If it were me personally, I wouldnt have any issue from an ethics standpoint buying a Ric copy as long as it didn't say "Rickenbacker" on the truss rod cover. To me, it's no different that buying an SX jazz bass.
From a purely ethical standpoint I totally agree with you here.
The difference for me, however, is that you know what you are getting with an SX Jazz. An SX Jazz could probably pass for a Fender Jazz in a blindfold test. The SX Jazz is very similar to a Fender Jazz in terms of layout, fit and finish. Plus, Kurt at Rondo is a known entity; I've seen those photos of his chickens!
The Chinese Rickenbacker copies are not made especially closely to RIC specs. I've never seen one that is spot on, and most totally miss the mark. A lot of them come with that fattened up psuedo Toaster pickup in the neck, a weird single coil with chunky poles in the bridge, and a Les Paul wiring scheme. The bridges are designed so that the saddles sit where the mute compartment sits on a real Rick bridge. The bridge pickups are often too close to the bridge, as though the first copyist took measurements from a Hondo II copy from the '70s (which had the same issue). The fretboards are almost never lacquered and almost always too dark to pass for the real thing. The overall outline and appearance of these copies is close enough, but there are a number of reasons why they will never sound like real Rickenbackers.
And, to caveat, this isn't because I'm a Rick fanboy. You might think that an unlacquered neck is a better option, or that the bridge on the Chinese copies is superior to the real thing. However these are areas where the Chinese Rick copies differ from the real design more than an SX will differ from a Fender.
By applying a bit of intelligence the Chinese copyists could produce a much closer copy, tonally as well as visually. There is no secret ingredient to the Rick tone. However there is no motivation for the Chinese builders to build a closer copy, much as there is no motivation for the manufacturer of a fake Rolex to get the sweep of the second hand right. It has to look the part, from five feet away. That is it! You might receive a DHGate bass with pickups fitted that only really sense the A and D strings. 48 mm outer pole spacing sitting under 18 mm spaced strings, for example. Will the Chinese builders work tirelessly to put it right for you? Will they revise their design so that nobody else has this issue?
The Chinese builders, especially those who let you choose the colour or the TRC text under the guise of 'custom shop' building, are apparently weasels sometimes. They will lure you in by building you your dream Les Paul in your dream shade of green, with your surname on the headstock and your choice of wood for the fretboard, and all for $400. Reality hits when you might have ask for "Bound 'n' Blocked" on the TRC of your Rickenbacker copy, and it will come back with "Rickenbacker, Made in the USA" on there. Or they might get the colour wrong, or decide you really only wanted a 21 fret neck, or give you a 24 fret neck and install the bridge in the wrong place relative to the scale length. All the while they will be polite to you. The people I've heard from who have had the best results from these builders have been the guys who have had to hold their hand the entire way through the process, and send multiple photos and diagrams for everything. They've also had the courage to ask the builder to scrap half-built instruments with routes in the wrong places.
It isn't just musical instruments, or musicians, falling victim in all of this:
Fake paperwork, poor parts challenge China's aerospace boom
"Chinese suppliers to U.S. flight control systems maker Moog sold it poorly made parts, faked paperwork and outsourced work to a factory not approved by the company, according to an internal report by U.S. aviation regulators (...) 273 affected parts were installed in an unspecified number of Boeing 777 wing spoilers."
Forget flying, I'm walking there next time.
Still, last night I gigged my Chinese-built Fender Coronado II reissue bass. It is a solidly built bass with double body binding, F-hole binding, block inlays and other detailed fixtures and fittings. Fender wouldn't put their name to junk, and there is no reason why Chinese builders
can't build a proper instrument if required. It is simply that there is a chasm between licenced or ghost-built instruments and knock-offs. The quality of the former is usually higher than that of the latter. All the knock-off builders really want is your $400.
As for those avoiding propping up the Chinese economy at all, I hope you never look under the hood on your computer. Those chips were all built somewhere, and I wager it wasn't Kalamazoo.
