Arbor AJ140 Gretsch Style

Purchased new, The AJ140WH is a hollow-body jazz guitar which features a single cutaway Agathis body with nato neck, rosewood fingerboard and 3-ply pickguard. The 25-1/2" scale model features: 22 frets, chrome die-cast tuners, Bigsby style tailpiece/tremelo, individually adjustable saddle to set intonation, 2 humbucker pickups, 2 volume, 2 tone, 3-way switch control. The guitar has a Cherry finish and white binding. Hardware is chrome. The pick guard, in my opinion, is butt ugly. I pulled it off immediately and improved the looks of an already nice looking guitar.

It compares very well to a real Gretsch, the pickups are sweet. I wouldn't change them. I play through a Fender cybertwin, no noise at all. Depending on which pick up I choose and the amp settings, I can be BB King or Chet Atkins.

In a word, amazing. The action was set very fast. One fret (15th)is slightly high, not really noticable once the action was adjusted slightly up. Finis is overall very good. If you look very closely at the inlays in the fretboard you can see that the routing is not as precise as it could be. Not noticable from 2 ft away. FInish is overall very good

Don't know. Although this is my second Arbor (first one is an ES 335 copy) that I also love. No problems with either. I would use it on a gig without a back up.

Unknown. I purchased from Crossroads and have had a good experience. Limited lifetime warranty

I have been playing for 30 years. I have Martins, Gibsons, Fenders, Guilds, and taylors. I got the first Arbor becasue of the price and the review in Harmony. I was amazed at the quality and sound and soon ordered two more. I cant believe you can get a guitar like this for such a low price. If you aren't on a music gear ego trip and have to have status brands, you will be extremely happy with these guitars. They play like butter and sound great. There is no functional reason to "trade up" they play and sound as well as any guitar I have ever owned.

I would buy another immediately if they were lost/stolen.

The AJ140WH is a hollow-body jazz guitar which features a single cutaway Agathis body with nato neck, rosewood fingerboard and 3-ply pickguard. The 25-1/2" scale model features: 22 frets, gold die-cast tuners, 2 gold humbucker pickups, 2 volume, 2 tone, 3-way switch control. The guitar has a brilliant white finish and black binding. The gold hardware (tuners, tremolo, pickups) compliment the color. The only unattractive thing is the gold pickguard. I may replace it with a custom-made clear, acrylic pickguard. The guitar is made in China. Overall, it's a beautiful guitar. For a very good picture of the AJ-140 on the web, go to http://www.victorlitz.com



AJ-140 Hollow body, white with black binding, gold hardware and tremelo (generic Bigsby-style). Pickups look similar to TV Jones. To bring the price down, I traded in a guitar, an old 15 watt amp, mini-Marshall amp, Arion Hot Watt and Delay Pedal. That helped drop the price by $150.00

I'm use to playing solidbody guitars with single pickups or humbuckers. It sounds good even when it's not plugged into the amp. The only thing I'm disappointed with is the 3-way switch. When toggled down, the sound gets loud. When the switch is toggled up, you think the switch is in the center position. I play the guitar with a Vox Cambridge 1 x 10 amp (early 2000s model/Korea). The sound is great on reverb and the other effects. My music tastes are eclectic: blues, Mod, rockabilly, funk...

From reading the Harmony-Central reviews about the AJ137, AJ138 and AJ140, I knew in advance that a repair tech would have to adjust the guitar's set-up before I left the shop. As part of the purchase, the shop's reps offered to do that (the action was high) and put on new strings. I think in one review, a guy put on flat-wound strings, so that's what I asked for. The controls are not loose. The nut appears fine. If you're use to going up the neck on a solid body and playing past the 12th fret, this guitar will present you with a challenge. The only thing that needs more work is the 3-way switch. I'm not complaining too much because it's a 10th of what a Gretch White Falcon costs. A po' man's Gretch!

I don't play professionally, so I can't say what this guitar would be like for a gig. The guitar does not come with a bag, so you'll need to purchase one. But if you read the other professional musician's reviews, you'll find out how durable it is.

