Anyone had much experience with Aliexpress?

[Jomasgaard]

Never used it before...

Found a body I really like. Anyone bought off of there before?

[dave.king1]

All I have bought from them is a power tank for my pedals, no problem at all with that transaction, product was as described and delivered in the expected timeframe.

Bear in mind that they are much like another eBay with multiple sellers often selling the exact same product at different prices

[jugglindan]

I have bought a few things from there. Postage tends to be quite slow, but that's true of nearly everything these days.

What Dave said is about right. It's like eBay, providing a venue for different retailers to sell stuff. It tends to have a much higher (exclusively?) proportion of Chinese sellers than eBay.

Sometimes prices + postage is better than eBay, sometimes it's worse.

[king casey]

I bought a few things. Mainly frets but you have to wait friggin ages for it to show up.

cheers, Mark.

[Simon Barden]

Bought some bridge clamps and a fret wire bender via them. All turned up. The clamps weren't brilliant quality but they were very cheap - so my expectations weren't high. fret wire bender was good. So like eBay (where much of the stuff will also turn up), it's got a mixture of good average and poor.

If you can afford to loose the money you've spent if it doesn't turn up or is damaged or just really bad when it turns up, then I'd go for it. Otherwise I'd hold on and buy something from somewhere you can get your money back if necessary.

[ThatCluelessGerman]

I'm buying there pretty frequently. Got a lot of guitar parts there, but no full guitars or kits so far.

I ordered a kit there, twice, both times it was cancelled by the seller with different excuses (sent to wrong address, quality issues...) which is - in my opinion - more a sign of a reseller selling stuff they didn't even stock so far. I waited 6 weeks for a kit before getting the message it was cancelled, so.. I'm cautious when things costs more than 40$.

But my experiences with accessories are very good so far. Pickup surrounds, knobs, switches, tuners, bridges... same stuff as the aftermarket parts you can buy here, just at a third of the price and the shipping times can be months.
Sometimes you're lucky, I just received a set of wilkinson pickups after exactly 2 weeks of shipping. That's pretty good.

A few days ago I thought I'd take the risk and ordered a fully finished stratocaster neck for 27€ incl. shipping. If it's crap, my credit card will have me covered :D

[PJSprog]

I've seen some stuff on there in the past that had my interest, but never pulled the trigger. Last time I went to browse, I couldn't get in without signing up for a membership or some such nonsense. Lost interest immediately.

Update: Went back and checked today, and it let me right in to browse. No idea what that was all about, but glad I can window shop there again.

[Chaosblade]

I've made two orders from Guitar Family on there and both were as described. Happy with the quality of the parts for the price. Wouldn't hesitate to order from them again, unless I needed the product ASAP. Cheap shipping from China is going to be very slow, just have to accept that.

[Jomasgaard]

Thanks for the feedback all.

Certainly seems to have a weLth of the small fiddly parts for good prices.

I’ve messaged this seller afanti music three times now enquiring about the measurements of the neck pocket on a body, to no reply. Be pretty sad if it is a no go as its a bargain and a cool uncommon shape that would fill a gole in my collection.

[ThatCluelessGerman]

I just wanted to add that the neck I ordered recently just arrived! Ordered on June 15th and arrived just 9 days later. That's pretty cool!
The neck itself is good quality and the finish is nice, but it's thick as a baseball bat ;) Not for tiny hands...

[McCreed]

Just thought I'd add my bit here too...

I ordered two items from two different Sellers on 21 June. One item (a pedal) is already in Australia (arrived 24/06).
The second item has been dispatched from warehouse but still in China.

I've made 3 or 4 prior purchases through Ali and all have been without issue and received in surprisingly short time.

[Andy40]

That is impressive McCreed. any of them Guitar Family? who were the stores?

[king casey]

Just thought I'd add my bit here too...

I ordered two items from two different Sellers on 21 June. One item (a pedal) is already in Australia (arrived 24/06).
The second item has been dispatched from warehouse but still in China.

