Charvel forgeries... Vintage Guitar article

[Twisteramps]

Was reading the latest Vintage Guitar mag in the crapper tonight, and there was an article about Phillipine copies of Gibson and Fender guitars. Apparently because of all the military folk we had over there in the 70s-80s, the industrious inhabitants were copying guitars and selling them to servicemen. Ok, copy all the Fenders and Gibsons you want, I don't care.

Towards the end of the article, it said something about CHARVELS being duplicated. Doh'!

The big warning sign they mentioned in the article was that the area had a lot of mahogany, but little maple. So... if you have a charvel made out of mahogany with bleached mahogany trying to look like maple, ya might want to give it a good onceover, especially one without a Charvel plate.

They didn't go into much more detail regarding charvels other than they had reports of copies being made.

Didn't want to alarm anyone, but if you find a charvel with all mahogany construction and it just seems kinda funky, it may be a product of the Phillipines, NOT California.

Pete
(wow, feels weird to post somewhere other than amps and classifieds!)

[Jim Shine]

Re: Charvel forgeries... Vintage Guitar article

I actually had some of the Fender guitars. These were made by a company called Teo-Dor (as well as some other names through its life). These guitars are very poor quality and the wood is actually not mahogany, but a similar wood called Nato. I never seen a Charvel copy by these guys (I only heard of them), but after seeing several Fender's besides the ones I owned, and several Gibsons, you could never mistake them as being the real thing. Very low quality forgeries. I see occasional Phillipino Fender Jaguar and Jazzmaster forgeries on eBay that sell for big bucks. They must be very heartbroken when they actually get the guitar in.

Did Michael Wright do the writeup? I gave him actual photographs of the old factory that made this stuff (as well as Gretsch drum forgeries) as well as business cards and all sorts of info on the company many years ago. I always wondered what he did with the info.

[83SanDimas]

Re: Charvel forgeries... Vintage Guitar article

Charvel Copies, Fender copies

What about fender copying Charvels and GMW

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...category=38082

[sully]

Re: Charvel forgeries... Vintage Guitar article

it is kinda incestuous, no?

[abalonevintage]

Re: Charvel forgeries... Vintage Guitar article

you could never mistake them as being the real thing.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I've seen them too. They suck. The only person that is going to get "faked" is the person that is "hobbyist" buyer.

-eric

[Twisteramps]

Re: Charvel forgeries... Vintage Guitar article

what about some of the guitars we see on the bay? a slightly blurry camera pic can do wonders. [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

Pete

[Jim Shine]

Re: Charvel forgeries... Vintage Guitar article

Look at the parts. They made everything themselves, so parts are very crude. Tuners always suck too (enclosed cheap type). Look for grain in the neck. All I have seen with 'maple' necks have actually been nato painted a maple color, or nato bleached lighter (I have heard they did use some maple on occasion). If all you get from a seller is blurry pics and no neckplate shots. Be very suspicous. But I still can't believe one of these would fool anyone. A cheap Mako Strat copy with just the decal changed to Charvel would be more convincing.

Check out this current eBay auction for one of these forgery Fender Jaguar's. This one is climbing fast and someone is going to be very upset with what they get!

Phillipino Jaguar

[Jim Shine]

Re: Charvel forgeries... Vintage Guitar article

Another tip is to find out if it has a truss rod. Most made by Teo-Dor didn't have truss rods. However, I have seen some 3 bolt Strat knockoffs made by them with a bullet truss rod nut. All it was was a machine screw inside of a drilled out well that the bullet nut screwed onto it. It was by no means a truss rod, but sure did give the appearance.

[ September 13, 2003, 11:50 AM: Message edited by: Jim Shine ]

[Jim Shine]

Re: Charvel forgeries... Vintage Guitar article

I am going to attempt to find some pics I had of some of their stuff. A friend of mine was married to a nice Fillipino girl whose family lived in Manila, right near Teo-Dor, so he went and took all the pics for me and even bought me the last Fender Strat copy they had and he bought a guitar that was probably a Charvel copy, but was not completed (the neck was raw, he had to finish it). At the time the owner of Teo-Dor had recently died of a heart attack and the remnants of the 'factory' (it was more like a large garage) was being sold off.

[Jim Shine]

Re: Charvel forgeries... Vintage Guitar article

Here are a few pics I was able to find..if I find more I will post them.

this place is JB Music and Sports in Quezon City. They had a few Gibson and Fender copies still in stock waiting for tourists to buy them



This is the Teo-Dor music store front for the factory. I have heard before they went out of business this building was packed with forgeries, From Gibson Les Pauls and SG's, to Fender Newporter Acoutics, Coronado's, Strat, even Gretsch drums. It would be cool to know if Teo-Dor was bought and re-opened.
I owned the Strat on the left in the picture.

[MOFFETFAN]

Re: Charvel forgeries... Vintage Guitar article

I don't think fender copied Charvel. I believe the strat shape was not born in San Dimas

[Twisteramps]

Re: Charvel forgeries... Vintage Guitar article

Originally posted by AWFAN:
I don't think fender copied Charvel. I believe the strat shape was not born in San Dimas

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I don't think you're reading this thread right either. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Pete

[Twisteramps]

Re: Charvel forgeries... Vintage Guitar article

Originally posted by Jim Shine:
Another tip is to find out if it has a truss rod. Most made by Teo-Dor didn't have truss rods. However, I have seen some 3 bolt Strat knockoffs made by them with a bullet truss rod nut. All it was was a machine screw inside of a drilled out well that the bullet nut screwed onto it. It was by no means a truss rod, but sure did give the appearance.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Sounds like an early Ibanez trick [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Pete
(making friends with every post on here, lol)

[abalonevintage]

Re: Charvel forgeries... Vintage Guitar article

Jim, that's funny as hell.....

Basketball...SG......Basketball.....SG.......

There's a "Strongbad" joke in there somewhere. [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

-eric

[Jim Shine]

Re: Charvel forgeries... Vintage Guitar article

Glad you like the pics! I still can't find the rest! I had many good pics of what was left in the late 90's. I also have pics of all sorts of guitars they built over the years. Those guys even built fake 1960's Fender bolt on acoustics!

[ September 15, 2003, 03:34 PM: Message edited by: Jim Shine ]