If anything should discourage you from buying from a private party online (w/o seeing it) just take a look at tradetang.com. It's China's eBay. Scroll to guitars and then put in whatever you want: Fender, Gretsch, Parker, Gibson, whatever. I've seen so many of these guitars on eBay and Craigslist passing as the real thing. It's a pity and who's to blame? The crooks in this country buying them to rip people off; the American manufactures looking for a cheap product to put their name on and paying China to set up production; and the Chinese for thinking nothing of side stepping US company's and mark guitars "Made in USA", and giving them a fake US serial#. China is a communist country and they don't believe in patent rights or company rights. So you really can't blame them for having no problem selling a product to us and cutting out the middle man which is what more and more US company's are becoming. Should we buy a guitar for $250 directly from the Chinese or buy pretty much the same one marketed through a US company with a 4x profit margin? Those of us who are honest keep buying the legitimate article, but I'm afraid more and more of us don't.

To be honest, I'd buy one for myself. Some of those look pretty good. If I ever sold it, I'd say where I got it and what it is.

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1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

Also, some of them are a bit off. Some of the pickups are in the wrong position, and the 12th fret markers are a dead giveaway. Anyone who can't spot that shouldn't be trusted with any sum of money in the first place.

http://www.tradetang.com/for-sale/-Red- ... 31618.html

This one, the screws for the pickguard are in the wrong place and the 12th fret markers are set too far apart.

http://www.tradetang.com/for-sale/1960- ... 62595.html

This one, the round top of the body doesn't look fat enough to me, and the knobs are set crooked.

Just a couple of the obvious ones.

_________________
1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

It's sad actually. The Chinese government is putting a good percentage of all the money we send over there toward their military and guess who they see as their biggest threat...

You would have to be insane to by from them

Nonsense!

They believe in "company rights".

Don't believe me?

Take a look at the lion's share of products in a Lowe's (which should be re-named "Lowe-Mein's"). That company seems to be a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Peoples' Liberation Army.

And then there's always "Wong-Mart"......



Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

Pretty much every "American" corporation that makes retail products is in a foreign country, many in China. Maybe a tariff on goods made by "American" corporations overseas would help end it and create jobs in America. These people do not care about workers here or abroad. Their loyalty is to the bottom line. They have killed the American middle class. But let's be smart and support the 1%.

+99 (%)

Retroverbial, remember years ago when Walmart used to advertise that they buy everything they can from US manufactures, and you saw American flags all over their stores and television adds? We know the thinking behind that master plan! My wife and I were in Bentonville, Ar. (home of Walmart) a few weeks ago to see Crystal Bridges, the new premier art museum built by Sam Walton's daughter, Alice. She is one of the most wealthy women in America. Anyway, while in the town I couldn't help notice all the families from India that Walmart is bringing over to work in their headquarters. Walmart has a winning combination: cheap products from China, and labor from India. Sorry, I just can't support a company like that. The only thing American about Walmart is that the Walton's have US citizenship. I'll pay a couple pennies more to stay out of their stores.

I feel ya, but I reckon it's going to cost you more than a couple of pennies more to shop elsewhere for the same products.

+1!

Like Leo Fender, Sam was a patriot.

His heirs, unrepenitent multi-national capitalists.



Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

I'd be curious to know why all the Indians are working at headquarters.
Maybe Wall Mart is training these people so they can work at Wall Mart in India.
That's how US companies are succeeding, by taking what works here and moving it to developing countries.
Loss of domestic jobs is awful, I know what its like to be unemployed for a couple of years.
I've looked at those direct chinese guitars, may buy one yet out of curiousity more than anything but overall I'd prefer one quality brand name rather than a few cheapies. The cheapie will always be a cheapie, and worth nothing in a few years.

I had an Affinity Tele MIC and to me their nothing more than firewood. And to the people that own and like them, that`s fine with me so let`s not start any wars over Affinity`s. From my experience, anything that comes out of China is garbage. From light bulbs to guitars and everything inbetween. You buy a guitar made there and you have to start filing down frets, changing pick ups because they sound like junk, and the pup switches almost bend as you use it. By the time you make the changes you could have bought an MIM guitar with the money you spent and had a much better product. You put on a pair of socks in the morning made there, and by the time you get home you have nothing left but threads. I`d rather wait and save my money and buy a guitar MIA or MIM. Shopping for a bargain is fine, but throwing your money away on products made there makes no sense at all. Problem is, no matter what your looking for says MIC on it. All we`re doing is making their economy stronger while ours is falling apart.

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I own and have owned other MIC fender guitars. My main axes tho are 2 MIM telecaster guitars (and I just bought a MIM Hot Rod Deluxe amp to boot). I found renewed interest in Fender products thanks to very cheap MIC products that worked pretty well right out of the box (2 Fender Starcasters, a Squier Strat AND Tele, a Mustang I and III that I have been very satisfied to own) and were purchased at a time when my need was high and my income was low. They were not a bad way to start over after a cross country move in search of work. I work now and have bought higher priced and better quality Fender products. I have no regrets from any MIC purchases. I got what I paid for.

China's economy isn't all that great at this point either. They own a HUGE chunk of our debt (much of which will probably be written off as bad debt anyway). The recession we are all experiencing is worldwide. There are good things and bad things about unregulated foreign trade. Should we close ourselves off to foreign goods from emerging national economies? Probably not....Should we re-evaluate them, and maybe re-evaluate the way that we (as Americans) choose to do business and reward what amounts to Highway Robbery by a certain select few? I'm thinkin' so.

In the meantime, I got my eye on a sweet MIA Fender Thinline Telecaster....oh man...just gotta get my hands on it!