# GVK Hand Carved Guitar! HALO GUITARS content. . .



## W4D (Nov 4, 2008)

GVK (SPECS)  

Bolt On Body
Swamp Ash Body & Maple Neck
Hand carved Art Design
Rosewood Finger Board
Jumbo Frets
Abalone Inlays crossbones
Custom Wound Humbuckers
1 x Volume / 1 x Tone / 1 x 3 Way Toggle
String Thru Body (Other bridges on request)


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## Groff (Nov 4, 2008)

Looks wicked man!

Damn that's a big cutaway, fret access must be superb on that.


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## W4D (Nov 4, 2008)

TheMissing said:


> Looks wicked man!
> 
> Damn that's a big cutaway, fret access must be superb on that.



Thanks Man!

And yes it is.


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## Stitch (Nov 4, 2008)

Thats some nice work there. The headstock is ugly as all hell and that rosewood seriously needs some TLC but the carving work is nice. Is this MIK?


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## DrakkarTyrannis (Nov 4, 2008)

These are the best looking pics of that guitar I've seen. I originally was interested in one but other pics made it look weird. The fretboard does need some work though. Is there an option for ebony and a new headstock? A single coil in the neck would be cool too


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## W4D (Nov 4, 2008)

DrakkarTyrannis said:


> These are the best looking pics of that guitar I've seen. I originally was interested in one but other pics made it look weird. The fretboard does need some work though. Is there an option for ebony and a new headstock? A single coil in the neck would be cool too



You can get what ever you want on it we are a full on custom shop


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## DrakkarTyrannis (Nov 4, 2008)

Hmmmm......*schemes*


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## Shawn (Nov 4, 2008)

Too wild for me but wow, looks killer and was nicely done.


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## W4D (Nov 4, 2008)

Shawn said:


> Too wild for me but wow, looks killer and was nicely done.



Yeah it is not for everyone but I dig it


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## D-EJ915 (Nov 4, 2008)

wonder how GVK would approve of it  (he's a member on the ESP forum)


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## W4D (Nov 4, 2008)

D-EJ915 said:


> wonder how GVK would approve of it  (he's a member on the ESP forum)



Grey designed it. So it seems he has approved for atleast 3 years now. FYI


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## TonyFlyingSquirrel (Nov 4, 2008)

Is that Roland Ready?
I thought I saw a GK jack.


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## Apophis (Nov 4, 2008)

Body is awesome, if heatsock will be something similar, it would be just AWESOME guitar imo


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## auxioluck (Nov 4, 2008)

Nice. Very Giger-ish.

I like bio-mechanical guitars. 

Superb carving.


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## W4D (Nov 26, 2008)

auxioluck said:


> Nice. Very Giger-ish.
> 
> I like bio-mechanical guitars.
> 
> Superb carving.



Thank you very much


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## W4D (Nov 26, 2008)

Apophis said:


> Body is awesome, if heatsock will be something similar, it would be just AWESOME guitar imo



Yeah I actually agree with you on that.


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## Apophis (Nov 26, 2008)

Looks awesome


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## Marv Attaxx (Nov 26, 2008)

This guitar is awesome!!!
But like the others said the headstock and the fretboard need a little bit of work. An ebony fretboard without gay cross-inlays and maybe the headstock of your custom gvk (with a little bit carvin to match the body) would make it perfect


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## winterlover (Nov 27, 2008)

ebony
that is all


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## canuck brian (Nov 27, 2008)

This looks like a really awesome guitar, but seriously, why aren't you posting this in the dealer section?


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## shadowlife (Nov 28, 2008)

Not for me, but beautiful and very unique.


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## bulletbass man (Nov 28, 2008)

Stop using such crappy rosewood 

Seriously guitar looks like a ton of time was put into it and the body while not for me looks great. But then I see that rosewood and think wow if I carved up an Ibanez GIO the rosewood look just as great.


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## ihave27frets (Dec 3, 2008)

So a bit off topic..what was up with the Halos Mustasche(sweden) used at the indianapolis metal fest? They seemed to have a bit of trouble...


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## timcare (Mar 22, 2009)

Guys and gals, Don't be fooled this is not a one of a kind hand carved guitar. Heres the proof. There is a company in China in the port of Quindao and they are available with or without necks . The import company is called Alibaba.http://xxx.alibaba.com/product-gs/204267351/musical_instrument.html. replace the x's with w's and there is that body in plain unfinished lumber. Thats why the rosewood looks bad,it's a cheap Chineese import that has a good paint job. I can't believe someone would fall for that.So kiddies for under $200 U.S. you can have your own exactly like it.


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## tian (Mar 22, 2009)

^


Halo guitars' schenanigans never fail to make me smile. Glad I'm not one of their customers...