Contacting the people at Music Corp. (MBT) isn't easy (the manufacturer/distributor). Nobody answered my email. I didn't want to buy it from an internet site. I did some checking around and found a local shop -- Pacific Music -- in Redmond, Washington and ordered the guitar. One thing that needs to be pointed out is that this series of guitars (AJ137,AJ138 and AJ140)are on backorder. Don't even expect a display model to be in the shop you visit. The shops are having a hard time getting them. I had to wait for about a month to get mine. There is a warranty with the guitar, but like most things check with the shop to find out how long it lasts and what's covered. But I can honestly say that the HC reviews influenced me to buy the guitar. I knew it would be in 100% condition and the sound would be fine. If you're not impressed with the guitar, let the store know as well as the HC readers.

I've been playing guitar on and off for 10 years. I decided to learn music and get serious about it during the last four years. I think if you're on a budget and want to experience a hollow-body jazz guitar that you're safe in purchasing it. You're paying much less than an Epiphone, Aria and Ibanez. Read the review about how rockabillys on welfare will rejoice over this guitar.

Features covered in previous reviews.

Chinese made, Agathis body and nato neck, and cheesy gold pick guard. 25 1/2" scale, 22 frets, rosewood fingerboard, gold tuners, Bigsby vibrato, humbucker pickups. 2 volume, 2 tone, pots and 3-way switch.


I took a risk on this product and have not been disappointed. I bought new for $225 which is particularly cheap. A great deal of set up required, but once set, does its job very well.

I'd recommend it for consideration if you're looking for a hollow body. Alleged to be a knock-off of Gretsch White Falcon, but elements of the design suggest Gibson influence, too.

I was looking for a jazz/blues guitar with which to experiment. Stock pickups are just fine for me, and, exceptionally, the stock strings were just fine. Tone and harmonic range more than satisfies my needs with the configuration, "as is".

Worst presentation quality issue in the inlay work. Calling it mother of toilet seat is a slander on toilet seats (guess here it's a libel since I'm writing this, not speaking it). The inlay routing must have been executed by the operator early monday morning after a weekend's heavy drinking in downtown Zhuzhou. It's truly awful on real close inspection. "Executed" is the right word, it's been murdered.

Speaking of inspection, the guitar was passed and stamped grade A by one S. C. Hong. Mr. Hong was clearly the beneficiary of a work relief program for the visually impaired. In addition to the poor inlay routing the guitar lacked the resonance I'd expect of a hollow body. The problem was a scrunched up newspaper visible through one of the f holes. I think it was the complete sports section, but there were no photos and my Chinese is not what it used to be. I took quite a time to remove the whole thing.

I removed the cheesy pick guard. It's all a matter of taste, of course, but I do think taste was located in the posterior of the person responsible for okaying its inclusion in the AJ140 model. The guitar looks infinitely better without it. It does mean the finish will be susceptible to scratches, of course, but this is a small price to pay, considering.



Aside from these issues the guitar is fine. Frets are level and remarkably well finished given cost. The biggest problem for some may be in the set up. Though the neck seemed free of warp or other structural problems, setting neck relief required an act of considerable bravery. I had to tighten the truss rod more than I'd have liked.

The floating bridge had moved and required repositioning and angle reset. Intonation, required some work after the bridge was correctly set. Final set results:- neck relief 0.013; action at the nut 0.02; string height high E 4/64, low E 5/64 at the 12th (measurement are in inches). Intonation - had more trouble setting the G string than the others. Intonation now correct.

The Bigsby mechanism is solid enough, the rest of the hardware, competent. I find that tuning will drift even with quite conservative use of vibrato. Others have reported no such problem with this model. Tuners are Grover type and the thing stays in tune very well if Bigsby mechanism locked down.

High E string and pick up pole don't align. This can be rectified some by raising the high strings side of the pickups, bringing the high E string, in terms of raw distance, nearer to its pole, angle offset. This is really a rotation, of course, and will also affect the distance and angle of the other poles but to a diminished extent. Going by the pickup output now, it sounds just fine.

As noted, the action, stock, was abismal, but that was easily rectified, and it's now ace. There are no major structural problems. The worse finish issue is the inlay work, but you have to look real close to detect the true extent of the incompetent routing. Even at this price, the actual inlays need not have been this poor.

With respect to my needs the guitar seems robust enough.

I bought it online from Crossroads Music. Cheapest price published anywhere. 4 weeks after purchase, I'd received no guitar and no word from Crossroads. It took seven weeks, numerous (nearly all unanswered) phone calls and emails (never answered), threats to contact the state attorney general consumer affairs office, to actually get them to ship it. I finally had had enough, canceled the order, then received an email six hours later stating that the guitar had already been shipped and detailing the FedEx tracking number. Inspection revealed the box had been deposited at the FedEx counter 4 1/2 hours after I'd called and emailed, canceling the order. I'd buy from elsewhere, pay the extra, and avoid the aggravation.

