Time for another one?

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dogooder

dogooder

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I brought my Blue Ridge into the shop yesterday to get the buzz out of it. I also wanted to install a pickup. They told me 200 for the pickup plus labor. I told them forget it, I will just buy another used guitar with a pickup in it. I don't work on my own guitars, if I screw it up there is not recourse, if some shop does, they have to back, it up.
 
dogooder said:
I brought my Blue Ridge into the shop yesterday to get the buzz out of it. I also wanted to install a pickup. They told me 200 for the pickup plus labor. I told them forget it, I will just buy another used guitar with a pickup in it. I don't work on my own guitars, if I screw it up there is not recourse, if some shop does, they have to back, it up.
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That is the problem with buying cheap Chinese guitars. They aren’t worth doing basic repairs on them so they become disposable land fill pollution. It is worth it to buy guitars of a certain quality and price point, depending on your needs.
 
Scott Baxendale said:
That is the problem with buying cheap Chinese guitars. They aren’t worth doing basic repairs on them so they become disposable land fill pollution. It is worth it to buy guitars of a certain quality and price point, depending on your needs.
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Blueridge guitars are not cheap chinese guitars lol. They may be Chinese but they are not cheap and they sound damn good.
 
dogooder said:
Blueridge guitars are not cheap chinese guitars lol. They may be Chinese but they are not cheap and they sound damn good.
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It’s all relative. Any acoustic guitar under $3500 is cheap in my world. My base price for one of my custom guitars is $6500.

I sold Blue Ridge guitars when they first came out and the dealer cost on their D-28 style guitar was under $400. That means they were built for under $200, even if MSRP was $899.00. Chinese guitars are all cheap. That’s not always a bad thing.

As a repair shop every person that brought in a Blue Ridge for repair work, without fail, thought their guitar was a Martin killer, yet they would always balk at paying shop rate for repairs because of how little that paid for it in the first place. If the guitar is so damn good then why would the owner be too cheap to pay for proper repairs?

I never said anything about their sound. They do sound better than 70’s Gibson acoustics, but that is not really a hard achievement.
 
I wouldn't pay 3500 for a guitar ever. I have cheap 250 dollar guitars that sound as good as anything I have ever played and I have been playing for over sixty years.
 
dogooder said:
I wouldn't pay 3500 for a guitar ever. I have cheap 250 dollar guitars that sound as good as anything I have ever played and I have been playing for over sixty years.
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Many of the guitars we remanufacture sold for under $50 when they were built. After they are done they sound like vintage guitars that sell for over $10k. Price point often has little to do with quality. This guitar sold for under $30 when it was made.

 
Well, I did it; An 80s Yamaha FG-335 w/factory electronics and a hard shell case. 275.00, another "cheap" guitar.
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In between YouTube and Stew Mac video's (also on YouTube) you can easily set up and repair your own guitars. Give it a try !!!
 
Here is our latest remanufactured vintage Harmony H165. No new Martin, no matter the price will sound better than this guitar. These sold for less than $50 when new. We sell them for $1795 after they have been through our entire proprietary remanufacturing process.

 
Hard to tell from YouTube audio, but that tone reminds me of a prewar mahogany Martin I used to own. It has that crispness.
 
RFR said:
Hard to tell from YouTube audio, but that tone reminds me of a prewar mahogany Martin I used to own. It has that crispness.
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That is the goal. These compare to vintage martins for a fraction of the price.
 
Scott Baxendale said:
Here is our latest remanufactured vintage Harmony H165. No new Martin, no matter the price will sound better than this guitar. These sold for less than $50 when new. We sell them for $1795 after they have been through our entire proprietary remanufacturing process.

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I bought an old Yamaha FG-335E with factory electronics. Good enough for my sloppy playing.
 
dogooder said:
I bought an old Yamaha FG-335E with factory electronics. Good enough for my sloppy playing.
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The Yamaha FG335 is one of the best cheap guitars ever made. I sold them new in the late 70’s and we knew how good they were then. In the late 70’s these were the ‘poor man’s D-18’. Yamaha acoustic guitars have always had the best designed, best sounding, and best built low end guitars. We get requests to rebuild these all the time, and I just tell them there aren’t any mods that will drastically improve their sound, because that sound pretty good already.
 
Scott Baxendale said:
The Yamaha FG335 is one of the best cheap guitars ever made. I sold them new in the late 70’s and we knew how good they were then. In the late 70’s these were the ‘poor man’s D-18’. Yamaha acoustic guitars have always had the best designed, best sounding, and best built low end guitars. We get requests to rebuild these all the time, and I just tell them there aren’t any mods that will drastically improve their sound, because that sound pretty good already.
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I have come to trust anything with the name Yamaha on it. I have a Yamaha drum set and a Yamaha Revstar 720B and of course the 02R.
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I have an early 70's FG75, first (acoustic) guitar I learned on. That little guitar went everywhere, keg parties, camping, road trips, bedroom jams...I used to practically sleep with it. To be honest I didn't take very good care of it, it was for playing not pampering. By about the late 80's it was pretty much unplayable, it had problems, action was horrible. Mid 90's I said what the heck and got the guy at GC to see if it could be improved. About a week and less than a hundred bucks it played better than it ever had. I was amazed, and quite pleased. It's a fun little guitar, perfect size for just sitting around with guitar in hand. It doesn't project that well, but I'm kind of fine with that. Sometimes you're not looking to perform, just a little personal time. I like writing on it, trial and error, working things out without being too self conscious about foibles. I love that little guitar, of all the much more expensive and desirable instruments I own, I would give up any of them for that little probably $100 guitar when purchased new all those years ago. I kind of hinted the Strat would go to my nephew when I'm gone, he does kind of have his eye on it hard, loves the strat. Wife privately sort of begged to differ, don't go promising that to somebody. Don't get me wrong, I love the strat, a lot of history there, but told her a piece of me when I'm gone, that little Yamaha. There's a million songs in that little guitar, some it co-authored. At times it almost shows you the way. The work that was done on it roughly 30 years ago, still plays great.
 
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