Korean Made Orvilles

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xstaygold

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Feb 14, 2005
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Location
anaheim, ca USA
how is the quality on these?
how do they compare to the japanese made ones?
what materials are the korean Orvilles made of?
what are the differences between the MIKs and the MIJs
 
Korean Orvilles ? Never heard of a Korean Orville. The ones I've owned from Japan were all made in the 80's. Nice guitars.
 
Korean are cheaper than the MIJ ones. Use the search there is numerous post about that. There is many nice information and stories to learn from that site. Read it all :lol:
 
Found the site, interesting stuff. I have always thought there were a lot of fake Orville/Burny /Greco's out there.
 
http://www.guitarsjapan.com/orvillegibsoninfopage.html. I love it !! They Asian "dealers" are just as full of **** as the Americans. One says none after 1993 , another has a 1998 on and says none before 1988. Remember kids, most of these sellers are nothing more than an ebay website.
 
The "Orville by Gibson " guitars production start in 1988 and stop in 1997 (according to Gibson japan).
 
That's why I stopped buying Japanese LP Copies, except for Tokai. As George Gruhn once said, there are more early fenders out there than now than when they were new.
 
When I first started buying them ( orv/bur/grec/ ) years ago I did so as a cheap alternative to the Gibsons I had. You didn't see many of them in the US prior to ebay- about 1998. There was just Guitargai then, and his prices were laughable. We all knew people thru the forums that were in Japan or went back and forth a lot that said these guitars were as cheap and plentiful as epi's were in the states. A lot of them were banged up due to the fact that they were never sold with hard cases, and were 20 years old. Soon others began selling them on ebay. The people in the states don't realise that there were, and are, dozens of correct headstock lp's in Japan with all sorts of names on the headstock. Yet all from 2 or 3 factories. And in the 80's most had long tenons not because it was expensive, but because that's the way they were made. Being made as inexpensive copies , and not future collectables, most were mutli piece bodies and tops, and solid color paint schemes. When they did make a "flametop" it was most always a veneer. I find it interesting that 20 years later so many of these things keep showing up for sale. And in such good shape for having never been in a hard case. Yet when we look to the US, how many 20 year old bradley's, corts, epi's ,etc, do you see? Headstock decals are easy enough to find on ebay. Would you know a fake Orville or Greco ? I don't think I would ,and yet I've owned a dozen of them. I think as the prices rise you'll see more of them. Real or not.
 
Yes it's amazing to see that the country that made the prices increase so much is precisely the country that was copied. There's a lot of snobbery there.
In Europe we have no choice: Gibson and Fender are so expensive, and they send us what's not good enough for the american market. And many american brands make their instruments in japan (Washburn, Gretsch) so it's better to buy directly a japanese brand.
 
Yes, most of the time, those japanese replicas re not in a too bad state. But japanese people are more respectfull toward their possessions.
Their might be some fake around but I'm sure once you'd get the guitar in the hand you'll see the trickery. No?
 
I think the Japanese exported all their cheap copies and kept their high end ones in country. I see the 800, 900 100 and 1200 series Grecos here, used, and they sell for more now than they did originally. Same with all the older MIJs...the Japanese have the web too and now know how sought after the old guitars are... and prices are going up accordingly.
 
It would be pretty hard for most Americans to tell a Burny from an Orville. For the most part you don't have anything here to compare it with. And after you paid the 125usd shipping you're not about to send it back and pay another 125usd. So I just stay away from them now. 5 years ago there was one guy doing it, now there's like 5. They must be making great money on these things because more keep popping up. And look at the amount of product these guys move. Like 15-20 Pieces a month. You ever sell 15 guitars in a month ? believe me, when you're moving that many overseas every month it's a full time job. I only do lefties- which are even rarer. years ago I would see one maybe every 3 or 4 months. Now I see one every other week. You almost never saw Edwards and Baccus over here, now all the time. I'm waiting for the Photogenic and Goodtimes ones to start coming over.
 
Yes but there is so many because the demand is increasing! And remember that it's the americans that made the prices increase so much :wink:
 
I`ve no idea how many guitars are sold on e-bay... very rarely go there and it`s always just to look... I`m happy buying on Yahoo Japan. Sellers are just trying to take advantage of the demand for MIJs, so I have to be really fast and jump on a guitar as soon as I see one I like `cause there are a lot more gaijins buyin em. Fortunately I`m in a smaller city and far less competition... but that also means a lot fewer choices in shops to go to. Still... I`ve been very lucky and found some genuine beauts. I`m a lucky guy.
 
20th century boy ...

hehe..thanks.. my prices are more expensive because they don't have 20% import tax in the US...plus mine are all in the UK and can be played before purchase...and its a lot cheaper to return one to london if you dont like it than japan...by the way all prices are negotiable of course...seriously tho...Ive played a lot of these 80's japanese guitars and I think compared to the gibsons I have owned ..quite a few..the qualitys the same ..: in my view ..the japanese copys are underpriced at the moment..
 
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