NGD yesterday

[solspirit]

I bought a Tagima TW55 with free shipping off of Amazon for $229. This thing was made in the ROC and the build quality easily matches MIM Fenders. The hardware & electronics would have been changed even if I had bought an MIM so I'm happy to have saved over $100 taking a shot on a ROC guitar instead of an MIM.

[Mincer]

Let's see it!

[ErikH]

I’ve heard good things about those. They are a Brazilian company if I remember correctly.

[solspirit]

[solspirit]

Why do the pics post so small sometimes?

[Mincer]

If you click on them, they get bigger. There must be a threshold where it will do a thumbnail instead of posting full-size.

[Top-L]

I bought a Tagima TW55 with free shipping off of Amazon for $229. This thing was made in the ROC and the build quality easily matches MIM Fenders. The hardware & electronics would have been changed even if I had bought an MIM so I'm happy to have saved over $100 taking a shot on a ROC guitar instead of an MIM.

I bought a Chinese guitar nearly ten years ago for around $300, when all my expensive guitars needed maintenance. It was my main player for quite a few years.

Over time, the body wood dried out and it became quite toneful. When I first received it, the sound was tight and not nearly as resonant. I think these guitars go straight from the tree to the guitar without any drying or aging.

When I received it, there were a number of manufacturing defects that needed to be fixed, including a nut that was not in the correct location so open chords were out of tune relative to the neck. Beginners wouldn't notice.

The finish is soft and it picks up scratches like most guitars collect dust.

The dark chrome hardware has tarnished and worn away.

The neck pickup has a high noise floor. It's not microphonic, but when distorted there is more background noise. The bridge pickup was actually quite good.

The knobs are plastic but annodized to look metal. That is wearing away.

The fret wire is really soft and has mostly worn away. The medium jumbo frets have been leveled twice and as sits the guitar is playable but will need a refret soon.

The guitar has a flame maple top (idk if real) that was finished really dark so that it looks almost black.

There is a weird inlay at the 12th fret. You tell yourself its cool when the guitar is new, but it doesn't age well.

This is absolutely the ugliest guitar I have owned.

The fretboard is real rosewood. The 2pc maple is ugly and looks like a leftover piece.

I learned a ton about guitar maintenance and repair because of this guitar.

I has zero resale value, so I'm stuck with it. Ugliest guitar in my collection, but not ugly in a good way. Ugly in a "we tried to make this pretty" way.

I have logged probably 5K+ hours shredding on this guitar.

Chinese guitars are great if no one else ever sees them.

[solspirit]

I’ve heard good things about those. They are a Brazilian company if I remember correctly.

The stuff they make in Brazil is top notch but this is their Chinese budget line.

[ErikH]

The stuff they make in Brazil is top notch but this is their Chinese budget line.

Oh, I know. Was simply stating where the parent company is located.

Shouldn’t be that bad if they are involved heavily enough in the budget lines as G&L and PRS are.

[solspirit]

Shouldn’t be that bad if they are involved heavily enough in the budget lines as G&L and PRS are.

They must be, it's tighter than any MIM I've ever bought. I fully expected to change everything so I'm really happy to get a good platform like this. I'm pretty sure that it's a Chinese company to begin with but I know that they make some really nice stuff in Brazil.

[solspirit]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tagima