I've made 3 or 4 prior purchases through Ali and all have been without issue and received in surprisingly short time.

So now you are at the mercy of Australia Post...don't go holding your breath.

cheers, Mark.

[McCreed]

So now you are at the mercy of Australia Post...don't go holding your breath.

Customs, then AP.

I actually think Aus Post has done pretty well (at least by me) given the circumstances. Even in the thick of the restrictions all my parcels arrived in reasonable time frames.

[dozymuppet]

I ordered a pokemon toy for my daughter recently and it took about 4 weeks :eek:

[dozymuppet]

Also keen to know which seller for the pedals, McCreed :)

[jugglindan]

These are not the pedals that McCreed bought (https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000411382762.html), but they are interesting. Don't be fooled by the weird name, they are rebadged Joyo pedals, which in turn are reasonably decent clones of more expensive designs. They also appear under the Kmise name and others. Decoding some of the clones:
Vintage Overdrive - TS-808
Ultimate Drive - OCD
Crunch Distortion - MI Audio Crunch Box
US Dream - Suhr Riot
Classic Chorus - Ibanez CS-9. But hey, fist!
Vintage Phase - MXR Phase 90
Analog chorus - Boss CE-2

Review here (some are better than others). Hard to argue with the value for money though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fd-rnMSrIw

[dozymuppet]

Yep, got my eye on that Vintage Phase.

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[dozymuppet]

Whoops. Slipped and bought two pedals.

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[McCreed]

Don't be fooled by the weird name, they are rebadged Joyo pedals, which in turn are reasonably decent clones of more expensive designs.

You sure they're rebadged Joyo? The enclosures seem to small for any series of the Joyo I know.
The names are certainly the same. Is it the Joyo circuits in a smaller package?
You know that part of things more than me.


Whoops. Slipped and bought two pedals.

And so it begins...

So wud'ya get????????

[dozymuppet]

The Vintage Phase and Analog Chorus ones above.

I've also got a Biyang Fuzz Star on order, so I think I'll be good for at least five minutes...

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[FrankenWashie]

Whoops. Slipped and bought two pedals.

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Another case of P.A.S. Doctor!

[jugglindan]

You sure they're rebadged Joyo? The enclosures seem to small for any series of the Joyo I know.
The names are certainly the same. Is it the Joyo circuits in a smaller package?
You know that part of things more than me.

Second hand knowledge. I have never held those pedals in hand and compared them to Joyo ones, and I agree, the enclosures look smaller than the Joyo Ironman series. But everything I have read online indicates they are indeed rebadged (and reboxed?) Joyo pedals. They cover the same set of clones as the first series of Joyo pedal, they have the same colours, and some even have the same artwork (chorus fist!). So they appear to either be rebadged Joyo, or clones of the Joyo clones.

But Joyo do have a history of selling their pedals to others to be rebadged, for example Harley Benton pedals. For a while Artist were selling Joyo Ironman pedals with the Artist brand on them.

[Bakersdozen]

You sure they're rebadged Joyo? The enclosures seem to small for any series of the Joyo I know.
The names are certainly the same. Is it the Joyo circuits in a smaller package?
You know that part of things more than me.



Could be the same circuits , but all in SMD or something

[McCreed]

For a while Artist were selling Joyo Ironman pedals with the Artist brand on them.

That's right! I remember seeing those.

[ILRGuitars]

I bought a power supply, leads and tuner for my pedal board. The power supply brand is "Power Prof" and the tuner is "Rowin". No problems so far and the tuner is very accurate with a true bypass. Delivery times varied between 2 to 4 weeks. I have order alot of guitar stuff from Aliexpress and while delivery times may vary greatly, I haven't had a drama yet. Just do you measurements and research carefully and read the ads thoroughly before you buy. Their dispute system works well if there is a problem too.

