Hell Guitars

[Duffy]

That would be neat to be able to own a nice guitar manufactured by a forum member.

[duhvoodooman***]

So when are we gonna see a model & price list?

[FrankenFretter***]

Well, this is working out very well, timing wise. The tax return and company bonus are coming up in about 5 to 7 weeks, so I expect to be ready to order my own personal Hell at that time. I may be talking to you about a one-off, Syo. I'm very excited about your dreams reaching fruition! Congratulations!

[syo***]

Thanks all for the encouraging comments. I am excited and, I must say, at the moment a little drunk...
I arrived at my hotel not far from the factory this evening and was graciously hosted by the owner and representatives of the company for dinner. As is always the case in these situations it is obligatory to drain the glass after each toast. Must say that tonight I drained quite a few...

I'll go to the factory tomorrow morning to check all of the guitars. Hopefully all will be as it should be.

And now sleeping sounds like a good idea...

[Duffy]

Syo,

It would be of great interest to some of us to see some photos from inside the factory of the process and the guitars, if you can get some and are willing to post a few. I know some of us are great intellects, but none of us are trying to steal your intellectual property - I don't think. ? . ? Er, ah, yeah - some pictures would be real nice.

Seriously. Some pictures would be really neat. I don't suppose the Chinesse factory managers would complain, but, of course, I don't know. Maybe they have manufacturing secrets that they don't want pictures taken of for whatever reasons. Manufacturing standards within the factories, labor policies, environmental policies, etc., may not be exactly what most of us would expect to see.

So if you can't produce any pictures, we understand. They would be definitely cool though, and appreciated.

When is your catalog going to be available, as well as etimated US prices and availability dates? Very few of us will be able to go to NAMM and I imagine the news will be thin with little or nothing about your guitars readily available.

I'm assuming you will be at NAMM unveiling your products?

[syo***]

Syo,

It would be of great interest to some of us to see some photos from inside the factory of the process and the guitars, if you can get some and are willing to post a few. I know some of us are great intellects, but none of us are trying to steal your intellectual property - I don't think. ? . ? Er, ah, yeah - some pictures would be real nice.

Seriously. Some pictures would be really neat. I don't suppose the Chinesse factory managers would complain, but, of course, I don't know. Maybe they have manufacturing secrets that they don't want pictures taken of for whatever reasons. Manufacturing standards within the factories, labor policies, environmental policies, etc., may not be exactly what most of us would expect to see.

So if you can't produce any pictures, we understand. They would be definitely cool though, and appreciated.

When is your catalog going to be available, as well as etimated US prices and availability dates? Very few of us will be able to go to NAMM and I imagine the news will be thin with little or nothing about your guitars readily available.

I'm assuming you will be at NAMM unveiling your products?

Duffy, when I was in the factory today I took some pics to post however they were taken by my mobile phone so I will have to wait until I return home to post them as I didn't bring my micro SD adapter with me. The factory has nothing to hide and neither do I but of course I would rather not announce the name of the company we are working with. As for labor/environmental standards, I am quite confident that we are dealing with a responsible partner. That is part of the reason they were chosen.

Today was a very good visit. I test played most of the guitars and they were all as I had hoped they would be. The company has been very responsive to our needs and have delivered according to our rather high expectations. I still have further inspections to do in the morning but thus far I have been very impressed.

Also, I discovered that they are now making both electric and acoustic guitars for another major US manufacturer. Some very nice guitars of which I played a few.

Regarding NAMM, I was initially planning to exhibit this year however we got rather got behind schedule. So we plan to have a booth next year but we will launch in the meantime.

Hopefully Duffy, I'm making sense as I've had another rather drink-filled company dinner. After morning inspections I will fly to Beijing for other business and then to L.A. the following evening for NAMM where I hope to meet our own Mr. Renman. I've never met a fretter before let alone Die Meister Fretter himself...
Looking forward to it and the warm L.A. weather...

[bcdon***]

Hopefully Duffy, I'm making sense as I've had another rather drink-filled company dinner.

Sounds like you are having a good time to me!

[Duffy]

Syo,

No Syo. I didn't at any time suspect you might have anything to hide, and I look forward to seeing your new line of guitars launch successfully. Too bad you couldn't have a place at the trade show. I wish I was going to the show. Sounds like a lot of fun and a learning experience for sure. I can only imagine the show that Gibson and Fender put on, plus some of the others that are heavy on the advertising.

I hope someone gives us a review of the show. It would be more than interesting.

Anyway I'm sure that more than a few of us will enjoy looking at the factory pictures where your guitars are being made. It is very interesting watching a forum member develop, manufacturer, and bring his guitar to market. More than a handful of us should be interested in possibly acquiring one, as they hit the market.

Do you have any major distributors lined up yet or are you going to start out slow or even by yourself, taking and filling orders?

Sounds like you had your share of fun during the business trip.

