Shane_B.

I would rather drive from the southeast tip of Florida to the north west corner of Alaska to pick up a package rather than have it shipped by FedEx. I hate Fedex. Always screwed me waiting for overnight stuff for work and made me watch my brand new guitar leave my driveway in the back of their truck 3 times because they were too lazy to wait for me to ride up to them on my mower. I hate fedex. Have I mentioned I ha... oh yeah, I did twice.

I don't know, but a friend of mine said he saw a Chibson logo on one of them. Maybe they are drop shipping by drone now and that's how they are getting around the ports.

Apparently they are sending drones for them. Did you read about that? I counted 26 just tonight. Edit: Forgot to say this is a major thing here in NJ right now. Every night there's more and more drones in the sky and nobody (cough cough) knows where they are coming from.

I owned a USA Gibson Custom Black Beauty (I think their called?) and an Epi Sheraton II Made In Korea. I could never get the Custom to sound right and I eventually sold it. To someone on the old forum through a music stores online listing. The SII needed a setup so I went on their website and did the factory recommended setup to the T. It plays like a dream. My favorite acoustic in an inexpensive Fender cutaway I've had for over 30 years. I have no idea where it was made, but definitely not US. Paid $249 for it. Plays better than my Martin. Doesn't sound the same, but I don't expect it to. I also have a MIJ Tele and Strat. They were dirt cheap back in the 80's when I got them. I still have them and they still better than any US Tele or Strat I've ever tried. For me it's the feel of a guitar and how well it will set up. I really don't care what the name is or where it was made.

I love the AI videos where they do well known movies and TV shows set in the 1950's. None are the full length shows, just a few minute preview of the cast. I was reading that they had a hard time generating fingers and hands so some of the older ones look off, but in the newer ones you can't see any artifacts.

Also areas of high humidity making it difficult to breathe at times.

The people making them are not selling them as Gibson's. All of the ones I've seen pictures of have tape over the name and nowhere do they say Gibson in any of the advertisements. It's the people buying them to resell them as Gibsons that are creating a bigger problem. I'm not condoning the people making the guitars ripping off the Gibson name by any means. But in a lot of ways I think the people reselling them as real ones are worse. I really think they should just label them Chibson. I mean no disrespect by that at all. The truth is most of them are great guitars and are actually worth more than what they are asking most of the time.

The people making them aren't selling them as real Gibson's. Just lookalike's. You know that going in. Not saying it's ok, but at least they aren't trying to say they are real and asking $5,000 I guess is the point I failed to make. Lol.

They are probably made at the Epiphone factory there in Chi-nah. I don't know what to think about it. I can understand why Gibson doesn't want their name on unapproved products. And I get why it's being done. It's a lot easier to sell if it says Gibson. It's a given with them that the electronics suck and the finish isn't perfect, but that's what you expect from a $300 guitar. Only a dirtbag would try to resell it as a real Gibson. And there is the other problem. They should at least stamp them or mark them somehow so there's no doubt they are copies. That would probably take the heat off them a little.

I just want good cheap guitars. I don't care who's in charge. 😁 I'll take a 250 dollar chibson that needs a minimal setup out of the box any day over a Gibson that needs major work out of the box. I still have my 200 dollar fender acoustic. Plays better than my Martin. Not the same sound but felt great out of the box. I have to take my Martin to get adjusted and never took the time so it sits in its case.

@Amberwolf I tremble with fear every time I see a .NET update or installation happening that is mandatory for an installation. An installation screen pops up that looks I did a time warp back to Windows 3.11 and I get sick to my stomach. It happened several times during last weeks Windows update. I can't even remember the details, but I still have PTSD over something that was .NET related that messed up Sonar many years ago.

I had a similar thing happen last week. I turned my DAW on for the first time in almost 3 years about a week ago. I spent 2 full days doing updates and re-logging in to everything having to create new passwords most of the time because the ones I used for apps on my cell simply refused to work on my PC. In the end, it runs everything noticeably slower. Nvidia, my printer, steam which I used to use for 1 game, and some new AI thing Win 10 forced me to install had taken over. I got the AI thing uninstalled and that helped, but I can't figure out how to stop the other things. I had this machine running lean and mean for years. Ain't progress great.

They were waiting for me to say something first. Then it gets locked. Speaking of Temu, there are some amazing guitars on ebay in the 200-300 range. Many lefty. From what I've read and watched on youtube, some need a good setup, some come through perfect. I'm so tempted.

I love it. Can I get it lefty?

I don't believe there are 100 million users. I quote/mention this because there has to be a way, in this day and age of technology, to weed out the real users from the fake accounts and all that stuff. Anyhoo, it's sad. In this day and age of technology and communication options, you'd think the more avenues to communicate you have, the better. But I must be wrong.