# Blakhart Guitars? Anyone want an 8 string V?



## The Norsemen (Mar 9, 2012)

Has anyone ever heard or played these guitars?
I've seen them on Facebook a few times and their guitars look badass.
They have 7 and 8 strings for what seems like a really good value.
The 8's are going for 800 bucks and it looks like they are made made by a pretty small operation.
The 8 strings have 27" scale, grover tuners, hipshot bridges, and 808's.
Whats not to love about that? Besides the active route 
They'll also make them lefty for no extra charge. 
And they have the Br00tal shapes for kvltists like me who prefer V's and shit. 
The models are pretty spartan, but they have a custom shop as well.

Jack Owen, the bassist of Origin, and a few other notable names endorse these. 
I'm probably grabbin one when I get some cash, but I thought I'd share with you guys.

The website: Untitled Document
The Facebook: Blakhart Guitars - Musical Instrument - Sioux Falls, SD | Facebook



7 string V






8 string "Crom"





8 string RA






8 string V


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## DoomJazz (Mar 9, 2012)

I feel like they have a lot of... presence... Kinda bulky lookin. Shapes also seem somewhat unrefined. You could stick two of the V's on either end of a bike and make yourself fly haha.


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## PortalNathrakh (Mar 9, 2012)

That 8 string V is pretty sexy. It's got everything a good black metal guitar needs, plus two more strings. 

Someone send one to V.I.T.R.I.O.L.!


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## The Norsemen (Mar 9, 2012)

DoomJazz said:


> I feel like they have a lot of... presence... Kinda bulky lookin. Shapes also seem somewhat unrefined. You could stick two of the V's on either end of a bike and make yourself fly haha.



I know a lot of people don't dig that but I kinda do.
It's definitely a turn away from the superstrat.
But that's not a good thing to everyone.


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## elq (Mar 9, 2012)

Please see http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/dealers-group-buys/188530-win-jack-owens-bane-v.html


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## The Norsemen (Mar 9, 2012)

elq said:


> Please see http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/dealers-group-buys/188530-win-jack-owens-bane-v.html



Hahaha god damn.
Some serious hate.
Well shit I guess I better prepare for people to call me names then.


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## TemjinStrife (Mar 9, 2012)

Fuck that company.


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## Sepultorture (Mar 9, 2012)

I gotta agree with that thread though, I know Darren personally, i've seen in person and held the prototype for his strat type shape and i have no respect for this company, aside from a lower horn change and a headstock difference, it's still ripping another style. Can he legally do anything, maybe not as this company probably changed it enough to avoid copyright infringement, but i'm still against this company none the less.

get a v and avoid the bashing lol


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## The Norsemen (Mar 9, 2012)

Sepultorture said:


> I gotta agree with that thread though, I know Darren personally, i've seen in person and held the prototype for his strat type shape and i have no respect for this company, aside from a lower horn change and a headstock difference, it's still ripping another style. Can he legally do anything, maybe not as this company probably changed it enough to avoid copyright infringement, but i'm still against this company none the less.
> 
> get a v and avoid the bashing lol




The V's are a blatant copy of the ESP NV model but nobody seems to care?

I'm obligated to agree with you.
But it isn't like every guitar design on the planet hasn't already been copied or tweaked slightly.


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## Fred the Shred (Mar 9, 2012)

Blackhart, aka "we do Decibel copies with mangled lower horns" and "we copy KxK's so well we actually used a pic straight off the KxK site"? Oh, love them to bits! Almost as much as shoving a splintered baseball bat up my ass using sawdust and chloridric acid as lubricant.


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## The Norsemen (Mar 9, 2012)

I feel like the only time someone gets upset about a copied guitar is when its a very expensive guitar that gets copied.
Since you guys pointed it out to me I'm going to question their practices as well.

But why is it that nobody gives a shit that Les Paul and strat style guitars are being cranked out by every factory on the planet? Or that Agile Interceptors to me at least seem to be modeled around Ibanez and well every other superstrat and those are okay?
Is it only because of how commonplace those styles have become?

I'm a little confused on what people get upset about here.
It's like the only time a copy is questioned is when its an expensive custom guitar?

I mean I agree with you guys, I just dont' get it.


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## Miek (Mar 9, 2012)

There's a difference between large corporations with commercialized shapes the greater part of 6 decades old and small time builders, many less than 20, or hell, 10 years old.

I have no problem with people copying the works of companies who produce thousands to hundreds of thousands of guitars per year, but I do take offense when the little guy who puts out nary a handful a year through blood sweat and tears gets copied by people trying to make a quick buck.


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## The Norsemen (Mar 9, 2012)

Miek said:


> There's a difference between large corporations with commercialized shapes the greater part of 6 decades old and small time builders, many less than 20, or hell, 10 years old.
> 
> I have no problem with people copying the works of companies who produce thousands to hundreds of thousands of guitars per year, but I do take offense when the little guy who puts out nary a handful a year through blood sweat and tears gets copied by people trying to make a quick buck.



