Mark42
Fleet Admiral
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2003
- Messages
- 9,334
I was reading a very interesting article about major brand guitars and their China factories, and also the "copies" those same factories make and sell for much less under various brand names.
For example Fender (well known for its electric guitars) also has a line of acoustic guitars that are made in a (apparently) good Chinese factory. Those Fender acoustic guitars sell for hundreds of dollars each, and play well. The same factory makes the Martin Copy that I have. They also make similar guitars for other US retailers with a different head stock and branding.
My Martin copy guitar, is a good quality build. Spruce top, Mahogany sides and back, and Rosewood finger board, and Mahogany neck. The basics for making a good guitar. Not a high end guitar, but it does have near perfect intonation, and the best woods for the appropriate parts of the guitar. The machine heads are obviously Chinese copy of the famous "Grover" brand machine head (the part you turn to tighten the strings). They perform just as well as the Grovers I have on another guitar.
The Martin Grand Concert guitar is not grand, or good at concert playing, so the name is rather lame. Its a smaller body guitar, with a cut out so the player can get his hand up past the octave mark and play some really high notes.
So, you are asking your self at this point "what is this post all about?".
Weill I will tell you....
I read where a significant improvement in a "copy" guitar can be made by making these simple changes (which I did):
1) remove strings. Use flashlight, mirrors, etc to see inside the body of the guitar, and using medium and then finer grades of sand paper, sand ALL the braces smooth to the point of being shiny (around 220 grit). If there is glue globs, cut them off with a Xacto knife. ( my guitar had no glue globs, it was clean). So, I waited until new strings came in the mail, then when I took the strings off, I spent HOURS with my hand stuck inside the sound hole, sanding every cross brace I could see or feel. Yep, there was a lot of dust, but that is what shop vacs are for....
2) Remove the Nut and Saddle and replace with genuine BONE or CERAMIC, or dense COMPOSITE. (nut is the part at the top of the neck where the strings bend over, and the saddle is the part at the bottom where the strings go over before being pinned into the body of the guitar.).
After making these changes, I can tell you without a doubt that the base notes are much stronger and deeper, and the high notes are much brighter. The imitation elephant tusks used to make the Nut and Saddle (brand name TuSQ) made a huge difference in the sound of the guitar. Those two parts are about 5 times denser than the plastic they replaced, making the vibrations passed into the neck and the body that much stronger, and less dull.
So, although my Martin copy guitar only cost 1/3 the price of the original, and it did not sound as good as the original, it was crafted well enough to be in tune/intonation. Then replacing the cheap plastic nut and saddle with high quality (ie very dense) product made the otherwise lower quality guitar sound so much better it rivals the Martin it was copied from.
I wish I kept the article about sanding the inside of the guitar clean and smooth. I'm sure it does improve sound quality (my guess is rough edges with raised grain dissipate sound, where as smooth, sanded, hard surface braces pass vibrations to the front/side/back sides of the guitar with out any loss of signal). Just my guess.
Just wanted to share for the guitar players out there.
BTW, the nut cost about $8 and the saddle about $12. Well worth the investment.
Regards,
Mark.
For example Fender (well known for its electric guitars) also has a line of acoustic guitars that are made in a (apparently) good Chinese factory. Those Fender acoustic guitars sell for hundreds of dollars each, and play well. The same factory makes the Martin Copy that I have. They also make similar guitars for other US retailers with a different head stock and branding.
My Martin copy guitar, is a good quality build. Spruce top, Mahogany sides and back, and Rosewood finger board, and Mahogany neck. The basics for making a good guitar. Not a high end guitar, but it does have near perfect intonation, and the best woods for the appropriate parts of the guitar. The machine heads are obviously Chinese copy of the famous "Grover" brand machine head (the part you turn to tighten the strings). They perform just as well as the Grovers I have on another guitar.
The Martin Grand Concert guitar is not grand, or good at concert playing, so the name is rather lame. Its a smaller body guitar, with a cut out so the player can get his hand up past the octave mark and play some really high notes.
So, you are asking your self at this point "what is this post all about?".
Weill I will tell you....
I read where a significant improvement in a "copy" guitar can be made by making these simple changes (which I did):
1) remove strings. Use flashlight, mirrors, etc to see inside the body of the guitar, and using medium and then finer grades of sand paper, sand ALL the braces smooth to the point of being shiny (around 220 grit). If there is glue globs, cut them off with a Xacto knife. ( my guitar had no glue globs, it was clean). So, I waited until new strings came in the mail, then when I took the strings off, I spent HOURS with my hand stuck inside the sound hole, sanding every cross brace I could see or feel. Yep, there was a lot of dust, but that is what shop vacs are for....
2) Remove the Nut and Saddle and replace with genuine BONE or CERAMIC, or dense COMPOSITE. (nut is the part at the top of the neck where the strings bend over, and the saddle is the part at the bottom where the strings go over before being pinned into the body of the guitar.).
After making these changes, I can tell you without a doubt that the base notes are much stronger and deeper, and the high notes are much brighter. The imitation elephant tusks used to make the Nut and Saddle (brand name TuSQ) made a huge difference in the sound of the guitar. Those two parts are about 5 times denser than the plastic they replaced, making the vibrations passed into the neck and the body that much stronger, and less dull.
So, although my Martin copy guitar only cost 1/3 the price of the original, and it did not sound as good as the original, it was crafted well enough to be in tune/intonation. Then replacing the cheap plastic nut and saddle with high quality (ie very dense) product made the otherwise lower quality guitar sound so much better it rivals the Martin it was copied from.
I wish I kept the article about sanding the inside of the guitar clean and smooth. I'm sure it does improve sound quality (my guess is rough edges with raised grain dissipate sound, where as smooth, sanded, hard surface braces pass vibrations to the front/side/back sides of the guitar with out any loss of signal). Just my guess.
Just wanted to share for the guitar players out there.
BTW, the nut cost about $8 and the saddle about $12. Well worth the investment.
Regards,
Mark.
