Lol... yes. Believe it or not, it sounds absolutely amazing. Pure sonic bliss.... in disguise
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Chinese knock-off basses
- Thread starter Pete Langford
- Start date
-
- Tags
- chinese
Lol... yes. Believe it or not, it sounds absolutely amazing. Pure sonic bliss.... in disguise
The pawnshop clone I looked at was well finished paint-wise, but the frets appeared not to have been dressed at all, just hammered in, sharp ends and all. I’d expect at least a full fret level and polish required on any Chinese bass, but it depends entirely on the vendor.
That's pretty much it, some bassists may know what it is, but the pawn shop is obviously hoping to carry over the deception and make profit from it. Might see a post on TB like " NBD- wife bought me a bass for my birthday- a Chickenbacker
".
Just curious, what style bass are you talking about? If you're going to replace everything on the instrument, aren't you approaching the used U.S market for Fenders? Or at least the recent MIMs. You still might be dealing with a mediocre body and neck.
Dangerously similar to The Mothman. Handle with care!
mine are chinese brands, but i get your point and i think your assessment is valid.
why is this a 'bad thing'?
my experience with the two instruments i own (chinese made, chinese branded) = the hardware/electronics was not crap, but rather: cheap, but functional. i elected to replace the hardware ("none more black"). i replaced the pu's on one of them in order to 'try out' a cheap american made set of PJ's. for both instruments: the cost of hardware/electronics replacement was, in fact, more than the instruments themselves. my net: two instruments, both better than they came, both cheaper than any not made in china. whats' not to like?
a lot of you are substituting emotionally-based, knee-jerk responses for critical thinking. your loss?
Nonexistent, at best!
My point was that trying to suss out a 56 channel console mainframe and power supplies (plural) with sketchy technical data, due to bad, or inventive, tranlations is, shall we say.............an amusing endeavor!
We would reread it several times, curse, and wonder aloud "why didn't they just hire a bi-lingual person to proofread the manuals?"
There were many examples of this, from multiple companies, back in the day. Some more notorious than others, and still a good conversation starter in engineer circles.
Long story shortened... I'm a huge Misfits fan, and since they're a Jersey band, we have a lot of mutual friends. The guitarist and bass player are brothers and their father owns a machine shop in North jersey, which they both grew up working in...
So, they started building their own instruments at a very young age, and then decided to have them mass produced at one point. October/ Oktober Guitars out of Maryland was contracted for the task, and the owner is also a friend of mine.
So, I got the prototype. This was built in China, had a straight cut fret board, and said "October" on the head stock. All of the following had slash cut fret boards, were made in Indonesia, and had "Oktober" on the head stock. It says "Doyle" on the fret board 12 marker, for Doyle of the Misfits.
Oktober got sued out of business by Gibson... but heir instruments were exceptional... American or otherwise.
I know that this bass looks killer, but it's far beyond that... It's a tone machine. Neck through mahogany... it's the biggest bass by far that I own, yet it weighs nothing at all. Far less than a P bass.
When you hear this thing, everyone in the room just stops what they're doing and looks in amazement. I doubt it was designed that way, but that's how it came out!
I've never bought a cheap Chinese bass - counterfeit or not. I have nothing against them, but I see them more as a platform to modify or experiment on. The only issue I have is when someone tries to make a counterfeit seem like the real deal. Put a Babicz bridge and a set of PJ pups on Rickenbacker knock off? I don't know why you'd want to do that, but fine. You're not fooling anyone
I'm really not interested in the ethics discussion. I will say I've never seen the ethics brigade jump out in force when you see a warmoth P bass on here with a Fender logo on it. I find it absolutely absurd that this community will praise SX basses as quality, yet automatically assume that other instruments made at the same price point are automatically bad.
I have a chinese knock-off and it's real counterpart. I've had a Gibson LP Standard that I've had for a long time now, and about 5 years ago I bought a Chibson LP Custom with a hardcase for $300.
The Chibson holds up just fine. The fretwork feels good, and it's fairly level with no noticeable sharp edges. The hardware is fine. In fact, the Chibson's tuners are a hell of a lot better than the garbage Gibson kluson style on my LP Standard. The bridge on Gibson guitars is a complete joke anyway. The main thing that I noticed right away were the weaker electronics, but still fully functional. I swapped the bridge pickup, didn't even bother with anything else. It plays and sounds great. The point is, not all Chinese knock-offs are poorly made.
I'm not attempting to fool anyone. I just don't like doing guitar flips with my Gibson, so I got a Chibson.
I have a chinese knock-off and it's real counterpart. I've had a Gibson LP Standard that I've had for a long time now, and about 5 years ago I bought a Chibson LP Custom with a hardcase for $300.
The Chibson holds up just fine. The fretwork feels good, and it's fairly level with no noticeable sharp edges. The hardware is fine. In fact, the Chibson's tuners are a hell of a lot better than the garbage Gibson kluson style on my LP Standard. The bridge on Gibson guitars is a complete joke anyway. The main thing that I noticed right away were the weaker electronics, but still fully functional. I swapped the bridge pickup, didn't even bother with anything else. It plays and sounds great. The point is, not all Chinese knock-offs are poorly made.
I'm not attempting to fool anyone. I just don't like doing guitar flips with my Gibson, so I got a Chibson.
Um, to make it play and sound better?
buldog5151bass
Kibble, milkbones, and P Basses. And redheads.
Warmoth and other parts are legal - Fender did not protect its trademarks. Any business owner has a duty to do that. Moreover, those are licensed by Fender, which means Fender is getting paid. It is not the same.
