New Javier Reyes LTD strat

[G_3_3_k_]

Twenty five odd years ago we were paying $3000+ to gamble on some random builder to make us an 8-string with fairly boring specs and they usually didn't show up.

Now we're complaining when something cool like this is regularly available from a mainstream manufacturer for $2400.



I don't care that it's made in a big, automation heavy factory in South Korea vs. a big, automation heavy factory in Japan or Poland or the United States. It's cool. It's different. It's going to hopefully be reasonably easy to get, and if it's shitty I can just ship it back.

Meant to reply to the yesterday, but somehow failed at foruming. It IS interesting how those big numbers are now scarier to people about a decade later when they were bigger numbers back then adjusted for inflation and people just risked it.

2 points:

A. You’re right. How much money has been paid and lost by members of this forum to builders that overcommitted or got greedy and failed to deliver? How many brands has it been now? BRJ? Sherman? DAR? That’s why I went with Oni. His builds are amazing, and he actually delivers instruments. Took 11 years for me to pull the trigger, but the consistency of delivery made me feel confident.

2. It almost doesn’t matter where a guitar is made anymore quality of end product wise. However, for my money, I’ll pay more for something that comes from a place where ethical practices are in place. Like, good pay for workers, good work/life balance, ethical lumber sourcing, etc. This is part of the quality of an instrument in my opinion. I understand why some people don’t do this, but I’m willing to have less guitars and feel great about how I spent my money.

Now imagine living in a country with expensive guitars and a government trying to turn the NHS into the American health care system.

Turn back while you still can.

 

[cardinal]

Same. My daughter went to the ER, and kept getting bills from different places, months later, and “explanation of benefit” forms, which A) didn’t explain shit, and B) weren’t “benefits” as I had to pay. I got sent to collections with one of the docs, because I thought I had paid it. There was the hospital bill, the doctor in the hospital, another doctor unaffiliated with the hospital, but worth it there, and a procedure from the hospital.

I’m gonna buy it his guitar, too. I’m going to wait til it actually hits the stores, though.

That's what happened to us. We got a nasty letter from one of them about non-payment because we hadn't realized we'd get so many separate bills for what I thought was the same thing. And I remember fuming because the hospital charged some type of facility fee for the doctor seeing us in a hallway because there were no actual rooms available. I think we should have gotten some discount for that.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

Meant to reply to the yesterday, but somehow failed at foruming. It IS interesting how those big numbers are now scarier to people about a decade later when they were bigger numbers back then adjusted for inflation and people just risked it.

2 points:

A. You’re right. How much money has been paid and lost by members of this forum to builders that overcommitted or got greedy and failed to deliver? How many brands has it been now? BRJ? Sherman? DAR? That’s why I went with Oni. His builds are amazing, and he actually delivers instruments. Took 11 years for me to pull the trigger, but the consistency of delivery made me feel confident.

2. It almost doesn’t matter where a guitar is made anymore quality of end product wise. However, for my money, I’ll pay more for something that comes from a place where ethical practices are in place. Like, good pay for workers, good work/life balance, ethical lumber sourcing, etc. This is part of the quality of an instrument in my opinion. I understand why some people don’t do this, but I’m willing to have less guitars and feel great about how I spent my money.



Turn back while you still can.

I mean, these are being made in South Korea in the year 2023 (or 2024, gotta hope), not Sudan.

SK has an HDI above the United States, just under Japan.

 

[StevenC]

I mean, these are being made in South Korea in the year 2023 (or 2024, gotta hope), not Sudan.

SK has an HDI above the United States, just under Japan.

Exactly. Hyundai are dealing with a child labour scandal in Alabama not Seoul

 

[G_3_3_k_]

I mean, these are being made in South Korea in the year 2023 (or 2024, gotta hope), not Sudan.

SK has an HDI above the United States, just under Japan.

Oh no doubt man. I’m actually looking at moving to Japan now. Cost of living in some cities there is lower than where I’m at and pay is better. I’ve worked in IT for 10 years, have certs. And I can’t find a job to beat my 52k/yr salary. Yet my rent has gone from $900 a month to $1600 a month in the last three years. Guess how much my pay has gone up…

 

[narad]

Oh no doubt man. I’m actually looking at moving to Japan now. Cost of living in some cities there is lower than where I’m at and pay is better. I’ve worked in IT for 10 years, have certs. And I can’t find a job to beat my 52k/yr salary. Yet my rent has gone from $900 a month to $1600 a month in the last three years. Guess how much my pay has gone up…

Yea, but how big is your house/apartment?

 

[Hollowway]

@narad lives in 900 square feet - 750 of which is occupied by his amp wall.

 

[G_3_3_k_]

Yea, but how big is your house/apartment?