This of course, tells us nothing about Arbor's support. It came with a warranty card and I did send it off. Just can't remember the duration of the cover.

The rating given in this section relates to the vendor, Crossroad Music. Unfortunately there is no zero ranking or, more appropriately, any minus ranking, with which I may reward their efforts.

To provide some sort of usable, relevant, comparison, the workmanship is nowhere near as good as that found on an equivalently priced Agiles I have, but it is better quality than the typical Oscar Schmidt OE30 (which I also have - I say "typical", since the QC on the OE30 is so variable).

Where it really matters, in the quality of its performance, I think it as an outstanding buy, relative to its price. Despite its presentation flaws, it is also a very pretty guitar, and exceptionally so, when viewed from even a short distance.

The rating given here is a judgment relative to other offerings of this class of guitar in this price range.

The features have been detailed fairly comprehensively by the other folks who have reviewed this guitar, but I will emphasize: THIS IS A LOT OF GUITAR FOR THE BUCKS!!! I began my re-introduction to GAS (Guitar Acquisition Syndrome) a couple of months ago with a Chinese-made Stellar Mercury 002, which is a jumbo and thick-bodied single-cutaway blonde jazz guitar with gold hardware. I had been "out of the loop" on guitars for a decade or more and was quite impressed with the Stellar and its sound and features especially considering its price: $199.00 including a nice hardshell case. This guitar, which I acquired in order to compare to both the Stellar and both my recently-acquired Gretsches. I had read on the Gretsch Forum that Arbor was building "White Falcon" copies, and that Victor Litz was selling them. I had a glimpse at the Litz website, then did a search on the Web and found the guitar at Crossroads Music for only $229.00 plus shipping. I received it today after a three-week wait ( a mixup at Crossroads meant that my guitar had to be shipped 2nd Day Air to make it in time for Christmas, and they paid the shipping.
I opened the box, unwrapped the guitar, set it on a stand and stood back. STUNNING.

I play jazz, rock, some rockabilly (Wayne Hancock rules!!!), some blues. Beatles, of course. I'm just getting my chops back up so right now I'm using a Line 6 single 12" Spider 2. Great small amp. This guitar suits all these styles very well, with a great, full sound that I will soon improve with a set of heavier flatwounds. The pickups are almost Gretsch--about 90% there. There's just a bit of midrange, flutey "spit" that Gretsches still have, but this may improve with the flatwounds.

The action is a bit high on my example, but once I get the new strings on, I'll spend some time setting it up. Pickups have not been adjusted yet, so they are a bit weak; again once the new flats are on, I'll dial it in. There was no attempt to intonate the roller bridge (nice touch!!) at the factory, so I rough-dialed it in with the Allen wrench which was kindly provided. There is also an Allen wrench in the kit which is used to adjust the truss-rod. The finish on the guitar is SUPERB. I'm a fan of Chinese machine tools, having bought many Bridgeport-type mills, machine lathes, and woodworking tools made in China over the past two decades. Tremendous value for money and just fine for most uses. Now--guitars! It was inevitable and, at least to me, very welcome. Two items I will take issue with: the knobs (will be replaced with either soft gold speed knobs or gold-plated Gretsch knobs, depending upon my mood and wallet at the time I order!) and the pickguard, which looks just too cheesy in its shiny mirrored gold. I'll make the pickguard myself out of clear 3mm perspex, and backpaint it with a soft gold metallic like a White Falcon. The binding is perfect in grey, black, and white. (A White Falcon features crushed antique gold leaf as the outside binding material, lacquered over heavily.)

Solid, well-built, feels like a tank. Strap buttons well-attached and nice touch are the felt washers underneath them, as well as the thin cloth slip under the bridge (feedback or wear prevention I don't know...) The gig/backup question is moot as I won't be gigging for awhile if ever, but if I do I'll have several guitars with me.

Lifetime warranty to original owner. Backup are the importers in Central Illinois. So at least they're in the USA. Only time I would consider using this service is if the thing split or neck warped. We'll see--but this guitar just FEELS right.

