Zuwei HSH Strat - Is this THE WORST GUITAR I've ever been sent? - Why would a brand even send this?
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- Опубліковано 30 лис 2021
- Here's the link but I don't recommend buying one: amzn.to/3d8ipGP
Months back Zuwei sent me this guitar, It took me awhile to get to it but I'm sure they are wishing I never did at this point. I honestly can't figure out why a brand would even send a guitar with this many issues out to a demo channel. Someone make it make sense.
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Has Zuwei USA deleted all their comments?
looks like a few are missing, notably the one I had pinned, I'm seeing some replies from him are still up though.
At last!
idk, that souded way to childish, i can't belive that happend, it was probablly the owner's kid or something
@@60CycleHumcast what happen? Is zuwei company commenting on this video?
Unpin comment 🤬
All kidding aside, every issue can easily be fixed by throwing the guitar away and buying a different brand. ;-)
That’s the best option, get yourself a Squire or Epiphone !
This can be said about so many things nowadays... Since the times chinese manufacturing was involved in almost everything the quality dropped drammatically so down that many people (me among them) prefer to buy old used stuff instead of new faulty ones...
@@gillian67ec yes it’s very true, we live in a throw away society, people don’t have things repaired but replaced.
The quality and longevity is just not there, it’s cheaply made in China and has a one year warranty.
Since the lock down , I’ve bought some HiFi equipment, amp, turntable,cassette deck and started to enjoy my vinyl records. I purchased the equipment used from eBay and most of it was manufactured in 1970s 80s and 90s , and it’s still in good working condition.
That comment is everything thats wrong with our new disposable world
@Steven Clarke ...hi fi ...thank God I kept my old Technics of 1991 I bought with my father... when something stop working properly I find a replacement, same model, on ebay... I don't want to talk about digital reflex cameras, after a couple of Nikon (I say NIKON!) faulty after the warranty period ended I went back to analog and my old mechanical FM2... What really surprise me is that nobody started proposing a brand pushing real quality instead of price... I would buy quality stuff, I have money to spend.
This guitar company would rather complain about how long it took to get the guitar reviewed, than to actually address why the quality sucked so bad. Tells you a lot about the company.
Yeah, I didn’t get their point there, either. And they were emphatic about it, making statements like “these guys” can’t wait to open new guitars…they don’t wait three months, they don’t even wait three days. Pathetic reaction to an honest review about a POS guitar.
@@bldallas That's someone who has a hard time recognizing which person is being desperate. I wish public posts were handled more like what they do in the news. When news channels have to redact something, they still keep it available, along with an explanation of why it is edited.
The only thing more shameful than how this company handled a justifiably bad review, is the fact that this guitar was reviewed at all. It’s a cheap Chinese knock-off guitar. The fact that it wound up being a piece of junk is hardly newsworthy. In fact, had it been a well-made guitar, with quality parts…..then THAT would’ve been at least interesting. Here’s the problem….had this guy absolutely loved this guitar, the chances of someone else getting one that’s a piece of junk are very high. Which is why there are other reviews of guitars by this company that are good. Guitars at this price level have no QC. That’s why they’re at that price in the first place. You can only go so low on “the shelf” before a review is all but moot. If people are hell-bent on spending THAT little money on a guitar, then he would’ve been better off reviewing a Yamaha Pacifica. Something very cheap, that has proven over decades that their quality is exceptional for the price, with pro components. *People are more attracted to the fact that this review is negative (in a lot of ways), than any useful information about a piece of junk. *Which seems to be this guy’s MO, for some strange reason.*. That said, that’s what the internet is now. Kudos to this dude for figuring out that the internet/social media is about hate. He knew all he had to to was put something negative, or even hateful in a titled, and all the losers (who like to call themselves musicians), that bond over mutually hating something/someone would all flock to the titled, allowing him to rack up a bunch of views, and maybe pick up some subscribers. Losers with too much time on their hands would rather click on something spiteful (regardless of what it is, or why), than something truly helpful. *It’s not even about the guitar at this point, it’s about a bunch of idiots bonding over a mutual hatred for something (or someone).*. And, yes, a LOT of comments on this video were deleted for all the reasons I just mentioned.
@@phillamoore157 why is this comment so long?
@@snakeplissken44 ....because I can type 60wpm. Not a good combination on a site like UA-cam. I forgot I even left this comment...
The nut slot gap is unforgivable. The nut slot is so fn important for tuning and intonation and that's not a cheap fix. Buying budget guitars comes with low expectations. But you expect the bones to be there. Crappy electronics hardware and finish blemishes are fine at this price. But this instrument was fundamentally built wrong.
How is the nutslot not a cheap fix. A Tusq nut is 10 bucks
@@jpmillman1the nut isn't the problem. Its the slot the nut sits in. when you fill in the missing wood you need to make sure everything is square and the correct distance for scale length. I wouldn't do it my self, I would pay for it to be done properly.
*it wouldn't be cheap to pay a professional luthier to fix
@@taylorbarrow453 exactly and minus a set up, its not worth buying cheap guitars with major problems because you could easily spend a third the cost of the guitar if not more
@@SlowerIsFaster139 Unless you're an amateur luthier, and are willing to do all that. Then it's perfect
I found a used Yamaha Pacifica for $49 at a Salvation Army store that is 1000% a much nicer and playably decent guitar than that by miles.
I have a Pacifica and it's just as good as my Mexi strat and gets played almost as much as my American.
Solid guitars been gigging with my 180 dollar Pacifica for a while now no issues
Yamaha does not mess around.
But I am disturbed by beggars who boast of strangers antiquities. My opinion on the affordable price of the Salvation Army.
It's because the low after sale value of Yamaha guitars have less to do with their quality and more to do with their brand appeal. They are generally good quality guitars but due to lack of advertising and lack of good endorsement, they have poor resale value.
great meeting you last night. and while I'm not a guitar/music guy, I hit the subscribe button...mutual respect!
Hi Sam! I am a musician and I love your show.
Taught me a thing or to about cooking!
Well this is an interesting intersection of two of my hobbies 😂
@@joshuahenry7482 Josh Henry?!?
