Why do people hate Marlins?

Funkfingers

ICBM said:

The bridge is the real weak point - the block is made of a very poor alloy which can crumble and collapse and, on the locking version, is impossible to replace without fairly major work since it is a completely unique size.

To clarify, this refers to a two-point vibrato with a flat baseplate and a unique/bizarre string anchoring arrangement. Even from new, the alloy block displays dark bubble lines. It eventually fails along these lines of weakness.

Anyone who could be arsed to manufacture a direct replacement block in steel or brass could make a small fortune. Then, of course, there would be a need for replacement baseplates to fixed the chewed up pivot knife edges. The thirty year old studs could be worn. Yadda, yadda.

Hence, this solution.

ICBM said:

... fitted with a standard cheap Strat bridge, which was a bit ugly because the original pivot post holes were visible

End result, a starter instrument or fun knockabout guitar for jam sessions.

monofin

As a 10 year old statting out on a Kay LP copy it was the Sidewinder I lusted after..... Never did get one

Keefy

I seem to recall the hardware being made out of cheese.

Octafish

My only experience was a couple that school friends had and they were pretty bad guitars even in 1990. I remember rough fretwork, tuning problems and dodgy trems with both. I was luck enough to have a Squier Strat that was leagues ahead in playability and build.

I wonder if (as ICBM suggests) there was quite a bit of inconsistency in quality, maybe even built at several different factories, as they seem to have quite a varied reputation. Weren't they the best selling budget electrics in the UK around 89/90?

Funkfingers

Keefy said:

I seem to recall the hardware being made out of cheese.

I still have the top half of one of those dogbreath Korean locking vibrato bridges. It came from a repair. The owner insisted on replacing it with an ultra-cheap licensed FR vibrato. Somehow, the FR copy pivots aligned with the insert holes in the guitar body. The FR had to be blocked off but the guitar remained playable.

Philly_Q

I'm pretty sure the locking bridge was exactly the same as the one on Encore guitars.  I wonder if they were made in the same factory?

ICBM

Philly_Q said:

I'm pretty sure the locking bridge was exactly the same as the one on Encore guitars.  I wonder if they were made in the same factory?

Yes, I think they're identical.

Also if it matters, a friend of mine has just brought me the earlier version without the fish inlay - this is not Korean-made, but East German... really .

The body appears to be solid wood (possibly beech) not ply, but if anything it's even more lumpy than the Korean ones - the whole thing is quite 'Soviet' . The hardware is standard cheap-Strat, except that the pots are typical GDR ones with very small D-shafts. These are normally impossible to find knobs for - and one is missing - except that I seem to remember that Laney amps from the 90s used the same size pots with an adaptor sleeve to take standard 6.3mm splined knobs! I think I have some in my spares box.

This particular one is in a very odd finish, blue at one end of the body and white at the other, with a shaded transition - original as far as I can tell - a bit like some of the special 'art' Fenders Eric Clapton had in the 80s, but without as much style... I'm looking forward to making it playable!

bluechargeboy

I had a non-locking HSS version when I was a nipper and I don't recall any problems. Although it ended up as my slide guitar so maybe that should tell me something about the playability...

freakboy1610

I had a purple sparkly Sidewinder for a week or so back in the 1980s. It was hideous. Fortunately the active electrics were faulty and I was able to take it back.

Bridgehouse

Funkfingers said:

I still have the top half of one of those dogbreath Korean locking vibrato bridges. 

Tess says "How very dare you - my breath is no where near as bad as one of those locking vibrato bridges, I'll have you know..!"

HerrMetal

Guilty of a purple one during the 80s. Black hardware, don't remember the pickup configuration. Replaced it with a very nice Ibanez that I must have given to a mate when my hand got injured and I gave up for a few years.

suspiciousminds

I had one about ‘89 - i remember the tuning being a bit dodgy but other than that it wasnt that bad - not the worst guitar i’ve ever had tbh.

FX_Munkee

It's probably because if you're my age, it was your first "proper" electric guitar. So unless your life has gone drastically wrong every other guitar you've had after has been better. This is probably only partially due to the iffy bridges and plywood body but also partially due to our reasoning that whatever we just bought must be better than thing we're replacing.

richardhomer

I don’t think people ‘really’ hate them - it’s just become easy short-hand for ‘crap guitar’. Often juxtaposed against someone extolling the virtues of their over-priced ‘boutique guitar’....

robgilmo

I remember Squirrs and Mex Fenders of the same era being classed as crap, now people praise them. I had a Red Sindwinder, locking nut and could tune at the bridge, I played the shit out of it.

57Deluxe

I remember the Sidewinder being constantly in the Making Music top five guitars/gear charts for years... That alone must have made ppl buy them unquestioning.

How many of you played yours through your Peavey Bandit?? - That too was never out of the chart...

NelsonP

My first guitar was a marlin sidewinder. About 1985 . My memory of it was that it was pretty much like a standard strat in term of configuration 3 single coils with the bridge pickup sloping the 'right' way, non locking trem, but i could be wrong.

I loved it. Because it was my first electric.

I used to play it straight into a sound city 30w tranny amp. Later on I had an arion metal master as a boost. Imagine how that sounded, as a beginner too.

But every other guitar I've owned has been better.

HarrySeven

57Deluxe said:

I remember the Sidewinder being constantly in the Making Music top five guitars/gear charts for years... 

Making Music always semed to positively spotlight "popular" gear which was also advertised very heavily in it's pages...I'm sure there was no correlational link whatsoever...

ICBM

NelsonP said:

My first guitar was a marlin sidewinder. About 1985 . My memory of it was that it was pretty much like a standard strat in term of configuration 3 single coils with the bridge pickup sloping the 'right' way, non locking trem, but i could be wrong.

If it didn’t have the fish inlay, that’s correct - those are the East German ones.

I think all the Korean fish ones had a humbucker at the bridge.

NelsonP said:

I used to play it straight into a sound city 30w tranny amp.

Interestingly, those were also made in East Germany!

HarrySeven

ICBM said:

Also if it matters, a friend of mine has just brought me the earlier version without the fish inlay - this is not Korean-made, but East German... really .

Model K32 - by Musima, allegedly.

Incidentally, hideous fish inlay aside, one thing I did like about some Marlin models was the neck - the profile was great (for me, anyway).

Other than that, I'm with most of the comments above - poor quality hardware*, blahblahblah.


*As an aside, even worse than the locking vibrato attached to Sidewinders, etc, was the hideous thing (optimistically branded "Accutune", IIRC) bolted to their State of the Art series. This model also made appearances on various other Korean budget affairs, particularly Hohner's ST (and infrequently, their L59-T) offerings.



Basically a shoddy Kahler Pro knock-off, made from an alloy which had all the tensile strength of fresh Play-Doh. Over time, either (or both) the spring anchors or the frame itself would deform, rendering it useless.

May I draw your attention to this example:

As you can see, some bright spark has replaced the failed vibrato with a Tele-style bridge and a blanking plate.





NB. This model is identical to the new example I acquired in 1985, in a trade against my (stunningly-well playing) Jedson Les Paul;

F*ck knows what I was thinking, but it remains an act of folly of unprecedentedly enormous proportions. Comparatively, the Marlin was shite in every aspect.