The Steel Guitar Forum

Saw this in another section. How can you go wrong. Shipping is a bit high, but the guitar is a bit low!

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Hawaiian-Acoust ... 0308262861

the shipping is exorbitant. that's how they have a low BIN price.

I just emailed the seller to see if local pickup is possible. Wildomar is one town south of Lake Elsinore. 5-10 minutes by pickup truck.

The shipping calculator seemed reasonable and very lightly padded using my zip. ($19.95) That's about a base rate for UPS ground for something of this size. I'd really just like to go look at one first if possible.

RH

$50 for shipping. Yikes! Double Yikes!!!

G

I posted this in the other section. Obviously the seller's padding the shipping by about 50%, but so what? I know that tweeks people, but it still works out to be less than half of what the guitar goes for otherwise. Ironically the seller would probably do better with a $125-150 BIN and charging actual shipping.

But I'm not entirely unsympathetic with the guy: although I never charge more than out-of-pocket for shipping, it can be a helluva lotta work to find the right boxes, pack guitars or other delicate items with care, drag the item off to the shipper, stand in line, etc. I've never spent less than an hour, and usually more like two hours, in that process, and wouldn't mind getting paid for it.

Wow, I had been looking for Weissenclones to practice repair work on; it would be worth it to buy a couple of these and cave the tops in!

The seller got back to me a few minutes ago. I'm going to pic one up tomorrow just for kicks. I'm not prone to buying imports like this one but I am curious to see how this thing sounds and how it is built.

RH

Rich,

That's to cool, thanks for the field report....until now the lowest I have seen one was $250+ shipping! I wonder what brand they are?

I just sent off for one. We'll see how good they are. I built a Weissenborn a couple of years ago and the materials alone cost more than they're charging.

Curious ... shipping shows only $19.95 to me. I wonder if Ebays shipping calculator is wonky.
Perhaps get a shipping quote from the seller if the shipping looks out of line.

Tom Pettingill wrote:Curious ... shipping shows only $19.95 to me. I wonder if Ebays shipping calculator is wonky.
Perhaps get a shipping quote from the seller if the shipping looks out of line.

The calculator is based on zip codes: the closer you live to the seller, the lower the cost.

Rich Hlaves wrote:Wildomar is one town south of Lake Elsinore. 5-10 minutes by pickup truck.

The shipping calculator...using my zip. ($19.95) That's about a base rate for UPS ground for something of this size. I'd really just like to go look at one first if possible.

RH

Tom Pettingill wrote:Curious ... shipping shows only $19.95 to me. I wonder if Ebays shipping calculator is wonky......

You guys gotta go get one or two and check em out over some beers together!LOL

I'll post back after I get the guitar later this afternoon.

I'm all for getting together and jamming a bit. Matter of fact, Next Memorial Day I will be hosting my second anual Jam, pool party & BBQ at my place in Wildomar. The first one in '08 worked out great althouugh the only steel guy was me.

RH

I know where Rich is located, where are you from Tom?

Rich, I'm curious about what you think of your new acquisition.

Well, I've had the little Weisenborn home for about two hours or so and haven't put it down! I'm a satisfied customer.

This guitar import business is a test marking project to see if quitars of this price range and guality are salable here in the US. The business is run by Cash Calloway and his wife Vicki. Cash is a guitar player and collector. He loves old National Resos as well as vintage carved top jazz guitars. Sweet people I was very pleased to meet.

The Wish-n-born as Cash and Vicki call is is exactly as described in the eBay listing. It is a plywood mahogany guitar. It is well braced and well turned out for the price. The tone is well balanced with a little hump in the mids. Volume is good, more than I expected. String spacing is a total 2" at the bridge and 1 9/16 at the mahogany (I think) nut. The binding is painted or silkscreen as it the rosette. There are no gaps or goofs in the guitar I recieved. The satin finish seems polyurethane and durable. The included gigbag is thin but is lined and offers some protection for transportation and storage. The guitar weighs in at 4 lbs.

The only negative I find is that a little more time could have been spent on the dot fret markers. a couple of them protrude above the fretboard. No big deal on a guitar of the price. This is not a custom guitar as built by Asher or others but it is very playable and sounds just fine. Here are a few pics so you can see a little more detail of the guitar.






















I really don't see how you can go wrong with one of these for a practice or travel guitar. I would have no problen putting a pickup in it and playing a gig with it. The deal is real, the people are nice, the instrument is well worth the price. My 2c.

Best,

Rich

Rich -

I ordered one too and it will ship down here to San Diego. I think maybe replacing the nut with bone and droping a Sunrise in it could make it be a satisfactory giging guitar. I have a real nice old Style 3, so I'll A/B then and let you know. I'm not expecting much at this price. I suspect the tuners are crappy pot metal and will fail at some point, but WTF.

glad to hear you met the sellers.

- Tom

It looks like a Vineyard; probably built at the same factory just without the Vineyard label. Some have reported inaccurate fretboard markings on these.

FWIW, I spent $223 for mine last year, and thought it was well worth the money then. $99 is a no-brainer!

Wow...it's very tempting. Looks like a great deal.

Any reason for the reverse wind on the tuners?

Yeah, that looks just like the Vineyard WSB100, aside from the dot-marker layout.

Definately will benefit from changing the nut & bridge material.
I always reverse-wind strings 1 & 6 on guitars with this tuner arrangement to get a straighter string-pull over the nut.
I'm not sure why you'd want to reverse-wind all the strings... possibly to avoid confusion.

I found the tuners to be quite naff, stick some kluson-style or sta-tites on there & you're away!

Eric Larson wrote:...Any reason for the reverse wind on the tuners?

Looking at the way the machine head is designed, winding them that way makes for a straight string right from the tuners to the bridge. If they had wanted to wind them the other way they would have drilled the holes in different places.

Yeah the tuners are cheap. They do have tention adjustment screws that where quite loose out of the box. For the time being the guitar is holding tune. I did adjust the tention on the tuners.

As for the string angles and tuning direction. String one and six are best in alighnment with the reverse direction as recieved. 2-5 would actually line up perfectly in a traditional wind direction. Although slightly slanted outward, I think I'm going to leave them where they are unless I replace the nut and cut new slots.

A couple of things I did not mention in the review post. The bridge is both glued and bolted to the top. It should stay put. There is no brand sticker or any identification on the guitar, not even one of those gold and chrome little "made in china" stickers.

RH

Thanks for the update Rich.

It's a real service to those of us curious and on the fence. I bit the bullet and bought one too!

Yeah, the hefty shipping may be because they pack well. Let's hope so as I am in Colorado and UPS doesn't really honor claims anymore.

Looks like a great value and as Alan said parts are more than the cost.

Chuck

Chuck,

Things come back to me as you guys ask questions and make statements. They double box for shipment. The guitar is in foam wrap, then its gigbag, then a triangular giutar box, then double box it.

I've had worse packing with good results, I think you will be fine.

Rich

The guitar is shipping today. I'll probably replace the tuners, bridge and nut.

Rich Hlaves wrote:...The binding is painted or silkscreen as it the rosette...

Inserting a proper rosette is a simple job for anyone who wants to do it. Rosettes are available ready-made. Cut a circle of wood the size of the soundhole and glue it into the hole. Then mark the center of the circle by taking two tangents and drawing a right angle. Then pull out your circle-cutting tool and cut a very shallow wide groove, the size of the rosette. Glue in the new rosette and then cut out the soundhole. You can do the whole thing with an Xacto knife if you don't have a hole-cutting tool. Anyone can do it.