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Want to buy an electric guitar in China? Read on.

Supply

Many of the large guitar company’s less expensive guitars are built in China including Epiphone, Fender, Ibanez, Schecter and others. The sub-contractors have, shall we say, endeavored to borrow the designs they make for others enabling them to offer electric guitars that look like well-known brands at favorable prices. Some retain the brand name and some have changed the brand name but the style is obvious. The knockoffs may have difficult action or high action, definitely have the cheapest electronics, and the added novelty of, for example, “Floyd Rose” misspelled as Floyd Rosd. Speaking of floating tremolos, the cheapest ones don’t have the fine tuning screw. Well, the screw is there, but it does not work. I always block Floyds, but I digress.

So, there are plenty of electrics here to choose from.

And demand

If you prefer a high end or authentic brand name guitar you will pay more here because it is an import. If you don’t want to risk flying with your favorite Les Paul you could buy one here, or buy a similar Epiphone or buy a fake for a song. Well, a song and one or two hundred dollars. It goes without saying the $100 Epi won’t match your LP, but if you’re like many players nothing will match your favorite axe.

If you’ll settle for anything (I’m not criticizing, I sometimes do the same) you can spend less than $100 or about 70 British pounds and be quite happy for little cash. On Taobao you can find a fake a Stratocaster with a usable amplifier for less than $100.