Are these really Seymour Duncan pickups in a $300 guitar?

Re: Are these really Seymour Duncan pickups in a $300 guitar?

Well it appears to be a Chinese knock off of an ESP, so i would guess those are knock off SD pickups.

Correct me if im wrong though
 
Re: Are these really Seymour Duncan pickups in a $300 guitar?

No way you're getting real Duncans in a $300 guitar. Also, no way you're getting real Duncans from just about anything related to AliExpress...lol
 
Re: Are these really Seymour Duncan pickups in a $300 guitar?

(Not speaking to that guitar specifically)

Well...for $300 you can buy a Squier Hot Rails Strat. These are "Duncan Designed" Hot Rails which are manufactured in Asia with the Duncan branding and basic design (though they are a lot hotter, but anyways). The American pups sound very different, of course.

But, to answer the broader question: can you buy a $300 guitar with genuine Duncan pickups in it, I guess the answer is: sort of.
 
Re: Are these really Seymour Duncan pickups in a $300 guitar?

Had one of the Squier HotRails,would prolly buy another in a heartbeat!
:headbang:
 
Re: Are these really Seymour Duncan pickups in a $300 guitar?

backporchpicker said:
Isn't that against the law or trade agreements or something?
Click to expand...

The legal arrangements are in place, but to make a case for fraud, either a purchaser or SD would have to become aware of it and then identify who did it (which is often the hardest part if the guitar and parts were built by different companies, often in different countries), and then decide if it was worth the money in investigators and litigation to try to determine how much lost value there was and try to recover at least some of it.

From what I've read, the run-around is endless. You buy product a, but the company that made it bought parts from distributor b in good faith, factory c makes parts for dozens of company's and can't tell if your specific part was from any given run an if there was a genuine error. And these three companies can be in different countries and that's assuming those companies stay in business long enough to investigate them and that they can even be identified.

Because cheap copies are just that: cheap, anonymous, and relatively uncommon, it often isn't worth it, for the same reason that it's not worth an individual to spend thousands on investigators and lawyers to get $300 back.
 
Re: Are these really Seymour Duncan pickups in a $300 guitar?

Rand-O-Monium said:
Had one of the Squier HotRails,would prolly buy another in a heartbeat!
:headbang:
Click to expand...


I have one. Then I swapped the bridge for a US HR bridge. Then I didn't like the mix, so I got a single bridge pickguard for that. Later I got a great deal on a Gold Bullet for the play room. Instant great upgrade with the original HR pickguard!

So yeah, I love both my HR strats :)

IMG_0655.jpgIMG_0671.jpg
 
Re: Are these really Seymour Duncan pickups in a $300 guitar?

LOL, I wouldn't touch that! No one else noticed the Floyd locking nut with the string thru TOM style bridge?
 
Re: Are these really Seymour Duncan pickups in a $300 guitar?

backporchpicker said:
they can't be Seymour Duncan, no screw heads. I don't think Seymour Duncan makes pickups like that.
Click to expand...

SD does make active pickups that look like that. They're called Blackouts and, much like EMG, feature black plastic boxes, in addition to metal covers. My guess is that those are ripoffs of the SD Blackouts.
 
Re: Are these really Seymour Duncan pickups in a $300 guitar?

backporchpicker said:
I didn't know that China could use Seymour Duncan name but they sure are and they can't be Seymour Duncan, no screw heads.
Isn't that against the law or trade agreements or something?
Click to expand...

It would be against the law anywhere else. But China does not acknowledge the legitimacy of trademarks or patents from outside its borders. Recently the Chinese courts officially ruled that it's legal for a Chinese company to market its own product under the name iPhone. They justified this on the grounds that millions of Chinese have never heard of the iPhone. Of course, it's true that there are still millions of Chinese who don't have telephones or televisions and actually don't know what an iPhone is.

Alibaba makes fake Duncans, DiMarzios, Laces, EMGs,and of course the fake Gibsons and Fenders. They even make fakes of cheaper pickups like Wilkinsons.
 
Re: Are these really Seymour Duncan pickups in a $300 guitar?

Do a Google search for Uncle Martian. While youre at it take a look at the Uncle Martian logo
 
Re: Are these really Seymour Duncan pickups in a $300 guitar?

eclecticsynergy said:
the Chinese courts officially ruled that it's legal for a Chinese company to market its own product under the name iPhone.
Click to expand...

This is true in one specific case. For one company this was true, as the Chinese patent was submitted the same year (2007) that the first iPhone came out, and the product isn't technology at all, but leather products like handbags and wallets. China has since then participated with Apple to fight against patent infringement.

Also, while it's unclear how many Chinese citizens have tvs (it's reported that in the 1980s [35 years ago] already 2/3 of the Chinese people had a tv), 3% of Americans don't have tvs today (and only 92% have cell phones), so in the USA with about 320 million people, over 9 million people don't have a tv and more don't have a cell phone of any kind. So you could just as easily say "Of course, it's true that there are still millions of Americans who don't have telephones or televisions..." As for, "actually don't know what an iPhone is", I'd need to see some evidence of that.Their consumer culture (as you mentioned with the iPhone trademark case) is mad for Apple products.Oh, and of course, THEY actually make them, so they maybe have a different kind of knowledge about them.
 
Re: Are these really Seymour Duncan pickups in a $300 guitar?

It is legal in China. Alibaba Express is known for it's counterfeits and fakes. Very little real product on there.
 
Re: Are these really Seymour Duncan pickups in a $300 guitar?

HiFiRebel said:
It is legal in China. Alibaba Express is known for it's counterfeits and fakes. Very little real product on there.
Click to expand...

That's like saying "murder is legal in the US, look at Chicago." Just because it happens doesn't mean the government is turning a blind eye or embracing it.

My read is that it's legal in China to sell within China. China does recognize foreign trademarks. International policing of low volume, low value items is hard to do, and not worth doing for most people. Also, Alibaba Express is a reseller. Even in the US they might just get fined. Try tracking down who's making all the counterfeits. You can't shut them down when they shut themselves down every few months, and the same factory is used over and over under different names, etc.
 
Re: Are these really Seymour Duncan pickups in a $300 guitar?

I doubt they are real. The Chinese are notorious for their jokes. Remember when they put pee pee in our Cokes?
 
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