I've been playing since Feb 1964 (guess what got me started!). I've owned all kinds of gear over the years, including of course some stuff I wish I had never sold off... Now my "collection" numbers a baker's dozen and includes a mint '59 Fender Duo-Sonic which I bought from Ry Cooder in 1980 (my#2 prize), a gold-lacquered Gretsch G3967 Jazz guitar, a Gretsch G5129 Synchromatic "sort of" Tennessean, a new Rickenbacker 660-12 in Montezuma Brown (#1 prize!), The Stellar Mercury 002 as well as a Stellar Mercury 004 Les Paul "Black Beauty" copy, a dive-bomber '93 Duo-sonic (body) with 3 active Strat pickups, a Strat neck, and a Floyd Rose, which I built, wired, and set up myself, a 1958-ish Burns-Weil which I picked up in London's East End, a 1965 Japanese Bradford 4-pickup whammy bar surf special, a sunburst brown ZZRyder MP3 (awesome guitar!), a sunburst Fender Jagmaster, and a solid body PRS lookalike project guitar that I got on eBay for $40.00 for its premium parts. You can read my reviews of many of these on this site. The only amp right now is the Line 6 practice amp, but soon I will order a Super Beatle from North Coast Music. I would replace this guitar with an identical one in a heartbeat. This guitar compares very well with my Korean-made Gretsch Synchro, which compares very well with the "professional" Made in Japan Gretsches. I look at it this way: I could buy a Gretsch 6120 for around $1500+. It has all the bells and whistles and all the cachet of high price and celebrity owners. I have looked at my G5129, next to the 6120, and the bodies are virtually identical in appearance; only difference being pickups, price, and knob and switch placement. I paid $599.00 for the G5129. Now I put the Arbor on a stand next to my G5129... they could have come from the same factory, they play very similarly and have a very close feel to each other. The Arbor feels just a tad "looser", but again the D'Addario strings are too light-gauge for this guitar, so we'll see.

This guitar was made, presumably in 2004, as that is when I bought it brand new. I have not seen these up until recently, so I believe they are a fairly new product.

It has 22 (+1 "dead") fret, with classic "pearl" inlays for the markers. It has a 3-way way toggle switch, with two volume, and two tone knobs.

The body is agathis, with nato neck and rosewood finger board.

The finish is a very nice gloss white, with black and grey binding (fine detail work). It's a single cutaway, with a wide & thick body. It was not easy to get a case to fit this guitar. I made sure that I had mine before I left the music store. The biggest case they had was still a tight, direct fit.

It has a nice Bigby-style tail-piece that I have not been able to hit enough to throw the guitar out of tune.

The Grover tuners are gold, just like the rest of the hardware.

This guitar sounds great right away, and suits a wide variety of musical styles. I am currently playing a lot of blues stuff (B.B. King, T-Bone Walker, etc) out of it, and the tone is perfect!

Right now, I am playing it out of my 70's Jordan combo amp, straight up with no effects. I plan on plugging it into my Marshall soon with on-board effects to see how it sounds "jazzed up."

This guitar is dead-silent when you want it to be, with no unneccesary or unwanted noise. It has a very full sound, and I imagine when I do a string change (it comes equipped with a thinner set of D'Addario's) and go with something a little thicker, it will sound even better.

I've been able to get a lot of great and diverse sounds out of this guitar. From blues, to rock, heavy metal, secret agent and more. The "bar" really adds a lot to this guitar and it's sound.

It was perfectly set up from the factory, I didn't have to make any adjustments. It was slightly out of tune, but that's to be expected.

No flaws on the construction, hardware or finishing of the guitar. Everything was literally perfect. The pick guard, whammy and pickups all had a protective plastic over them for protection which was really nice to see a company take the consideration.

Everything seems very solid on this guitar, but with all makes and models, it's always good to take a backup. The finish is thick and full of shine. I don't think it will show any wear for a long time to come.

The strap buttons are solid and of high quality. It has been very dependable so far, and as long as I continue to take excellent care of it (which I will), I can't see that changing.

If we weren't living in today's world with back-of-truck theft, collapsing truss and other unbelievable stunts, I would depend solely on this guitar at shows. But you never know...it's always good to take a backup!

I've never dealt with the company, but I've heard they're pretty easy to deal with. It has a lifetime warranty, but if anything ever goes wrong with it, I'll just fix it myself.

