[quote=“sandman”]A pink paisely tele! I used to have one of those. And I can’t remember that chick’s name, but she rocks!
And did you get permission before putting up a pic of the chief in his younger days?[/quote]
ms ethridge to you
I was going to post all my difficulties obtaining informed consent, but I was afraid of taking this thread off topic.
I have a Takamine myself. I got it off of E-bay on my last visit home. I contacted them and here’s the info for the Tak dealer in Taiwan:
Galaxy Music Company ( Golden Ant music shop )
No. 37-1, Sec. 1, Jin-Shan south road, Taipei ( located between Ren-Ai road and Zhong-Xiao east road, and the nearest MRT is Zhong-Xiao / Xin-Sheng station ).
Tel: 02-2357-8665
Business hours: Monday - Saturday 10:00AM -10:00PM
Sunday 12:00AM-07:00PM
Though some were (or maybe still are) made here in Taiwan they aren’t as easy to find as you’d think here. Those I’ve seen have been over priced due to fancy inlays…
Tony’s goes from cheap to expensive but sadly doesn’t offer much in the way of mid range acoustics other than their line of Yamaha’s…
i was pointed here by a kindly Robot, and maybe I can bump this thread by asking,
Does Galaxy also sell (new and/or used) synths and rackmount synth modules? Or is there another shop that does this better?
Not all guitar shops are also keyboard/synth shops, like Tony’s.
<by the way, when I returned here after a 4 year hiatus I found that Tony himself had passed on… how sad… curse you, nonexistent god!!>
Somebody please give me English directions to Tony’s. I can’t read that gibberishy little map and I’m not sure where Chaozhou or Hangzhou is. 3 Maps and I can’t find it. Must buy gear. Must buy Gear. must buy XLR cable. Must buy Gear. Arg.
ATB: Hoping East Road Section 3, lane 308, No 18
Found it. Thanks Sula Vaca. I went there after work all fired up to but an audio interface for my mac and a cheap usb midi controller keyboard and some cables. I immediately had a shadow hovering about me. I asked him where the audio interfaces were and he pointed at a shelf with some various boxes on it. Then he stood there until I asked him to move out of the way so I could look at them. Sheesh! The one I wanted had been previously opened (I have a taboo about buying electronic gear that has been opened) and had a whopping price tag of 500 usd. Since this item has been around for a couple of years the price has gone down slightly and it can be bought online (from the states if they’ll ship it) for 300 now. I told him this and he told me I was wrong. So then I asked him about cheapo usb keyboard controllers and if there was anything used like a rental return or something and he showed me that stuff. No used stuff but another overpriced option. Again, I had to ask him to move out of the way so I could look at it. Weird. I didn’t even bother asking about the cables. The dust or something got in my nose and I had an allergy problem so I left soon after that. Actually, my helper did get distracted by somebody else long enough for me to look at the big selection of guitars and wander around and look at stuff. Kind of brought me back to the days when I would hit music stores to finance things like guitar pedals and mic stands because I had no money. There was even a guy riffing some metallica somewhere.
Anyway, I want to buy a Presonus Firebox and a some kind of inexpensive keyboard so I can further my mucking about in Garageband and start recording some of my ideas and progress. M-audio has a distributor in Jong He but I’ve read the best reviews on the Presonus gear. I guess I will try to order online (I don’t like to order stuff online) but hate to do that so if anyone knows of another place to shop for this kind of stuff I would be grateful.
My intention wasn’t to rag on the hapless sales associate or anything, just to illustrate how much I love shopping here. Why do they do that?
I hate guitar shops… don’t go there looking for metalheads cause all you will find is stupid salesman trying to sell you expensive junk and ignore you when all you wanted is to browse (and gets in the way too). I know Guitar Center isn’t perfect but I would shop at Guitar Center in a heartbeat… at least they don’t bug you about not plugging things in or turning something too loud. I tried to demo a tube amp at Player’s (close to shi-da, near the Underground, went there since I was seeing 666 so might as well), all they had was a THD univalve, costs 50K, guys there really squeamish about letting me turn it up and crank it to see how it sounds, saying that most buyers “knows” how it sounds… SEESH!
