Chapman Guitars at NAMM

Musicman20

sherpa_man said:

A mate of mine after doing some Sherlock has spotted the workshop to be the Simms guitars workshop 

I’ve heard good reports on their basses. 

Bridgehouse

sherpa_man said:

A mate of mine after doing some Sherlock has spotted the workshop to be the Simms guitars workshop 

He does his own pickups. The Enfield basses are indeed stunning

sherpa_man

Simms do great work 

Musicman20

http://www.simscustom.com/html/home.htm

Fretwired

Simms are great - their client list reads like the who's who of British music .. Keith Richards, David Gilmore, Mark King, Steve Stevens (OK he's a Yank), Hank Marvin ... at least the guitars will be well made.

Musicman20

I'd rather it had SIMS on the (non-reverse) headstock!

dindude

Musicman20 said:

I'd rather it had SIMS on the (non-reverse) headstock!

They should at least be shouting about where it's made...would do their integrity a world of good.

GuitarZero

FelineGuitars said:

Guitars made in Japan, Korea, China, Indonesia, Vietnam etc. can be great when the company :
a) allows enough budget to use good quality parts and materials
b) has a good and rigorous Quality Control in place

Usually we have experienced absolute rubbish from some of these countries because they are making for a Western customer (maybe under license) who wants costs kept down to a stupidly low price that forces them to use parts and materials that are too poor for the job 

Agree 100%, though unfortunately when you do see the guitars with the high quality components coming from the Far East, people jump on them and ask the question 'why would you pay XXXX amount for a Made in XXXX guitar?'.  They can't win really.  Too cheap and they are cheap crap, too expensive and they are expensive crap.

I'm actually wondering how these new Chapman's will be sold.  To get a high end UK made guitar, you basically have to put down a considerable sum of cash initially, and often hand over more as the build progresses and you then need to hope that at the end of the build, the guitar meets your expectations.  If there are a number of stock items built to be sold, then they might do well for those people interested in the British made guitars but also want to be able to try before they buy.

DLM

sherpa_man said:

A mate of mine after doing some Sherlock has spotted the workshop to be the Simms guitars workshop 

Checks out:

http://www.simscustom.com/images/gallery/2015/gotm/aug/large/01.jpg

Plectrum

Musicman20 said:

I'd rather it had SIMS on the (non-reverse) headstock!

This where I think Chapman's business model falls down. His name has no added value. People looking to spend £3,500 on a UK built guitar will probably choose a luthier based on his/her reputation for building the style of guitar the customer is interested (that would be my approach anyway) then deal with the luthier directly.

mbe

GuitarZero said:

FelineGuitars said:

Guitars made in Japan, Korea, China, Indonesia, Vietnam etc. can be great when the company :
a) allows enough budget to use good quality parts and materials
b) has a good and rigorous Quality Control in place

Usually we have experienced absolute rubbish from some of these countries because they are making for a Western customer (maybe under license) who wants costs kept down to a stupidly low price that forces them to use parts and materials that are too poor for the job 

Agree 100%, though unfortunately when you do see the guitars with the high quality components coming from the Far East, people jump on them and ask the question 'why would you pay XXXX amount for a Made in XXXX guitar?'.  They can't win really.  Too cheap and they are cheap crap, too expensive and they are expensive crap.

I'm actually wondering how these new Chapman's will be sold.  To get a high end UK made guitar, you basically have to put down a considerable sum of cash initially, and often hand over more as the build progresses and you then need to hope that at the end of the build, the guitar meets your expectations.  If there are a number of stock items built to be sold, then they might do well for those people interested in the British made guitars but also want to be able to try before they buy.

Sometimes the guitar shaped object from the far east, bought for a stupidly low price, can be rendered into a useful instrument with the application of a little finesse.

Many buyers of cheap foreign guitars are under no illusion about fitness for purpose and intend to replace a few parts within economical constraints such as nut, pickups or tuners. Quite often the original equipment is fine, it might be changed to suit a different purpose. This fixer-upper activity is a growing segment of the guitar hobby as a whole.

I see used Chapman guitars for sale and the majority have had their pickups changed, more often than not to Bare Knuckle. 

Fretwired

Plectrum said:

Musicman20 said:

I'd rather it had SIMS on the (non-reverse) headstock!

This where I think Chapman's business model falls down. His name has no added value. People looking to spend £3,500 on a UK built guitar will probably choose a luthier based on his/her reputation for building the style of guitar the customer is interested (that would be my approach anyway) then deal with the luthier directly.

Disagree about Rob's name. The Khardashian clan are a waste of oxygen but their collective enhanced buttocks and breasts sell lots of goods. Rob is a minor celeb over here and with Lee I reckon they'll sell guitars - I read it would be more like one a month, not 15 a month. I'm sure Rabea will be playing one .. I wish them luck. So long as their QA is better than Gibson and PRS they should be OK.

Whitecat

Fretwired said:

I read it would be more like one a month, not 15 a month. 

That's more like a hobby than a business then...

Philly_Q

Fretwired said:

Disagree about Rob's name. The Khardashian clan are a waste of oxygen but their collective enhanced buttocks and breasts sell lots of goods. Rob is a minor celeb over here and with Lee I reckon they'll sell guitars - I read it would be more like one a month, not 15 a month. I'm sure Rabea will be playing one .. I wish them luck. So long as their QA is better than Gibson and PRS they should be OK.

