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When I wrote about the "law suit era" in my Vester booklet (never published) and subsequently in the "About Vester Page" of this site, I mentioned that the third stage of the copycat approach was coming from China.
How unexpectedly correct I was, because right now Vester guitars are being "copied" and reissued in the Peoples Republic of China and distributed a.o. in Taiwan. On a limited scale apparently.
During the past 3 months I found indications that something like this might be going on, but I had no real proof.
Until I found pictures of seemingly brand new Vesters on a guitar website somewhere in Taipei.
A Vester friend of mine, Brendan Robus from New Zealand, at present residing in Taipei, invested time to visit the relevant shop who advertised these guitars and spoke to the people in person.
Here is an exerpt of his findings:
I went to the store today and spoke to the owner. I told her that I had a Vester and about you and
that you have the site. She said something along the lines of "well Vesters used to be made in Korea,
but then they got sued and the whole company just moved to China". So apparently they are being made
new in China, probably by another company. I asked if she had a catalogue and she said that she didn't. She
said if there was any particular Vester I wanted, I just had to get the model number and she can order it. I asked her if she could help out with serial numbers, but she said she couldn't and she said something along the lines of it's rather difficult to get stuff like that, which makes me think these Vesters are being made on the sly... I tried to ask her if she knows exactly WHERE in China they are made, and her colleague (who only speaks Chinese) said it's the same factory, or company in China who make Washburns, Epiphone's and Aria's.
I took a look at the Vesters that she had there and they look very nice. A rather cheap, acoustic for about NT$9800 (USD 300).
But then there were three that had the label "Custom Shop" and the one I looked at was reallly beautiful. It was going for around NT$23000 (USD 700), had Grover machine heads and a beautifully detailed fretboard, and it felt really heavy to hold.
The fact that the forced termination of Vester production in South Korea was somewhere in 1995, and knowing that a law suit vs. Vester was NEVER exercised by Fender; I do not believe that the Vester business just moved to China, it does not make sense.
This is underlined by the fact that Chinese Vesters are coming from a manufacturer that makes a whole line
of different guitars and more precisely Vester was only a brand name, owned by the Samuel Music Company from Illinois, USA. On their behalf, the production facility of Saehan Guitar Technology, a subdivision of Zaozhuang Saehan Music Co. Ltd. in South Korea was contracted to manufacture the Vester line of guitars.
NOTE:
(Fender only gave Vester a clear notification of possible legal problems regarding the look-alike logo script in combination with the sound-alike name and the shape of the headstock)
I can hardly believe that this Chinese factory bought the Vester rights and name from Samual Music Company. What I do know and do believe is that a lot of illegal stuff is coming from China, and it seems more likely that Vester is also a victim of this.
Personally I dislike this situation whether it is legal or not. Right now I have seen these "reissued" Vesters being advertised and sold in Taiwan and I do suspect that some of these guitars are circulating in Australia.
I have no proof that such "Vesters" are exported to Europe, but who knows what may happen.
Here are some pics of China made "Vesters".
An Epiphone type headstock Les Paul-ish guitar.
Note the green label in the sound hole, that is the "China made" giveaway.
Top: China made green label top.
Below: original Vester label.
Brand new Telecaster with "modern" specs.
Bridge, tuners, string guides, Stratocaster switch tip (black??) and triple ply pickguard are non vintage Vester items.
Another "suspect" Vester label from a guitar found in Australia.
Made in Korea by Harmony Int'l Inc. Who?
The advertisement that started it all, NEW Vester EGT for 7900 Taiwan Dollars (about 250 USD).
If anyone has more information of reissued Vesters do me a favor and drop me line.
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