@@samthecookingguy That would be me.
Haha I love your show Sam. So funny to see that UA-camrs….are watching UA-cam…as well
“I don’t want to commit a
fresh set of strings to this“
That. Says. It. A L L!!
He doesn't have to, strings were provided.
@@grantkoeller8911 I think I’d be suspicious of the strings they sent
@@grantkoeller8911 yeah -CRAP ONES!!
@@markpetten9777 😂
@@BeesWaxMinder yes, they were probably crappy off brand strings.
It would probably be a good starter guitar... for someone who wants to be a guitar tech.
Boom!
I would never subject a tech to this crap. Maybe as a two-fold test: Worth salvaging? Can you salvage it?
But never as their first project. Found an old series 10 for a project that I'm going to teach a fellow musician about about restoration on because the neck is solid, but JFC this wouldn't even be a wall-hanger near the bench.
Very well said. The problem is that based on the title, that wasn't the intention of the review. All this guy did was capitalize on the hate that fuels the internet, looking for a cheap view count. He had enough common sense to know that had the title said "$300 Chinese knock-off is the worse piece of junk I've ever played!" No one would've clicked on it, other than people that are dying for an opportunity to hate something. The rest of us simply say...."What exactly did you expect?"....and went about our day. *A $300 guitar is a piece of junk, until it's not. For that matter, a $300 guitar that's built well, plays well, sounds good, with quality parts would be a video VERY worth clicking on.* But, yes it can be a good learning tool under certain circumstances.
And Chazzy McAngrypants misses the point of the comment completely. Woosh, strike 3.
😂
Given the other issues with it, I wouldn't be surprised to discover the neck isn't actually roasted at all, just dyed darker.
That would explain the darker tone of the wood on the back of the headstock. It's as if they've added too much stain back there. That, or the neck was once all that colour and they sanded the neck back to give it that satin feel, hence it lightened colour of the stain?
I had one and the neck was roasted... you could smell it... like burned toast... ha ha ... no kidding!
It's definitely roasted, but they probably stained it too, you're right about that
I bought a propane welding burner. Half of my necks are pitch black now. Scorched. And yes, sometimes they bend too far. Steaming, applying a heavy weight, but sometimes I can't fix them. Too bad, it's not million dollar guitars. This neck finish gets me moist or drought resistant necks, that feel very good. Of course you can slightly roast a neck that way as well. DO it, if you dare, don't just bla bla bla about it. Just leave perfect and expensive guitars alone, please. When you got a guitar from hell, however, you can have it a try, and stubbornly fix all the errors one by one and usually you end up with an okay guitar. Being a Dutch guy, I'd never buy a better bridge, new pickups, new tuners and a metal or bone nut, if the neck was not good. You'd buy almost ALL parts new, so have good wood parts. You can always buy a more expensive guitar that is okay from scratch. However, buying this thing secondhand or with a huge discount, maybe upgrading everything is a good idea. Depends on what guitar you want. The moment you fully understand how to setup a guitar, you will see the quality and problems of a certain guitar. Beginners need a good teacher telling them these things. Some are lucky and buy a good guitar, they can play the rest of their life. Chances are, your personal preferences have you buying a very different type of guitar. Watch out selling or giving away your old guitar. You might regret it, maybe for those fantastic pickups you never recognised. Huh, P90's? It happens.
Have fun tinkering cheap guitars. It is really worth while. Even if you just bought a crap guitar, there are options.
So what? That means you got a neck that does not like tropical weather or an absolute lack of moist. Keep it at home in a room that is somewhere in between. Duh.
The pure honesty is refreshing. I guess the roughest part for me is that for around the same price you could get something like a low-end Squier or Yamaha that will be leagues better out of the box. Really, if you're in the market for a beginners guitar you should be buying in person if possible, to avoid trash like this.
...and if you're a beginner (or buying for a beginner) PLEASE bring an experienced player along with you to the store.
Heck if you're starting out on a Squier or Yamaha, you're doing GREAT and won't have any of those problems. Later on, a shitty guitar will be very jarring to you.
Yeah, tbh even low end squiers are risky purchasing online. I’m still dealing with a headache Jaguar, just wanna get rid of the thing two-three years later now. Just buy in person. Really.
@@dom-ru5cc Yeah man I had some problems with my Squier J bass that I shouldn't have had if I was actually there to play it. You're right.
One of the smartest comments on here. The idea of wasting your time talking about all the Chinese junk NOT to buy could be potentially endless....especially at that price range. Yamaha Pacifica's are the best value on the market without question. And, if money is THAT tight.....a USED Yamaha Pacifica. But, it's become profitable, and emotionally satisfying to hate things today.
It’s good to see an honest opinion of a guitar that has some flaws without obnoxiously bashing the product. Great job!!!!
I feel so sorry for people that start out with a guitar like this. They get so frustrated witht the retuning alone that they quit, thinking all guitars are like this.
Very true
My first guitar was a weird used franken-Dean Cadillac sold out of the back of someone's truck for under $100 and it was truly awful. I almost decided that learning and playing guitar was not worth it and nearly gave up, but I got a decent $300 CAD Squire fat strat for my 15th birthday and it changed everything. An infinitely better instrument that inspired me to keep playing into my 30s.
If you are just starting out on guitar, stick to entry to mid-level guitars by known brands like Fender Squire and Epiphone and you'll have something that's a legit instrument. Prepare to spend about ~$500 CAD including tax.
@@RabidChasebot -- I bought my first electric at a pawn shop for $20 US. The rest of the story can be garbered from that price, lol.
Touching the strings felt like your entire body had licked a 9-volt battery. I stripped, sanded, and repainted it, put new strings on it, and sold it back to the guy for $50. I think I put around $7 back into it. Ahh, the '80s.
@@swervature Agreed, I did the same thing with a Cheap £70 Strat copy was awful returned it gave up, got a Squier Affinity 6 months later and was like a complete different level
@@RabidChasebot Dude I have one! I got the black with sparkly silver pickguard, those things are beasts.
