Counterfeit Taylors

[Kmeister]

Kristen,

I completely agree with you that people should perform their due diligence before buying a guitar.  You would.  I would.  And pretty much everyone using this forum would.  But many people out there are complete novices, and I suspect they are the ones who are buying these guitars thinking they're genuine Taylors, especially when the sellers of this stuff are giving every indication that the stuff is real.  Gullibility isn't a crime.

Yes, someone who is genuinely duped, I feel bad for.....but only a little. You can't Google Taylor Guitars and get to that link without first going through several pages of legitimate Taylor guitar sales. What are the odds new player #1 find his way to this page first? It's not like that is on eBay, where plausibly they could arrive within a first search.

Point being, since that link is sort of in a dark corner of the Internet, anyone who is getting there looking for a real Taylor and not coming across real ones first is unlikely to happen. I bet they sell very few to newby players and mostly to people who want to save a quick buck and think they can get by with that.

$.02

[ctkarslake]

I can't imagine how thick the poly finish is...but at least I can have my very own with guaranteed delivery...in 27 days!  AND, in my very own cardboard box for a case!

These guitars are so lame, at least there are still so many details they have wrong that it's easy for the informed to identify.  Little consolation though, I admit.

[Moosedog]

darn, I wonder if they have one in Blackheart Sassafras?      Seriously, this is just wrong.  A friend of mine bought a Chinese mandolin on line a few years back.  It was full of fake bling that looked real and it was of course cheap and he got sucked in.  I'll never forget how excited he was when he showed it to me as he had just received it that morning.   I think the neck cracked the first time he tuned it to pitch and he threw it away.   To this day I cannot make myself even consider a Chinese made guitar.  I know Eastman's are supposed to be pretty good but I just can't go there.

[doctorinthehouse]

Point being, since that link is sort of in a dark corner of the Internet, anyone who is getting there looking for a real Taylor and not coming across real ones first is unlikely to happen. I bet they sell very few to newby players and mostly to people who want to save a quick buck and think they can get by with that.

$.02
[/quote]

think the biggest danger is people import them to sell to people via their own sites ect not so much the guy on the net looking for a taylor

[Craig]

I see the K24CE comes with an Initiative Adapterization Pickup!

Craig

[ronmcc4]

I see the K24CE comes with an Initiative Adapterization Pickup!

Craig

Golly that makes me want throw caution to the wind and order one! NOT! 

[Jersey tuning]

Initiative Adapterization.  That's Pentagon-speak for "come and go as you please"

[duckhorns]

Zoom in close, the logo on the headstock actually says Tayror, not Taylor... Bad joke... I know. True story though, it reminds me of when I was in China 5 years ago on business and inside the camera case were Nikons at full price followed by identical Likons at 25%. I could see the advertising slogan possibilities in my mind, "Like a Nikon, but cheaper. It's a Likon!" I always wondered if they picked Likon because it sounds close to "like a Nikon" or if it was just an accident.

[Kmeister]

I actually wonder if anyone buys one of these to take to a GC and try to pass off as real deal for trade in. I could almost see it working if you found the sales assistant who clearly knows more about shredding heavy metal than acoustic guitars!

[doctorinthehouse]

surly nobodys that dumb and keeps a job 

[duckhorns]

The feedback from purchasers is pretty good. Replace those electronic knobs with the correct plastic ones for a couple of dollars, tape the wires inside the sound hole, put some real gotoh tuners on there for another $xx, maybe hit it with a little polish, and I bet 90% of the time trade in would work. Maybe higher. Having been in China many times the counterfeits are really good. I just spent $xx on my koa mini with a junky plastic headstock overlay, those things at $xx are probably a good deal. If I was Taylor, who gets a premium for the name, I would be worried. These will start coming out of the woodwork like crazy at those prices vs a real one. It will hurt the image. I just don't know how you stop it.

[doctorinthehouse]

you could dress it up as much as you want but as soon as you play it and hear it i think its game over

[ronmcc4]

I actually wonder if anyone buys one of these to take to a GC and try to pass off as real deal for trade in. I could almost see it working if you found the sales assistant who clearly knows more about shredding heavy metal than acoustic guitars!

I traded in a Martin for a Taylor at GC back in the summer. There were no less than three employees who got involved (one was an excellent player too) including a manager. I think the lack of knowledge would have to be pretty widespread for a trade to happen. YMMV of course.

[TaylorGirl]

you could dress it up as much as you want but as soon as you play it and here it i think its game over

I agree. Even the "dress up" doesn't come close, if you really look at it.  Reminds me of the quote: "You can roll a turd in powdered sugar, but that won’t make it a jelly donut”.

[timfitz63]

you could dress it up as much as you want but as soon as you play it and here it i think its game over

I agree. Even the "dress up" doesn't come close, if you really look at it...

I agree that these things don't stand up to any scrutiny in the looks department.  These guitars have what's referred to in automotive circles as a "20-foot finish:"  at 20 feet, they look fine; any closer, and it becomes apparent that someone like Earl Scheib painted it...

I also agree that the tone would be a dead giveaway -- unless you'd never heard a Taylor before, perhaps.  My brother has a Yamaha FGX700SC dreadnought guitar (which looks basically like a Martin clone to me) that he bought to learn with.  This was before we both discovered Taylor guitars.  At the time he bought it, I thought it was a pretty good guitar, at least for the money.  And it still probably is.

Being in a hotel room a long way away from home base, I wanted to continue practicing.  I'm going to be away from Texas -- and my guitars --  for the better part of a year.  My brother graciously lent me his Yamaha so I could stay in practice.  And although it fits the bill, it's just not a Taylor.  Not as easy to play; not as clear-sounding.

... Reminds me of the quote: "You can roll a turd in powdered sugar, but that won’t make it a jelly donut”.

Ha!  I'll have to remember that one.  Another similar turn of a phrase (at least it conveys the same sentiment) that I picked up when I first began my career was: "A hamburger wrapped in gold is still a hamburger..."