Digitally printed finish.

Dropped in to my local JB hifi today and noticed they had a big new rack of guitars and paraphernalia, naturally I had to check it out. Not the greatest range of stuff and mostly lower end gear, but hey, this is JB not a guitar shop. Anyway, one particular guitar that I noticed was this Ltd strat. First of all, mass produced factory relic, yuck, but looking closer something was not right. It had a weird plasticy feel to it and there was no depth to the finish or grain.

I'm not sure if you can really tell from the photo, but it looks like this sucker has had a digital print applied to it. What. The. Funk. Is this a thing?

It could be 100% plywood under that print, it was eerily light. This definitely wasn't a top shelf guitar, but still $500 odd seems like robbery. Has anyone else heard of such a thing? It's blown my mind a little.
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...726_134507.jpg

I heard a rumour JB were doing guitar and amp packages for $99. Have you ever seen/played one of these?

Adamm, I've played one, never wanted to see it again...
Pablo, I've heard of these finishes, sand it back and see what's under, we all wanna see!!

Sure thing, just send me the $500 and I'll get right on it.

Seriously though, if you got under it I reckon it'd peel off like shrink wrap.

yeah, make a small cut in it and it will turn into a banana!

Adam, the cheapest electric I saw was about $250, I wasn't looking very hard though.

JB have a sale atm.. strat type at $98 , it is a HSS setup-up.. And I have bought a package last year from them, it was $89 and came with the usb cord and gituar rig 4 CD for using with your computer.. seems to play reasonable.. but then again I cant really play the guitar .. still learn or trying to learn it for a tad over 40 years... on and off..lol
(The LP-1 I built from Pit bull is amazing in comparison)

The strange satin finish on the relic'd ST-203's give them their odd look and flatness, but with playing wear it actually polishes to quite a gloss and looks a lot different. I've got a sunburst ST-203 with a rosewood fretboard and the body is definitely Alder (3 piece). Although, I would have preferred a non-relic version if they made one (I'm not a fan of factory relics either). It's a little rough in fit and finish in places, but not too bad. Strats aren't my preferred type, but it plays reasonably well and sounds even better to my ear.

Chappers shows off the Rosewood and FR models:

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErXNy2XkYFo[/embed]

Hey AJ

Quote:

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/<\\/p>[]<\\/p>/Quote from AJ on July 27, 2013, 08:10
.. but then again I cant really play the guitar .. still learn or trying to learn it for a tad over 40 years... on and off..lol

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... just like the best (and the rest) of us! :D ... we only stop learning when we stop playing!

So, it's not a print? Okay then, that finish is incredibly weird but probably not the rip off I originally thought. Glad that's been sorted.

i bet it's plastic wrap like they use on cars...

Aldi had some Strat clone guitars recently. I took a look at one as it was price-cut to $60 or so (from $90ish) and I swear it had a dotty printed sunburst finish/sticker exactly as Pablopepper described. I'd seen enough and I couldn't close the box fast enough - to put back on the pallet not to buy that is - UGH! Never!

Some Asian guitar empires have been doing this sort of thing (plastic wrap) since the 90s to get the quilted maple look on their bottom of the line guitars. Usually with thick clear gloss coat over the top.