Chibson imports...

[NancyJohnson]

I've bought a couple of knock off Fender Jazz/Precision necks in the last year, but have never gone the whole hog with a completed guitar.

 

I'd sold a few books pre-Christmas, had a little surplus and decided to take the plunge.  I've always adored the original Gibson Futura shape (with the split headstock), so pulled the trigger on this:

 

 

So long as the body and neck are OK, everything else is dispensable.

 

Gawd help me.

[binky_bass]

They're often not terrible to be fair. Ive had a few Chibsons over the years and most have been perfectly decent players - some easily at Epiphone Les Paul level. The ones with set necks and the binding over the fret ends are the best IMO. Most convincing too if you want to be convincing. Good luck sir, hopefully you'll get a good'un! 

[jonno1981]

Tricky shape to cut into firewood 😛

 

I hope it turns out ok. I’ve got no idea how this works, if it’s knackered can you send it back or are you stuck? 

[NancyJohnson]

1 hour ago, jonno1981 said:

Tricky shape to cut into firewood 😛

 

I hope it turns out ok. I’ve got no idea how this works, if it’s knackered can you send it back or are you stuck? 

 

As I understand it, you have a degree of recourse if things go awry; Paypal dispute etc.  I have seen a few posts from people who've bought the same model from the same seller and things are generally OK.  End of the day, it was only £200!  I can hang it on the wall.

[tauzero]

10 minutes ago, NancyJohnson said:

 

As I understand it, you have a degree of recourse if things go awry; Paypal dispute etc.  I have seen a few posts from people who've bought the same model from the same seller and things are generally OK.  End of the day, it was only £200!  I can hang it on the wall.

 

If you got it off AliExpress, they've got a good returns policy - certainly for smaller items they supply a postage paid label and the return is to a UK address, and IME the refund happens as soon as the parcel is dropped off at the post office.

[Grahambythesea]

It looks like a guitar that would be played by the Jetsons.

[bass_dinger]

Do they do Gibson 335-type guitars? Asking for a friend...

[police squad]

The Edge in my U2 tribute has a Chibson explorer and a chickenbacker whick all look and play the part

[rwillett]

9 hours ago, bass_dinger said:

Do they do Gibson 335-type guitars? Asking for a friend...

Also asking for a "friend"? 

[Steve Browning]

20 hours ago, bass_dinger said:

Do they do Gibson 335-type guitars? Asking for a friend...

I have an Antiquity 335 which is very good. Not a Chibson but similar on the price. 

 

The Firefly 335 gets great reviews too. 

Edited Friday at 19:58 by Steve Browning

[Gizmo]

On 28/12/2025 at 21:22, tauzero said:

 

If you got it off AliExpress, they've got a good returns policy - certainly for smaller items they supply a postage paid label and the return is to a UK address, and IME the refund happens as soon as the parcel is dropped off at the post office.

 

DO NOT trust the image/statement of "Free returns for poor quality items"  Ali CS is total S**T, they do not understand basic English and do not even understand their own returns/refunds policy....

 

https://www.trustpilot.com/reviews/6826228a820a6532874c4ed0

 

If you are going to chance a higher price item then make sure paypal have your back (also a word of warning on Paypal CC payments...they only offer 6 months cover if you use a CC to make payment via PP, not the full 12 months that your CC provider has to offer, only PP balance payments are given full cover by paypal money back)

[Geek99]

11 hours ago, rwillett said:

Also asking for a "friend"? 

Awful lot of people “asking for a friend” … in old-fashioned plague prevention style I trust that the infection shall not come here to these hallowed halls of resonance 🧐

[NancyJohnson]

21 hours ago, bass_dinger said:

Do they do Gibson 335-type guitars? Asking for a friend...

 

While I didn't use them for this, I have been perusing Cathy's Custom Guitars on Facebook.  They don't sell from the page, you need to PM one of the site mods.  They seem to do four main (Gibson copy) guitars, Les Paul, SG, Vees and Explorers, although I gave seen 335.

