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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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Where is the head office of Gaskell Guitars located? Sydney, Australia.
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Do you sell outside of Australia? Yes. Gaskell guitars are available world wide. In addition to our head office in Australia we have an office in San Diego, USA that services all of America direct. European countries and other parts of the world can order through any one of the Australian music stores that sell Gaskell guitars. It works out cheaper for European customers to do it this way than for us to sell through a European dealer. Our USA office does not sell to Europe.
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If a guitar or particular colour is out of stock, what is the waiting time to get one? We do 3 production runs per year. Pre-orders must be done in any one of the 3 runs. Depending on when you order, turnaround time can be as soon as 3 months, or at the most 4 months. Not many guitar manufacturers can boast that quick a turnaround!
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Are Gaskell guitars "clones" of other guitars? No. Although some of the Gaskell products are inspired by other guitar designs, no Gaskell guitar is a clone of another guitar. Each Gaskell guitar has been redesigned in Australia from a fresh perspective and have subtle or obvious variations from those they may look similar to. More obvious is the fact that Gaskell Guitars only makes left handed versions of guitars that aren't otherwise available left handed elsewhere. You can't clone something that doesn't exist!
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Is Gaskell Guitars breaking any Laws by making some guitars that appear to look similar to some other right handed guitars? Can you copyright a car? If you could, there would be only one car manufacturer in the world that could make vehicles. The simple answer is: no. Some major guitar manufacturers, such as Fender and Gibson have patents on their headstock designs (recently done), and subsequently no Gaskell guitar has a headstock that violates any of those patents. Patents do not last forever. When they expire it does not remain illegal to copy or make a version of that which was patented. An example of this recently is the Floyd Rose tremolo™ patent which has expired. It is no longer illegal to copy a Floyd Rose style tremolo without license to Floyd Rose (nevertheless, we still continue to use only Licensed systems.) Eastwood Guitars and Italia Guitars are two examples of present-day guitar companies whose products are reproductions of 1950's, 60's and 70's vintage guitars that are no longer available today, and for which any patent has long expired.
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Are Gaskell guitars only for professionals? No. Beginners, intermediate players, and professionals can all use Gaskell guitars. Any Gaskell guitar will withstand the rigors of a world wide tour or intensive gigging. Leaners can learn on an instrument that will see them all the way through to professional level.
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Where are Gaskell Guitars made? Gaskell guitars are partially manufactured in our factory in China, and then finished off in either Australia or USA (depending on where they are destined after they leave the factory.) The factory we use is a state-of-the-art, 21st Century factory that makes guitars for several other internationally reputable brands as well. Electronics and hardware are imported from Korea unless otherwise stated.
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What pickups do Gaskell guitars come with? From 2006 - 2009 we used a popular Korean-made, pickup set found on many sub-$1000 guitars, by many different guitar manufacturers. Some of these manufacturers "brand" these same pickups under their own name. Eg. if the guitar is made by "ABC Guitars", the pickups will be stamped "ABC" too. We never bothered with that. They are very good pickups but we did have some issues with the covered ones being ocassionally "microphonic." As a result, in 2009 we decided to upgrade to the renowned UK brand "Wilkinson." Wilkinson is famous for guitar parts as well as electronics. The brand is very well known in UK and Europe but is not so known in Australia or New Zealand, hence Aussie and Kiwi lefty guitarists might want to do a bit of research to get up with the play on this. The Wilkinson pickups are actually an excellent pickup, for their price, and on their own they retail for around AU$54 each.
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Why do you involve offshore manufacturing? Why don't you just make guitars fully in Australia? Some people are still not aware of the fact that factories in China today are state-of-the-art, utilizing the most newest, most advanced, manufacturing equipment and computers in the world! One can choose to have something made exceptionally well (costly) or exceptionally bad (cheaply) in China today. China is the unequalled master of all qualities of manufacturing in the 21st Century. All their equipment and technology is NEW, unlike the 20-25 year old, tired machinery and old technology still used in USA, Korean and Japanese guitar factories. At Gaskell Guitars, we choose to utilize the very highest quality processes, skills, materials and options available in the world today - and right now that happens to be in China. Our products are made to the highest standards possible - and we PAY for that. If we were to make our guitars entirely in Australia, our guitars would be way too expensive. Sydney Australia is the most expensive City in the entire Southern Hemisphere. We are not about selling "expensive" guitars - just high quality, professional level guitars at reasonable prices that everyone can afford.
