MI Pro

Such is the immediacy of print that although I’ve only just seen off the remnants of the Christmas turkey, you’ll be reading this sometime in early February, well after all the new gear news has surfaced from NAMM. Great planning on my behalf – my topic was going to be what new trends we’ll see in 2008.

However, it’s easy to predict that China and the internet’s effect on conventional retailing (and just about everything else) will once again loom large in 2008. China has certainly given us plenty of discussion at Guitarist during 2007.

Obviously, an increasing number of the 600-ish pages we annually devote to new gear are now being filled with products that hail from China. Meanwhile, an increasing number of mainstream media pages are being filled with less than complimentary news stories about China’s human rights record, energy consumption, employment standards, political links with murderous dictators, less-than-green attitude, and much more.

Indeed, one of our columnists sent in his usual piece and proposed that although it’s fine to buy our microwaves, washing machines, digital cameras and iPods from China, buying a Chinese guitar was somehow wrong – emotionally and politically. Needless to say, although it sparked a heated and interesting email debate, we haven’t published it. Yet.

The discussion illustrated how we all tend to lump China and its guitars into one statement. We must, of course, stop generalising. Not all Chinese instruments are the same – far from it. But telling the good from the bad is not always easy.

A friend of mine recently bought a Chinese made, low-priced acoustic electric cutaway 12-string from a big name in Chinese manufacturing. On playing the guitar I was quite impressed. Nice finish, it played okay with a low action and sounded okay – not great – but for the sub £200 he’d paid, straight off the internet I might add, it looked like he’d done okay.

Three months on, I get a call asking me to take another look. On playing the guitar for a second time you didn’t need a degree in instrument technology to see that the strings had lifted to a height that most of us would call uncomfortable.

I checked the neck, which was admirably straight, there seemed no issues with the neck joint but I soon realised the guitar had clearly been at the pies. It had a beer gut, its belly was over-domed and the cause of the sore fingers. “I guess that’s the problem with cheap guitars,” said my friend. “No, that’s the problem with badly made guitars,” I replied.

To even the informed buyer, you just don’t always know what’s going to happen to your instrument – especially the increasing number of no-brand guitars we see on sale. In the case of my friend’s guitar I’d go as far as to say it wasn’t fit for the purpose described – you’re supposed to be able to tune up a 12-string to pitch without problems, aren’t you? Well, as my friend tries to get his money back, or a replacement, here’s one brand I won’t be rushing to review in Guitarist. Once bitten…

Despite the fact that it’s hard to look into a crystal ball in regard to how an instrument will pan out, whenever I’m asked to advise on a purchase, aside from recommending brands that I feel from experience are made properly, I’ll always suggest that potential buyers get off their butts (or get offline) and go out and play as many – especially acoustics – as they can.

A passion of mine is the nylon string guitar since popping into Ivor Mairants a couple of years back when I was thinking of buying a cheap nylon and ended up buying an expensive one instead (which was made in 1968 and still plays superbly, unlike my friend’s three month old 12-string).

So quite often when the good lady suggests a shopping trip to the West End, I nip off and continue my nylon string education by finding a quite corner in a well stocked shop where I can noodle away, looking, listening and learning about what were only months ago completely alien brands to me.

I was on one such fact-finding mission during an incredibly busy day in the West End during the post Xmas sales. I found a store that I’d not been in for a while and, as the shop was empty, hunkered down to play in the corner. I was really disappointed. Nylon guitars need fresh strings and need to be tuned.

I tried about 20, from £400-ish up to £2,200 and I experienced tuning problems, fret ends sticking out of the fingerboard, old strings and I was totally ignored, even when I left. Now admittedly I’m a bit of a scruffy git but how did the disinterested shop assistant know that I didn’t want to buy a guitar?

We’re already aware that 2008 will be a pretty grim year business-wise but in such an over-crowded (shrinking?) market, the bywords for this year – whether we’re talking about low-cost imported guitars or the retail store versus the internet – surely have to be quality, consistency and service, don’t they?