I would definitely buy another of these if it were stolen or lost. I'd actually like to buy another anyway...they're that nice! If you're looking for "that great Gretsch sound" (and look!), but can't afford, or don't want to pay, the price, this is your answer! It will deliver everything a higher priced model does.

The downside to this model is that it only comes in two colors: white (mine), and a cherry red. Other models come in different colors like a sunburst and a Gretsch style orange. It would be nice to see these colors offered on this high-end model.

This is a correction of my review of the white Arbor AJ140. The body binding is black (black/white/black on top just black on the bottom). The inlays look ok and are fairly well set without any noticeable filler, but the plastic is very soapy looking without any shine or pearly appearance. Finally the tuner pegs appear to be gold colored plastic (you can see seams on the sides) but they are screwed in. I'd consider replacing them if I were making a living with this guitar because I had a similar looking tuner button crack apart on me on an inexpensive acoustic. Once again the tuning is very stable and the "bigsby" seems to work fine at least for my occasional tweaks on it.

This is a 2004 Chinese manufactured white fat bodied Rockabilly style hollow bodied electric with gold hardware and a Bigsby style vibrato. The 2 pickups are styled like Gretsch or Dearmond humbuckers and sound very nice. The visual setup of the volume and tone knobs and the pickup selector is like on a Gibson (but no ring around the pickup selector saying treble and rhythm). I'm not certain whether accidentally or purposely (to mimic a Gretch ),the volume and tone controls cannot separately control each pickup if both are on. I assume this is the "treble selector" idea which is the way Gretsch sets up the controls on the type of guitars that this emulates. The rosewood fingerboard has pretty dull looking block inlays which could be called mother of toilet seat,if you are picturing the cheapest toilet seat available at the Home Depot. The frets are nicely laid and filed, but I did put a file to a couple of edges and I also lightly sanded off a little bit of white paint that had transferred to the fingerboard at about the 19 or 20 fret. The neck has black binding which looks pretty similar to no binding and the body binding is a single band or gold at the top and bottom. The white finish is nicely buffed and shiny, the F holes are finished very well and the headstock is shaped more like a Gibson than a Gretsch. A close look at the top of the headstock reveals a little bit of sloppiness between the layers of black overlay and the white finish. The nut is plastic, but as good as plenty of guitars the four or five hundred dollar bracket, the tuners are generic but seem to work well and the bridge is sort of a roller bridge and it seems to be a good mate for the Bigsby style vibrato which is not just there for show. You can already see that the gold is going to discolor like on every most gold hardware guitars. The pickguard is gold plastic and does not have the depth or thickness of a Gretsch (I don't think its exactly the same shape either). The guitar is great looking and certainly conveys the Gretsch vibe--but I do not think it is close enough to be risking a lawsuit--which is cool because lots of people are going to want these. It came with a very cheap but usable instrument cable,a truss rod adjustmant tool and a warranty book (limited lifetime warranty). I'm not sure of the wood type but I can say that it liiks good and its pretty clean on the inside so the wood as well as the workmanship seem to be OK.

This guitar sounds very good with my Trace Elliott Velocette Reverb. One has to be cautious of feedback and sitting right next to the amp on my easy chair I had to adjust my position and volume to deal with it. Of course youve got to expect to have to deal with feedback if you are going to play a true hollow electric and thats nothing to complain about. I put flatwound elevens on it and this guitar has very good tone with very good individual string tones when playing chords and double stops especially considering the fact that the pickups are humbuckers, I was pretty loud and I was using reverb. I miss the fact that I couldn't set each pickup's tone and volume differently when playing them both together for a T bone Walker type of tone but the treble selector switch does have its benefits. This guitar can definitely get the sounds one would expect from it and (here I'm speculating) in the hands of an accomplished Rockabilly , Retro, or Jazz cat would probably sound like a million bucks.

The guitar was in tune right out of the box. I haven't had it checked by an expert, but I doubt that the intonation needs much, if any adjustment. I smoothed out a couple of fret edged and changed the strings and was in business. I can see that the pots are real little and the volume and tone drop pretty steep' indicating that better pots might provide more tone and volume options, but that would be a very worthwhile improvement on an already rockin' guitar. I wouldn't replace the pickups, but I'm not qualified to say that real Filtertrons or TV Jones pickups wouldn't make it sound even better (if so, thats a good thing when a guitar is this easy to afford.) For that matter a hand cut bone nut would likely increase the sustain and make it even more playable--but it plays fine and sounds good as it is. All in all this guitar is a steal for under three hundred dollars and provides a really cool Brian Setzer type of guitar for those of us who previously could only dream.