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Are Gaskell guitars sold "out of the box"? "Out of the box" means a guitar that has been mass produced in a factory very cheaply, thrown in the box and sent off as is, without being properly set up. This is your typical "cheap Made in China" guitar. These "out of the box," cheap guitars are generally quite unplayable, although occasionally you can luck into a good one. They sell from anywhere between $99 and $400. They are usually made from reconstituted sawdust, or glued-together timber off-cuts. They always have terrible, low-grade electronics, but sometimes have a nice finish to disguise how bad the guitar really is. Gaskell guitars are never sold "out of the box." All Gaskell guitars are high quality, professionally made, professionally set up instruments, and are always 100% playable.
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Are Gaskell guitars made on CNC machines? CNC = Computer Numerically Controlled. Partly, yes, wherever possible. However, all Gaskell guitars have been redesigned from scratch and unlike right handed mass-produced guitars, left handed guitars can only be CNC'd to a point. Factories aren't particularly equipped to make left handed guitars, even in China or Korea. Right handed guitars can be entirely CNC'd. That's why in some cases right handed guitars can be made so cheaply and sell for ridiculously cheap prices. However, those cheap guitars will fall apart within a month or two and sound like toys with their low grade electronics. Our manufacturing costs are up to 4 X the retail price on some of those cheap Asian-made guitars, and that's without adding the costs of the subsequent work done in Australia or USA to finish them!
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How do I know if Gaskell guitars are any good? Gaskell Guitars has been going strong since 2006. Even though it is a young company, and still evolving, get on the Internet and read some reviews. When you become a customer we always ask for your review to help us and future customers to make an informed decision.
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I see your Classic PRO is optioned with DIMARZIOs. Can I get a Classic PRO with EMGs or Seymour Duncans instead of DiMarzios? As of 2010 we are an official OEM builder for DiMarzio and EMG. We do not have an arrangement with Seymour Duncan yet, so our cost prices for Seymour Duncan are higher. But we can install SD pickups. Our two technicians here in Sydney have over 45 years experience between them.
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Do you have a grudge against say, Gibson, PRS, Rickenbacker, Jackson, or any guitar company that only throws a bone to lefty players or does nothing at all? Absolutely not. If it wasn’t for companies ceasing production of left handed guitars we would not be here today doing this. We are keeping the torch burning for left handed guitarists!
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Why don’t you make a $200-300 guitar? We don’t make toys. Buy a $200-$300 from somewhere else (you can get them!) and contact us again in about 3-6 months if you haven’t given up playing guitar by then, and we’ll give you a real guitar for a little more in cost - something worth more than what you will pay for it. With our costs, there is no way we could ever make a "$300 guitar." A donkey is not a horse.
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How come some Gaskell guitars come with hard shell cases and others only come with gig bags? Some of our guitars will fit regular off the shelf hard shell cases and those that do we provide a gig bag for. Those that are impossible to fit into any off the shelf cases, such as the Classic, Brumby, Firestarter models we provide hard shell cases. The case is just as important as the guitar. So we feel it is essential to have this aspect adequately covered.
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Who is Kevin Gaskell? Born in New Zealand in 1968, and living in Australia since 1992, Kevin is a left handed guitarist and the designer of all Gaskell guitars. He made his first left handed guitar in 1992. All new designs come from Kevin. In addition to guitars, Kevin is also a photographer and as well as working with professional glamour models, Kevin helps aspiring local models start or build up their modelling portfolios. You can see many of the models he has helped posing with guitars on the product spec pages of the Gaskell Guitars website.
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Who is Peter Scott (Gaskell Guitars USA) Peter is an expatriot Australian who has been living in the USA for over 30 years. He was a former racing car driver and has quite a name in the racing industry in Australia and USA. Peter is a left handed guitarist himself and looks after the USA office located in California, which services all of USA, Canada and South America. In addition to his work for Gaskell Guitars, Peter works in Hollywood, when needed, as an extra on many American TV shows.
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