Only about 800 square feet. I don’t mind small living spaces. Not the first time I’ve looked into moving there. About 17 years ago, I got to the point where I was looking at a holiday work visa and apartments in areas we might have opportunity in. And again in 2012 I think? No 2013…. I was actively looking for the possibility of a transfer to Japan through work.

I honestly don’t have a lot of stuff other than music stuff anyway. And the things that would be too much I don’t mind getting rid of. I’d mostly be bringing guitar stuff, clothes, XBox, PS, the rest I’d get there. I’m old enough and have moved across the US enough times to know to plan well. Know the cost of things realistically before pulling the trigger.

 

[G_3_3_k_]

@narad lives in 900 square feet - 750 of which is occupied by his amp wall.

Amps and a futon…. What else do you need?

 

[StevenC]

Amps and a futon…. What else do you need?

Somewhere for me to sleep, which is why narad is getting a new apartment.

 

[CanserDYI]

Somewhere for me to sleep, which is why narad is getting a new apartment.

"Yeah babe, I know you begged for a few years and complained about sleeping on a bed of guitar cases, but when Steven came it really showed me where my priorities are and I think it's time I got a bigger place."

 

[StevenC]

"Yeah babe, I know you begged for a few years and complained about sleeping on a bed of guitar cases, but when Steven came it really showed me where my priorities are and I think it's time I got a bigger place."

This is, without exaggeration, exactly what happened.

 

[G_3_3_k_]

This is, without exaggeration, exactly what happened.

I actually did some digging. I can get an apartment just like the one I live in here in San Antonio. Sans one closet. For less money. In Chiba. It’s not directly in Tokyo, but close enough. Similar prices in Kyoto. Which is the other area I’d like to live in.

 

[StevenC]

I actually did some digging. I can get an apartment just like the one I live in here in San Antonio. Sans one closet. For less money. In Chiba. It’s not directly in Tokyo, but close enough. Similar prices in Kyoto. Which is the other area I’d like to live in.

Do it! narad wouldn't let me play his Oni.

 

[G_3_3_k_]

Do it! narad wouldn't let me play his Oni.

I show mine off to anyone who wants to play them. More hands on them means more orders for Dan. They’re meant to be played.

Probably won’t be any time super soon. I have to finish learning the language, and I have to sort out the fact that I’m a single parent. And how that will work. One of my kids is obsessed with Japan, and wants to live with me all the time anyway. The other barely comes over. She just prefers her mom. But the school system there is much better than here. By orders of magnitude. She’d go into college bilingual. There are a lot of benefits to it. On the other hand it might be a fight with her mom. So it’ll have to be a very informed and calculated operation.

 

[Alberto7]

As someone who is thinking of potentially moving countries (not to Japan), going on a trip (yes to Japan) within the next 2 years, and getting an Oni within the next year (hopefully), this thread has become much more interesting than the Javier guitar. Narad's guitar store apartment sounds like a magical place. Btw my apartment is like 870 sqft, can I be part of the fun too, pwease.

 

[StevenC]

As someone who is thinking of potentially moving countries (not to Japan), going on a trip (yes to Japan) within the next 2 years, and getting an Oni within the next year (hopefully), this thread has become much more interesting than the Javier guitar. Narad's guitar store apartment sounds like a magical place. Btw my apartment is like 870 sqft, can I be part of the fun too, pwease.

The tones are good but the sleep is lackluster.

 

[MoistTowelette]

Twenty five odd years ago we were paying $3000+ to gamble on some random builder to make us an 8-string with fairly boring specs and they usually didn't show up.

Now we're complaining when something cool like this is regularly available from a mainstream manufacturer for $2400.



I don't care that it's made in a big, automation heavy factory in South Korea vs. a big, automation heavy factory in Japan or Poland or the United States. It's cool. It's different. It's going to hopefully be reasonably easy to get, and if it's shitty I can just ship it back.

South Korea is at Japanese mass production levels of quality anyways. World music can make a damn fine guitar and they’re charging accordingly. There’s a reason PRS picked everything up and moved to Indonesia.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

South Korea is at Japanese mass production levels of quality anyways. World music can make a damn fine guitar and they’re charging accordingly. There’s a reason PRS picked everything up and moved to Indonesia.

It hasn't been an issue with location in decades. The only reason that a guitar made one place is better than one made in another is because the final QA/QC is more stringent, and that comes down to money and not aptitude.

Which is why it doesn't matter where PRS gets the SE stuff made, they have an entire facility charged with doing QA/QC and rework.

Most of the price allowance is because each generation of player cares less and less about where stuff is made and cares more about the features and price.

 

[OmegaSlayer]

Amps and a futon…. What else do you need?

History of my life

I read of apartments about 800 square feet...I live in a flat that is 262 square feet and my room with books, CDs, guitars, and everything is short of 30 square feet...

And yes, I removed the bed and use some kind of futon to sleep, for REAL