One more slight issue to deal with. The headstock lacquer peeled straight off when I removed the tuners. The tuners were fitted while it was still curing. This isn't too big an issue as the lacquer hadn't bonded with the wood underneath anyway.
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NBD - Chinese "Dan Armstrong Ampeg" counterfeit.
- Thread starter Axstar
- Start date
PaulCISSA
Unsweetened, highly-caffeinated
I actually find it quite amusing when considering the original post. It’s a documentary into how bad a China knock-off can really be. It seems logical to post those findings as they appear.
Maybe I’m just easily amused but it’s just entertainment to me at this point. I’m enjoying it as it seems many others are as well.
I'm actually interested in the quality of the body. That's the unobtanium part.
I dunno why anyone would waste money buying a Chinese knock off. My front man had been eyeing chibson acoustics for a couple years. Didn’t wanna fork the money over for a real Gibson Hummingbird (even though he has it). He finally bought one of the Chinese copies a few months ago and he regrets it. It looks good from far. But, once you get it in your hands, you quickly realize it’s no Gibson. The craftsmanship is terrible.
I'm doing absolutely nothing of the sort, so I suggest you re-read my posts. I've freely documented my personal experiences with this bass in an informative but purposefully dispassionate manner. I've provided detailed photographs to quantify my findings, because I've never seen anybody else do this with a Chinese counterfeit instrument. Don't take it from me that the components are cheap, look at my photograph of the components (etc).
What are you contributing to this thread, beyond demonstrating that you have limited comprehension skills?
Really good, actually. If you don't mind the 5-hole Fender-style bridge mounting and MM pickup route, which are changes to the Dan Armstrong design, then the quality of the body is fine. There is machining marks in the neck, pickup and control routes, but this is the same on the original DA basses. I'm in the process of wet sanding the marks out of the control cavity with good success so far. I might do the same for the neck pocket.
I don't consider it a waste of money. I can recover a usable instrument from this thing. I will have to be a bit patient and a bit inventive, but I've enjoyed the gamble and the chance to think of some solutions to the issues I've discovered so far.
Some times a £250 bass that doesn't require a single tweak or adjustment is just a bit boring and a bit safe.
However a Chibson Hummingbird is another matter. If that instrument arrives with a warped top, or in need of a neck reset, loose bracing (etc) then you would need to pay serious luthier bucks on an instrument that isn't worth the time or grief. Your singer can do better!
if the body is half-decent (and looks cool), i wonder if you could find a replacement neck of better quality that would fit the pocket...
a 32" Warmoth 2x2 would seem ideal, if it fitted.
a 32" Warmoth 2x2 would seem ideal, if it fitted.
That Chinese company could likely make a fortune selling lucite replacement bodies that fit standard necks (like Fender/Warmoth).
PaulCISSA
Unsweetened, highly-caffeinated
I don't find this to be complaining at all; it was ordered knowing there would be issues, and they're being described--not complained of--for the benefit of anyone else that might want to know what to expect. It's also interesting to see the differences from a genuine DA which, while good quality and innovative in its own right, still had its own issues (extremely limited adjustability of bridge, fragile pickguard (necessitating Fender washers under the output jack), fragile rubber coating on pickups, etc.).
Posting a pic of questionable charges and values on a public forum for all to see is bad enough. Captioning the pics with the "I sure hope I don't into trouble for this..." doesn't help. Hopefully the Customs agents in your area don't play bass. It's like Austin Powers: "Yeah, it really is my bag, baby." going through Customs. Maybe if anyone in authority sees this they'll think it's so obviously wrong that it must be a joke, hence no one will believe the declaration is authentic. Tried not to be long winded and failed again. Sorry.
I didn't caption the pics with anything of the sort, and if I 'get in trouble' then so be it. I'm explicitly documenting the process of importing a fairly grey-market musical instrument from China to the UK, with a breakdown of costs, additional charges and the quality of the instrument received. This is simply to inform people considering doing the same. This was an experiment on my behalf; nothing more than that. I see people discuss Chinese instruments in terms of the quality of the electronics, or the sting of additional charges, but it is difficult to find any of this information in one place.
If HR Revenues and Customs (the 'Customs agents in my area', I guess) decide they are owed more money then so be it. That will be part of the process. I doubt they have the time, skills or resources or legal teeth to comb through a niche non-UK forum and to then match my China Post tracking number back to my Parcel Force UK tracking number, to get an extra £20 out of me. HMRC have the ability to check any and all goods imported into this country, and they can come up with their own evaluation of the goods that way. Their time is probably taken up more at looking for weapons, drugs, goods made from banned animal products, etc. I've seen a few documentaries on these guys. In one case somebody was importing a shipment of Ugg-style boots. The boots were marked as not containing any animal products, but testing revealed that the 'fake fur' had come from farmed cats or dogs. Yikes!
Heh. Lucite Steinberger clone. What will those whacky Aliexpress tricksters come up with next?
Online Shop 4 Strings headless Bass Bady transparent lucite glass Electric Bass Guitar | Aliexpress Mobile
Online Shop 4 Strings headless Bass Bady transparent lucite glass Electric Bass Guitar | Aliexpress Mobile
And this one actually would look pretty nice if you ditched the crappy pups, hardware, and electronics. “Look” being the operant word of course. You wouldn’t really know what you had until it showed up on your doorstep, returning one of these basses after the fact is apparently nearly impossible.
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