Great job being honest. You are doing what a reviewer should do. This is obviously a piece of junk and at $229 in this day and age they can't even hide behind the decent for such a low price ploy! JUNK.pure and simple.
You know what though , you can buy a decent Ibanez for that price. One of my first guitars was a $200 Ibanez GRX70 that i still have and plays great. The only thing i did was put some SD Invaders in the bridge , i kept the neck pickups because i liked the clean tone they have. I had absolutely no QC issues at all , even the intonation was spot on. Iv'e got 15 guitars and some high end one's but i still play the GRX because i love the feel of the neck and it plays like butter....
I always wonder why companies that make crappy stuff want to keep sending things to an honest youtuber. 🤔
@@Rarebirdeffects Because China wants them to lie about their shitty products!
I know, but do they not research who they send too? Haha
@@Pj32Sr They make great quality guitars in all price ranges IMO.
I always find it weird when a company puts attention to details like the jack on the back and recessing the covers, but skip the really important things like gluing the nut on straight.
The jack and the recessed covers are direct ripoffs of the Charvel roasted maple DK. This is nothing but a Chinatown knockoff of the Charvel
Its quicker and cheaper win to cut recesses and route a jack than it is to give the attention that a nut requires to have a guitar play well.
@@anthonycampbell7187 not true at all
No, you're not being unfair. It's a $140 project guitar. Needs Quality strings, New nut, New bridge, New tuners and then MAYBE it would tune properly and SOUND properly. You were totally fair. Merry Christmas.
you were probably typing so long you ran out of energy to mention it desperately needs new pickups, those pickups were unlistenable after a fairly short time. I genuinely had to skip through the video to bits where he wasn't playing.
@@-processdrone- Haha! Too true! But to be fair I did say MAYBE, lol Yeah, it probably needs those too. Like some kind of cross between P-90s and Humbuckers, strange.
well i would say its not a mod guitar.... the gap in the nut may be from the wood shrinking. (just a guess) it was sitting in that box for months curing with that silica gel in that air tight thing... if he leaves it out maybe it will get moist again (over dried wood cracks and leaves gaps)
lol if you want a mod guitar buy a good kit and let it sit for a year in your local climate. but i love the idea of a cheapo guitar being a kickass sleeper guitar thinking of buying an import prs Mira one day to mod the 2010s have a cool routing for mods its a large route under the pickguard
lol i got wooshed
@@Bob-Whiting Yes but it is unfair as it is not sold as a project guitar. You can get a better guitar to start your project within the same budget,
@ uh oh, I passionately disagree with someone on the internet , oh the humanity!
You've heard of "while my guitar gently weeps", this is "while my guitar laughs like Fran Drescher"
I don't know about anybody else but Ryan is my favorite antidepressant. No matter what kind of a mood I'm in he can always give me a chuckle. No unpleasant side effects either...
Thanks for staying honest to us, Ryan. This is the sort of guitars only possible in the age of the Internet - got a catchy feature that passes as premium by those who know little about the subject, a bunch of "smart" design choices that aren't original nor hard to accomplish with off-the-shelf parts and quick CNC design changes and some bright colors that'll make the whole thing look nice on the stock photos. The consumer just puts the money upfront and the hassle to sort out these mishaps afterwards is too much of a PITA for the average consumer. Now, at least, those who make the quickest search about this instrument before purchasing will get an honest view on a dishonest product.
I bought that orange 1 a month ago and I had the same problem with the nut slot being too wide for the nut and I thought it was just mine but I see it's a common manufacturing problem. I shimmed mine to make it work. The tuners needed to be replaced and I had to rework that bridge system to bring it up out of that recessed cavity to be able to get the whole thing to level out properly to make it playable. And I had to change the all the pickups as well. For the price of the guitar here in Canada which cost me $382 it really should have been better. I have a three-part video series on my channel covering it
That nut issue is a send back to wherever it came from & not even reconsider that decision upon the realization of regretting the purchase decision. The one they sent, if you bought that one with your hard earned, consider it as the gamble, a bet you lost but can still get your money back on, but now you're in RMA hell. The pickup wiring exposure is another red flag. Taking a budget Tremolo bridge and trying to make it a chrome Floyd Rose knockoff & that would have me very disappointed that I even unboxed it with all the issues. Sending it back, the next one better be perfect if they could fast talk you into giving them a 2nd chance to send something that poorly constructed. But I'd really be after a full refund that was as immediate as the commitment to order & pay for it. I was almost that way with the Monoprice Retro Classic Telecaster I bought. That one was reduced from the $ 99.99 MSRP too. That's the only reason I kept that one for a polyurethane blemish. The rest of it was pretty good for $ 75. The issue with these types of guitars, most of them are student level instruments and for those that wash out of the lessons program at that. So these guitars are either going to be for the quitters or they're going to play until one of the strings break and then sit in the closet, until Mom lists it on Facebook Marketplace. For that purpose a sub $ 100 guitar is affordable for the parent that wanted to give their ungifted musically child a moment of opportunity to have what it takes to be gifted musically. This guitar is 2.5X what a Monoprice Retro Classic Telecaster is. If anyone had $ 239 for this guitar, it goes without saying that a pre-owned Squier Bullet or Affinity is light years ahead of this instrument. You can imagine a new one at the local music store or even one of the usual online retailers that is really Guitar Center is a far better purchase. Anyway, I'm going to go watch the 3 part series on your channel though, just to see if your' Zuwei was any better ?
After watching the 3 part series, for the money, you had to do entirely way too much for even a $ 99 guitar. I can tell that you enjoy modding them, a complete tear down and redo of a $ 239 US guitar like that is just not worth the aggravation to swap pickups, nut repair, tuner upgrade, tremolo block string hole deburring & whatever else to end up with nearly a $ 500 Canadian instrument. My take on a $ 99 US guitar, maybe a truss rod tweak for relief preference and after that it should be saddle height action adjustment for action preference and play it. Maybe I would wax a microphonic pickup, but if the pickups aren't even decent for ceramics, that would need to be shipped back. Ceramics aren't bad pickups per se and accepting that they're never going to be Alnico is accepting that fact and moving on with life with ceramics. Final verdict, go buy a Schecter or Ibanez.