My 2 cents is you get what you pay for. China manufactures for some brand names now, so I wouldn't say anything against the craftsmanship number 1
but, the manufactures that are sending over copies branded with the name of the original manufactures is a problem. I don't really care if some big brand name company loss some $ over this, I care if some not so honest person buys it from them and sellers it to some unsuspecting consumer as the real deal. And yeah bla, bla bla the bridge isn't the same thickness or the fret markers should go to the bottom of the neck, is known mostly by people who own the real deal, not the poor buyer who gets to read the sob story from some POS how he has to sell his favorite Ritter Cora Bass and he paid 10m for it new, but he is selling it for 8m because he is losing his house or whatever. Sorry that may have been a little more than to 2 cents
but, the manufactures that are sending over copies branded with the name of the original manufactures is a problem. I don't really care if some big brand name company loss some $ over this, I care if some not so honest person buys it from them and sellers it to some unsuspecting consumer as the real deal. And yeah bla, bla bla the bridge isn't the same thickness or the fret markers should go to the bottom of the neck, is known mostly by people who own the real deal, not the poor buyer who gets to read the sob story from some POS how he has to sell his favorite Ritter Cora Bass and he paid 10m for it new, but he is selling it for 8m because he is losing his house or whatever. Sorry that may have been a little more than to 2 cents
In my eyes it would be a little more acceptable if these copies were sold without any company logo on the headstock.
It crosses that fine line between a replica and a counterfeit once a fake logo of the brand is put on there. This is how they're sold on DH Gate. It's obviously meant to deceive if not you, the buyer then perhaps the next person who may buy the bass at a pawn shop.
We often praise those who make a kit bass that looks authentic to the real thing, heck we buy off market parts to make our basses resemble vintage ones. The bassist can do whatever they want to with their bass once they buy it, put headstock stickers if they're so inclined, they bought it, scratch off Squier and put on a Fender water decal, hey whatever floats your boat, it is your bass, no argument from me there at all- you are the end user....as long as it ends there. It is when it is put on the consumer market misrepresenting the true origins of the bass is when that line is crossed. DH Gate and Alibaba does it off the bat and really doesn't give you much choice in the matter, you get a bass that is instantly a counterfeit (instead of a replica) in the eyes of the law.
It crosses that fine line between a replica and a counterfeit once a fake logo of the brand is put on there. This is how they're sold on DH Gate. It's obviously meant to deceive if not you, the buyer then perhaps the next person who may buy the bass at a pawn shop.
We often praise those who make a kit bass that looks authentic to the real thing, heck we buy off market parts to make our basses resemble vintage ones. The bassist can do whatever they want to with their bass once they buy it, put headstock stickers if they're so inclined, they bought it, scratch off Squier and put on a Fender water decal, hey whatever floats your boat, it is your bass, no argument from me there at all- you are the end user....as long as it ends there. It is when it is put on the consumer market misrepresenting the true origins of the bass is when that line is crossed. DH Gate and Alibaba does it off the bat and really doesn't give you much choice in the matter, you get a bass that is instantly a counterfeit (instead of a replica) in the eyes of the law.
Last edited:
- Aug 21, 2003
- 11,617
- 18,683
- Disclosures
- A-Designs Mike Lull GK Tsunami Cables GHS Strings RMI Basswitch Nordstrand Pickups Darkglass
I was hesitate to even reply to this thread for this reason lol
I will just say this, on my very personal experience and to be fair I won't debate it and get into...I will just share my personal opinion.
To be honest I actually like the glossed necks on VM Squier bass then I do on a MIA and MIM (Yes I really said that) and the soft maple body feels like Northern Ash to me, I like that as well.
I wanted to see how far I could take a couple of them and it worked great.
It wss more for fun, but I totally worked with these basses in a professional manner with some instruments like this (in the past). I have a 74 J bass, but to be honest I really-really not a fan of MIA or MIM basses. If I needed a 4 string (5 is not even an option really, that is a whole nuuuuthheer story with me) gave me a stock MIA MIM Fender, I would sell it in a heartbeat and build a Warmoth (99% chance anyways).
Its all good...
Last edited:
Agreed. I have four custom USA G&L's and four Fender USA Precision's. If I liked a Chinese bass, I'd buy it. I also have two SVT stacks and a Mesa stack, and when I find a Chinese Acoustic B200H, I'm going to buy it because they sound awesome and cost $18!
As for the ethics thing... yeah I get being defensive about counterfeits and copies, but Fender and Gibson have no problem WHATSOEVER passing crap off to us, under the guise that "it's genuine". So I'm not losing sleep about it.
There are only a few guitar manufacturers in Asia, and almost everything comes from them, so what's the diff?
Heck... Dee Dee Ramone is as American as you get... the iconic inspiration for all modern hard rock alt and punk... and Fender Honored him by making a nice Squire. To me, that's counterfeiting at its finest.
I told Fender that a local place was manufacturing counterfeits, and they could've cared less.
It's wood, wire, and solder... not much mystery left to it.
The actual cost of fakes to major guitar makers in the form of lost business is debatable, the reality of scammers trying to pass the Chinese counterfeits off as real is not, recent thread where some scumbag was trying to sell a blatantly fake Steinberger M4 as genuine for $700, about twice what it's worth on Aliexpress. I was fooled myself until I looked at it on a bigger screen, Luckily the TB'er thought it looked a little fishy and asked:
Steinberger Bass M series(help)
Steinberger Bass M series(help)
Here’s another one, this one less convincing, but somebody still tried to sell it to a TB’er:
Steinberger Club
Steinberger Club