[fender3x]

Does Kmise build parts for other brands under license? I have a neck and a set of pickups from them. That's a pretty wide range of stuff if they are actually building it.

[jugglindan]

Does Kmise build parts for other brands under license? I have a neck and a set of pickups from them. That's a pretty wide range of stuff if they are actually building it.I don't know. I find the amount of rebranding makes it hard to know actually made anything.

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[Simon Barden]

Seen so many of the 'Kmise' pedals appearing with different makers names on (but otherwise the same artwork) when I looked on Amazon that I doubt they actually make them. Almost all the Kmise pedals on Amazon UK have gone for the moment at least. Probably sold out because of the recent videos on them. I was going to buy a bunch of drives and test them out as this month's 'cheap kit' experiment.

[fender3x]

If you plan to do a kit... FWIW I have a Kmise neck that I got for $35 on Ebay. It was mostly good. It has a nice profile and feels as good in my hand as any neck I've played. It came with a very thin finish, and nice rosewood board. Cheap plastic inlays but that's to be expected. The biggest "con" was that rosewood board was slightly higher on the treble side than the bass side. It was relatively easy to compensate for at the bridge. It was enough, however, to make the plastic nut that it came with unusable. I made a bone nut for it, so no big deal there either. Frets were more or less OK on the ends, and only required a little dressing, but required a bit to get them flat. They advertise Canadian maple. I couldn't tell from it's accent if it was really Canadian, but it was definitely maple and had beautifully figured grain. Based on this experience, I'd be willing to get stuff from the again. I also realized after posting last time that I have gotten other things from them. The chrome stuff--like a Jazz base control plate--has been nicely finished and fits as well as the "genuine fender" plate I also have. In fact the Kmise is identical in dimension, but a bit thicker and feels like higher quality.

[McCreed]

Just thought I'd post an update on my recent Aliexpress order.

The pedal arrived yesterday (12 days from ordering, and ordered on a Sunday).
The travel log looks like this:
From Seller to AU - 4 days
Received/Released from Customs - 4 days
Accepted and delivered Aus Post - 4 days (Sydney to Brisbane)

Pretty bloody good all 'round if you ask me.
Now before anyone asks about "the pedal" I'll be posting a separate thread about it in due time. All I'll say it is a bit of an experimental purchase...


Now the second item (different Seller, same order) has "Departed Country of Origin" on 27/06.
Allegedly via airline. So 13 days and counting total and not even in AU yet.

I'd say this demonstrates that not all Sellers are created equal.
I'm not really complaining though. I reckon anything under 3 weeks from China is not that bad considering the price(s). If the second piece arrives within 8 days it will at least meet my expectations.

[Simon Barden]

I've just received a couple of Kmise pedals bought via 'Wish', a similar type of outfit to Aliexpress. The US Dream and the Crunch Distortion (Rat clone). the Crunch Distortion is very distortiony, it doesn't do clean at all. Not a bad pedal if you want a lot of distortion that cuts off very quickly. But the gain and volume knob legends are crossed over, which is a bit confusing.

The US Dream I found very 'meh'. With low gain, there's too much top end missing to be of any use as a clean(ish) boost. You have to add quite a lot of gain to add back in some top end. And to get it sounding good at all, you have to dial in a lot of volume and gain, which makes it just so much louder than the bypassed level. So it's more a pedal for recording, so you can set your amp volume accordingly, or else have it permanently on. It's just about usable, but other pedals do it so much better, so why bother?

I also bought a Coolmusic Reverberry from Amazon whilst I was on my cheap pedal spree. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07ZCVJGGG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1. £33 with a small offer discount, so almost the cheapest reverb pedal I could find, (the TC Skysurfer at £29 was the cheapest) but with 9 reverb types available instead of the TC's three.

It's a miniaturised (and cheaper) version of this Moog-like Deadbeat Reverberation Station pedal: https://deadbeatsound.com/products/reverberation-station

Was it going to be a bargain Strymon?

