Heads Up

[Blake Noble]

FYI, this ad banner I found is considered illegal.

[ocnblu]

[Drew Dowdell]

just keep clicking them... it costs them money

[Blake Noble]

S'pose I should explain.

To make a long story short, there was a big bunch of hoopla from CBS-Fender and Norlin-Gibson in the 1970s about rip-off guitars from Japan where just about every detail of their instruments were copied. Well, the end result from those lawsuits prevented anyone else but Fender and Gibson to use their headstock designs and make it hard for them to copy body designs and sell/distribute those copied products here.

What the folks in the ad are trying to sell you are fake Fenders and Gibsons, made in the Chinese plants that produce Epiphones and Squiers, which are illegal to buy and sell in the U.S. as a result of the '70s lawsuits against the Japanese builders.

For the record, the cheapest actual Gibson guitar is the Melody Maker which stickers in at almost $500 bucks. It is U.S. made. The cheapest Fender is a Standard Strat and those haven't sold at a price under $400 for quite some time now and even still those Fenders are made in Mexico.

[Drew Dowdell]

Cool history. But click on the ad anyway... it transfers money from Tradetang.com to CheersandGears.com

[daves87rs]

Everything is made in China....

[FAPTurbo]

This reminds me. I have a $100 coupon for Google AdSense that I got for shopping at an online retailer. Does C&G have an AdSense account? Because I have no use for the promotion code, and it expires on the 14th.

I'm not sure if it can be used by anyone else, but I'll happily give it to C&G so you guys can try it, and see if you can advertise this place.

[Satty]

[Camino LS6]

S'pose I should explain.

To make a long story short, there was a big bunch of hoopla from CBS-Fender and Norlin-Gibson in the 1970s about rip-off guitars from Japan where just about every detail of their instruments were copied. Well, the end result from those lawsuits prevented anyone else but Fender and Gibson to use their headstock designs and make it hard for them to copy body designs and sell/distribute those copied products here.

What the folks in the ad are trying to sell you are fake Fenders and Gibsons, made in the Chinese plants that produce Epiphones and Squiers, which are illegal to buy and sell in the U.S. as a result of the '70s lawsuits against the Japanese builders.

For the record, the cheapest actual Gibson guitar is the Melody Maker which stickers in at almost $500 bucks. It is U.S. made. The cheapest Fender is a Standard Strat and those haven't sold at a price under $400 for quite some time now and even still those Fenders are made in Mexico.

China is so slimy about this sort of thing.

It's disgusting.

[Intrepidation]

Since we're n the topic of Chinese made stuff. I was bored and was reading the label of a box of Florda's Natural fruit snacks. Says on the front in big letter "MADE WITH US GROWN FRUIT".

The on the back it says "Made in China"

Now, we have to put up with a lot of Chinese made crap but food shouldn't be one of them.

[Blake Noble]

China is so slimy about this sort of thing.

It's disgusting.

FMIC and GGC should seriously contemplate terminating their current contracts with Chinese builders. The Chinese are starting to bite them in the ass the same way the Koreans did with building and passing off fake high-dollar instruments.

Fender has a plant in Mexico that could build their budget minded guitars (in fact, they used to do that in the '90s) and Gibson should follow suit and move Epiphone production closer to home with either a new Mexican or Canadian plant. It's been proven people would pay well into mid-range Fender and low-range Gibson prices for these guitars, so why not? Plus, I don't forsee prices of some models actually increasing all that much over current prices.

It's a no-brainer. In fact, I would rather see production of a lot of Made In China junk be moved to either Canada or Mexico. Again, prices wouldn't jump exponentially.

Of course, FMIC and GGC have held contracts with the Asian builders ever since they won those string of lawsuits in the '70s and early '80s, in an effort to keep foreign competition down and give budget-minded players an inexpensive new guitar. It worked at first and was a very smart move. Today, though, with the Chinese builders acting the way they are, it's something that can't be ignored.

And the Chinese not only fake guitars, they fake other high-demand goods as well (for example, anything fashion-related) and try to pass them off as legitimate.

Edited June 6, 2010 by whiteknight

[Blake Noble]

wat