Antoniotsai Antonio Tsai

I'm writing this as a warning to anyone considering purchasing ANYTHING that's described as a "musical instrument" made by Antonio Tsai. Particularly if you're looking at his offerings from his Ebay store. DO NOT BUY ANY OF HIS INSTRUMENTS THINK THEY WILL BE MUSICAL, PLAYABLE ANYTHING OF THE SORT - YOU WILL BE VERY DISAPPOINTED. AT BEST THEY ARE "WALL ART." NOTHING MORE. CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED. THIS GOEA FOR ANYTHING - PARTS, SOLID BODIES, ACOUSTICS, MANDOLINS - I've even read about problems with his parts.

I made the mistake of buying one of his "luthier project" SG style guitars. It was indeed very nice to look at, but as a musical instrument, or even a project it has turned out to be a disaster. Fortunately I'm only out 40 to 60 hours of my time and about $180.00 US. But The whole experience has been incredibly heartbreaking as well as absolutely maddening. I really think he should be run out of business.

My guitar had a broken truss rod. There was also a crack in the middle of the fingerboard that ran it's entire length. My conclusion is the guitar was mis-represented in the auction. It was nothing more than a hunk of pretty wood that was shaped like an SG and had some nice inlay on it.

When you go to his Ebay store and buy these guitars he lists with an opening bid of 99 cents - remember the shipping is $110 to $130 - and if you have a problem (and of you're even a remotely demanding pro musician - I guarantee you will have several problems) it will not be cost effective in any way to have them do any of the service. This is the Antoniotsai scam. They sucker you in with the eye candy for as much as you'll pay, then make it completely cost IN-effective to do anything about the multitude of problems these so called 'musical instruments' will manifest.

Before it's possible to even evaluate the sound of his instruments - they first have to be playable. And that's the first big problem. They're not playable, unless you actually like guitars with 3/8 of an inch clearance at the 12th fret. Mine has horrible action AND if you try to take it down it buzzes all over the place. They are sub-standard in every way with the exception of the eye candy factor. Again if you're looking for wall art - he's your man. If he were actually selling his work as wall art - I wouldn't be writing this review. The problem (which borders on fraud in my view) is he's claiming to be a "Master Luthier" - well I'm going to call it like I see it - he's a hack in every regard as a luthier. As an inlay artist, he's really good. This is his only true calling IMHO.

The only thought that seems to go into anything made by Antoniotsai is how the instruments look. The moment you look beyond their visual appeal, you will find they are absolute garbage. A waste of wood. As for the action on the guitar I bought - I'd give it a negative rating but since the review system HC uses starts at 1 - all I can say is that's much more than it deserves.

Reliability? Now that's funny. You can rely on these instruments to suck, but they will look really good while they suck. How's that for brutal honesty?

I took mine to a luthier today who in addition to having 22 years of experience as a vintage guitar restoration specialist, is an authorized guitar tech and repair service center for Gibson, Fender, Guild, Ibanez, Takamine, Martin and others. He'd never even heard of Antoniotsai guitars until we spoke. When I showed him my "Tony" SG and asked him what could be done he told me that if this were a guitar worth fixing, like say a Gibson SG, he'd have to charge me between $1000 and $1200 to fix the multitude of problems the neck had. This tech is a friend of mine and he told me the brutal truth - he simply would not take the job at any price because of how badly made this guitar was. Needless to say - this was not the news I was hoping for. I was willing to spent $300 to possibly $400 to fix this because of the amount of personal time and effort I had put into this guitar. In addition to all my time, I spent over $350 on pickups, tuning machines, wiring harnesses etc. All for naught. So thanks Tony. Not only did I waste money on the guitar I bought from you - I bought all this hardware for it that is worth way more than the guitar is.

THIS IS WHY I'M WRITING THIS REVIEW - IT'S A WARNING TO MY FELLOW MUSICIANS!!

With all of the crap we all go through to just pursuing our musical aspirations - we don't need to be ripped off by some Ebay using wanna' be hack, who claims to be a "master luthier." HE'S A FRAUD!!! The only thing he does well is inlay work. PERIOD!

Oh gawrd!! Customer Support is the ultimate oxymoron when it comes to the Antoniotsai experience. Well sure, it says in his Ebay store listing that he'll refund the guitar - AFTER IT'S "CHECKED" by their service center in Vancouver. Which by the way - you have to pay to ship your guitar there for them to either approve or disapprove the 'problem' and depending on how things go from there - if you want to get your guitar back - that's right - you get to pay for the return shipping too. Well isn't that dandy?? Oh, and they only refund the purchase price of the guitar/bass/mandolin BUT NOT THE SHIPPING FROM HO CHI MIHN CITY VIET NAM that you paid $110 to $130 for. No. That expense is NOT part of your refund. Nice eh?