What do you think?

Of course not.

It was quiet in bypass but quite noisy when switched on. The reverbs were very echoey and not very smooth. I was getting some digital clipping when I used it in the FX loop of my amp (though the signal/noise ratio was better when not playing) so it had to go in front of the amp as there was no input gain control. Hall was the best reverb setting for guitar, if used in moderation. Spring was overly 'boingy', an impression of a spring reverb rather than how a real one sounds. The plate was nothing like any plate emulations I've heard, very metallic and with distinct echoes. In fact most of them seemed more like a mix of reverb and delay than straight reverb. Lo-Fi just adds a load of noise, that certainly in special-FX only territory. Mod just adds a bland chorus to the whole sound (not just the reverb).

Opening it up, the processor is marked up with "Hotone (another pedal manufacturer) D3706", but I can't find any details on the web (at least any in English) on it. It's the same processor as used in that deadbeat pedal.

Reverb is an effect that needs to have a fair amount of processing power available, along with good algorithms, and that seems to be missing in this pedal. Whilst you can make good drive pedals cheaply, you can't get a decent reverb sound without spending a bit of money (and a great one costs a bit more).

My normal reverb pedal is a Boss RV-5, which is almost silent and had much better reverb sounds. It's not perfect, but it's good enough for live use and compact enough to fit on my cramped pedalboard. I could get a Strymon (or similar), but it would take up too much real estate and I'd have to lose two or three other pedals.

I've got a couple of other drive pedals arriving from Wish at some point, not Kmise ones, but similar price and style ones. These ones should be overdrives, not distortions.

[Rabbitz]

The US Dream I found very 'meh'. With low gain, there's too much top end missing to be of any use



Describes the whole country quite well I thought.

:p:cool::rolleyes:

[PJSprog]

Describes the whole country quite well I thought.

:p:cool::rolleyes:

Hey, now ...
It's really only our bigger cities that are dull like that. :rolleyes:

[dozymuppet]

The Vintage Phase and Analog Chorus ones above.


It took a while (50 days), but they finally arrived today. Very sweet tones, nothing too extreme. Satisfaction achieved. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200814/ef3b250bed47fd2869b5253092ae8c79.jpg

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[J.R.303]

I bought some tuners from Angels Music Guitar Store and got them to the UK in two weeks.

[McCreed]

Another update on my orders:
The old saying about the proverbial "slow boat to China" (except from) is more than fitting in this case.

One of the items I ordered 21 June, has just arrived in AUS 17 August. No evidence it has been handed over to Aus Post yet. 60 days and counting...

A separate item I ordered 25 June was delivered 13 August = 56 days.

I would say my 12 day experience in my first post was truly an anomaly.

[king casey]

I can hear ya.
My Wilkinson tuners order was placed on June 27th.

Patience ran out a couple of weeks ago and the guitar will probably wait until the strings need replacing.
Could be months.

cheers, Mark.

[McCreed]

YAY!!! My order arrived today!

The item I ordered was a Floyd Rose Intonation Tool (aka "The Key").
The irony is when I was looking to buy one 2 months ago, none of the usual AUS suppliers had any in stock. So I went the Aliexpress route. Then, about a month ago stock started to reappear domestically. I could have got one from Realparts 4 weeks ago.

In the end, I only saved myself 10 bucks, but I guess that's better than nothing.

[ThatCluelessGerman]

My humbuckers and brass nuts got lost in transit :(
Got the money refunded immediately but still, I wanted them badly :(

[PJSprog]

I've been finding some stuff through DHGate lately, and am going through the same anxieties; should I, or shouldn't I?
I know using a credit card gives me some measure of protection, but I just hate the hassles when things go bad financially.

[Simon Barden]

I bought some pedals via Wish.com that I couldn't find on Aliexpress, but unlike with Aliexpress, I got stung for taxes and handling fees. Still relatively cheap, but Aliexpress were just as good and much cheaper.