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## Wi77iam (Mar 22, 2009)

HAHAHAHA, that is great. HALO IS ULTIMATE FAIL. 
.. nah, eric devries is ultimate fail 

edit: ed roman is in that pile of shit too.


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## HighGain510 (Mar 22, 2009)

Holy shit that is awesome!!!!  Another epic fail brought to you by Halo, might as well pack it up now...


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## Thin_Ice_77 (Mar 22, 2009)

I'm starting to think Halo will never sell another guitar on this site.


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## Wi77iam (Mar 22, 2009)

Thin_Ice_77 said:


> I'm starting to think Halo will never sell another guitar on this site.



no need to think, believe it. HE WON'T EVER SELL A GUITAR HERE


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## Xk6m6m5X (Mar 22, 2009)

old new for antone wid myspace..i seen this like two years ago


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## MF_Kitten (Mar 22, 2009)

haha! the company that makes the bodies for those also sell RAISINS! 

anyways, i&#180;m tempted to buy some stuff from that chinese company thingie... why not buy a body, go over it with some fine sandpaper, give it a sweet paint job, and just mount parts on it?

also, they make a bass that is almost identical to that halo guitar, finish and all.

and even cooler, they make a bass with a GLASS BODY


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## sworth9411 (Mar 22, 2009)

this is amazing....this is probably their only supplier in China and it is publicly available on the internet.....wow bad news for them Ill put money on it that their "custom made USA" guitars are probably small run prototypes from china.......wow poor judgement on their part to use standard pieces from Ali Baba......epic fail halo......I kind of feel bad for them....maybe this will be a lesson or a learning expierience to start turning over better quality product? The design principal is there and the market is there and for what its worth the fact that they have a metal guitar target audience is good but relly they should focus on quality and then move a production line overseas not the other way around......just my :2cents:


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## -Nolly- (Mar 22, 2009)

Holy crap, I'm interested to see what the Halo chaps have to say for themselves.


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## sworth9411 (Mar 22, 2009)

I am as well my post of course is speculation but is something that is commonly done across many manafacturing industries to cut costs (I myself am guilty as charged).....Although we actually went to china directly to the source and hired a private broker on our payroll to make sure this kind of nonsense didn't happen......wow guys if your gonna cheat, cheat right.....

My guess is Halo Guitars are going to ignore it......two fails in one week I am sad for them.....at least sponge got his money back and no one else on this board will buy a halo guitar.....


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## Ramsay777 (Mar 22, 2009)

I can't get the link to work....  But by crikey Halo are getting into a bit of bother lately


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## BigPhi84 (Mar 22, 2009)

Epic LOL.


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## sworth9411 (Mar 22, 2009)

http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/204267351/musical_instrument.html


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## hufschmid (Mar 22, 2009)

Couple monthes ago, I replicated the GVK for Secondlife...

I must say that I really like the design of the body


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## sworth9411 (Mar 22, 2009)

Definetly a cool design, but to me it look like it was pre-existing and halo picked it out of a chinese catalog.....painted it put there stamp on it and called it theirs.....granted all speculation again but lets be serious......


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## AgentWalrus (Mar 22, 2009)

haha fuckin loser. not only are you seedy as fuck, your shit is actually worth jack shit


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## lefty robb (Mar 22, 2009)




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## Koshchei (Mar 22, 2009)

edit: The plot thickens. Somebody should ask the Chinese supplier how long they've been selling these.


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## CapenCyber (Mar 22, 2009)

Oh dear...




pwned.


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## wannabguitarist (Mar 22, 2009)

Guys the Chinese body is slightly different than the Halo one, look at the "tumor" where the controls are and the arm rest area. There are more bevels on the Chinese body. For all we know the Chinese one may actually be a copy


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## BlindingLight7 (Mar 22, 2009)

wannabguitarist said:


> Guys the Chinese body is slightly different than the Halo one, look at the "tumor" where the controls are and the arm rest area. There are more bevels on the Chinese body. For all we know the Chinese one may actually be a copy


SS.org fail


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## Stealthdjentstic (Mar 22, 2009)

BlindingLight7 said:


> SS.org fail


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## CapenCyber (Mar 22, 2009)

Actually looking closer yeah, there is a whole other spiky protrusion on at the rear top portion of the Chinese model, also, more subtly there is a lot less space behind the bridge pickup on the Chinese model, there is nowhere near enough room for the TOM set-up the the halo one has on the Chinese model. The Chinese model is designed for a string through design.

Either way, one is obviously a copy of the other!


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## lefty robb (Mar 22, 2009)

CapenCyber said:


> there is nowhere near enough room for the TOM set-up the the halo one has on the Chinese model. The Chinese model is designed for a string through design.
> 
> Either way, one is obviously a copy of the other!




