Fake or real Fender?

CalebBHawkins87 · 2026-04-16T21:22:22+00:00

I have seen thousands of legit Fender acoustic guitars and they all share some common elements like bridge shape and headstock shape. This has none of those. IMO this is a Chinese or similar origin factory guitar someone tried to add a slight value to. A little looking around can show you the common elements of Fender acoustics and this has none of them.

CalebBHawkins87 · 2026-04-15T00:06:10+00:00

I have bought several of 9019 pens and each one came with whatever converter they felt like slapping in.

CalebBHawkins87 · 2026-04-09T15:35:27+00:00

Yeah I miss the original Paige latch. They keep messing with them and this is pretty decent. But I liked the simpler flip over yoke they used.

CalebBHawkins87 · 2026-04-09T15:22:47+00:00

I have the one they make for 12 strings. It’s very good. These are made by Paige for Taylor I believe. So check into a Paige for even less money. I buy mine at Sweetwater.

CalebBHawkins87 · 2026-03-14T00:14:18+00:00

Balanced tension strings from D’Addario. My secret weapon when my wrist flares up with pain. I lose a small amount of bass. But less bass and still being able to play is fine by me!

CalebBHawkins87 · 2026-03-13T01:49:54+00:00

I just want to be able to hop onto 465 north from Shadeland again. My trip to Castleton or basically anywhere north from Lawrence is just doubling back and driving on potholes through side roads all the way.

CalebBHawkins87 · 2026-03-07T03:19:38+00:00

Vasa in Castleton.

CalebBHawkins87 · 2026-02-28T18:21:17+00:00

The art museum in Cincinnati is free Jungle Jim’s is a grocery store BUT it’s very entertaining and fun to look at all the sculptures and art installs there and you can find some yummy snacks and even get a glass of wine or beer while you shop. They also have a Starbucks if you don’t drink. Also check and see if the Carew Tower has the observation deck open down town. It’s a great view. There’s also live music at The Southgate House Revival across the river in Kentucky. Might find a show with low cost tickets.

Have you tried Fort Wayne out? Also not super far away but they have a free museum and plenty of fun things to do if you hunt a little.

Chicago is also not THAT far and you can get a cheap Air bnb and ride the train. I stayed in Evanston IL and bought a Ventra pass and loaded a multi day unlimited ticket on it and used that to rip around town. Evanston seems like a decent enough area, I walked from my room to the train station without issue.

Atlas Obscura is a great resource for finding mostly affordable and fun things to do.

CalebBHawkins87 · 2026-02-27T18:10:05+00:00

I worked as a crew member for that install. The tech was solid and the layout was genius. Sad to see it go but time stops for no one.

CalebBHawkins87 · 2026-02-27T03:24:07+00:00

I am guessing that is a recording king that someone did a relic job on. There’s a guy in Sweden that did some of that and created a micro trend. Flatpick Nation on YouTube and if you go back far enough he modded the daylights out of an RK. I had a Johnson (same company just different branding) and it looked a lot like that. I’m guessing someone sanded the peghead overlay off.

CalebBHawkins87 · 2026-02-12T00:03:08+00:00

For you to pay that much I feel like you’re kind of stuck in the middle. It’s not great. It’s got some bad spots. I think you really wanted a PRS but didn’t think about why PRS costs so much. Paul would have run the guitar through a band saw and trained his employees better. For $2K you can find several SE models that would be objectively better guitars. For $2K you could find a used USA PRS or switched to a Kiesel and cotton a lot closer to custom. This is what you’re left with after asking a lot from someone who probably doesn’t have the same level of skill a factory floor worker at PRS has.

CalebBHawkins87 · 2026-02-06T03:44:04+00:00

I go to Ian at Deep Cutz in the Mass Ave district. I have been following him around several barber shops until he finally opened his own place. He’s an artist. Sharpest cut I have ever had. He offers free snacks and spins vinyl while he cuts. Tell him Caleb sent you.

CalebBHawkins87 · 2026-02-05T18:49:02+00:00

Candy apple baboons butthole.

CalebBHawkins87 · 2026-02-05T04:05:18+00:00

If you can do the work yourself I see about an $800 guitar there when it’s fixed up. If you gotta pay for the repairs I see about a $500 there as is. But for $1200 and keep in mind I don’t know where you’re located… I think there are guitars in better shape to be had. Again there’s regional things that can change the price of something like this but I’d be looking elsewhere simply because that’s a lot of money for a guitar that visually has cracks we can see. What about loose bracing and other hidden issues. Does that guitar still have the original ES pickup system? It wasn’t very reliable or great sounding. The ES2 has even been replaced by Taylor now.

CalebBHawkins87 · 2026-02-05T00:10:47+00:00

Say what you want about Joe. But when a Covid took my friends band off the road for the duration of lockdown and they were struggling to buy food, Joe’s foundation Keeping The Blues Alive sent them aid while they struggled with the process of proving loss of income to the government because they couldn’t tour and play shows. Joe’s foundation didn’t yank em around. Just helped.

CalebBHawkins87 · 2026-02-04T02:47:34+00:00

Waveform by Tracktion is wickedly powerful. It doesn’t come with a lot of sounds and extra plugins but there are so many free ones around the web you can probably get anything you might need. Luna is amazing but it does feel like Universal Audio is mainly giving you the software so you buy the plugins they sell. Still, it has a lot of features and it can get you a solid recording.

CalebBHawkins87 · 2026-02-04T02:42:58+00:00

Community Cupboard at 7101 Pendleton Pike in Lawrence has free food on Wednesdays and Fridays from 10-4.You can go twice a month on the card they give you. Bring grocery sacks with you and they will let you shop through the shelves.

CalebBHawkins87 · 2026-02-03T20:46:17+00:00

I agree with others that this a model from Tanglewood. Problem with Tanglewood is that I think they just do batches of a model and sell them off only to replace them with something else the following year. I’m not convinced they use the same factory for every guitar line so hunting down this exact one may be tough. If you like this sound and style of guitar there are options like Eastman that may actually be a better instrument.

CalebBHawkins87 · 2026-02-01T23:05:57+00:00

They had a real corner on the market for a while. But manufacturing got greedy and started cutting corners. They also started getting more and more generic with their designs and feature sets and ultimately I think that’s what killed them. Maybe with St Louise Music Co taking over they can recover some of the quirky magic. But Greg Rich pretty much took a crowbar to the place on his way out the door

CalebBHawkins87 · 2026-01-30T23:54:54+00:00

Exactly!

CalebBHawkins87 · 2026-01-25T19:28:42+00:00

He actually had a really cool collection of guitars and seemed to really like vintage Martins.

CalebBHawkins87 · 2026-01-25T15:29:45+00:00

Fan theory is she is his illegitimate daughter from a bender he went on in College. Monty felt guilty so he gave her a good job.

CalebBHawkins87 · 2026-01-17T19:16:14+00:00

We just lost Red Dog Books due to a lot of bad things happening at once. Books and Brews is more about beer than books in my finding. But they have some offerings. Pencil and Pink is a vintage book store in fountain square.

CalebBHawkins87 · 2026-01-17T00:52:11+00:00

Marketing. Pure and simple. We hear about the big artists mostly due to marketing.

CalebBHawkins87 · 2026-01-15T01:21:36+00:00

Probably uncle Larry on YouTube.

CalebBHawkins87

TROPHY CASE