A 2015 mod a Harley Benton guitar challenge?

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  • NomadNomad Frets: 549

    I'll probably be going with Thomann anyway (for a bass ukulele), but I think spreading the options to other makes is fine if Thomann can't at least respond to the enquiries (whether or not it's worth their while to offer some kind of support).


    Nomad
    Nobody loves me but my mother... and she could be jivin' too...

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  • AlnicoAlnico Frets: 4616
    At £150 as a ceiling for initial cost this might be able to include squire affinity models which adds some variety and which are apparently really quite good to start with.

    I have also seen some very interesting looking epiphone guitars at £100 ish...........
    I am on my phone right now so can't link them but I know GAK have an epiphone LP junior for that price and a shop called 'Gig Gear' in Essex list an LP special with P90s for the same price.

    Someone is bound to ask if we can use secondhand guitars and I think we should but the ceiling cost should be lower.........
    Maybe £80 max ?

    That would create a separate catagory and add an interesting angle to the competition?

    I think the important aspects to try to keep intact are that it must be a budget guitar and it must be sold as a complete working guitar that is then modified. I don't want this idea to detract from the excellent work that everyone put into their kit builds.
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  • NomadNomad Frets: 549
    edited January 2015

    Aye - agreed on £150 as the max base price for a new guitar. £100 might be too low in terms of what instruments are available. £150 can get into better hardware and pickups for those that want to avoid the additional cost of replacing all that stuff.

    I don't know what used budget guitars sell for, but 80 quid seems reasonable.

    Nomad
    Nobody loves me but my mother... and she could be jivin' too...

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  • TTonyTTony Frets: 27346
    Let's keep the s/h option for another challenge - get back to the origins of the Clarksonesque thing - another year.

    If we think £150 is reasonable, I might email a couple of the UK retailers and see what they could make available to us.
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  • axisusaxisus Frets: 28280
    I ain't spending £150 on the guitar! The £70 or so Thomann's would be the max I'd fork out for.

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  • axisusaxisus Frets: 28280
    ....... everyone's favourite resident luthier seems to be favouring them for his own modifications. 


    Hope we're not going to be cutting in on his action! 
    Conversely, I hope we are.
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  • JalapenoJalapeno Frets: 6378
    axisus said:
    I ain't spending £150 on the guitar! The £70 or so Thomann's would be the max I'd fork out for.

    Nobody's saying £150 is a minimum ;)
    Imagine something sharp and witty here ......

    Feedback
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  • TTonyTTony Frets: 27346
    @MarkGAK

    As the mighty Thomann seems to be ignoring us, is this the sort of thing that you guys would be interested in supporting us with?

    Do you sell a guitar brand that's (a) reasonably wide in choice of models and (b) sub £150, and which you'd like a lot of free(ish) publicity for??

    We've got about 20 interested modders ready to go, there'll be a separate thread to focus on each project, with plenty of links back to the supplier.  We hit 75k hits/day on Sun&Mon, so Google likes us more and more ...

    PM me if you'd like to discuss details?


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  • Reply from Thomann... 'can you give me your customer number and your E-Mailaddress from which you sent your requests please?'... slightly missing the point, but we don't have a customer number yet, I assume? @ttony if you want to pm me these details to pm them, please feel free, otherwise I'll forward the conversation to you/the fretboard's twitter account, to deal with! :)
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  • TTonyTTony Frets: 27346
    Thanks @themeinside - have PM'd you the email addy  :)
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  • monquixotemonquixote Frets: 17485
    tFB Trader
    TTony said:
    I *could* try DV247 (who have a similarly cheap range, though not quite as extensive) 
    I think DV247 is probably a bad idea based on the number of people that won't buy from them for ethical reasons.
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  • DeadmanDeadman Frets: 3853
    I'm holding out and going with the forum decision. No rush. Thanks for the leg work gents.
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  • MarkGAKMarkGAK Frets: 118
    Hello all! 

    I've been tagged in this post, and it sounds potenially like something we'd be up for, but I haven't read through everything yet. To save time, could someone summarise what you want to do?
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  • impmannimpmann Frets: 12649
    I'm shocked that no-body has got back to you @TTony from Thomann. In my professional dealings with them, they have always been great - but because they are a HUGE operation, you do need to target the right people.

    Personally - head to the top... Hans Thomann himself. Send him an email - he's a lot more approachable than you may think.

    Good news that GAK may be up for helping though (nice one @MarkGAK). :-)
    Never Ever Bloody Anything Ever.

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  • TTonyTTony Frets: 27346

    Hi @MarkGAK

    Towards the end of last year, we ran a "build a kit" compo.  We had c10 people, all starting with the same type of kit, all of whom then ran a thread with pics/vids/etc about the work that they did on the kit as they put it together and finished it.  There were some impressive results (and others have since gone on to build kits with the help from all the "how-to" hints in those original threads)

    The suggestion is that we now run a "mod a cheap guitar" compo.  We've got >20 people signed up for this (so far).  The rules - such as they are - is that entrants spend no more than £150 on a base guitar and then again run a thread with any work that they need to do - set-up, fixing problems, mods & upgrades, etc - to turn it into a guitar that they'd be proud to gig (or whatever).  Ideally, and we'd be sub £100, as that's probably a more eye-catchingly effective price point.

    Someone suggested the Harley Benton range from Thomann because they're cheap and because there's a good range of models in the range.

    I contacted them, asking whether they'd be interested in "supporting" the compo in some way - whether by free p&p, a prize for a "winner", or whatever - recognising that they'd get a lot of free publicity and Google hits for the threads created here.  But they've been less than responsive so I'm feeling disinclined to give them the business or the benefit.

    Then I thought perhaps a UK-based retailer would be interested, and given your previous involvement here, thought of you!

    Happy to discuss any details via PM if that's more appropriate.


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  • TTonyTTony Frets: 27346
    edited January 2015
    impmann said:
    Personally - head to the top... Hans Thomann himself. Send him an email - he's a lot more approachable than you may think.

    Just emailed Mr T.  Seems a bit OTT, but if no-one else can be bothered to reply (apart from the slightly surreal conversation that @themeinside is having with them on our behalf via Twitter), I thought it's worth a final try.
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  • TTonyTTony Frets: 27346
    TTony said:
    Just emailed Mr T.  Seems a bit OTT, but if no-one else can be bothered to reply (apart from the slightly surreal conversation that @themeinside is having with them on our behalf via Twitter), I thought it's worth a final try.
    And 30 mins later, I get a reply (I'm thinking from one of his minions, but that's fine, it's a reply!!), which I thought was impressive.


    "Tony, Dominik will contact you if he needs help."


    I'll let y'all know what help I'm able to give Dominik ...
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  • @TTony This reeeeeeeeeallly wouldn't be worth it, if the Harley Benton range wasn't so varied and well spec'd for the price xD
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  • TTonyTTony Frets: 27346
    @TTony This reeeeeeeeeallly wouldn't be worth it, if the Harley Benton range wasn't so varied and well spec'd for the price xD
    Agreed.

    But you never know - GAK may be able to come up with something similarly attractive ...
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  • TTony said:
    @TTony This reeeeeeeeeallly wouldn't be worth it, if the Harley Benton range wasn't so varied and well spec'd for the price xD
    Agreed.

    But you never know - GAK may be able to come up with something similarly attractive ...
    That would be rather nice... how about an inhouse GAK range, where we order all the prototypes for models through you, eh @MarkGAK? ;D
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