Wow, at least you got some content out of it, I never would put that work into a junk guitar.
@@jimcamp2423
Hey Jim, thanks for checking out my experience. I wanted the guitar because it was orange. Encountered way more issues than expected, but by the time each one surfaced I was unable to return it after the teardown started. Anyway, it is a disappointment in Zuwei's design and quality for the money. Now I know that mine was not a one off of issues. I had to do more work than expected, and that's happened on other brands as well. It tests my ability to overcome issues with limited resources. So far I've been able to do it with all I've bought. I poster the Ibanez GRGA120 experience after the Zuwei. I didn't change the pups in it yet but considering it for later. It had some of common issues I see on many brands. It cost me $350 here in Canada 🇨🇦. Before I order these guitars I have a plan in my head of what I'll make of it. It's one of my retirement hobbies.
@@fernalicious
Kris, yes it turned out to be way more than expected and it annoyed me to find so many issues with it but it challenged my mind to find ways to overcome them. It's a retirement hobby. Thanks for watching and checking in with me. I appreciate your support
I appreciate Squire more now. When a kid gets a Squire, they may learn to play and enjoy guitar.
Ryan looks earnestly into the camera and says "The tuners feel *bad*" 😂😂😂
Seems like you can get a harley benton of a similar configuration for the same money and it will be....better.
@@Sean_Plays_Guitar HB is much better. I once had one 15 years ago. Withstood playing for 7 years, Trussrod's suffering was interrupted :-))
Ryan I thought you gave this guitar a very fair and honest review as you always do with the humour you always bring to any review you do whether it’s good or bad.
I used to be a product buyer for a large UK Electronics distribution company, we exported electronics, musical instruments, gear etc all over the world.
We imported 95% of products from the Far-East and branded them under our own product brands. Over the years I have been sent so many samples of instruments especially guitars from the far-east and I usually got sent the set of guitar strings with the guitar as you did, I used to buy a pack of 6 electric guitar strings for about U$0.90 when I bought thousands of packs. I have been sent samples of telecaster and Stratocaster guitars that cost around U$27.00
Believe me they were like playing a guitar with a cheese wire cutter!!! The action was hilarious out of the box, the strings sat probably about 1cm away from the fretboard at the 12th fret!!! They were so unplayable you had know chance of being able to push the strings against the fretboard with your fingers, you would have struggled even standing on the strings with your feet getting them to touch the fretboard, the frets weren’t filed and were as sharp as a knife all up and down the neck, and never stayed in tune!! The were dangerous as fuck to be honest. It was actually unbelievable that these manufacturers could send you a sample so badly manufactured and so incredibly cheap that they actually hoped to get orders from me for thousands of guitars. In my experience I reckon I could have got a far-eastern guitar manufacturer to send a similar guitar that you received for around U$40
And yep they sounded worse than the one you got. Nothing surprises me anymore with how poor quality and how cheap some far-eastern companies think it is acceptable to manufacture and send to customers companies.
You could have totally ripped this guitar to shreds in your review but I think you were pretty fair with what you said. There’s no way this guitar is worth U$240!!!!! Or even half that.
Reviews like this absolutely have value. Techs, and literally anyone who touches a guitar learn what to look for. Manufacturers (hopefully) learn what does not work. Pop art people have things to turn into clocks or slap a brewery sticker on it and hang it in a bar. And all your behind-the-scenes information for content creators that you mention is valuable.
It’s the beard man, they fear the beard. 🤭
Your honesty is always refreshing. It’s why I subscribed to your channel. Thanks again for what you do!
There are decent asthetic design elements to this guitar, but with the poor QC there's no way this guitar is worth more than $75!
Its a straight rip off of the Charvel DK24 and DK22 series. So if you like those design elements, but want a higher quality there's a guitar for you! hahah
My 160€ Harley Benton strat is leagues better than this
This is something I find incredibly irritating and absolutely annoying in the musical instrument industry today.
A company that is selling a guitar under $300, could and should be doing a much better job, and the excuse of material cost is no longer a valid "get of jail card" answer. There are many companies both big and small that produce some truly amazing guitars in the under $300 range. Hell, there are a few make some truly underrated and decent guitars in the under $200 range.
What I hate about companies that are pushing out quantity versus quality is how this is absolutely hurting the music industry by giving new players a bad taste of shitty instruments, because new players don't always know whats good or bad, and that is leaving them frustrated and some to the point where they walk away from playing.
In a world where Harley Benton, jet and others make great budget guitars there's really no excuse for stuff like this
I’ve bought several of the $70 new, no name eBay guitars and they didn’t have these issues.
Loved the video, thank you for the valuable insights!
I appreciate you being honest about it. I can see how it wouldn't be fun for you to be in that position but I'm glad you are willing to tell it how it is.
I checked out their website. Amazing that even the guitars they picked to show on their website have obvious manufacturing flaws.
Only a few frets that needed fixing on mine.
@@ryferguson9733even if they just needed filed i think thats pretty bad. you can cut the shit out of yourself on one of those and most beginners wouldnt even be aware of that possibility
i think its crazy to leave sharp jagged metal on a consumer product youre meant to run your hands up and down
New subscriber. This video randomly showed up on my feed and I really enjoyed it. Hoping this video does great things for you! Can't wait to peruse through your videos!
No one likes to be the bearer of bad news. Thanks for being honest with us viewers. Merry Christmas!
(and keep up your great work)
You did that well, good job. I had an issue with another YT guy trashing a Glarry because he clearly had a beef with the treatment he perceived he had had from the company and was using his YT _power_ to hit at them, he made that very clear (even though the guitar actually was poor). Not everyone who criticizes a reviewer is "trolling".
It could be that glarry sucks
@@Ottophil Not read my comment have you.
Actually, I am glad Zuwei sent you this as it was, because Regular Joe/Jane guitar buyer would most likely get what you got: a guitarish object, kind of pretty and shiny, but not very good for actually playing. I have owned about 25 guitars in my lengthy life, some rather expensive and some comically cheap, so I am no snob. Better stuff is available at this price point.