[tjcurtin1]

Syo - you have GOT to get some of your guitars in the hands of the man at Dolphin street to demo! Who else would do them the justice they deserve?! I can see/hear it now! I was going to suggest that even before I read that you were going to meet up at NAAM, which of course makes it a natural.

Best success with the introduction of your new offspring!

Ted

[syo***]

Sounds like you are having a good time to me!

Well, I must confess that I'm a bit out of practice. After a youth of healthily enjoying inebriants I have let my drinking muscles go a bit soft. Still, I did enjoy myself and managed to avoid a hangover so I guess I was two for two. Funny, when I got back to the hotel, I was contemplating a bath before bed when I read this sign above the tub:

Kindly Notice
Dear Guests:
Please kindly note that don't use bathtub when you have drunk,
feel not so good and catch hypertension or heart disease. We
sincerely with you are always in good health, enjoy your living!
Thanks for your attention!

I decided I didn't want to risk catching hypertension or heart disease so
I skipped the bath. As I am still alive and "enjoying my living" I think I made
the right choice.

Honestly after years of doing business over here, maybe I should write a book...

[bcdon***]

Honestly after years of doing business over here, maybe I should write a book...

LOL! I love Engrish! http://www.engrish.com/



This should help you, syo!

[Ch0jin]

Honestly after years of doing business over here, maybe I should write a book...

Do it man! When you become the next Leo Fender, that thing will be GOLD!

I kid of course. I did a lot of business in Malaysia and you just don't see the crazy "engrish" (hoping thats not actually a derogatory term) there so I wondered what it was all about. Went to Japan, still nothing like the funnies you see online.

Then I went to China and saw it everywhere!

This is one of my favourites from a restaurant I wandered into in Beijing (with REALLY good food mind, if you are interested I'll dig up the details, but it's basically next to Hooters


Does the pot do the child sacrificially? by Ch0jiN, on Flickr

Of course I ordered and ate it and I have to say "Doing Pot" then "Sacrificing Children" results in a mighty tasty meal!!!

If you click on my flickr link there there are couple more from the same place including the classic dish "Steamed Sausage with the Old God Mother Steams"

Anyway sorry, this was about guitars

[Ch0jin]

Well, I must confess that I'm a bit out of practice. After a youth of healthily enjoying inebriants I have let my drinking muscles go a bit soft. Still, I did enjoy myself and managed to avoid a hangover so I guess I was two for two.

You did well! In Malaysia on business I was usually the only, or one of two western guys at dinner with Japanese, Chinese and Malaysian colleagues and they seemed to think that as I'm like 6'3" and 230lbs (190/105), I should be able to drink substantially more than any of them. So not wanting to offend, and in the spirit of the thing, I'd always end up with the guys topping me up over and over again.

Man, after a while just hearing the words "Gan Bei" or "Kam Pai" made me feel tipsy haha.

[bcdon***]

Looks yummy! BTW, 'Engrish' is not derogatory; nor is 'Frenglish' for any of our French brothers. I'm sure there are appropriate words for us English speakers when we mis-speak one language or the other... Anyway, back to guitars!

[Robert****]

Man, that's hilarious!

I'm still laughing.

[syo***]

Update time...
I just received word that my first production run is about to ship. I'm very excited.

I also received pictures of the individual guitar packaging. This was produced at a factory separate from the guitar factory. Unfortunately, my company name has changed to Hell "Guilars". This is a problem as I don't own the Trademark to "Hell Guilars" although I'm pretty sure it's not taken. I mean what the hell is a "Guilar" anyway?!



They even changed my logotype. Why?! Makes my company look like a knockoff of itself. Must fix immediately!

[Robert****]

Oh man! Somebody screwed up!

[bcdon***]

Update time...

I also received pictures of the individual guitar packaging. This was produced at a factory separate from the guitar factory. Unfortunately, my company name has changed to Hell "Guilars". This is a problem as I don't own the Trademark to "Hell Guilars" although I'm pretty sure it's not taken. I mean what the hell is a "Guilar" anyway?!d

They really messed up because you got my order! And it was supposed to say 'Gell Guilars!' which is the name of my Syo-designed rip-offs. ;-)

Kidding aside, how exciting! Can't wait to here more!!

[syo***]

They really messed up because you got my order! And it was supposed to say 'Gell Guilars!' which is the name of my Syo-designed rip-offs. ;-)

LOL
Funny, I went to high school with a guy named Gell Guilars. He was from Paraguay. Nice chap...

Actually, this wouldn't be such a big deal except for the fact that the Chinese New Year Holiday starts in 3 days. This means that all manufacturing (for me anyway) pretty much stops for a good 3 weeks as the entire country is at home with their families at this time. We planned this run to ship before the holidays and now I'm not sure what to do.

On a side note, many years ago in my first art director position for a small record company, I made a similar mistake. On our first full color catalogue that I designed, I failed to catch a rather important typo. On the back page, was the logo which read, (Co. Name) "Reords". The error was discovered by a guy in shipping after we had printed 5,000 of them (not cheap at all in those days). That was my most traumatic work moment ever...