NGD: Chapman Ghost Fret

[ExtremophileElite]

So on the thread I started over at the Chapman forum, there have been suspicions that the pots are not CTS as advertised. Here is a snippet of that:

I just checked and I'm 99.99% sure these are NOT cts pots. at least the volume isn't (tone is covered by split). Mine has stamped made in Korea, part number, no CTS stamp although it could technically fit under my ground solder, but highly unlikely, hence the 99.9%. At least the tuners are legit Hipshot....that's about it though so far...

So now we are 100% sure there isn't a Hipshot on the Ghost Fret, and there is evidence that the Schiller Strap Locks & CTS pots are faux.

****EDIT: Ghost Frets are not advertised with CTS pots everywhere. Andertons is currently advertising CTS but Chapman's website and Riff City Guitars are not.****

 

[A-Branger]

well to be fair all this drama just came up at the time the boys at Chapman Guitars jsut went off to USA for their west tour and latter NAMM show, and now probably dealing with the aftermath of namm.

Also remember these guys are a small company, they seem big due to the quick fame thanks to youtube Robs channel, but they still are a small company. So I bet you everyone involved was and has been "out of the office" for the last month or so.

Yes, they could have repply an email on the road. But who knows if they could having all the dates schedules and namm, plus who knows how many emails these guys get.


I do not think these guys are avoiding you as there is really nothing mayor to avoid, plus its an easy fix and apology, plus it looks bad for their business. I just think they havent even realised about the whole topic yet. I dont think they are aware of whats been happening


And although Rob is the creator, owner and face of the company, he probably doesnt deal with these kind of stuff. Maybe is his wife the one who deal with customer and dealers, or some other guy who has his hands full with other stuff. MAybe their little company is getting big way too fast for them to catch up and a problem like this just went under the radar without notice (not the wrong naming parts, but the emails and forum)

 

[ZERO1]

well to be fair all this drama just came up at the time the boys at Chapman Guitars jsut went off to USA for their west tour and latter NAMM show, and now probably dealing with the aftermath of namm.

Also remember these guys are a small company, they seem big due to the quick fame thanks to youtube Robs channel, but they still are a small company. So I bet you everyone involved was and has been "out of the office" for the last month or so.

Yes, they could have repply an email on the road. But who knows if they could having all the dates schedules and namm, plus who knows how many emails these guys get.


I do not think these guys are avoiding you as there is really nothing mayor to avoid, plus its an easy fix and apology, plus it looks bad for their business. I just think they havent even realised about the whole topic yet. I dont think they are aware of whats been happening

No they have been made aware of. A guitar tech who works at andertons has said he told them of the issues that people have found. This was posted on the chapman thread btw. Also not just that hipshot rep has also talked to chapman himself at namm. So we are waiting for them to respond...

 

[ExtremophileElite]

I just think they havent even realised about the whole topic yet. I don't think they are aware of whats been happening

On the thread I started over at the Chapman forum, we have had direct contact with a man who has regular contact with Rob Chapman, and has told us that they are aware of the situation. Also, Hipshot and Chapman Guitars had a meeting at NAMM regarding the issue.

So its probably a busy schedule more than anything, but even poor customer service can usually resolve or at least ADDRESS an issue in a month's time.

 

[ExtremophileElite]

No they have been made aware of. A guitar tech who works at andertons has said he told them of the issues that people have found. This was posted on the chapman thread btw. Also not just that hipshot rep has also talked to chapman himself at namm. So we are waiting for them to respond...

Beat me to it.

 

[Chokey Chicken]

What a cluster..... How non-observant can you be to miss two to three parts being wrong. I do however think a little more time is in order since there's still a bunch of namm dust settling.

Still a shame that its taking so long to do so little.

 

[A-Branger]

On the thread I started over at the Chapman forum, we have had direct contact with a man who has regular contact with Rob Chapman, and has told us that they are aware of the situation. Also, Hipshot and Chapman Guitars had a meeting at NAMM regarding the issue.

So its probably a busy schedule more than anything, but even poor customer service can usually resolve or at least ADDRESS an issue in a month's time.

fair enough. As long as the proper people get notify of the matter, and not the "I told one guy who works at the store who is friend of Rob and the every now and them see him" kinda stuff


lets keep playing the waiting game them

 

[feraledge]

This has definitely gotten increasingly lame, it really just looks like they threw a bunch of hip product names on it and did none.
My money is on the TUSQ nut being the next one to be proven fake.
The checklist:

Maple three piece neck - through neck design
Book matched flame Canadian maple Arch top
See-Thru Black Gloss finish
Sapele mahogany wings
Hipshot locking tuners
Hipshot hardtail bridge
Reveal binding
22 extra jumbo frets
24 3/4 scale
Thin C Neck Contour
TUSQ nut
Seymour Duncan ’59 (neck) and Duncan Distortion (bridge)
CTS pots
NYXL 10 - 42
Deluxe Black 'Dragon Skin' hard case
Schaller Strap locks included

Next thing you know, we'll find out the case wasn't made from real dragon skin.