The other problem, of course: if you are relatively new to playing, getting something like this will frustrate you( "Why can't I tune this?" )....you won't know how to improve it, and may well just throw up your hands and guit guitar altogether. I stopped playing guitar 3 times when I was a kid, and only stuck with it or 45+ years after the 4th guitar I bought was actually playable.
PS: you new players: find a friend who actually plays guitar and have that person help you find a playable used guitar: as common as grains of sand, particularly in the used market. If you find a player, buy it...you'll be glad and can proceed with the lifelong battle to get better while having a blast while doing so.
Thanks, Mr. Hum.
Ryan, as usual, I really appreciate your reviews. Thank you so much. I was considering one of these as a telecaster with a humbucker humbucker and an imitation bigsby, scratch that one now off my list
Thank for being so honest. Appreciated
Man there are some really great guitars out there for 200 bucks these days. Some damn decent for 100. They are out of their mind for 240
Any mid 90s Peavey beats the crud out of this thing
For the asking price on amazon ($206-233) I can pick up a Harley Benton Fusion III for $285, CST-24 (PRS 22/24 knock off) for $184-217 or a fender strat copy from $139-180.
So i got a lot of choices in terms of finishes, colours and body styles that i can choose and spend my money on and each guitar has its own price range. To say that i am spoilt for choice is an absolute understatement. Maybe some cheap HB guitars might have some QC issues because they are bottom barrel cheap but a lot of their guitars polish up really well after a little fret dressing and setting up.
You really get a lot of guitar for your money with HB and they are so well built that even the budget guitars i mentioned provide a great platform to be upgraded and modified to play and sound like a $1000 guitar on the cheap.
I agree HB €200+ are pretty decent for their price. You can also get Yamaha, Squier or Ibanez for the same amount, with plenty of mods available later on.
Never give up. I get real mileage out of your reviews. I use your commentary style to deal with juniors at work. You are my reservoir of satire😁
Thanks for an honest and fair review. Everyone else has said everything I would have said. I hope they seriously look at their product and do some improvements. Would hate to have a kid get one of these guitars and decide to not play because it's a bad guitar. :-(
I've had issues with Zuwei and Starshine guitars too. They are not all this bad - it's the usual case of not having any quality control. They look good - some nice veneers and finishes - but I've come across some of the same issues you mention in this video PLUS neck/fret issues. To be fair, I've also set up a couple that were really decent - but not quite good enough to keep. Some of your issues are normal (cheap tuners and hardware, poor nut slots, buzzing, bad action, etc.) but there is no real excuse for a wrongly routed nut channel - that is particularly bad.
LOL...Actually, there is a very good excuse for a wrongly routed nut channel.....and every other poor quality component on this *$300 guitar.* Let me ask you this... Had the title said $300 Chinese knock-off piece of junk is the worse guitar ever sent to me!".....would you have clicked on this video? Would you have found that interesting in some way? The question isn't whether or not Chinese companies are capable of making a decent $300 guitar (or anything else). They're out there, if you want to spend your time and money looking to find one. But, 75% of the time, even if you do find one, I guarantee you you'll find 100 others that someone else bought that are junk, because of the bad (or non-existent) QC. That's why they're $300. If you're in the music retail industry, do you have signs in your store stating "Do NOT buy this guitar...It's VERY, VERY bad.....It's ....INEXCUSABLE!"??? Of course not! Your time is spent talking about the ones they SHOULD buy. This guy was called out on that very issue, and he had the comments deleted....which tells you something about his credibility in-and-of itself. He can post a negative review, but he can't take one....yet wants his opinions to be taken seriously? *A $300 guitar is junk, until it's NOT junk.....that's the lesson here kids.*
@Chaz Randazzo We didn't delete any comments, I actually have to go through and manually approve all your comments because they keep getting caught as spam by youtube. The previously pinned comment thread was deleted by its author.
EDIT: It actually looks like the commenter that started that thread (@Fusion 72 ) might have deleted their account? or many blocked this channel? all his comments are missing though.
@@chazrandazzo2145 Holy shit dude! Do you work for the manufacturer or something?
@@chazrandazzo2145 you have the dumb
I'm pretty certain this guitar is based on Charvel's Pro-Mod DK24 - roasted maple neck, 24 frets, has the input jack in the same place, and even has the recessed strat-style trem bridge.
F##kin corner shop charvel
Absolutely
I agree. I have the charvel. It's alot better.
Yeah have that exact charvel and that's an awesome guitar. This, not so much....
@@Boldylock same here lmao
Thanks For This Honest Review RYAN!!
Good review. I love the honest review, and honest comments. And I've read most of the comments below. I totally get what you are saying, and what everyone else is saying. And it is a shame that Zuwei decides to send junk like this out. A shame for them, and that's not a good business model for sure! Now... all that said, I also get another side of this. $230 bucks is still a budget axe. Still as cheap as almost anything out there not named Monoprice, IYV, Grote, and a few others. A Squier Bullet is $200 bucks now - more with certain Special Edition models. The bullets are pretty solid guitars. But with all this in mind.... you get a $230 axe, and if you're like Mike (or me).... sometimes it's worth it, so long as you get something you can work with. Ie... The neck and body. LOL It's all about the neck. And the body. If those 2 things are screwed up, then there's nothing you can do - but to replace the neck all together (I did that with an IYV). But you can tear out all the hardware if you like doing that type of stuff... and you can get pretty cheap hardware. And you can spread the cost out. Like Mike said.... you don't see a lot of orange guitars out there. And some of us love doing these mod jobs, and having cool mod platforms like this one. So..... it all depends on your situation.
The competition for budget guitars is so tight these days, you really have to step it up. The consumer won't accept shoddy quality on a sub £200 guitar, because they don't have to now. It's refreshing to hear honest views on a product as well, as many buying this may be new to the guitar world and might accept this as the benchmark or baseline for what a guitar should be.
The thing is that guitars that used to cost 300, now cost 600, and guitars that now cost 300 are shit.
FYI, that design/placement of the pickup magnet is typical of a Filtertron. That said, the size of the bobbins doesn't match what a filtertron should be (they should be taller and skinnier), so I think the combination of bad pickup wire choice and that design just produces a crappy sound.