Okay, thats what I thought everyone was getting at.
Just don't want to assume things here on SSO. You guys can get personal.
Because its been brought to my attention, I don't think I'm going to be patronizing that company.

But to be realistic for a minute, every single thing of value in this world has a cheaper, mass produced counterpart being sold somewhere.
It's a poor business ethic, but its pretty effective.


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## TimSE (Mar 9, 2012)

Personally, I wouldn't trust a company who rip people off as obviously as that with my money


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## Valennic (Mar 9, 2012)

The Norsemen said:


> Okay, thats what I thought everyone was getting at.
> Just don't want to assume things here on SSO. You guys can get personal.
> Because its been brought to my attention, I don't think I'm going to be patronizing that company.
> 
> ...



Stop trying to justify it. There is no justification for what that company did. Darren spent years tweaking his design, only to have those fucks rip it off without a second thought. Someone put a lot of time and love into designing a KxK of their dreams, and this company again, ripped it off without a second thought. 

It doesn't matter if there are other companies who copy other companies, those companies licensed their designs. Fender doesn't have control of their design, which is why its everywhere. Gibson licensed the shape to a lot of people, hence its existence everywhere. These bastards just ripped it off.

There is no justification for it.


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## The Norsemen (Mar 9, 2012)

TimSE said:


> Personally, I wouldn't trust a company who rip people off as obviously as that with my money





At the same time though, using someone elses designs doesn't mean that a product is made like shit or not worth the money a company is asking.

Obviously compared to the cost and quality of the guitars they are based off of they are going to be looked at like trash. 
But, they very well might be worth the 800 dollars. 
But they certainly won't do the original luthiers design and skill any justice and it certainly still isn't right.


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## canuck brian (Mar 9, 2012)

The Norsemen said:


> The V's are a blatant copy of the ESP NV model but nobody seems to care?
> 
> I'm obligated to agree with you.
> But it isn't like every guitar design on the planet hasn't already been copied or tweaked slightly.



ESP's NV model is a direct rip of the BC Rich Speed V with a different headstock. Give it a reversed Kramer headstock and you'd have a Kerry King ESP sig which is based off his old BC Rich V's.

Fuck that company. I hope the owner of that company has it fall out from under him after the guys he's giving guitars to realize what pieces of shit he's building for them. 

Darren's my buddy and to see this maggot rip him off really pisses me off.

Also - Ibanez is pretty lax with jumping down builders throats about everyone using their design. It's so incredibly widespread that people just call the shape the RG shape, which EVERYONE knows is Ibanez. In this case, this fucking asshole copied Darren and Rob and then touted is as his own original designs.


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## The Norsemen (Mar 9, 2012)

Valennic said:


> Stop trying to justify it. There is no justification for what that company did. Darren spent years tweaking his design, only to have those fucks rip it off without a second thought. Someone put a lot of time and love into designing a KxK of their dreams, and this company again, ripped it off without a second thought.
> 
> It doesn't matter if there are other companies who copy other companies, those companies licensed their designs. Fender doesn't have control of their design, which is why its everywhere. Gibson licensed the shape to a lot of people, hence its existence everywhere. These bastards just ripped it off.
> 
> There is no justification for it.



I'm offering up a counterpoint. I'm not justifying anything.
Nor do I believe that this is okay.
I agree with you guys. I'm just saying thats how things are.


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## Sepultorture (Mar 9, 2012)

A smaller custom builder doing replicas and copies doesn&#8217;t effect much damage on a large corporate guitar maker (i.e. Ran doing Ibby customs)

With a small custom batch builder like Darren, when a company pops up with more money behind but comes out of the wood works building copies of smaller builders designs, your gunna choke off the recognition of the smaller builders works. It would be like me coming out with an original design, Ibanez copies it with only slight changes but still recognizable as mine. They have more money and promotion behind them and they can push their product out on the world, whereas mine comes from word of mouth and small advertising. Your taking business away from the smaller dealer whos shape you copied.

Blakhart could doa les paul copy and no one would blink, cus everyone will always know Gibson did it first and it&#8217;s their property. A smaller company does a copy it&#8217;s not going to hurt Gibsons business all that much, Gibson is already recognizable the world over. If it&#8217;s the other way around the bigger company is gunna reap all the rewards of that design, while the smaller builder gets fucked over.