EDIT: Redacted misstatement about the lack of an arch top, two more posts follow.

 

[DragonGuitar]

Next thing you know, we'll find out the case wasn't made from real dragon skin.

You think so?

I am still in the "they probably are recovering from NAMM, etc, will get around to it pretty soon" camp, but this is starting to make me lose respect for the brand if all of these misadvertised parts aren't what they say they are. I hope they have a good excuse for this. Otherwise, why not just sell Squier strats as Fender customs?

 

[feraledge]

I'm officially on the "WTF Chapman" bandwagon. This is just outright lying. If I bought an LTD 1000 series new and they shipped a 400 series, I'd be seriously irritated about it especially if the dealer said, "no that's a 1000".
None of these parts are really that expensive, Hipshot bridges retail at $60, CTS pots are like $6, TUSQ nuts are like $12, Schaller strap locks are $15. Their actual cost is a fraction of that, but if they're lying about that stuff (and also claiming to have NYXL strings, twice the cost of normal ones, my next go to on "are they really?"), then what else are they lying about?
And then Riff City, their US distributor who paid for them to travel across the States (I believe more than once) in a Chapman wrapped bus has this as the kicker line on their sales pitch:

With features like the Flame Canadian Maple arch top and the Hipshot hardtail, no guitar even comes close to this model.

I mean, really? You can see from half a mile it's not a Hipshot!

Here's the thing: it could have come with a $10 bridge, a cheap nut, whatever pots and standard strap pins, and still at $900 be a solid guitar that comes with a hardshell case. But when the specs just keep coming undone and everyone is playing stupid about it? Then yeah, it's just lying.

So when you read:

no guitar even comes close to this model.

That apparently includes this model itself.

EDIT: My mistake, I genuinely thought this was a flat top guitar and was corrected. There's a (I believe) 2-3 mm drop from the front pickup to the horns, very subtle, but indeed it is carved.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

I was checking their site... They actually DO have a fakeshot labeled correctly on the ML3 modern.

ML-3 Modern | Chapman Guitars

Chapman ‘Hard Tail Deluxe’ bridge

Not sure why BOTH Ghost Fret pages are wrong, but everything else is right.

 

[A-Branger]

weird thing is that in their website the other trem and bridges are correctly named

ML1 > Wilkinson WVPCR Tremolo

ML3 modern > Chapman ‘Hard Tail Deluxe’ bridge

ML3 traditional > Chapman ‘T Plate’ bridge

ML7 and ML-7 T > Hipshot hardware (pics show correct bridge)

ML1 PRO > Hipshot Tremolo (correct again)

but then you get to the

Special run Ghost Fret and normal Ghost Fret > Hipshot hardtail bridge??????

so why have that one wrong, when they had no problem at all to correctly named all the other guitars? Thats one big F## up


in other though with this topic, maybe everything would be corrected once the website gets updated, they are waiting for that?

 

[stevexc]

I
I mean, really? You can see from a mile it's a flat top guitar! You can see from half a mile it's not a Hipshot!

Wrong, the top is carved/arched in the Gibson sense, albeit subtly. approx. 4:15 in this video or thereabouts.


Seriously, this entire thread is a goldmine of overreaction and ridiculousness. It's pretty clear that seeing as how all of their other products ARE correctly described that the incorrect description for this single model was an error and not some kind of conspiracy to screw customers. If Canadollars were worth anything I'd put money on the listed specs being the original specs, and when they were changed for whatever reason the description (also sent to Andertons, owned by one of the co-owners of Chapman guitars) wasn't updated to fix that.

Should Chapman do something about that? Definitely. But the unfounded hate here is laughable. Like, Hipshot themselves only talked with Chapman this weekend. They've known for roughly 4-6 days, and according to Rob's Instagram they aren't even in the right continent yet to do much about it.

I also really enjoy the fact that ESP and Jackson, for instance, don't receive this much drama for their faulty product pages.

 

[feraledge]

Wrong, the top is carved/arched in the Gibson sense, albeit subtly. approx. 4:15 in this video or thereabouts.


Seriously, this entire thread is a goldmine of overreaction and ridiculousness. It's pretty clear that seeing as how all of their other products ARE correctly described that the incorrect description for this single model was an error and not some kind of conspiracy to screw customers. If Canadollars were worth anything I'd put money on the listed specs being the original specs, and when they were changed for whatever reason the description (also sent to Andertons, owned by one of the co-owners of Chapman guitars) wasn't updated to fix that.