Also: Roasted maple necks are pretty much just stuck in an oven to roast them.
Yeah no... Much more to it than that
This video and the honesty shown has a new subscriber now. As for the guitar..if it looks like shite, if it smells like shite then it's shite, never back of from telling it as it is..respect.
Great video. must have been a rough one because I've seen you review a lot of budget gear that rocks.
I had a weird “sitar” kind of noise on a cheap guitar that I bought new to mess around with, and when I changed the strings to good quality ones the noise went away, almost. I reckon most of it was the wound strings windings being loose around the string core, together with a badly slotted nut that ran parallel to the string, i.e. no proper breakover to the tuners. Basically I wasted my money, lesson learned.
It's usually the springs in the trem cavity ringing sympathetically. My Aria strat copy had that until I packed some foam between the springs.
It looks really cool, but yeah I would be doing A LOT of changes with it. Starting with locking tuners and different/better trem block
The blue model,had a great review, thing is I like orange and HSS do not want an HH.
Carnival prize,absolute savage review I love it 🤣🤣🤣 you should play to backing tracks on your demos man
When I lived in Brazil I visited a guitar " factory " that made stuff like that. It was a large garage full of old wood working machines. In one corner would be someone hammering in frets in the other someone spraying on a finish. That guitar looks like it is meant to meet a price point in the local market. Amazon has allowed companies like that to reach the world. In the country where they were built they can compete but not here . Good review . In a moment of weakness I bought a guitar like that off ebay for $70 . I cleaned up the frets and realized it was a lost cause and it took me forever to sell.
Speaking as a Brazilian, our instruments (apart from Tagima's high end stuff) SUCK. They're only popular because you can get them for like 300 reais (50 USD) while squier/Yamaha instruments cost like 2K at best. I hate that we don't have more quality manufacturers in our country and hate that imported musical equipment is taxed to oblivion. :(
@@MrPedromuriel Why not spend your extra time for a couple of years learning about CNC and the basics of guitar building - if most others are making crap and imported budget guitars are overpriced, it should not be too difficult to compete?
@@meadish Because a CNC costs s lot
@@MrPedromuriel My friend Wanger worked for Tagima his guitars were nice. I should have asked him for a Tagima tour when I was down there. He did not work at the factory I visited.
@@meadish 3D machines? Import tax.
CNC machine from another country that isn't a member of Mercosur? That's additional tariffs on top of current import tax.
Basic tools to build your own CNC or milling machine? That's also taxed. Like badly.
Reasons why you still see Brazil being this ass backwards of a middle class economy, it's because nobody is in the middle class. What qualifies as middle class here barely meets the lower income brackets of other OECD nations simply because their government hates importing non-agricultural produces, soybeans is gold beans, while pursuing things that improve your life, "I would see you die before you can even leave your favelas," one would expect a Brazilian say that. They can't have middle income lifestyles, they don't allow their citizens to cross the income divide.
thebrazilbusiness.com/reflection/why-are-the-taxes-in-brazil-so-high
The silicon packs are actually safe to eat because they are made out of sand. The reason why they say do not eat isn't because it's poisonous, it's because it's a choking hazard.
As someone who tried to eat one , they immediately all stick to the moisture in your mouth. You aren’t swallowing them unless you put it inside a pill or do the whole packet
YUMMMM!
It’s an indictment of modern society that y’all are actually arguing whether or not a desiccant pack is safe to eat. FFS.
Silica Gel differs somewhat from silicon being rather more porous, which is how it takes in moisture. It’s not something you’d want to have in your body, and is not comparable to eating sand.
@@corneliuscrewe677 no, i did this 25 years ago. Modern society eats tide pods.
Oh, man! I stay away for a month, and I find Grizzly Adams has taken over your channel!
Epic beard, Chris. You look like a Viking.
interesting review. The output jack placement by the brand was a great idea. Would love to see this compared to a Squier or similar guitar. You can get a used Squier for a good price and it would probably sound better
the body shape, layout, and yes, the output jack placement, are all copied almost 1:1 from charvel
26:29 From what you're saying in this video I wouldn't even spend $150 on it. I bought an Ibanez Gio series for $150 to keep as an extra practice guitar at my work office. The frets were a little rough, but that was my only complaint for the price. It was definitely a worthy entry-level guitar.
The Ibanez Gio lineup really isn't bad. I bought one recently, I've honestly preferred this thing to some of the guitars I've played that costed twice as much. They are really not bad for budget guitars.
The roast on the neck was applied by brush.
What’s sad is that an unknowing parent will end up buying one of these over something like a $110 Glarry, or Rondo SX thinking they are getting twice the guitar…when in reality, the glarry or Rondo is twice the guitar this one is, at half the price.
Besides the fact that I don't need another guitar, I like this guitar, some of the features were cool. But after seeing his review, i would replace the tuners, the bridge and the pickups and probably fix the nut issue, but overall, i liked it. I appreciate his honesty with the review, because if i wanted to, i could buy one knowing full well what i should expect to upgrade. I would rather know, than be blindsided and just get mad about it.
The review was fair, and he pointed out problems by close up pics and sound. It's a cheap guitar, and like most of them the can be tweaked and upgraded.
Jimi Hendrix needed guitars like this whenever he felt like destroying one...instead of a Fender Stratocaster.
Surfboard resin actually makes a pretty good guitar finish. That u/v cured solarez stuff works pretty good, although its tricky to work with.
That sitar tone is coming from that wonky nut, man.
Totally respect your honesty. It's one reason of many why I watch.
I never watch your videos sometimes I do but this seems very interesting and that is why I clicked today and why I hit like you should not do things based off of money do things that seem good for the channel in the long run. Most interesting vid I've seen from you
in the long run I need to pay my bills or I wont be able to make any videos. Thank you for clicking like and watching this video even though you never watch my videos except for when sometimes you do when they seem interesting.