It&#8217;s all wrong either way, but the big fish is hurt less than the small fish when the small fish nibbles on the big fish&#8217;s business (that sounds wrong)

Get what I mean mate, Darren is still upstart in the word of recognition, he&#8217;s a newer luthier so his presence isn&#8217;t really well known. Blakhart is toting recognized endorsed artists like Jack Owen, they are pushing advertising and a contest to win something, Darren only has a few guitarsout right now and his popularity hasn&#8217;t reached a larger part of recognition. So Blakhart really is dwarfing Darrens recognition with their own, using most parts of hius own designs. The smaller luthier is getting the shittier end of the stick in this situation

Like I said, it&#8217;s wrong either way but the small fish gets fucked more than the big fish (still sounds wrong)


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## Fred the Shred (Mar 9, 2012)

The issue is precisely the cheapening and unauthorized use of a small company's distintive shapes. Stuff like the original superstrat shape and the like are quite ubiquitous, but stealing the the shape that results from hours of R&D and implementation an independent luthier has to go through to develop a successful shape is very low from an ethical standpoint.


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## Sepultorture (Mar 9, 2012)

The Norsemen said:


> I'm offering up a counterpoint. I'm not justifying anything.
> Nor do I believe that this is okay.
> I agree with you guys. I'm just saying thats how things are.



and we aren't shitting on you mate, just Blakhart


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## The Norsemen (Mar 9, 2012)

Sepultorture said:


> and we aren't shitting on you mate, just Blakhart



Theres a bad taste growing in my mouth for the company by the second.


I've seen this design before somewhere as well. So apparently Jack Owen isn't above this practice either. Apparently he can't get a sig from a reputable company either?


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## TimSE (Mar 9, 2012)

Torn horn looks like the ibby Fireman.
Not sure about the rest of the shape though.


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## Skullet (Mar 9, 2012)

I just realised in that other thread i praised them on their V to be fair i did know that it was modeled on the BC Rich Speed V but i was un aware that he ripped off KxK and a fellow board member here . That aint right  makes it worse when you go on the news page and he's building a custom for someone using darrens shape . So instead of giving this guitar company my moneyz im now giving them my fingers in the air towards them.


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## The Norsemen (Mar 9, 2012)

Skullet said:


> I just realised in that other thread i praised them on their V to be fair i did know that it was modeled on the BC Rich Speed V but i was un aware that he ripped off KxK and a fellow board member here . That aint right  makes it worse when you go on the news page and he's building a custom for someone using darrens shape . So instead of giving this guitar company my moneyz im now giving them my fingers in the air towards them.




I know what you mean.
I really dug the specs on those V's and I was glad to hear I could get them left handed but what they're doing is just too fucked up to contribute money to.
I'm glad I got some schoolin on them from the righteous members of SSO.
I probably wouldn't have made the KxK or Decibel connection otherwise.


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## Skullet (Mar 9, 2012)

The Norsemen said:


> I know what you mean.
> I really dug the specs on those V's and I was glad to hear I could get them left handed but what they're doing is just too fucked up to contribute money to.
> *I'm glad I got some schoolin on them from the righteous members of SSO.*
> *I probably wouldn't have made the KxK or Decibel connection otherwise*.



Couldnt have put it better myself mate


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## Danukenator (Mar 9, 2012)

There was a company that did this to Ritter. Jens went to their booth at NAMM and tried to learn who "designed" their basses. It's pretty funny. 

NAMM2012 - Peter-Paul Solves a Mystery for Jens Ritter - YouTube


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## Kwampis (Mar 9, 2012)

That Ritter video is hilarious.



> Maybe we'll find out one day who designed it.




These ripoff designs are incredibly sketchy though. It's definitely a dick move.


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## Hollowway (Mar 9, 2012)

Well, apart from lifting designs from other luthiers the company looks pretty sketchy. I'd be mostly reluctant to buy from them based on that image of the B stock V they had.

Also, to answer The Norsemen's question, I think people are mad specifically at this company because they know Darren. If someone took a design from a company/luthier on here no one personally knew there wouldn't be as much of an outrage. That's why no one gets up in arms if someone makes an Iceman, Kelly, BM clone, puts a monkey grip on a guitar, etc. That being said, I think most of us are against copying designs, yet accept designs that have been around for a number of years as open for use. And then, there are, of course, people who think it's totally OK to take from someone else and have no regrets about it.


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## iRaiseTheDead (Mar 10, 2012)

PortalNathrakh said:


> That 8 string V is pretty sexy. It's got everything a good black metal guitar needs, plus two more strings.
> 
> Someone send one to V.I.T.R.I.O.L.!



LOL xD so very true


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## MetalGravy (Mar 11, 2012)

TimSE said:


> Torn horn looks like the ibby Fireman.
> Not sure about the rest of the shape though.




Maybe a little Schecter Riot and a little BC Rich Wave?


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## MannyMoonjava (Mar 14, 2012)

these guitars are missing a pickup.


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## Fred the Shred (Mar 14, 2012)

MannyMoonjava said:


> these guitars are missing any sort of remotely acceptable ethics.



Fixed.


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