Peavey Generation with ACM Identification

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bellason04
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Re: Peavey Generation with ACM Identification

Post by bellason04 » Tue May 10, 2022 7:07 am

jreising326 wrote:
Sun Feb 06, 2022 8:21 pm
Hi Darren,

While I was awaiting the arrival of the guitar I saw this one on Reverb, and you can see "Fishman" on the bridge in the photo in the link at the bottom. There is also a Youtube video review, of the same exact guitar, Fishman Bridge. Go to the 1:00 mark and he confirms it came with the same Fishman Bridge. I'll post the links at the bottom for reference.

Now I found absolutely zero information on this particular guitar on the old Peavey Websites, and I did some considerable digging. I wasn't sure if it was older or newer than the ones without the belly cut. I've also not seen any other color than the Candy Apple Red of this guitar. It seems clear to have been made in China, not Korea. I'm pretty confident it's the last Generation EXP ACM Peavey made.

Since I titled this post "ACM Identification" I figure I should document what I've found so far, and what I suspect is most likely. I'm very familiar with how companies outsource to China Manufacturers of Electronics in general and have been to China to visit factories many times since 2002.

Most likely Peavey selected a Chinese Factory partner around 2008, during the economic downturn. They probably picked someone who was already building for someone else. Their own proprietary ACM design would have been so low of a volume build for the PCB, that they wouldn't be able to save any money by moving to China. That was the primary driver for decades that put pressure on companies to move manufacturing into China, it saved them lots of money if your built things in high volume. That's the attraction to the OEM, the manufacturer gets much better prices on components because they are buying in much higher volume, and the labor rates in China were dirt cheap.

The manufacturer likely was using, or perhaps even building the Fishman hardware. So it was a simple, plug-and-play off-the-shelf way to keep ACM in the Peavey Generation, which I would guess was a strong selling feature, at least as far as Peavey Marketing would consider.

Further, since there aren't many of these Candy Apple Red Generations out there, they probably didn't hit the cost targets, or perhaps the quality level to retain brand loyalty. Or maybe these China guitars were made to sell through retail market sellers like Walmart, Best Buy, etc., and were never handed off to Peavey Distributors or Dealers/Shops. So an early experiment for Peavey into China manufacturing?

I'm speculating quite a bit, but I bet I'm not too far off. Someone on these forums probably would know for sure.

Sorry, but you have it all wrong. People here in the states are buying these things thinking they're buying the real thing.

People that buy these things buy them in bulk(you get a better price if you buy over 10), then they either post them on eBay or craigslist - or in some cases sell them to pawnshops - selling them as the real thing.

But they're not selling them at great low prices like you think they are, they're selling them for 10-20% off of what the used price, hoping to get a schmuck that thinks they're getting a killer deal, and they'll just hand over the cash without thinking it through.

So it's not about "Cheap Image Conscience Posers" buying these instruments, most people that buy these here in the states think they're getting the real thing, only to find out they got ripped off for a grand - or more in some cases.

There have already been hundreds of lawsuits against dealers buying bunches of these guitars, and selling them to people as the real thing. They're flooding the market, and it's getting harder to tell what's real and what's Chinese. It's a big problem.

(But there are people that buy these for a reason, mostly leftys... Ever tried to get a left-handed reverse headstock Gibson Firebird?)

jreising326
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Re: Peavey Generation with ACM Identification

Post by jreising326 » Sat May 21, 2022 9:04 pm

I'm not sure I understand your post/point. My best guess is your saying there are Chinese Knockoffs of "real" USA made guitars being sold to people that think they are buying the "real thing"? If so, I don't see how that has anything to do with my post, but I wouldn't be surprised in the least. I've been to China many times, and they will copy/bootleg things using the OEM specs, designs and usually inferior materials sold for 10 cents on the dollar in open "Black Markets". Those eventually were shutdown though, as far as I know.

I bought this guitar cheap off Craigslist, it is China Made, I would think "technically" a Generation EX. It seems Peavey used EXP for Made in Korea, and EX for Made in China around the time this guitar was made/sold. It looks very similar to a Peavey Special EX I looked at last week, also made in China, same fit and finish and color as well. I passed on that guitar.

Peavey was certainly building guitars in China around this time and this book addresses this well:

https://www.amazon.com/Peavey-Guitars-A ... 6513&psc=1

Here's a photo of the guitar now that I've upgraded it. It plays very well considering what I paid for it.
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studiodtk5
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Re: Peavey Generation with ACM Identification

Post by studiodtk5 » Sat Sep 17, 2022 6:50 pm

Peavey made the Generation series in the USA in the 1990s. Then in the early through min 2000s they made them in Korea (EXP versions). After that they made them in China (EX version as I recall). As Peavey moved from USA to Korea to China the price continued to decrease.

There is no reason to counterfeit a made in China version of a Peavey guitar. They were low price entry level guitars anyway.

I’m not sure why this topic got attached to this post.
Darren
ITOC: 08-00190

Peavey stuff I have: Masterpiece 50, Custom Shop 212, Stereo Chorus 212, T-60, T-40, Signature Select, Odyssey II Prototype, Generation Custom EXP, Firenza P90-ACM, VB-2, Stomp Boxes, Radial Pro 1000, lots of mics, etc...

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