custom Florentine Cutaway and a black LP Custom with block new, binding and headstock binding. Once I finished correcting errors and adjustments from the factory and swapping parts, I have a really beautiful LP Custom. All of these guitars stand up to professional use. All of the parts that I pulled from all of these guitars were Epiphone, and they were shipped from the same city as Epiphone factory. Interesting coincidence. I really like these instruments. I play them all and forget the they are replicas. I find myself treating them with the same reverence as if they were authentic.

You say replica

I hear counterfeit.

[badpenguin]

I agree with Mrbrown there. You gonna buy one for yourself, and mod the hell out of it, fine, go for it. Been tempted to do so myself with a 225 copy. But you buy, rebuild and sell? You are no better then the CL idiot selling his Les Paul: for "only" 1500 since he needs money for school.....  personally, it's guys like you that should be fined and prosecuted for counterfeit products.

[6down1togo]

This conversation never gets old:

TradeTanger (TT): Hey, look at me I have a new Gibson!

Guitar Player (GP): That's not a real Gibson.

 TT: Yes it is!

GP: If that's a Gibson, why doesn't it have a Gibson finish?

TT: It's a Gibson, it says so right here (points to headstock).

GP: Why does it sound like tin cans being dragged behind a car?

TT: It's a Gibson. Their QC is all over the place these days you know.

GP: No I don't know. It's not a Gibson.

TT: (Looks down at his shoes and ponders a pickup swap) Well, I wanted people to think I had a Gibson.

GP: Why didn't you just buy an affordable, good guitar you can enjoy playing?

TT: Well, it wouldn't say Gibson on it.

GP: OK, I get it now.

[voltyr]

If they were sold as replicas, they were replicas. I could have called them counterfeits and would have sold just as many with similar results. Bottom line, I sold them as exactly what they were, where they came from and described how I built them. I sold one to a luthier down the coast and he was delighted.

[voltyr]

The one I kept.I haven't done one of these in about 8 years. Is Trade Tang still around? Note the Flower Pot headstock inlay.

[6down1togo]

You bought counterfeits from China and added different pickups, knobs, bridge, etc. and sold them as "replicas'? It's not a replica, it's a counterfeit Gibson whatever you call it. The act of using  a licensed trademark (Gibson logo) makes it a counterfeit. Don't tell yourself it's OK. Also swapping a bunch of parts onto a Chinese counterfeit guitar is not building a guitar.  

[daddymack]

Vol-whatever your moniker is today...you are importing counterfeit guitars, and even working with the factory?

You could at least have been smart enough to ask the factory to put a different logo on what is obviously still the trademarked headstock...what you are doing, no matter how you want to look at it, is illegal. Your two monikers are now permanently banned from Harmony Central, and your monikers[with emails, etc.] are being turned over to our legal department.

[daddymack]

26 minutes ago, 6down1togo said:

You bought counterfeits from China and added different pickups, knobs, bridge, etc. and sold them as "replicas'? It's not a replica, it's a counterfeit Gibson whatever you call it. The act of using  a licensed trademark (Gibson logo) makes it a counterfeit. Don't tell yourself it's OK. Also swapping a bunch of parts onto a Chinese counterfeit guitar is not building a guitar.  

 

On 5/14/2020 at 9:43 AM, badpenguin said:

I agree with Mrbrown there. You gonna buy one for yourself, and mod the hell out of it, fine, go for it. Been tempted to do so myself with a 225 copy. But you buy, rebuild and sell? You are no better then the CL idiot selling his Les Paul: for "only" 1500 since he needs money for school.....  personally, it's guys like you that should be fined and prosecuted for counterfeit products.

 

On 5/14/2020 at 8:37 AM, mrbrown49 said:

You say replica

I hear counterfeit.

Gentlemen...please, when you see posts like this, rather than engaging these ripoff artists, please report the posts so they can be banned and reported to the authorities.