Ghost Building Video

[02R96]

I don't know how much of this guy's claims are true, but I wonder what y'all think...

 

 

[video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdkT86ZAOms

[Larryz]

I only watched 14 minutes or so, and I have no reason to doubt that the guy thinks he is putting out factual information. I would question the "made in the USA" stamps info being used on foreign made guitars with Gibson's or any other American company logo. I know Clapton's custom shop guitar is made at the Fender factory in California by the same 5 or so techs that make Clapton's guitar. Their initials are under the pick guard. The off the rack Clapton is not signed by them. Peerless makes wonderful jazz guitars and will put a name like Conti (for Robert Conti) on the headstocks and can be contracted as a ghost guitar maker...so there is some truth and fiction to wade through in his presentation IMHO.

[Guitarzan]

i didn't watch the video but i do know that Godin made necks for Kramer back in the day and they also made for other major manufacturers. i kind of like Scott Grove vids. he has a pile of guitars there and certainly has opinions.

[skipclone 1]

I knew about Fujigen, they make great guitars. He did say that one way to make sure your guitar is made like it says, is to go to Fender and get a `masterbuilt` series by the person you select-if you have the coin it`s worth it, even to get a prebuilt one. The Strat I tried was amazing.

 

But overall this info is mostly for the `buy American` person or other ideological reasons. If the label is on the guitar it`s supposed to be on then, as he said it`s not really a `fake` no matter who built it. Therefore it wouldn`t affect people like my brother, who wouldn`t think twice about flipping any guitar he plays for resale. It wouldn`t affect me since I don`t buy guitars for the label in the first place.

 

That you won`t get the same guitar that a star plays even though it looks the same, is no surprise, or shouldn`t be. Most everyone must at least suspect something like that. I think the mention near the end of ghost players, is more interesting. I mean, someone else is playing the parts while the star is on stage and unable to play, whether due to intoxication, lack of practice or whatever. That could make a good drinking game-watch concert videos and every time someone catches the star`s fingers doing a kung fu movie dubbing moment, everyone else has to drink.

[02R96]

The part I find suspect is he seems to imply that none of the big name manufacturers build their own guitars; that is, they ALL come from the three Asian companies he mentioned. Even the ones that say made in America which (I believe), would violate trade law.

[Winston Psmith]

I tried to slog my way through the whole video, but I find this guy less like Ed Roman than Mr. Haney from Green Acres. Ed, may he rest in peace, could put on a good rant; this guy can barely string together a couple of sentences, without rambling. At the very least, I wish he'd taken the time to gather his thoughts in some kind of order, the whole video might have run 8 or 10 minutes. I'll try to watch the rest of it, at some point, but for now, I give it a fail, with a small 'f'.

 

He seems to have a bunch of issues confused, or conflated, as they say in Washington. For one, there's a world of difference between custom-made, one-off guitars, like Slash's "Gibsons", or EVH's original Frankenstrat, and the lines of mass-produced Gibsons, Fenders, Epiphones, Yamahas, etc., that show up in every big-box guitar store, even the guitars that are marketed as signature artist's models. I also don't really expect that any player's personal signature guitar came from the same assembly line as one I can buy off the rack in GC, or from an assembly line, at all, in most cases.

 

Then, when he talks about Gibson not having enough skilled workers to actually build all the guitars coming out under the Gibson name, I have to wonder if he knows how much of the work is done by machines, in a 21st Century plant?

 

I also got the implication that nobody builds their own guitars anymore. As a broad assertion, I don't buy it. If nearly every guitar in the world is made by Samick, Cort and Peerless, as he suggests, we could all be saving a LOT of money, avoiding the big names. BTW, aren't those a bunch of Ibanez guitars, hanging right behind him, during this whole spiel? Just asking . . .

 

[Scott Fraser]

I tried to slog my way through the whole video, but I find this guy less like Ed Roman than Mr. Haney from Green Acres. Ed, may he rest in peace, could put on a good rant; this guy can barely string together a couple of sentences, without rambling.

 

+1. I made it to about 6 minutes.

[Guitarzan]

he does take awhile to say things but i have seen a vid where he explains he has had 2 strokes and tends to repeat himself.

[Bluesape]

I watched three different vids. He does take a long time to get his point across, and he is quite opinionated. He seems to believe in what he says, but has a rather inflated impression of his importance to the music community. But there is some good info there. His vid about tube vs SS amps is insigfhtful, if a bit needlessly long. He has toned down quite a bit since when he was booted off the LP Forum for being a megatroll - really arrogant and abusive ....with ELLIOT EASTON(!), who despite being an international celebrity, is a total gentleman, and fully approachable on that forum.

 

In all fairness, I do see a new leaf of sorts here. I feel he genuinely wants to be helpful, but needs to bone up keeping his vids interesting and more concise.

[Winston Psmith]

he does take awhile to say things but i have seen a vid where he explains he has had 2 strokes and tends to repeat himself.

 

Crap! In that case, I sincerely apologize for my remarks about his disability. Thanks, 'Zan, for straightening me out on this one. Hell, for a guy who's survived two strokes, he's pretty damned articulate. I still disagree with much of what he says, however.

[Guitarzan]

no worries, i just found a vid of his recently on modding humbuckers and he mentions it in that vid. i never knew until i seen that one vid.

i do kind of enjoy his vids, even though i usually click forward a lot to get to the punchline. i think his rants appeal to my grumpy old man inside.