BruceWeiArt Guitar review

So this is out of the norm for my blog, but might be interesting and useful to the instrument lovers out there. I recently purchased a BruceWeiArt guitar off of ebay. I had never considered purchasing a guitar off of ebay simply because for me, each guitar is totally unique. I worked at PRS guitars for about 2 years, building some of the finest instruments made, and I can tell you that no two guitars, even made from the same tree’s, by the same people, will feel or sound alike. During my time there, I saw low end guitars that absolutely screamed as much as the $10,000 models.

This is why I’ve always looked for guitars in person – you have to play them all and suddenly you’ll find one that just clicks. But I like to browse, and over the years shopping has really gotten boring. Everything is chain stores, so you find the same things in every store – no matter where you are. The hunter gather in me needs more. So sometimes I browse the web looking for something unique.

Bruce Wei, from what I can gather, is a seller in Vietnam who auctions off tons of inlayed guitars and guitar parts. A lot of these guitars sell for very low prices, and are unique in both their form and artwork. I watched some amazing instruments sell for rock bottom prices, and couldn’t help but be interested in a few. I scoured the net, but found very few reviews or information on these guitars. I found a few people reselling them for thousands more than they paid for them, and a few theories on what’s happening in that side of the world. Pete, a co-worker of mine who has in-laws from Vietnam, also filled me in on some of the details.

Apparently, the government there sponsors schools for inlay artwork, among other things. Additionally, back in the 80’s, when Fender and Gibson were outsourcing to Japan for the first times, Japan was outsourcing work to Vietnam and Taiwan. Years later, we have a combination of under utilized guitar factories, government sponsored inlay artists, and an international market via eBay. BruceWeiArt is born – or at least, this is how I figure it went, as most of this information is as much theory as hear say.

Now, the scraps of information I was able to gather on these guitars indicated some common problems – bad fret jobs, finish issues, and in some cases, wood which wasn’t dried correctly and eventually cracks. But everyone seems to love the inlay work. After obsessively watching auctions of these guitars on ebay, I finally decided to take a risk and buy one. I’m a sucker for archtops, and when one surfaced I decided to go for it.

Shipping included, I spent about $500 on the guitar. A lot of these guitars go for a lot less, but this one was particularly nice, being an archtop and not just some strat clone. About 10 days later, it arrived. Upon inspecting the guitar, it was as I had expected from my research; some flaws in the finish and in bad need of a setup. The action was way too high; the nut wasn’t sanded down low enough, and the bridge, even when adjusted all the way down, was still way to high. The fret job was a little scratchy, making the strings stick when bending, but overall the neck was level and the frets were evenly finished. The finish flaws consisted of small pock marks or runs, probably caused from the high humidity environment present in Vietnam. There is also a slight bit of warping in the wood – though nothing to serious – that makes me wonder how the guitar will hold up over time. The inlays are pretty striking though, and really well done, as I’ve done that kind of work myself and it’s not easy.

My first step in making the guitar playable was to cut off all the strings and sand down the nut and bridge bones. This is actually very easy to do – pop off the bridge bone and nut, get a piece of 220 grit sandpaper, lay it on a flag surface, and rub the bottom of the nut or bridge bone back and forth. Keep testing it until it reaches your desired height. I managed to get the action into decent shape in about 20 minutes, though I would prefer to have the bridge low enough that I actually have to adjust it up instead of it being at its lowest point. After re-stringing it, it plays surprisingly well. Not as nice as my ES135 or anything, but pretty nice none the less.

The neck is fairly thick and of the D shape variety. I personally prefer something with a little less meat on it, but those familiar with the beefier of the Gibson necks will feel right at home. The bridge bone is un-grooved, which means the strings will occasionally pop over a bit when you pick too hard. I find this pretty annoying, so tomorrow I’m going to take a file to it and cut some notches into it so they’ll stay in place when I’m getting rowdy.

The sound, unamplified, it fairly even, though a bit mid-range heavy. The guitar has a mic in the bridge and some active electronics, with a 3 band eq, presence, and volume adjustments. When plugged in, it’s almost as if the low E string sounds distant, and lacks the kind of presence that the other strings have. The EQ helps, but that rich bass you get off a pair of humbuckers on a Gibson archtop is just not there. If I was going to play the guitar amplified, I seriously consider changing the bridge mic to something a bit better.

One other issue I’m going to have to remedy is the intonation. While the frets are fine, the feed for the bridge mic is cut directly below the bridge, and the bridge is slightly too far forward in it’s current position. I can’t just scoot it back without having the bridge put pressure on the mic wire. At the 12th fret, the intonation is only a few cents off, but I’m a real stickler for that kind of thing. It’s certainly better than a lot of guitars I’ve played, but I still want to fix it ;)

As for the rest of the hardware, it’s all decent enough. The tailpiece has a ugly etching of the statue of liberty for some reason. It wasn’t really apparent in the pictures, and it certainly isn’t up to the standards of the inlay work. The tuners seem to be of decent quality as well.

Overall, it’s a decent guitar for the money, and looks great on the wall. It’s not going to replace my high end instruments, but with a bit of work it’s certainly a nice enough guitar. When you consider the complexity of the inlay work, and the price that these things are selling for on ebay, it’s actually quite a good buy. The only thing I wonder is if it will fare better than my Martin did in the winter (a hairline crack formed this year due to low humidity. Yeah, yeah, I should have known better that to leave it out. Now I have to do an ugly splint job on it).

Cats outa the bag..

And we're finally live with what I've been working on for the past year..

Rock Band