This is the crux of the "Tony" scam.

Sure - they'll act sincere and be apologetic, but it's all for show. Once they've got your money, for all practical purposes you're on your own.

JUST SAY NO TO ANTONIOTSAI!!! Sure, they're pretty guitars - but they're the biggest money pits in the biz. Don't repeat MY mistake. Get an Ibanez. Get an Epiphone. Geeez, even a Squire is better than a Tony guitar.

Overall - well let me think. What haven't I said so far, honestly?

This is your warning - there are several other warnings among the "Tony" reviews here. I wanted to believe the negative stuff I'd seen about Tony was crappola - stuff written by kids who weren't real pros etc.

And guess what? I've been earning my living as a guitarist, composer, producer, author, sound designer, and music educator for over 30 years now. I thought I'd judge the Tony stuff for myself and give them the benefit of the doubt - against my better judgement.

And this is what happened - they screwed me. Sure, it's because I took a chance on what I thought might be a misjudged, up and coming instrument builder. But I was completely wrong.

So I feel obliged to tell it like it is. Because I hate seeing musicians get screwed - especially when the musician getting screwed is me - LOL!

So, my professional opinion of my Tony guitar, and the whole "Tony" experience is they suck, to put it very mildly. They don't have what it takes to make pro instruments - and they're only interested in taking your money. They don't stand behind what they make at all.

I've made multiple requests to Paul about making this right and they're not going to do that. So, I'm going after them. My intent is to permanently force his store off of Ebay. Simply I don't allow people to get away with ripping me off. Which is what I feel they did.

pretty inlay, not really a musical instrument, supposed to be a f5 mandolin but really just wood with sea shell glued on

wasn't playable so it started with no sound. I set it up with a new bridge in the correct position, sound was thin and dull. opened up the f holes and that improved the tone to tolerable.

suitable for paddling a canoe

head scroll broke off just like BIll monroe's, top is collapsing, some cracks here and there , other than that just perfect

huh what did you say I can't hear you I'm in Vietnam

I own way too many instruments and this mandolin is almost the worst one. (the worst is from mexico and couldn't be made to play).
garbage in , garbage out.

Standard F-5 type mandolin. Solid carved spruce top,Solid carved maple back, maple sides, rosewood f-board. Came with decent Hard case. And tons O'inlay.

Good volume. Decent tone, not really Bluegrassy, but very pleasant. Lots of depth, delicate treble. Also had to install a strap pin by the tailpiece, as one was not provided.

I threw away the supplied bridge first thing. Not fitted to the instrument, and a piece of junk anyway. Fitting a new one was rather difficult, as the bridge needs to be uncustomarily high. Once set up, it is very nice to play. The frets on mine are well dressed and smoothe, intonation is good all the way. Woods are nice & well matched. Tuners are robust, either actually engraved or nicely cast with a pleasant "Celtic" type design. The neck is huge, but not so much you can't get used to it. Unless ou have smaller hands. It's one big Bubba. Tailpiece is pretty, but I wouldn't want to have to change a string in a hurry. Finish is good, a little rough in the inside of the scroll, but not an obvious fault.

I don't know if it would stand up to the kind of gigging I do. It seems rather delicate. This is in/re my playing style, which is rather percusive and brutal. I have a right hand like a sock full of buckshot. The hardware will prolly out last us all. Finish, while not heavy has held up well to house and party pickin' for two years. I feel it is dpendable, but I wouldn't gig with it.

Never dealt with them. As noted by others, you'd have to send it back at fair expense... His E-Bay site say's something about it being examined by their warranty reps in Canada before hand, so whether it's worth it, I dunno.

Been playing about 37 years. I own or have owned at some point about every model of mando Gibson's made, along with Rigel, D'Angelico, Kettler. Some tasty pieces. I dig arch top guitars, and have a nice R-18. Have an Arnold flat top and an old Mossman. I bought it mostly for the inlay. I am surprised it sounds and plays as well as it does. I'd probably get another one, as it really is an eyeful.
As this one is older than the ones in the other reviews, it definately came from the Taiwan factory. He has another factory in Saigon (Oops- Ho Chi Minh City), and I can't speak for or against any differance in quality.
I was impressed with the mandolin from the start, as I was just expecting eye-candy. Much better instrument than I anticipated, and well worth the price.

I purchased four mandolins from Antonio Tsai. I was sucked in by the gorgeous inlay work. They have the standard mandolin features you would expect.

