Check us out!

If you like have a sense of humor, or you like metal, check out my new band, Sarcodine, at www.myspace.com/sarcodine. It’s a new comedy metal band and we’re working hard to produce a first album. We could really use your support!

There’s a vast collection of free music available on Amazon as MP3 downloads. That’s right. 100% completely free, completely legal music at your fingertips. All you have to do is make an account on Amazon, download the MP3 Downloader, and there you have it. Check out these free songs and albums that found with a quick search around. Remember, most of the free Amazon downloads link to each other, so it will be easy to find more free music!

Talkin’ To You Eye to Eye – Roomful Of Blues
Lay Back Down – Eric Lindell
Make Me – Heart
Thermal Bad – The New Mastersounds (Sweet tune!)
Your California – Parker Brothers

…
The list goes on and on. Until next time, good luck free music hunting!

This costs $35

This costs $1350

If you haven’t already figured it out, this is a follow-up of my “Buying Chinese Guitars for Cheap” post (which can conveniently be found here).

So I emailed Sunsmile Guitars to see if they would send me a free review unit to share with you readers. I’m not sure if this an act of miscommunication or just a default email, but this is the reply I received:

Dear The Dealsician,

Many thanks for your inquiring.

Please be so kind to check our price lists in the attachment.

Please feel free to let us know if you have any questions or suggestion.Looking forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Anna

A little Engrish ridden. Which leads me to believe that Anna doesn’t get that I don’t want to buy a guitar, I just want to review one. The email lacked the attachments that Anna had promised me about, but a quick email later, I had the whole inventory prices at my fingertips. I opened up the tables and started searching around looking at the prices for the guitars. THESE THINGS ARE CHEAPER THAN SLICED BREAD! Their SST 01 Strat knock-off costs a mere $37.50. Their double-necked SG knockoff costs $140.

But wait! There’s more! Need a hard-shell case with that? $25 please. And an 80-watt amp? $85. You can even put on a custom logo most of the things they sell. Check out all of their products here.

Last thoughts: I’m not quite sure how much shipping is, I have emailed them requesting shipping costs but no replies so far. If you buy from Sunsmile, and they turn out to be scammers (doubtfully, they’ve been at Musikmesse) or whatever else might they be, then you take full responsibility for your actions. I will try to get a review unit ASAP. Good Luck!

ChordBook boasts a virtual guitar feature.

Being a self-taught guitarist, my main way of practice is by printing off some tabs and playing them. Here I have compiled a nice list of guitar tab sites for your convenience.

Ultimate-Guitar.com – What I use to look up tabs. Boasts a meaty 300,000+ guitar and bass tablature.
911Tabs.com – A tab search engine that searches through many big name tablature sites.
GuitareTab.com – Another tab site.
GuitarTabs.net – A complete tab directory linking to 30+ sites.
Tabs.GuitarWorld.com – Tabs take up only a small fraction of this guitar site.
MXTabs.com – Guitar, Bass, and even drum tabs can be found here.

When I’m not playing songs, I usually practice chords and scales using websites with massive databases and algorithms of chords and finger charts. These sites include:

JGuitar.com – An amazing site with every chord and scale out there. You can even tell the site which tuning you are in and JGuitar will adjust to it.
ChordBook.com – Features a fun flash virtual guitar that will play the chords you choose with a built in tuner.
GuitarChords247.com – Printable guitar chords for on the go.
ChordFind.com – Features an algorithm that allows you to change not only the guitar tuning, but also four-stringed instrument tunings as well.

I hope these sites will help you out as much as they do for me. Until next time, good luck!

An example of a knockoff guitar.

As said before, a lot of Chinese dealers try to rip-off Gibson guitars. But believe it of not, a lot of Chinese dealers just make knockoff guitars. Hence, I compiled a list of knockoff dealers to save you some dough if you’re not worried about brand names. Please note: I am in no way affiliated with any of these companies and do not take responsibility for any scams or rip-offs when dealing with overseas businesses.

Zibo J&W Musical Instruments Co., Ltd. – Despite the massive inventory, you still have to contact the dealer if you want to order a guitar.

Weifang YangsenBoyun Musical Instruments Co., Ltd. -Nice looking guitars, but again you must contact the dealer for prices.

Shanghai Kallen Piano & Musical Instruments Co., Ltd – Offers pretty much every type of instrument and an easier inquiry system. Only one question, what is a “Blow”?

