No insult intended, Carlo. I may have stretched to assume they would put a commercial logo on the headstock as opposed to creating or reproducing an original logo from material supplied by the customer. But checking their website, they have a couple of glaringly obvious Rick knock-offs.
I didn't get the message that they are looking for someone to partner with - but that's not a logical jump from my viewpoint, and I can see why that thought would occur to you. I also didn't read all the copy lower on the page where they give some info about their name (Grote?) and business.
Thinking about Dave's comments...those pickups darn sure look similar to those used on Gretsch basses. Finish looks nice, too. I added it to my watch list to contemplate...if Dave is right that they're an OEM producer looking for a new home, that could be a nice bass for the price. Doing a quick web search, I found mentions of Grote guitars back in 2009.
Sorry for getting on my high horse, Al. I made an inquiry, if they're in the right part of China I may go take a look. BTW, Rick copies are legal just about everywhere but the US. The rest of the world takes a different view on who owns what.
Those Gretsch style pickups are available from quite a few suppliers...why not, the design is 50 years old. I feel the same way about Rick clones. They've been making overpriced badly designed crap for long enough. Their bridge is only slightly better than a 3 point, attempts at five and 8 strings were laughable, not to mention all the problems with trussrods etc. over the years. On a level playing field they'd be dead.
There's a tenor guitar maker who used to buy the same Gibson-style body blanks as Epi, from the same factory. But when Gibson bought that factory outright, his supply was cut off. He was told that from now on, the output was for Epiphone only.
For that reason, I'd guess that Epi Pro-style more likely a clone of the Epi from a different factory. Of course Gibson could have contracted the Epi Pro with a different factory, but with their own wholly-owned factory, I doubt it.
Kudos to Gibson for actually buying a Chinese factory. It will be interesting if they can make it work long term. I see it's in Qing Dao, where the beer (Tsingtao) comes from. Former German colony, too far north for me.
That's definitely an Epi pro IMO. Whether or not they made it is up for debate. But judging by the apparent quality of their other offerings (and their feedback rating) they're doing something right. The styles they're selling are what their customers want to buy, clones, just like what their USA counterparts are selling. The market for original guitar designs is very small.