There's plenty of room for the TOM, the exact flat spots are the same.

all they would have to do is cut off that extra nub near the armrest and it would be exactly the same.


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## CapenCyber (Mar 22, 2009)

They're really not the same at all, look at where the pickups are in relation to the side cutaways. Also in the side-by-side picture you can see what I mean by there being much more space behind the pickup on the halo model:


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## HighGain510 (Mar 22, 2009)

Your photoshop/MS Paint cut took off a lot of the edges and half of the horns that look the same when it's all there though... that's not a true side-to-side at all.  It's possible that the Chinese folks copied the design but since Halo has been sourcing their stuff FROM China it's MORE likely that it's from the same factory Halo buys their stuff from.


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## CapenCyber (Mar 22, 2009)

You don't need to look at the edges though, you can easily see the bridge pickup is level with the bottom of the side cutouts on the halo, and the bridge pickup on the Chinese one is much further back than the side cutouts.

Either way, something fishy is going on and I'd like to hear from the Halo guys wtf is going on.


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## DrakkarTyrannis (Mar 22, 2009)

Yeah..don't expect a decent answer.


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## lefty robb (Mar 22, 2009)

CapenCyber said:


> They're really not the same at all, look at where the pickups are in relation to the side cutaways. Also in the side-by-side picture you can see what I mean by there being much more space behind the pickup on the halo model:




The differences in perspective and size makes its really hard to compare the two, especially with measurement details and whatnot, but yes, there are small differences but as others said, this is to much a coincidence.


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## WhiteShadow (Mar 22, 2009)

I swear, theres ALWAYS some kind of bullshit going on whenever i hear the words "Halo Guitars". I think its best just to avoid a company thats got so much bullshit surrounding its name.


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## ledzep4eva (Mar 22, 2009)

Jesus Christ, Halo are such a shit company!!

I honestly cannot understand why anyone would buy anything from them. Their guitars don't even look any good anyway. They're like the kind of 'metal' guitars a 13 year-old would design.


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## vehemence (Mar 22, 2009)

anyone ever think that these guitars dont look exactly the same because they are hand carved by china man?


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## Xk6m6m5X (Mar 22, 2009)

i belive that body desighn was taken fro the esp f series if i remeber corectly


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## sworth9411 (Mar 22, 2009)

Koshchei said:


> edit: The plot thickens. Somebody should ask the Chinese supplier how long they've been selling these.



Already Done...waiting on a reply


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## lefty robb (Mar 22, 2009)

vehemence said:


> anyone ever think that these guitars dont look exactly the same because they are hand carved by china man?




the only way to churn out 3000 of these things in a month would be with a CNC.


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## AySay (Mar 22, 2009)

Why is it that when shit happens, the Halo guy/guys don't respond?


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## AeonSolus (Mar 23, 2009)

AySay said:


> Why is it that when shit happens, the Halo guy/guys don't respond?



It's because the answer is obvious, They sell Chinatars for x1000 the real price. And even though the bodies don't look similar, Isn't Halo Guitars' reputation enough to clarify this mess? I second it, they're chinatars.


FAIL


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## BlindingLight7 (Mar 23, 2009)

sadface


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## MF_Kitten (Mar 24, 2009)

i can imagine they´re made by the same guitar factory, but being slightly differently made to avoid trouble. the differences are ugly enough to look like bad replicas though, so what do we know...


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## rockerjeff (May 1, 2009)

Hello Everyone,

This is Jeff Lee from Halo Custom Guitars in Cupertino, CA. I assume some of you don't know who I am, so let me start by saying that my mother, Belinda Lee, and Waylon Ford founded Halo Custom Guitars. I first got involved with Halo in early 2006 and have been working here full time ever since. I have 10 years experience playing guitar.

I just discovered this thread today and will address the speculation regarding the Halo GVK and the copies being manufactured by the Chinese factory discovered through the Alibaba network. I also want to point out that Halo does not outsource production to third party manufacturers. Instead, Halo Guitars is integrated in the sense that the facility in which the manufacturing takes place is owned by Halo Guitars. 

The original concept of the Halo GVK, as we now know it, was created by Grey Van Kuilenberg and Waylon Ford. I do not have the specific dates, but I can say with certainty that Halo Custom Guitars began prototyping the GVK in 2005. Some aspects of the GVK's design were inspired by other manufacturers' existing designs as some of you have already noted. 

However, the GVK guitar is, in fact, a Halo Custom Guitars original design. There were no other guitars like it in the global instrument marketplace when Halo sold the first unit in February 2006. With that in mind, lets get back on topic and talk about the copies being traded over the Alibaba network and, unfortunately, elsewhere. 

