Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

How does Ali Express and its suppliers get away with this?
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/high-qua ... 4.1.kREl2H

I suspect you can get the site to delist it but you probably have to apply to whatever regulatory authority they have in China or Russia, legal and translation fees for that and however long it takes.

However, like ebay, as Alibaba (which is now publicly listed) gets bigger it gets more legit and they probably mover quickly to end the listing. It's just that it's a game of whack-a-mole (or "bash the rat" as we say in England) as it will just get relisted slightly differently.

in terms of stopping production that's got to go through legal channels and as i say may be expensive and more challenging. In the past manufacturers could keep this stuff out of shops but obviously now you can get them shipped straight from China it's a whole different ball game.

It's disappointing that a bunch of the fake Chinese Ricks are finally making it onto American soil. RIC did so well for a long time holding that back, but I suppose this was inevitable. The Rutherford doubleneck copies are especially horrendous.

Holy cow. They are actually branding them as Rics!

they look like pretty poor imitations.

12stringbassist wrote:Holy cow. They are actually branding them as Rics!

they look like pretty poor imitations.

No, this one's a "Rickenback" - that's way different.

Fear not. I'm sure Mr. JH and crew are on it.

iiipopes wrote:Fear not. I'm sure Mr. JH and crew are on it.

Dunno, they've had a copy of my 4001 paintjob for a couple years now.

There's not a lot they can do in a country that ignores U.S Copyright law and refuses to enforce it.

I'm afraid it's virtually unstoppable. And somewhere in the near future copies will get better than this.
I've seen imitations that are pretty close in look.

let's face it, of course the imitations are good. that's where most companies make their official imitations these days.

usually the woodwork is good but for some reason the assembly and electronics are not, although i've seen exceptions

parker_knoll wrote:let's face it, of course the imitations are good. that's where most companies make their official imitations these days.

usually the woodwork is good but for some reason the assembly and electronics are not, although i've seen exceptions

I'll somewhat abashedly admit to owning a dead-stock Epiphone Les Paul that I just can't bring myself to sell or upgrade, despite having stepped-up to Custom Shop Historics. I picked it up to try out a couple of years ago when helping a friend pick out a starter guitar. He ended up going for a Cherry Sunburst one, but I just couldn't pass this one up for $375 - I'm also a sucker for BlueBursts (see also avatar ). When I got it home, I found that it has some sort of interaction with my Peavey 5150 which results in an amazing, incredibly "woody" tone that I can't dial-in with any other guitar/amp combination - and I have tried many, many combinations.

Sometimes, they crank out gems. Problem is they're remarkably inconsistent, so if you buy online, you're fighting statistics. These guys can only exist online.

parker_knoll wrote:let's face it, of course the imitations are good. that's where most companies make their official imitations these days.

There's a difference. Those "official imitations" (Epiphone, Squier, MIK/MIC Fenders, PRS, etc.) are made to certain quality standards not to mention better working enviroments. These "chickenbackers" are made to do one thing: look close enough to the real deal. They don't play well, in most cases they can never be set up correctly and up close they're usually not that pretty. You're comparing overseas manufacturing made to meet a price point vs. overseas manufacturing made to cash in on brand identity.

good point. and no brand of their own to build through quality and customer reputation.

Grey wrote:

parker_knoll wrote:let's face it, of course the imitations are good. that's where most companies make their official imitations these days.

There's a difference. Those "official imitations" (Epiphone, Squier, MIK/MIC Fenders, PRS, etc.) are made to certain quality standards not to mention better working enviroments. These "chickenbackers" are made to do one thing: look close enough to the real deal. They don't play well, in most cases they can never be set up correctly and up close they're usually not that pretty. You're comparing overseas manufacturing made to meet a price point vs. overseas manufacturing made to cash in on brand identity.[/q

Epiphone is officially owned by Gibson, so they can make all the Epiphpne Les Pauls they want. Same with Squier and the others. But these Chickenbackers, and some "Gibsons" I've seen lately are completely unauthorized frauds made by unscrupulous builders. I've had my luthier show me some he's had in his shop, mostly Les Pauls that say "Gibson" on the headstock, and look for all the world like real Les Pauls. But he pointed out little things, like dot sidemarkers on the both sides of the neck, and other little details that give them away. Apparently many of these copy artists don't have a clue about the function of many things on a guitar, so they tend to do things and make little subtle mistakes most of us would not make, since we can actually play guitars.... We would KNOW not to put dot markers on the bottom side of the neck.

As far as quality fakers, you really have to go back to the lawsuit era instruments to find one. I had a Univox 4001 copy that the previous owner had put RIC pickups in and it looked like a real rick, played like a real rick and most importantly sounded like a real 4001. It was even neck through construction. One truss rod, of course.

The reason for that is back then, the companies making these were really interested in make nearly exact copies of the originals.

I never should have sold that bass.