I can see one issue straight away when you held it sideways the neck break angle is towards the bridge rather than away so it looks like the strings are pulling on it causing a v to form on the profile that is reeaaly bad considering you can get a Jackson JS for that price
i saw that too... and this is with roasted maple thats supposed to be more stable n stiff... hmm
the guitar is bad all around, when he was showing the pickup closeup at first, it looked like the routing was slightly shaped differently than the other... you can see the Orange peel in the surface reflection, that bridge looks extremely cheap but that nut slot... thats the worst...i can only think youd have to re-measure everything, sand it straight and make a thicker nut.
save your money, get a used quality guitar...
Ryan is dangerously close to being Yukon Cornelius’ doppelgänger. Which I guess is only fitting given the time of year.
Is that a Canadian thing or pop culture that went over my head?
@@KelticKabukiGirl Google is your friend with this one. There’s just too much too explain but a beloved character in a stateside Christmas staple from Rankin & Bass that airs every year at this time.
@@markwheeler7410 no thanks, I am an Atheist and stopped celebrating xmas as soon as my kid moved out. All holidays are just Capitalism cash grabs. I don't participate.
@@KelticKabukiGirl fair enough. But the observation was just comic relief at Ryan’s seeming transmogrification into an iconic claymation character rather than validation or repudiation of religion or holiday consumerism.
I bought my very first guitar that I’ve paid under £140 for a few weeks ago.
I got a Kramer Beretta special for £135.
The stock pickups were acceptable, but I primarily bought the guitar as a modding platform, but I have to say, for a £135 guitar, it played surprisingly well straight out of the box.
It’s now fully modded and my go to guitar…….I actually pick it up a lot more than my Charvels, Fender USA strats and my trusty scalloped fret Washburn N4 (I had the frets professional scalloped on that).
I don’t really collect guitars , I have my Martin , strat , and Les Paul …but I’m glad I got to see this review. I’ll stay away from Amazon BS pedals / amps/ or instruments that I’ve never heard of…like Zuwei. Buy quality ! It only hurts once!
The headstock says “custom shop”. Man I don’t want to see what their regular line of guitars is like.
for the same amount of money i bought my first guitar, a ibanez gio. including a AMP, Tuner, gig bag, picks. and it was a amazing guitar for the price
You're looking really good dude ❤️
I agree with the poor details you pointed out. I would never test a new guitar with the stings it came with however. Enjoyed this video a lot!
Next video: “Can I save this guitar for under $100?”
Good video. Like you said there are some cool things about this but a lot is left to be desired. To me this screams make over city! Get some decent locking tuners, a new professional bone but and then but the bridge and pickups.
I will say for a Super Strat guitar I like the white on orange vibe. It does look clean. GFS pickups would be cool here, perhaps a set of Surf 90s and a Brighton Rock and a set of Tele knobs. Also make sure to replace the pots and electronics. Looks good but the devils in the details and those devils has their day.
The strangest of all time are the Tele buttons on the Strat or Mustang. ) It looks too much like a Soviet imitation :-)
@@onkelpool
Hahahaha!!! Yeah! There are actually practical reasons to put Tele knobs on Strats. I have a highly modded Samick Malibu where I did a Filtertron/SD Little 59/SD Quarter Pounder in it with a master volume and master tone in the first and third holes. The middle hole I put a coil split switch on the Little 59. It works like a charm and both knobs are Tele. This is actually is practical for volume swells, you can make a guitar sound like a train. In this case I used 250k pots (Bourne minis) and the pickups really juice the pots to a natural saturation so I get more sensitivity out of the electrics. Basically I get the volume knob to act as an overdrive. The Tele knobs work great on the pinky vs ok with a Standard Strat knob. I did this for three reasons:
1. Practical
2. If John Mayer can come up with a cool Strat that is not a Strat so can I (not a fan but respect both as a player and as a designer)
3. Taking the piss out of "I only play Strats" players.
I'm a Tele guy but since 2020 was so upside down, I decided to buy a Strat, which lead to three other Straty guitars finding their way to me. Still my Malibu is a cool guitar but it definitely feels smaller than a Strat or a Strat clone. Like a Strat and a Duo Sonic had a baby.
Love the honesty.
That resonating could be sympathetic vibrations of the tensioning springs. Dampening those strings with small blocks of foam or felt could be a possible solution.
sometimes i have had this problem and the culprit is the bridge saddle, rough unfinished and the string doesn't seat down at all "coz its uneven and a bit lumpy" a small file and some paper usually sorts it out.
Eart was like "lets make $300 guitars that play like $500 guitars!"
This company was like "lets make $100 guitars that LOOK like $500 guitars!"
smh..
Great vid ryan
yep!
Looks like a charvel
@@icedvengence3845 It's more like a Shitevel.
@@brownbess How about Shartvel? 😜
We make EART........ Literally the same workers and same factory.
That was painful to listen to. I get trying to make affordable guitars, but it's getting a bit disrespectful to the real manufacturers and musicians who care. Your review is definitely commendable and honest.
Glarry and Harley Benton knock out better guitars at half that price. As soon as I saw the state of the nut I realised that was not made by a factory that cares about making guitars or cares about guitarists. Giving that guitar to a young player starting out would be a surefire way of making them give up really fast.
@@martin-1965 harley bentons are unbelievable for the price, and they have a bunch of really unique and great looking models
@@themac3421 And the lefty selection makes me really happy.
You’re such a nice guy, it’s heartwarming.
Man you had no idea what you were getting into when you said "Zuwei, defend yourself in the comments" and "leave me rude and nasty comments" 😄 I know most of them are deleted now, but I was giving this a rewatch and it's funnier knowing what happened after I was last here!
I picked up one of these in Orange for 170 on Amazon. After changing PUPs, bridge, tuners, and performing a setup on it, plays great now. Not my favorite cheap brand of guitar that's for sure but not horrible either. Barely above Glarry in my list of cheap guitars. Not for beginners in my opinion as this also had a lifted fret I had to glue back down.
Sounds like a good luthier training guitar. xD
@@Hickeroar Absolutely. About all it's good for out of the box.
Just buy an already working Harley Benton Fusion 3 instead
@@rullopat Sounds to me that OP bought it with the intention of improving it, and thus improving his own skills.