I attended the 2007 Winter NAMM tradeshow as an exhibitor for Halo Guitars. Naturally, I was excited because it was my first time showcasing Halo products  one of which was the GVK guitar. I was taken aback when a passerby informed me that another exhibitor was showcasing a similar guitar. This was my first face-to-face experience with the GVK copies. I took a quick walk down to the basement level of the convention center and discovered that a Chinese OEM manufacturer had their own version of the Halo GVK guitar hanging on their wall! Belinda and I approached the reps from this company and demanded they take the guitar down, which they did. I filed a complaint with NAMM about this particular company. 

My second face-to-face experience with the GVK copies was one year later at the 2008 Winter NAMM show. This time it was an American "mom and pop" shop that simply put their logos on the headstock. I swapped business cards with the owners and was able to resolve the issue quickly. My third face-to-face experience with the GVK copy was during the recent October 2008 Music China tradeshow in Shanghai. Yet again, another Chinese OEM manufacturer had copied the GVK guitar. In addition, this company was copying everybodys guitars. I saw serialized, Made in USA Gibson and Fender copies, as well as Ibanez, Dean, BC Rich, and Parker copies. At this point I was extremely annoyed and filed a complaint with the patent and fair trade office at the tradeshow, which is organized by Messe Frankfurt (MusikMesse). 

Ultimately, the sad truth is there will always be imitation products regardless of the industry whether it be musical instrument manufacturing, food products, commodities, etc... 
The people engaging in this activity are doing it because they see some profit to be had at the expense of others. 

Now, to address some of the concerns about QC. Halo Guitars is making every effort to improve the quality of instruments we sell. (1) We are scaling down our operations and product line to achieve the highest quality instruments possible within our target selling price range, (2) A new CRM software has been implemented to improve customer service, and (3) A robust e-commerce website is being built to support our growth in sales into the future. Ill also be posting some extended range content  the first article will be Demystifying the 8-String Guitar, which will focus on the tuning, scales, and chords. Later, it will be followed up with more articles and video covering chords that use 9th's, 11th's and 13th's, plus 8 string arpeggios, two handed tapping and some alternate tunings. 

I know this post might raise more questions related to Halo Guitars; if you have a question, then you may direct them to me as Waylon is no longer with the company. 
Ill be happy to hear from you on sevenstring.org, by e-mail at [email protected], or by phone at 408-873-8606 ext. 107. 
*** I am good with e-mail & phone, but I admit I do not post on here as much as I should. THANKS! ***


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## drmosh (May 1, 2009)

I'd like to see them articles about 8 string stuff.


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## rockerjeff (May 1, 2009)

I have the first article saved as a Microsoft Word document. I don't know how to post it on here because there are images of chords and scales. I could send it to you directly through e-mail?


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## Yoshi (May 2, 2009)

rockerjeff said:


> I have the first article saved as a Microsoft Word document. I don't know how to post it on here because there are images of chords and scales. I could send it to you directly through e-mail?



Link the file as an attachment, so when people click it we get the option of saving or opening it.


2 tips for good guitars.. Don't try to hard to create spasticly unique guitars, some simple designs like that superstrat with the reaper headstock made me GAS hard for it. And 2, try to answer all the questions raised. Also Oil your fretboards, some of them look really dry.

But like I said, a 7 string superstrat with the reaper headstock would win my money. I loved the fact that the back was painted black.


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## rockerjeff (May 5, 2009)

Yoshi said:


> Link the file as an attachment, so when people click it we get the option of saving or opening it.
> 
> 2 tips for good guitars.. Don't try to hard to create spasticly unique guitars, some simple designs like that superstrat with the reaper headstock made me GAS hard for it. And 2, try to answer all the questions raised. Also Oil your fretboards, some of them look really dry.
> 
> ...



OK - I uploaded the file. It's called, "Halo Guitars Article - Demystifying the 8-String Guitar".
We built 7-string superstrat with reaper headstock. The guitar is called the Halo Morbus. They are equipped with Lic. Floyd Rose, Hum/Hum pu config., and quilted maple veneer. The colors are either transparent red, transparent gray, or transparent black. 

** Also, can somebody tell me if the attachment works? Thanks!


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## Yoshi (May 6, 2009)

rockerjeff said:


> OK - I uploaded the file. It's called, "Halo Guitars Article - Demystifying the 8-String Guitar".
> We built 7-string superstrat with reaper headstock. The guitar is called the Halo Morbus. They are equipped with Lic. Floyd Rose, Hum/Hum pu config., and quilted maple veneer. The colors are either transparent red, transparent gray, or transparent black.
> 
> ** Also, can somebody tell me if the attachment works? Thanks!



Yep it works, but don't use notepad or wordpad to open it.

I'm pretty sure there was a picture of a proto morbus with a yellow flame top, that was gorgeous but that also showed signs of incorrect routing for the floyd. Hopefully this has been seen too. We shall see, if you put that out in a sevenstring trans black I'll buy one.


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