Aileen Musical Instruments Co., Ltd – Knockoff stringed instruments with an actual cart purchasing system.

Changle Yiqun Musical Instruments Co., Ltd – A nice looking site but lack of organization. Uses a contact system.

Liaocheng Sunsmile Musical Instruments Inc. – Professional looking site that also offers amps and accessories apart from guitars. Uses a contact system. (My personal favorite)

Check out the sites and see if there’s a guitar waiting for you there. And until next time, good luck!

Just one of the many cheap guitars found of forUnder.net

ForUnder helps buyers and even musicians buy pretty much whatever someone is interested in for the price they are willing to pay. How is this done? Just visit the site and punch in what you are looking for and how much you are willing to pay. Then forUnder searches eBay for the best prices on the net. A simple idea, a brilliant product. Check it out and start searching for that dream guitar today!

After Thoughts: Be sure to check forUnder regularly as eBay is an ever-changing site. The product you are looking for may not be there one day and appear another.

GuitarFetish boasts low prices for quality gear.

Broke a knob? Need to replace a pickguard? How about a new set of humbuckers? GuitarFetish has it all, for a lot less. Most humbuckers go for an average of $35 and four brand new knobs go for around $12. Don’t think that the cheap prices mean a cheap product. These products are high quality and can be used for replacements, upgrades, or even parts for building your own guitar as GuitarFetish sells all the components to make an instrument. Check them out today!

Free Gibson Les Paul Traditional? Sounds tempting.

Right now (right now being the date of the post), Gibson is giving away a Les Paul Traditional! How do I get it? Pretty straight forward. Just check out the whole page of Gibson’s contests here and enter your shipping address. Only downfall is, you’re against tens of thousands of Gibson fanatics. But if you win, that’s a true guitar deal. But it doesn’t stop there, folks! Many of your favorite online guitar retailers offer sweepstakes and giveaways. Check out just a few contest pages here, here, and here. Best of luck!

$200 buys you the one of the left. $2000 buys you the one on the right.

Now that is has been a few days since you’ve posted your buying lead, sellers have most likely contacted you in some way or another boasting about their guitars’ superiority. Take a look at where these dealers are. Depending on your lead description, a lot of them are probably from China. This can be both good and bad. If the dealers are offering great deals on Gibsons, Fenders, or other big ticket guitars, those too good to be true deals are really too good to be true. Although this mainly applies to Gibsons (I haven’t truly heard of a counterfeit Fender), most if not all of these guitars are fakes. But it is possible to spot out these bogus instruments and narrow down to the real deal. Gibson USA actually published a guide to determining the authenticity of your guitar. You can read the article here.

But not all Chinese dealers are bad. Some will tell you that their guitars are based off of Gibsons or Fender. These will have different logos, different head stocks, and different bodies. They can be purchased at cheaper prices because the demand for a knockoff guitar is low.

Last thoughts: Buying from Alibaba usually means buying in bulk. If you find an $80 guitar, the seller will probably want you to buy 50 of them. Pick a guitar that is expensive enough so that you have the option of only buying one and is cheap enough to fit  your budget. Good luck in finding the guitar of your dreams!

Alibaba is completely free to use. Be careful who and where you buy from, though.

Alibaba is a world B2B marketplace where anyone with an internet connection can buy wholesale from suppliers from nations around the world. Joining Alibaba is almost as easy as setting up an email address. When choosing your business location, fill in your correct personal location so dealers know where you are and can calculate shipping costs. You can choose to only buy, only sell, or both. I chose only to buy because I don’t own a business. Enter your contact information up to your company name and phone number. For your company name, just put in your full name. It is not required to own or be part in a business to order off of Alibaba. Your phone number can be fake (I used 1-000-000-0000) because you can tell the individual sellers that information later. This protects your identity in the global market. The email you choose can be your personal email address. But be aware, you can and will get a lot of email from hungry sellers looking for you to buy their product. When you finish the sign up, you have become part of the global market.

Now you will be taken to your buying tools where you can set up a lead that will inform suppliers about what you want. It doesn’t have to be very specific. Even something like “will buy cheap guitars” will get you a ton of messages in your email inbox and Alibaba message box. Keep posted until next time when I warn you of fake guitars from Chinese dealers (not saying all Chinese dealers are bad!) and what to expect from Alibaba. Good luck!