Whatever happened to Indie Guitars...

darthed1981

British based guitar brand, used to make guitars at Epiphone's factory in Korea, vanished off the face of the Earth so presumably went bust?

My old local guitar shop used to stock them and I tried several, all always good.  Then I quit playing for a few years, and despite it seems launching their own "shape" they stopped trading.

I have two actually pretty damn decent guitars they made, a fat tele in blue with a rather striking pickguard and a les paul with a bright full colour union jack on it, both also seem fairly rare.  Very traditional designs, both are heavy (the les paul exceptionally so).

Does anyone else have any kicking around?  Does anyone know the full story?

Jez6345789

The subject came up a while ago in my local shop and the considered opinion was they were really good value when they started and made a decent brand out of the Korean stuff but then played chse dollar to get lower and lower cost base so I presume early into China when prices were like pennies but quality low they were always changing factories I was told looking for cheaper and cheaper manufacture.

this lead to reduced quality poor hardware cheap bendy Chinese maple necks all those early issues. In the meantime squire and others upped their game.

so the inevitable slide from grace and demise. My local shop sold lots as there budget brand back in the day.

happy to be corrected but mostly a little information and me summarising the way these things go.

DiscoStu

They got really good reviews and seemed to be amazing bang for buck but I hated the logo and the headstock shapes. Oh and too much bling on some of them.

lasermonkey

I have a few. My first was an IHD30S, a dreadnought that i got for £215 in a sale back in 2006 and I absolutely love. Subsequently I bought a one-off, prototype jumbo off them, and then a 12 string acoustic and their top of the range, one of twenty, hand-built dreadnought for a stupidly low price.  They all have soft V necks that I find incredibly comfortable.
I also bought one of their earlier LP copies, a one of four prototype in white pearloid.
 I'm hoping to get one of their 335 copies at some point.
 I believe they ended up selling the company to some Canadian guys, but I've seen some very cheap, made in China acoustics that I'm not sure have anything to do with the original outfit.

UnclePsychosis

I've got one that I bought from @strumjoughlamps who I think had a few of them. 

Nice guitar, although up for sale soon to cover GAS elsewhere. 

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b195/strumstrum/IMGP2383_zpstaqprjmv.jpg

ennspek

I had a couple and liked them. I can't remember the exact story but someone bought somebody else, distribution, manufacturer......... nodded off at that point.
They were a brand I liked. 

EricTheWeary

I remember going to Music Live ( maybe ten years ago?) and they had one of the biggest stands so somebody was pumping money into them. The brand still exists ( there's a website anyway) but I can't remember the last time I saw one. 

thermionic

They also made some pretty blatant Rickenbacker copies, which I can't see as a wise business decision.

Nitefly

They always seemed a bit too blingy to me - really OTT "tree of life" inlays and such.

Also I didn't think they were that budget-priced either - £400 for PRS-alike when Vintage etc could do it for £200.

vale

   i always thought of them as noel-verve-ocs-weller guitars. regurgitated mod & dad rock.
not my scene at all but i bet they sold a heap with that marketing shtick.

DrCornelius

There's a shabby office near me in Dorchester and I'm sure there's a sign saying Indie Guitars UK head office outside it. The local music shop is about 50 yards away and they used to stock quite a lot of Indies back in the day so I'll do some investigating 

BloodEagle

Horrible guitars, terrible name, a lot of them are dull as dishwater paul weller dad rock fare 

impmann

That music shop used to handle the distribution - the doorway you are referring to lead to their warehouse, with an in-house tech doing the set ups.

Say hi to Paul for me when you see them - I was one of his first customers when he started up in Dorchester (he used to have the small shop in the top corner), not an Indie though.

DrCornelius

Ah cheers Impmann , good info.  Paul's funny and a real character , I bought loads from him before I discovered the Fretboard. I've used that tech before too (Chris ?) and he did a decent job

darthed1981

Too much bling... possibly from my examples, but definitely, defiantly different...

JayGee

I've got one of the PRS-a-likes in semi hollow body form. A really, really nice guitar, not just nice for the money but nice full stop!