Controversy of the Harp guitar ripoffs

Started by chrish, September 08, 2017, 09:08:35 AM

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chrish

A $599 acoustic Harp guitar popped up when I was checking out some electric guitars on eBay.

I've always thought harp guitars were cool so I decided to check this out.

First I went to the Amazon reviews and they were very favorable. One of the reviews was a rebuttal to something written by a guy named Gregg Miner. A Google search turned up his blog site where the real story revealed itself.

The $599 guitars are a Chinese  manufactured design rip off from an established Harp guitar Builder.

Despite the great reviews on Amazon, these guitars may be unplayable when received, with one reviewed guitar having the 12th fret off by a semi tone.

http://www.harpguitarmusic.com/listings/hg-tm.htm

admin

#1
QuoteThe $599 guitars are a Chinese  manufactured design rip off from an established Harp guitar Builder.

Most Harp designs are now 150 years old
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harp_guitar


a bit like complaining about a Samick Cort  Jay Turser  Harley Benton  Strat


Brak(E)man

#2
A bit OT but my favorite harpie

http://www.beyondthetrees.com/NDphoto.html
swimming with a hole in my body

I play Country music too, I'm just not sure which country it's from...

"The only thing worse than a guitar is a guitarist!"
- Lydia Lunch

chrish

#3
Quote from: admsustainiac on September 08, 2017, 09:32:44 AM
Most Harp designs are now 150 years old
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harp_guitar


a bit like complaining about a Samick Cort  Jay Turser  Harley Benton  Strat

or one of these
https://www.dhgate.com/product/wholesale-new-headless-strandberg-boden-j/398075065.html#s1-2-1b;searl|3850506178

The controversy I think had something to do with the exact copy of the headstock, the bridge and the sound hole Embellishments.

I'm sure you remember this lawsuit where Gibson sued over design rip offs of their headstock and tail pieces.

https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/Ibanez_Lawsuit_Era_Les_Paul_Custom_Copy

A big company like Gibson has the resources to initiate a lawsuit however I doubt a Harp guitar Builder has the same resources.

I'm always interested in these ethical conundrums and how we  humans justify  our actions.

For example I'm buying a Behringer ripoff copy of a Moog Model D . The circuit design patents, from what I understand have expired, however I don't know about the patents for the actual panel designs which are pretty obviously modeled after the Moog. Behringer even seems to be capitalizing on those panel design elements.

In this instance I would not buy that rip off guitar even though with some setup work it becomes playable.

I would tend to side with the small producer builder who added some original Design Elements to a 150 year old
Harp guitar design.





Elantric

#4