Rickenfakers on a Chinese website

[mooreon131]

I've seen a few sites out there, such as: China Wholesale, Buy Wholesale Products from Chinese Wholesalers - TradeTang.com as well as
Wholesale - Buy China Wholesale Products from Chinese Wholesalers on DHgate.com
Who supposedly sell Rickenbackers. Now I'm not a moron (despite my handle), so I know that these are obviously not Rickenbackers, however, i was wondering if these are viable Rickenfakers. I've wanted a Rickenfaker for a while now, but those things are rare nowadays, adn if you finde one, its usually expensive as hell. The chinese "Ricks" are cheap, and even if they sound like garbage, I was thinking they could make nice projects. A poster named Grommit bought one late last year. He said it seemed playable, and he would post pictures, but then he went MIA. So, I was wondering if anyone has had experience with either of these sites, especially buying instruments, and what your experience was. I apologize to the mods if this is in the wrong place. Move at your discretion.

[BigOldHarry]

did you look at the Stingray 5???

How can they get away with this - this is blatant copyright infringement...

[rr5025]

Originally Posted by BigOldHarry

did you look at the Stingray 5???

How can they get away with this - this is blatant copyright infringement...

I think they use photos from ebay as their stock photos.

[marantz10]

I've seen better Rickenbacker knock off's...

There's a blue one on there that uses Jazz pickups and a Fender style bridge.

The knobs are Jazz bass style knobs

The colors are certainly not authentic... the only color that is close is the black

$5 bet the necks are glued on (and one or possibly zero truss rods)

For $300+, I wouldn't bother. It'd probably play like crap and who are you fooling anyways? If anybody knows what a Rickenbacker really is and would be impressed by you playing one on stage, that person would know you're playing a fake if you got one of those...

The only thing that looks appealing is the toaster pickup, but who knows if it even works let alone sounds like the real thing.

[arsie]

Originally Posted by mooreon131

A poster named Grommit bought one late last year. He said it seemed playable, and he would post pictures, but then he went MIA.

He might have got detained by the Rickenbacker Gestapo.

One of the glaring things about this whole situation is the lack of living witnesses. You would think "It's $350, SURELY someone has actually bought one of these things."

No one comes forwards with pictures and audio clips. Perhaps in fear of the torches and pitchforks. Perhaps in shame that they got done by an obvious con. Perhaps they are too busy playing their new found uberfaker. We will never know.

The only evidence I have of anyone surviving the ordeal is this video clip from a guitarist. You can immediately tell that he did not escape unscathed.

YouTube - ‪The Final Word On the Chinese Gibson Copies!!!!!!!For $200 or less BUY 'EM BABY!!!!‬‏

As much conclusive evidence here as a blur photograph of a bigfoot, though.

[bassingeorge]

Than fake gibsons guy is CRAZY!

Well chinese did it again....

I'm well aware of the ability of chinese factories in my other "hobbie" if I may call it that way...I can get carbon fiber mountain bike frames WAY cheaper than brand name frames. The difference, these bike frames are not copies....well most of them.

This is just...wow...unbelievable!

Quick question...are these fake too?

frmBass

[bassingeorge]

Look at this.....fake fenders....

YouTube - ‪Guitar Factory China electric & acoustic guitars manufacture‬‏

[Spike-]

Originally Posted by BigOldHarry

How can they get away with this - this is blatant copyright infringement...

China dosen't give a rats ass about U.S Copyright law.

[Gizmot]

In my experience, a fake anything doesn't satisfy me. I'd rather scrimp and save to get the real thing. As one example, you can have two arms worth of fake Rolex's that keep accurate time for less than half the price of one genuine watch.
Give me the REAL thing!
A real Rick bass is a wonderful instrument - I've owned one for 30 years.
Why screw around buying a cheap knock off and having to modify it to make it usable?

[VincentGrim]

For all you guys know, these come out of the same factory as SX stuff!
I wouldn't mind something somewhat similar to a rick to sticker up and beat to hell. I'm actually pretty tempted, but no where near $300 without a single in depth review tempted. Maybe for $150 it'd be a worthwhile experiment...One day I'll own the real thing and it will be my precious.

[electracoyote]

Chinese copies are, for me, the biggest disappointment scam rip-off know to musicians. The guitars are not anywhere close to the originals, you pay an exhorbitant shipping fee, and if you don't like it, you are stuck. You can pay another exhorbitant return shipping fee, and hope the unscrupulous builder who has no regard for copyright and trademark encroachment actually refunds your money, or you can eat it. Or you can spend another bundle trying to mod it into something that actually plays and sounds like a bass guitar. Good luck to any sucker who puts his hard-earned cash on that number and rolls the dice. He's gonna need it.