I do not "gig" but I am confident that this guitar would stand up for a gigging musician. However for serious gigging I think the pots and input jack should probably be checked out and possibly be replaced. Afterall, this is a cheap guitar (and some not so cheap guitars use some pretty cheap electronics and switches) . Top notch pots, swithcraft switches and jacks, and double checked connections and soldering are well worth the trouble and comparatively low expense for peace of mind when one is using a guitar night after sweaty night in bars and clubs (which is where this guitar belongs). Even then, it would be pretty reckless not to bring something else just in case.

I haven't dealt with this company, but the guitar has a real warranty and is clearly pretty well made. The most likely things to possible go wrong are the type of things that most folks would just replace anyway. I guess if the neck twists or the fingerboard separates one might have to ship it to an arbor shop for repair or replacement, but I do not see that as much of a risk, and although arbor isn't a household name, it has been around as a guitar brand long enough for there to be arbor flying v's and shredder axes hanging in pawn shops and music stores (and still functioning).

I've been playing for about 20 years. If this guitar was lost or stolen I'd like to get another one. I'm very happy with the look, sound and playability of this guitar, but it is far from perfect and from real close up, would not be mistaken for an expensive guitar. The inlays, pickguard, appearance of the gold hardware close up, knobs (some gold paint on the Gibson type top hats), nut, white paint on the fretboard and what I suspect a close examination of the electronics would show distinguish it from the guitar it most closely emulates. That said---its Damn Cool!

China-made Gretsch copy. Although I have read the few reviews of this guitar around the net, I find this to be a copy of the Gretsch "Country Club" of the late 50's-early 60's(standard 2 humbuckers w/2v 2t& 3-way selector). But with a touch of "White Falcon" cosmetics (gold-plate hardware and pickguard).Usual hollowbody const.Agathis wood body with Nato/Rosewood neck.Single cutaway with f-holes,67mm thick. I chose white paint job over cherry. paint is good, finish highly buffed binding is ok. 22 MJ frets, nicely rolled!!!! very slim comfy neck. mother of toilet seat inlay(boo). Open book headstock w/pearl logo&fleur-d. Grover-copy tuners that seem fine so far. Filtertron-copy humbuckers that sound incredible!!!!! Bigsby-copy trem that is smooth and stays in tune!!!!!bridge is roller type very solid and expensive for a guitar of this price. solid and very impressive! (GRETSCH IS GONNA BE ANGRY!)

Ever heard a Gretsch? This one is as close as it gets. Rockabillys on welfare REJOICE!

Came out of the box ok. Needed a little set-up, but nothing the average joe cant handle. Neck is straight and true.Intonation was good and the beefy bridge is awesome!(pinned as oposed to the usual floating bridge on this type of guitar).Pickups sound like the real thing!Trem is solid and set up correctly.Again , the fret dressing on this is better than on my Gretsch!!!!!A few micro flaws in the binding is all I can find wrong here.

Always a roll of the dice with hollowbodies, but I think this piece could be as durable as any. Paint is great(could be nitro). excellent buffer work!! Feels solid playing(2 road-vets banged on it today for 3 solid hours!) plays like butter,stays in tune. I never gig without backup but I wouldnt be scared.

Dont know, just got it. At this price dont care! It does have your basic limited lifetime warranty.

I'm a guitar lifer, been there, owned that, sold it! I play live and spend endless hours in the studio with a number of guitars(everything from Gibs to fenders and all in between) I have always been partial to Gretsch's and have bought and sold them regularly. When I heard there were some chinese copies filtering in to America,I became curious. These are not the easiest guitars to get your hands on right now, but if you search the net and your local retailers you might get lucky. They are being distributed right now by MusicCorp and MBT. Afew Ebay people have them on the site, but are out of stock most of the time. I dont know if they are close enough copies that Gretsch could shut them down,but you never know(IBANEZ!) I havent had one stolen or lost and I just ordered 2 more! These are the best copies you could ever hope to buy, and are INSANELY low priced!!! If you think you might be into the whole Gretsch big body retro thing, then this is the economical way to be sure. I own the real thing and will tell all that the look, feel and tone is identical!!! and if your lead singer vomits on it, you wont be nearly as mad!