These guitars are to be bought ONLINE.
TOKAI? Gerco? Orville? Edwards? Eastwoods? Hagstroms?
just to name afew. Yes the retail outlets are trying to get these in Malaysia.
Easy to say but not easy to do, It's complicated in business.
So for ebay buyers, pls check the rating of your seller. Power seller? ok.
1-2 rating? stay away.
This happen to one of my student. It's a near miss. Hampir kena Con.
This guy ad a Maison Japanese guitar, a Les Paul copy(white)
claimed a vintage, wan to sell for RM900 or trade.
My student decided to trade with his Quilt Maple topped SA Ibanez.(about 1.2k RM in price with this). Almost get the deal done, he will need to travel to KL and trade. Luckily his Sifu(Me) got to know it.
Checked for him on this, saw the youtube demo, and hear this China copy LP sound (not fat/warm and it's flat all the way) and warned him about trading. Then later we checked on ebay and we found a Maison copy lespaul selling for RM590. Wat??? the same thing? he might bought it and regret having it and wanna con tarde others.... LOL
SO the moral here is, be very careful in buying online. Many faces of situations you might find. We have a few good Online sellers in Malaysia. Those you can trust cause they have been in business for some time.
Like Music Master/ Dead Eye Guitars/ and Music Star Academy(lol...self promoting)
Cheers~~!!
I bought the guitar, luckily for just RM450. I have to agree it's a bit crap in quality, but not the sound. Owh well, it came with a set of Grover Tuners and Epiphone Pickups.
ReplyDeleteWhen you say it sounds flat all the way, it's only because the fellas amp was pure crap, his playing sucks, and he's a real jackass.
But now, I spent around RM400 to upgrade everything, do proper setup, fret levelling change pickups to Tesla VR2 (I don't want to spend that much money on this thing), Installed push pull pot. And I have to tell you, it doesn't sound like crap on my Bogner. Sure it's probably made of agathis, but the tone and sustain (endless) is there. No kidding, plays much better than an Epiphone now. This one is actually made in Korea.
It also has a 50's profile neck. And I have to admit, I'm preferring the tone on this over my Ibanez RG with Dimarzio's instead.
I bought this to experiment whether I want to invest more on a Les Paul, and my outcome is unfortunately no. Hate the Les Paul scale, too small for my pudgy fingers. Very hard to play on the 15th fret and above because of the single cutaway. Don't get me wrong, the tone and looks are definitely there, but the playability is just not for me.
Would probably get a Tokai Strat in the future instead. Just love playing Strat's for clean, but need a humbucker for bridge. A HSS will do the trick just fine.
Maison also did a very faithful Strat copy and a nice superstrat (but it has a dated late 80-90's look).
DeleteThey can be had for peanuts and again handmade quality woods mean they are a great choice as a Strat copy. I'd bet you can buy a maison strat copy and update all hardware for less than a tokai model.
Superstrat had dimarzio pickups iirc and a humbucker at bridge... Maybe it would suit you :)
Delete@ariffdude: luckily you get it for Rm450 and not more. Rm 400 for upgrading it i think it's worth every sen on setting that LP up to better performance. I'll have to agree with you that there's a guitar for everyone and there's a guitar that don't suit someone. That's the best thing so we can have millions of selection...(GAS drool)lol
ReplyDeleteAnyway dude, glad you are happy with it.
Tokai strat? I'm a tele guy, i'll be looking for a Tokai Tele!!
what's wrong with Maison guitars as long as they're not the bolt ons?
ReplyDeleteMaison are not Chinese copies.
ReplyDeleteThey are Korean guitars hand made in a small workshop from late 70's to start of 90's not factory mass produced (the logo changes for a year or two after that 1992-3ish when yoojin took over and are mass produced crap).
They use quality woods. Eg my maison 335 copy is not made from laminate it has a solid ash front and rear and a solid mahogany tone block plus a set neck and unlike some other Japanese/korean 335 coppies the toneblock isn't just spaced out to meet curve of front with a chock of plywood but properly shaped.
My maison les Paul copy has a mahogany body and a mahogany neck (not cheap ass lightweight) it weighs about same as a real vintage les Paul (so more than current lightened ones).
The electrics were standard Korean as we're bridges and mechs etc (however when I changed my loom the one that came out had components of same values as a 57 loom and wired up the same way.
Even my 335 copy when new outplayed and sounded better than anything else in shop regardless of price.
With some new tuning mechs and new bridge, re-do wiring/pots and good pickups maisons are high end.
Only thing of issue here was maybe an inflated price from seller as not so many know how good maisons are.
Though I suggest calling them a cheap chinese copy scam is miles from truth and think story should be re-written to say although good guitars beware of people inflating prices over local market conditions and that applies for all makes....
Just look at price some other Korean factory models of same era are selling for in other makes and compare that to these non factory hand made, real wood items
:)
Nowt wrong with the bolt on necks they made either (surely if bolt on was an issue fenders would have been realised to be useless years ago) hahahaha.
ReplyDeleteMaison's were hand made with real woods some models had bolt on some set neck but quality was The same.
However there was a very short period when yoojin bought then over or bought name and they were mass produced like I say about 1992-3ish but iirc the script/font used for the name maison changed at that point.
Maybe the bolt on neck one you tried was a yoojin mass produced model.
The logo on these ones (notice more florishy script and it's written straight rather than angled on head) is the logo of yoojin era. These are mass produced crap. Also notice diamond design on head is diff. These if sold as priced like older maisons are defo not worth it.
ReplyDeletehttp://thumbnail.image.rakuten.co.jp/@0_mall/sakuragk/cabinet/ikou_20091026/img10074150056.jpg
Difficult to tell if yours is a yoojin logo to maison but maisons either had let's play written on head or a proper Gibson looking diamond. The M of maison had a very long tail down from middle of M where as later yoojin mass produced doesn't and like I say looked more like joined up script writing iirc.
ReplyDeleteDefo avoid yoojin ones but all others I'd happily recommend if condition is good.
Here is what I'm sure is yoojin version of logo on headstock (cheap not maison made guitar) https://reverb-res.cloudinary.com/image/upload/s--NSHOdTZG--/a_exif,c_limit,f_auto,fl_progressive,g_south,h_620,q_auto:eco,w_620/v1428195873/mlhsxfiidhsqrgznhfc6.jpg
ReplyDeleteLogo on real Korean handmade maison though tuning mechs not original. https://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTAyNFg3Njg=/z/NMMAAOSwdzVXmLXp/$_86.JPG
ReplyDeleteAnother real handmade in Korea one note again the same logo but diamond on headstock this time (there are a few diff diamond designs and inlay designs on neck) but all have the maison logo writin with extended middle tail on M https://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTAyNFg1NzY=/z/LzIAAOSwzhVWrNt1/$_86.JPG
ReplyDelete