Should Chapman do something about that? Definitely. But the unfounded hate here is laughable. Like, Hipshot themselves only talked with Chapman this weekend. They've known for roughly 4-6 days, and according to Rob's Instagram they aren't even in the right continent yet to do much about it.

I also really enjoy the fact that ESP and Jackson, for instance, don't receive this much drama for their faulty product pages.

I stand corrected! Thanks Stevexc.

Had I never watched the video nor held the guitar I would have never seen that "arch", but, it's definitely there. Redacting my previous statement, but not to try and hide it, just not to fuel other people making the same misassumption I have.

But I was in the same camp about other companies not getting this much flak, and yet 3 specs (so far) is a pretty good number to get wrong. Don't discount that.

 

[Chokey Chicken]

Its been way more than six days. OP brought it up to the Chapman folks and got a response a while ago. ....ing up on a spec sheet is one thing... being made aware of it and dragging your ass to remedy it is another.

It's just unprofessional.

 

[feraledge]

Should Chapman do something about that? Definitely. But the unfounded hate here is laughable. Like, Hipshot themselves only talked with Chapman this weekend. They've known for roughly 4-6 days, and according to Rob's Instagram they aren't even in the right continent yet to do much about it.

I also really enjoy the fact that ESP and Jackson, for instance, don't receive this much drama for their faulty product pages.

It's not like this is a side job for these dudes. The only reason we're talking about them is because they made a big hit doing gear demos and reviews for gear that they're selling. If you're going to have that be your claim to fame and then you can't get the specs right on your own guitar, then what are you worth?
But the 6 days thing is definitely out of line. They're touring another continent to demo and market this very guitar and a handful of others. Rob is using the Ghost Fret for his demos, including the one he did at NAMM, one of the biggest guitar shows in the world.
So if he's got a rep as a guitar nerd amongst guitar nerds and he needs an internet forum to tell him that the specs on his own guitar that he's holding and exhibiting daily to people with the intent to sell them on it are wrong, then that says something.
Maybe they should call a meeting with Hipshot about that?

But this is different than ESP and Jackson, they built their reputation building awesome guitars and then eventually sold a bunch of cheaper ones too. Chapmans is a luthier, they are guitar dorks (like us) who got enough of a following to have someone build the guitars they designed. And, again, even with all of this the Ghost Fret may be an awesome guitar and even a really awesome value, but it doesn't look good on a company born of the internet that they aren't responding or, worse, that they were waiting for enough people to complain before they chose to pay attention to it. A redacted statement (like the one I made above) even where those dudes live on Youtube, could clear the whole thing up and they would save face.
Really, how hard is it to sell an explorer? I knew the Epiphone 84 Reissue was junky, but I still almost pulled the trigger on it multiple times because, well, it's an 84 reissue! Just be honest!

 

[Fathand]

Has anyone considered this: The Ghost Fret should've had all the things they advertised - but WMI has screwed up?

Not trying to defend the Chapman guys (a mistake / faulty advertising is what it is, the one or the other), but given that WMI makes a boatload of guitars something like this could just be a production run slippage, faulty information from sales to manufacturing or a crap QC manager cutting costs from the wrong place etc.

And because they ship the guitars from the factory to the dealer direct they're pretty much only aware about the guitars they sell through Anderton's themselves. So for example, you US guys are depending on the Riff City people to know and verify the specs on the models they sell.

But if they got some bad feedback in the UK through Anderton's and their tech, and did nothing... well, that's a bummer.

 

[rewihendrix]

Has anyone considered this: The Ghost Fret should've had all the things they advertised - but WMI has screwed up?

Oh absolutely, I actually think that's what happened - a breakdown in communication between Chapman and WMI. WMI probably sent him some pics of the hardware along with a quote for pricing, and Chapman probably assumed it was what they specified, and were delighted that they could get hipshot hardware for that price.

Just that it's not hipshot hardware etc.

It's still their responsibility.

 

[feraledge]

Back to the waiting game...

 

[A-Branger]

Oh absolutely, I actually think that's what happened - a breakdown in communication between Chapman and WMI. WMI probably sent him some pics of the hardware along with a quote for pricing, and Chapman probably assumed it was what they specified, and were delighted that they could get hipshot hardware for that price.

Just that it's not hipshot hardware etc.

It's still their responsibility.

problem is they(he) plays the guitars, and the Ghost Fret is his favourite to play currently, and his has the korean bridge. He is a guitar nerd, he has all the different models at his place, so he can see and know the differences in the bridges

I recon He knows its a copy bridge, but doesnt know that the website info is wrong

I recon the msitake came from the web designer. Maybe in the first prototype Ghost fret it supposed to have the hipshot and it got changed at some point and the webdesigner didnt got the memo, and all the dealers copy/paste the info from the website. As we shown before they do list the correct names and parts for all the other guitars, its only the Ghost Fret the one with the problem