I don’t buy gears from any stores anymore… I order them online and take my chances with custom… until things improve I will continue to patronize businesses in the States… at least they do care about customer satisfaction. Stuff I build beats Fender’s custom shop junk hands down and I only spend 25,000NT on the build where you’d spend 50,000 easily on a custom shop.
Things just suck for electronic stuff cause the TW gov puts a huge tax on them, and unlike amps you can’t really label keyboards as parts… but then again I never gotten taxed on a postal shipment so…
I don’t know diddly bout guitars, but I just read a great article in the New Yorker about master guitar-maker Ken Parker.
I was hoping to share with you a link to that fascinating article, but apparently it’s not online yet.
newyorker.com/reporting/2007 … act_bilger
Too bad, it was fascinating.
Here’s his revolutionary “Fly” guitar
Looks funky, but apparently (a) it’s far superior to anything you guys are playing and (b) you couldn’t afford it anyway. 
You can listen here to a nice audio summary of Parker and his guitars, with a sampling of some great guitarists playing his various guitars.
This is seriously old news. When I was in high school and read Guitar Player magazine, some Richie Sambora clone on the cover would always be holding a Parker Fly. The “awesomeness” of it was that you could flip a switch and it would sound “exactly” like an acoustic.
Then everyone realized that it would be cheaper just to buy an acoustic and an electric. And the Fly fell by the wayside.
You’re obviously not the only person who felt that way, because the Fly never did sell that well (have you ever actually played one though?)
But the guy must make some great instruments if he’s sold them to Pete Townshend, Paul Simon, Lou Reed, and Joni Mitchell.
I think the Parker Fly was the Toyota Prius of it’s day… kind of trying a bit too hard, but flash and cool enough to be desirable due to said punters on the covers of guitar mags… I think Parker was handing them out free to any guitar celeb who’d be seen with one, hoping to milk the hype and make them the next big thing… but in the end it was the obscene price that prevented it from ever really being more than a novelty… I’ve played one before, it sounds nice enough in both it’s modes, but that’s it, not worth anything even close to the NT$80k plus asking price…
I’m surprised to hear that canucktyuktuk had a bad impression of ATB’s staff… I usually find them fairly amiable and non-pushy at least… infinitely better than the “were in a gang and you’re not in it” Tai-ke schlock-rock dudes who run most of the Taichung guitar stores…
I do not believe any guitar should be worth more than 1000 US dollars, unless it has some VERY exotic wood that are expensive, even then no more than 2000. I personally would not buy any guitar over 1000 dollars because of this. I think that sound is more in the person’s hand and a complete novice would never sound good even if he owns everything Eddie Van Halen uses… and if Eddie Van Halen plays a cheap 100 dollar squirer out of a cheap 50 dollar amp, he will still sound like Eddie Van Halen. I still think that the Fender Stratocaster is very good because the pickguard allows an infinite configuration and since it is the most copied guitar in the world, replacement parts are readily available. I build my Stratocaster type guitar for less than 800 US dollars and I can tell you with good confidence that it beats guitars off the shelf 4 times the price.
I think a lot of custom and other builders needs to realize that high price tags means no sale, because there are plenty of korean or chinese copies that are only 5% worse than their 2000 dollar counterparts. Why pay 2000 or more when you can have a guitar that is only 5% worse and it costs only 300 or less?
I’ve had a couple cheapo strat copies that came with some good parts. I simply swapped out the parts that I didn’t like with better ones, like pickups, machine heads, bridge saddles, nut, etc. I’m with rahimiii on this one.