[bassingeorge]

Originally Posted by VincentGrim

For all you guys know, these come out of the same factory as SX stuff!
I wouldn't mind something somewhat similar to a rick to sticker up and beat to hell. I'm actually pretty tempted, but no where near $300 without a single in depth review tempted. Maybe for $150 it'd be a worthwhile experiment...One day I'll own the real thing and it will be my precious.

I hear you...I'm, too, tempted to try one of these things for a ride and see what their all about. Personally, I think they'll play horribly, but some of them do look quite nice.

Like this for example, **by the way, seeing the rickenfakers, and "Fenders" and Music Man copies is devestating to say the least...I in no way support this**

Never the less, this looks cool!

Wholesale new arrival 4 string ebony fingerboard bass guitar in scarw NK1 on TradeTang.com

Is it burl (like) wood???

[deste]

No way. Save your money for the real thing.
You can't expect anything from that stuff. Here in Europe shops are full or such stuff, and they sound really awful (even though sometimes they look nice, I must admit).
If you plan a project, and buying spare parts (Warmoth, Guitarfetish...) is expensive, you'd better start from something reliable (I did it on a squier CV - sometimes Chinese do nice instruments, when they want), if the neck is ok you just need to spend some money on the pups you prefer and very little money (or do iti by yourself, it's easy) to re-do the electronics. Tuscany are not so bad, even if a little too expensive IMO in Italy: built in Korea and refinished in Italy under the direction of Frudua, and the Silverado is really really beautiful, a sort of Sadowsky J.
But don't get fooled by chinese crap!

[arsie]

Originally Posted by VincentGrim

For all you guys know, these come out of the same factory as SX stuff!

You may have a point there. I guess if you bought something that is a fake of something known to be made in China (some Epiphones, etc) you can at least hope that what you are getting fell off the back of a proverbial truck.

[poorbassist15]

For under $200, I'll think about getting one, and I will be sure to do a NBD.

[AphekGreg]

I could be tempted to try one of these if they weren't outright counterfeits. As things stand, purchasing on is completely wrong. The Japanese copies never claimed to be anything but copies, even if they were in a lot of cases better. These are being passed off as the real thing, by virtue of having the US brand names and logos on them. Most of us can probably tell the difference, but a large number of people won't know.

A mate of mine had a guitar student bring in one of the Chinese 'Gibson Les Pauls' last week. He took some photos. It even had 'Made in USA' on it and the pickguard was signed by (the late) Les Paul himself! He said it was an ok instrument and he can see that less experienced buyers could easily be fooled into believing it was real.

These will potentially make the originals decrease in value, as people won't be confident they're buying the real thing. We're also going to see a generation of guys growing up thinking they've played a real Gibson/Fender/Rickenbacker etc. and maintaining they're crap, which will also hurt resale values.

Fender/Gibson/Rickenbacker are well within their rights to get customs to confiscate and destroy these. It is illegal in most countries to deal in counterfeit goods, which is exactly what these are.

[AphekGreg]

Originally Posted by VincentGrim

For all you guys know, these come out of the same factory as SX stuff!

I don't understand the 'coming out of the same factory argument'. The Japanese and Korean factories have always built instruments under many different brands and price points. The different models would be built with different quality woods, hardware and attention to detail.

It'd be like buying a small hatchback because it's built in the same factory as a muscle car. Just because the same company builds them in the one factory, doesn't make them equal.

Of course they could be equal, its just no guaranty.

[allexcosta]

Originally Posted by VincentGrim

For all you guys know, these come out of the same factory as SX stuff!

No, most of these knock-offs don't come from TeamIntlCo, but different factories in China... Hardware is the same though, made by Proline7.

[Lambic]

From one Song, supplier to Tradetang:

If you find the guitar you made in the past have damaged or abnormal local stations in time by letter to contact us, we are prepared to withdraw the products in question, or re-shipped to you or give you a refund, if Is the question of our products we will take appropriate freight.

So in what cases exactly they do a refund, maybe even with the shipping included? Please translate...

[Lambic]

Another gem by the same supplier:

The bass sound to be good, is this year\'s new guitar is also very excellent work, you can play rock music, jazz, Pop music, you can follow the band solo and ensemble can be, In stock, Most importantly, its price is very affordable

Oh, and, yes, he's talking about the

MusicMan Stingray 4 string bass White and dark red Solid body 2010 new