I'm repeating myself - we all are by this stage - but although I'm prepared to believe his minor celeb status is enough to help sell his existing range of guitars, I can't believe anyone is a big enough fan to spend 3 or 4 grand on one.

They might sell one or two if the guitars themselves turn out to be really good, but not because they say Chapman on the headstock.

Fretwired

Whitecat said:

Fretwired said:

I read it would be more like one a month, not 15 a month. 

That's more like a hobby than a business then...

I think that's more realistic tbh.

Fretwired

Philly_Q said:

Fretwired said:

Disagree about Rob's name. The Khardashian clan are a waste of oxygen but their collective enhanced buttocks and breasts sell lots of goods. Rob is a minor celeb over here and with Lee I reckon they'll sell guitars - I read it would be more like one a month, not 15 a month. I'm sure Rabea will be playing one .. I wish them luck. So long as their QA is better than Gibson and PRS they should be OK.

I'm repeating myself - we all are by this stage - but although I'm prepared to believe his minor celeb status is enough to help sell his existing range of guitars, I can't believe anyone is a big enough fan to spend 3 or 4 grand on one.

They might sell one or two if the guitars themselves turn out to be really good, but not because they say Chapman on the headstock.

Remind me who Paul Reed Smith when he started out .... I bet when he told people he was going to make high end guitars people pissed themselves laughing. He got Ted McCarty, former president of Gibson as a mentor when he started which would have helped.

Philly_Q

Fretwired said:

Philly_Q said:

Fretwired said:

Disagree about Rob's name. The Khardashian clan are a waste of oxygen but their collective enhanced buttocks and breasts sell lots of goods. Rob is a minor celeb over here and with Lee I reckon they'll sell guitars - I read it would be more like one a month, not 15 a month. I'm sure Rabea will be playing one .. I wish them luck. So long as their QA is better than Gibson and PRS they should be OK.

I'm repeating myself - we all are by this stage - but although I'm prepared to believe his minor celeb status is enough to help sell his existing range of guitars, I can't believe anyone is a big enough fan to spend 3 or 4 grand on one.

They might sell one or two if the guitars themselves turn out to be really good, but not because they say Chapman on the headstock.

Remind me who Paul Reed Smith when he started out .... I bet when he told people he was going to make high end guitars people pissed themselves laughing. He got Ted McCarty, former president of Gibson as a mentor when he started which would have helped.

Repeating myself again, but Smith was the guy actually building the guitars.  And, like Blackmachine, Feline, Eggle, Anderson, Suhr, Hamer (RIP), whoever... the reputation was built slowly based on the quality of the guitars themselves. 

They weren't just chucked out into the market with a premium price tag, hoping they'd sell because of an association with an audience-dividing YouTube "celebrity".

Marktigere1

Fretwired said:

Remind me who Paul Reed Smith when he started out .... I bet when he told people he was going to make high end guitars people pissed themselves laughing. He got Ted McCarty, former president of Gibson as a mentor when he started which would have helped. 

From January 1985 NAMM to September 1985 PRS sold 20 guitars.  A year later they celebrated their 1000th guitar.

(Love these "Electric Guitar a Day desk calendars", makes me sound knowledgeable )

bingefeller

A lot of these Youtubers are bringing out their own products these days.  I follow a few mens grooming channels and quite a few of the guys have their own lines of hair products, moisturiser etc.  Just look at Zoella.  Rob and Lee are following that market.  

I find it tacky when any Youtuber makes their own product, they are essentially putting their name on something churned out by a faceless organisation.  They loose credibility in my opinion - nothing to do with RC specifically, I’ve stated this in the past on YT to various people who have brought out their own products on the heels of a successful channel.  

Fretwired

Philly_Q said:

Fretwired said:

Philly_Q said:

Fretwired said:

Disagree about Rob's name. The Khardashian clan are a waste of oxygen but their collective enhanced buttocks and breasts sell lots of goods. Rob is a minor celeb over here and with Lee I reckon they'll sell guitars - I read it would be more like one a month, not 15 a month. I'm sure Rabea will be playing one .. I wish them luck. So long as their QA is better than Gibson and PRS they should be OK.

I'm repeating myself - we all are by this stage - but although I'm prepared to believe his minor celeb status is enough to help sell his existing range of guitars, I can't believe anyone is a big enough fan to spend 3 or 4 grand on one.

They might sell one or two if the guitars themselves turn out to be really good, but not because they say Chapman on the headstock.

Remind me who Paul Reed Smith when he started out .... I bet when he told people he was going to make high end guitars people pissed themselves laughing. He got Ted McCarty, former president of Gibson as a mentor when he started which would have helped.

Repeating myself again, but Smith was the guy actually building the guitars.  And, like Blackmachine, Feline, Eggle, Anderson, Suhr, Hamer (RIP), whoever... the reputation was built slowly based on the quality of the guitars themselves. 

They weren't just chucked out into the market with a premium price tag, hoping they'd sell because of an association with an audience-dividing YouTube "celebrity".

It was actually his company .. McCarty had a big hand in the designs and early builds and mentored Paul. The point is an unknown broke into the the guitar market. These days it's easier as you have YouTube and Rob's partnered with Anderton's which gives him credibility and a distribution channel. I bet they sell small volumes and meet their sales targets. Not everyone wants a Strat or a Les Paul.