@@rullopat If it's a luthier training guitar, you want it to come out of the box with work to be done. :)
I think the nut has a good bit to do with tuning stability. The problem is it has to many cheap parts I'd rather pay $325.00 for the guitar with better pickups, better fit and finish, and a better bridge.
Digging Editing Ryan, lol.
Just wanted to point out something that caught me out while you were demoing the guitar: It seems like you were resting your hand on the bridge while playing which, as it's floating, kept wavering the notes in and out of tune. Obviously the intonation will be janky anyway due to the jaunty nut angle, but I couldn't work out why the pitch was veering mid-note until I noticed. It was 22:20 when you took off your hand to tap that the penny finally dropped! Does the trem have a particularly light action?
After you showed the nut slot had a huge gap in it and the groove wasn't even straight, I decided that it isn't a real musical instrument. It's a toy.
I've heard worse sounding guitars...but not since Sears quit carrying musical instruments.
I wonder if you took off the wrapping on that humbucker that you might find a second magnet sandwiched between the bobbins and the baseplate where one normally would be in a humbucker. If so, then those pickup chassis actually would have some cool possibilities for modding - you could put in pairs of different magnets, trying different combinations of ceramic, Alnico 2,3,4,5 etc.
In my experience the sitar sound I had came from not enough downward angle on the strings and the nut slots not being correctly done, the sound was further amplified by the tension springs for the bridge.
When tuning any floating bridge, instead of tuning 654321 (low to high) tune 612534. This helps keep the tension even across the fretboard instead swiping it across it. Think of smoothing out a sheet on the bed from the middle out instead of from one side to the other.
If you grew up with Floyd Rose, you definitely know this part😅
It doesn’t, individual string tension won’t influence the neck, bridge or block, if anything it puts excess tension on the treble strings. You want the thickest strongest strings to absorb most of the counter tension.
It doesn’t, individual string tension won’t influence the neck, bridge or block, if anything it puts excess tension on the treble strings. You want the thickest strongest strings to absorb most of the counter tension.
I will try that, thanks for the tip.
@@bluwng totally off man, you can put 8s on a floater. Its how you set it up.
Ryan I noticed you tune low string to high string. On full floating trems just for initial tuning tuning from outside in tends to lend some stability just getting tension. (Low E, High E, Low A, High B, D, G) I learned this doing Floyd setups from a tech friend and something about how the tension is distributed makes it easier. Obviously this guitar had a lot of setup issues. Probably literally a stock nut slapped into place
I'm definitely have this in mind when I tune my Squier strat. Except for small adjustments, I often need to do a couple of passes, so I'll give your trick a try.
@@mondoke it’s just something I’ve noticed it’s not very intuitive and tuning frustration is super annoying, and like I mentioned that was just the least of this guitars problems. Full floating trems on a budget guitar is just a bad idea unless you have some really good techs going over with final QC and inspection which it sounds is not the case here
Dude right on I never thought of that one -- Kind of like the lugnuts on a car!!
I updated some info on a comment I left about the Firefly review you did. If this company is like them, run! I eventually got a refund for a defective guitar... but not the shipping. Shipping to me was $27... and return was $66 via FedEx ground. If you buy a cheap guitar plan on it being a keeper no matter how bad it may be.
Roasted maple necks are just made out of wood that underwent thermal treatment/modification. Also, the roasted joke was top-notch this is why I'm subscribed
I'd say don't feel bad about it - it's fair, and you did say the neck was a decent feel (for a start) - and I like the "trying something different with the jack." (Honestly, I wish more strat styles recessed the trem cover, too.) So it's not 100% trashed... just some interesting ideas on an otherwise poorly executed or QC'd guitar.
The Jack Plate is the dead giveaway that makes this guitar a Charvel copy. The placement of the Jack Plate is genius in my opinion. Not everybody likes it, but I think it's brilliant. Too bad that's the only good part of this guitar so far. LOL.
Came here to mention that the jack plate was a straight ripoff from Charvel, but you beat me to it ha! To be fair, if you're gonna copy a guitar maker... Charvel is a prime choice. They have thoughtful designs, IMO.
I didn’t even have to see the back input jack to think it was a Charvel rip-off. It was my first thought as soon as I saw the thumbnail.
@@Pundit07 ...
Yeah, I thought it was from the thumbnail, but the Jack Plate was the confirmation Point really. But you can tell it's a Charvel copy just by the layout of the face of the guitar.
@@Pundit07 exactly I didnt see these comments before. I already comment and posted the link to the identical charvel online ha. But yeah thumbnail I thought it was a Charvel so I wanted to see if it was a trash one but no just a copy
Saw these on Amazon a little while ago. Glad I saw this video cuz I was considering getting one 🤣. Basically a bad knockoff of a Charvel dk24. With a bit of work, like hardware upgrades and possibly even a complete refinish on the body, it could be good, but as the dk24 is one of my favorite guitars of all time, saving up and getting the real deal sounds better than polishing a bit of a turd😆. Thanks for the video👍
I like that you are honest.
I guess there’s one positive. I was looking at buying one of those electric sitars but they’re pricey these days but this heap of crap sounds like it’ll do the job
I didn’t see anything “fatal” in the guitar, that is to say I think the issues can be corrected but even at that cheap price point a guitar should not have those issues just poor fit and finish and poor quality control. I really don’t get how that nut passed anyone’s inspection.
What bothers me most is they pop these things on Amazon knowing full well that the look and price is going to lure new and young players who will buy it and then go to their lessons and become super frustrated trying to learn on it.
The nut having a gap is quite fatal and can cause major issues right off the bat
I recently went to a guitar center for the first time after playing my brother's old squier strat for a few years. It is by no means a bad guitar, but when playing a few at the store it really blew me away how easy some of those guitars were to play compared to the squier.
@@thatmoistmelon7070 but it’s correctable , it inexcusable but can be fixed and honestly most guitars under 300 come with crappy nuts anyway so it’s something that gets replaced on most cheap guitars if they are around long enough.
You just laid out all the facts and that’s all you can do. You were perfectly fine on your assessment.
Good job, Ryan. 👍😁