Finish ??? Sloppy at best
Tuners - Junk
Neck ??? Be careful. Unless stated, these mandolins DO NOT have truss rods and are not adjustable.
Any included accessories? - Well-made hard case is included.
Frets ??? Sharps on ends and poorly installed.

The resonator style is very bright and harsh sounding. In general all the other models are dull sounding and lifeless.

Read carefully. YOU WILL SPEND MORE ON SET UP THAN THE PRICE OF THE INSTRUMENT. There are more buzzes than a hive of bees. The tuners are junk and need to be replaced to make it playable as well as the bridge the bridge.

The inlay work is gorgeous but this isn???t an instrument that you can gig with, at least as shipped. I???ve been playing for 30 years and been repairing instruments for 25. These should be hung on a wall to look at ONLY. I left one out of the case over night and the wood cracked across the entire back outlining the inlay work. It appears that Tony uses very green wood and any temp or humidity changes will crack the mando (as he NOW says as a disclaimer on his eBay auctions). WARNING ??? I live in California and it still cracked.

Not really playable. They all have problems with tuning, frets and countless neck issues.

Support ??? They pass the buck for a while and then tell you to ship it back at your cost of $80-$100 and they will give you a refund and you are out $80-$100 in shipping cost each way.

Overall if you are looking for artwork these mandos may be OK. They look great from afar but the closer you look the worse they get. Then you play them and you realize that they look better than they play or sound. I???ve also purchased products from Antonio Tsai???s Taiwan eBay competitors, Sam???s Workshop and Bruceweiart. Same results. Warped and twisted necks, broken and non-functional hardware and event one bowed and not repairable strat neck. If you are looking got a instrument, pass on the Taiwan builders.

What you've read here is correct, unfortunately, in my experience. This is a classical which, according to Tsai, has a solid top and solid rosewood backs and sides. It's covered with inlay and is attractive to look at. Came with a mediocre hardshell case.

When it was playable, it was minimally okay for practice. Little projection, inferior bass response.

Had to file the fret ends to keep from cutting my fingers. Body, front and back, neck, and headstock are covered with nice inlay, which makes it attractive to idiots like myself who like shiny things. Action wasn't bad, but the guitar has developed eight fatal cracks in the back and two on the top. It's a little more than a year old. I've had to release the tension on the strings to keep it from exploding, or imploding, as the case may be. It is, in short, unplayable.

Huh? I'm not afraid it's going to fall apart. It IS falling apart.

The guy's in freakin' Taiwan, and it costs a fortune to ship it back and forth (which he won't cover), so it's just not worth it to me.

I'm the one who bought it, so I don't fault Tsai. And to be fair, it is the inlay work that his marketing on ebay emphasizes the most. It is nice to look at, and I suppose I'll take the strings off and mount it as a piece of wall art. It would have been much nicer, however, to show it off in a performance context, but there's no way this thing is a usable musical instrument.

WARNING! DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!

I ran across these items on eBay, was initially impressed with the inlay work, did some research, and discovered that there are many problems. Do a search on Antonio Tsai Guitar and you'll see what I mean. Folks have web pages devoted to publicizing the "workmanship." These disappointed customers deserve thanks and sympathy for sacrificing their dollars and effort. There's also a Harmony Central review page on the Ask.com search that I can't seem to get to normally through HC's website, so maybe this will help fill the gap.

This company has hundreds of items listed on eBay. Antonio Tsai is apparently an orchesta musician, luthier, "inlaid" artist, this, that, and the other thing. (He doesn't, however, necessarily do the work.) Just about every instrument listed has a "bright, sweet sound, with plenty of volume," is inlaid with thousands of pieces of abalone, and took 3 months to build. Uhfortunately, purchased cheaply but shipped at great expense from Taiwan and/or Vietnam, they all seem to start cracking and falling apart 2 months later here in the good ol' US of A.

Strangely, there are thousands of positive feedbacks on eBay for these products. However, many of these and many of the bids and purchases are by members with a "private" identity. Who are all THESE mysterious people--collectors "in the know" about some best-kept secret, or company employees? My money would be on the later. It wouldn't surprise me that, if a satisfactory bid price isn't achieved, the item is snapped up by a "private ID-er" and relisted at some later date.

While I don't have personal experience with these products, I have seen the pictures on the web sites. Even the AntonioTsai eBay listings show obviously misaligned necks, tailpieces, bridges, and book-matched tops. You just have to look past all the inlay. And, ironically, with all that detail work, people apparently still find major fret, nut, and intonation problems.

It's a shame things aren't what they intially seemed.