Now if I could only play worth half a damn…
[quote=“canucktyuktuk”]I’ve had a couple cheapo strat copies that came with some good parts. I simply swapped out the parts that I didn’t like with better ones, like pickups, machine heads, bridge saddles, nut, etc. I’m with rahimiii on this one.
Now if I could only play worth half a damn…[/quote]
Are you anywhere near Taipei? I want to form a band consisting of somewhat inexperienced people so we can like learn from each other… I can’t play worth a damm either… at least not at the right timing…
I like Fenders, I really do, they are great guitars and every rock guitarist that I think matters plays (or played) a Fender… BUT… regrettably sometime between the 50’s and today Fender have become just another american corporate behemoth… When Fender started making strats in Japan and Mexico, they didn’t drastically up the quality and materials of their US models, they just started making (deliberately) crappier versions of their guitars in Mexico and charging what they used to charge for their better made in the US models, then they just bumped up the US models prices a whole bunch… Now you can’t get a US strat or tele for much under US$1200, they are beautiful guitars and the Fender name has more heritage and presitige than any other, but like Rahimiiii and catucktyuktuk I just don’t see where the money is going on their Vintage and especially Custom Shop guitars… You can order up parts and components from Warmoth and build a guitar that blows Fender Custom Shop US$6000 guitars out of the water for way under a third of the price… People who don’t understand what makes a great guitar (like drummers) don’t understand that, they only fall for the branding, but on any Fender these days you literally are paying 40% to 60% of the sticker price for the Fender decal on the headstock… That said last year I bought a Fender 60th Anniversary US Telecaster and it’s the best guitar I’ve ever owned (admittedly I had only ever owned crappy guitars) and at NT$38k it was a reasonable investment for the woods, components and craftsmanship on it… I really like the '57 reissue strats (not the ones with fake dents and scratches), but my dream strat will be coming from Warmoth’s, not Fender’s Custom Shop…
Which is probably at least 75% of the buyers. Its just good business sense. I’m sure Fender knows perfectly well that those who know better would prefer to buy from Warmoth, etc., but those people aren’t their market.
I only build guitars now, I don’t buy them anymore. That is unless I am buying a cheap knockoff as a backup guitar (I may or may not do this…). I can build a perfect replica of a vintage guitar for about 25K NT and that is NOT an exaggeration! I do paint my own guitar so… if you get Warmoth to paint for you add about 200-300 dollars to that price.
Thanks to all for the info on Tony’s. Dragonbabe and I went guitar shopping today. Tony’s is a nice shop, and the sales clerk “Nalu” (aboriginal name) was very friendly, patient and helpful. We wanted a decent entry-level nylon-stringed classical which has a nice sound and is comfortable to play, and ended up getting a lovely Yamaha CG101-A, listing at $5500. We also had the unexpected pleasure of meeting lurkky while there, and he was very helpful too – thanks! 
[quote=“chainsmoker”]A good place to buy a first guitar is under the bridge in the computer market on Bade Rd. Downstairs just on the left. Very decent guitars for NT$2,000-NT$3,000. For better guitars, I like the shop on the east side of Jinshan between Ren’ai and Zhongxiao.
Apa has a new location in Ximending as well.
Guitar lessons tend to cost NT$400-$700/hour
It is very difficult to find a good guitar teacher in Taiwan (or anywhere). You will need to look around a lot and be willing to change teachers.
BH: What are the basics of guitar? Depends on what the kid wants to play really. If he wants to play campfire songs, he can do that from a book. I think it will probably take years of lessons to get much out of it. The guitar is an extremely complicated instrument. You won’t learn much in 6-8 weeks.[/quote]
Hey Chaindude, you say there’s a place that sells guitars on bade? Do you have a sec and #? I’m complteeeltey illiterate.
I’ve been playing electric as a beginner, but after all the lessons, I find that I prefer to just play chords and sing, I paid a fortune for my rig, but I need an acoustic. 2k -4k NT sounds like a cheap acoustic. Pray tell.