 

 

[tauzero]

21 hours ago, Gizmo said:

DO NOT trust the image/statement of "Free returns for poor quality items"  Ali CS is total S**T, they do not understand basic English and do not even understand their own returns/refunds policy....

 

https://www.trustpilot.com/reviews/6826228a820a6532874c4ed0

 

If you are going to chance a higher price item then make sure paypal have your back (also a word of warning on Paypal CC payments...they only offer 6 months cover if you use a CC to make payment via PP, not the full 12 months that your CC provider has to offer, only PP balance payments are given full cover by paypal money back)

 

One case of poor handling and that condemns AliExpress entirely?

[Gizmo]

2 minutes ago, tauzero said:

 

One case of poor handling and that condemns AliExpress entirely?

 

You didn't bother to check the other neg reviews @ TP of Ali then ? guess not........Also prior to ****ing me over for £14 return postage id spent about £5k with aliexpress in the previous 3 years (i built x2 CNC machines with parts from Ali seller) so if that's how they treat what they themselves consider to be a "Premium" Customer well as they say...pay your money make your choice....  

[Geek99]

36 minutes ago, tauzero said:

 

One case of poor handling and that condemns AliExpress entirely?

Agree 

I’ve never had a problem - the chat translation is fairly good too

[Gizmo]

1 hour ago, Geek99 said:

Agree 

I’ve never had a problem - the chat translation is fairly good too

 

Yep as i say all good till it goes bad, Im not saying don't buy from Ali, im just saying all their claims of having your back when shit hit the fan are pretty much BullshitAnd yep the Eva bot is pretty good at basic stuff but forget any form of quality human CS...Carry on

 

 

[Geek99]

Tbh I’ve always had decent human cs. Not perfect, neither is eBay but reasonable 

[NancyJohnson]

I've found another guy who bought the same model through the same seller and he seems fine with it.  Five week delivery, only criticism seemed to be lack of comms post purchase.

 

Electronically, the plan (assuming it arrives and arrives in one piece!) is to whip out the humbuckers and drop in a pair of Warman P94 pickups and pop in the appropriate pots (assuming it's shipped with 500k pots, I'll install 250k ones to subdue the higher frequencies.  Might be interesting to source some 300k or 330k pots...best of both worlds.

 

Beyond this, dependent in what's supplied, bridge and machine heads, but who knows, they may be great.

[prowla]

I've been considering one of the similar shaped 8-string basses (partly inspired by @Wolverinebass's).

[Wolverinebass]

6 hours ago, prowla said:

I've been considering one of the similar shaped 8-string basses (partly inspired by @Wolverinebass's).

To be fair, mine was a Warmoth body and neck and it was one of the last Explorers Warmoth made before Gibson said, "we've got lawyers you know." Sadly, Warmoth don't even make the 8 string neck anymore either, so that sucks. I presume they didn’t sell enough to keep it on the roster of products.

[prowla]

49 minutes ago, Wolverinebass said:

To be fair, mine was a Warmoth body and neck and it was one of the last Explorers Warmoth made before Gibson said, "we've got lawyers you know." Sadly, Warmoth don't even make the 8 string neck anymore either, so that sucks. I presume they didn’t sell enough to keep it on the roster of products.

This is the one currently on eBay.

[Wolverinebass]

3 hours ago, prowla said:

This is the one currently on eBay.

You'll have to change the bridge otherwise it won't intonate. That's a 4 saddle bridge.

[Stub Mandrel]

1 minute ago, Wolverinebass said:

You'll have to change the bridge otherwise it won't intonate. That's a 4 saddle bridge.

I didn't think 8-string basses did intonation 🤣

[Wolverinebass]

20 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

I didn't think 8-string basses did intonation 🤣

Only Hagstrom think that which is why their 8 strings are crap and woefully out of tune above the 5th fret.