Richwood guitars (Chinese)

Joonas

Does anybody here have experience with them? Those are the cheapest gypsy guitars on the market. I could find three different models. The first one, 14 fret, petite bouche, but altered bodyshape, is on the western market. Thomann sells it for instance. The other two are sold on Aliexpress, China. Those resemble directly the Selmer 14 fret and the D-hole 12 fret. The price is about the same for each.

And my point being really, is it even worth it to buy a guitar like that or I better continue practicing on my Taylor dreadnought with 11-50 strings. The Taylor is a quality guitar at least.

JasonS

I would save more and get an Altamira or Gitane

Joonas

@JasonS Probably the voice of reason.

Jangle_Jamie

I'm guessing you're looking on Aliexpress? The middle guitar is basically a Gitane 255 (old stock, possibly seconds with an issue or two, though nothing major), though it will need some fettling to get it playing well. They're good guitars and for the price will do very well. I have a Gitane 255 that I completely stripped and refinished, and it's a beautiful sounding guitar, though it doesn't project that well. The others I would leave. The last 255 I bought on Aliexpress needed a bit of work - the ridge under the tailpiece sawn off and the frets were as rough as a badger's arse so I cleaned them up - but it's a pretty good guitar once sorted.

Joonas

@Jangle_Jamie Yes, I'm looking at Aliexpress. They have several listings of guitars that seem to be identical. Some of them have the Richwood logo on the headstock, some, like the one in my picture have nothing.

Jangle_Jamie

The middle one is the only one to get. the others are no good. The middle one is a Gitane 255, but will need some work - fret cleaning/dressing/polishing and probably the wooden hump under the tailpiece removed with a saw and files. You'll then need to drill new holes for the tailpiece. If you're not happy with doing that work, buy a guitar from somewhere else. They come very well packaged!

voutoreenie

I've heard the tailpieces on those Asian cheapies will often bend and snap

TheGarethJones

I look at these daily, lol. Something about having a wall of gypsy guitars fills my heart. I haven’t gotten any but I think everyone above has the right sentiment; be prepared to do some fretwork and humidifying and get one as decoration or for friends visiting so they can drop by without lugging their guitars everywhere. Hell, even for camping if you’re worried about the weather.

I would definitely save more for an Altamira if you want to get SERIOUS about it, but a $200 guitar in the hand is worth two $1000 Altamiras in the bush… i think?

Buco

I heard good things about Aiersi. Relative to their low price of course. Here on the forum you'll read a lot of comments that say they're junk. But I also heard some YT videos where they sound not half bad. They're still making them, hopefully they've learned and improved from the days when people were saying they're junkers. How much does Richwood go for?

Joonas

https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/122613#Comment_122613

The Richwood at Thomann is €200 ~ $200

The ones at Aliexpress are even cheaper, but with the price of shipping plus possible taxes added they're all about the same 200.

Jangle_Jamie

If we're talking cheap guitars, I bought an APC JM200 off Amazon a few years ago. It was £103 with free shipping. It's actually a really nice playing guitar. It lives in my painting studio and gets played a lot. It's also my busking guitar with the Krivo Manouche pickup stuck on. I even played it at about 3000ft up in the Ben Nevis mountain range for a bike race. Video to prove it here - (55 seconds in)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8jkI9qqv3w