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Guitar Adventures in Vietnam


DarrenD

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I took a trip to southern Vietnam this last summer and figured I would tell you all a little about my guitars escapades there, which I think you guys will find rather interesting.  First of all, no, I didn't get to visit "Guitar Street" in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon before the war, but everyone still calls it Saigon).  My time in Saigon was minimal and far too hectic to even consider trekking through horrible traffic to that area.  I was in the deep south near Can Tho, a place where not as many tourists visit, I think.  I was actually in a smaller town called O'mon, where some people told me they haven't seen a white guy since the war.  This may be a long read, but I think many of you will find this interesting if you have never been developing country, much less searching for electric guitars in one.

Upon arriving in Vietnam, the first thing I actually wanted to do was visit "guitar street" in Saigon.  I soon realized that wasn't going to happen based on the situations I was in, which is another story in itself.  The traffic, pollution, and pure insanity was almost too much to bear after a sleepless 20 hour flight.  I took a taxi to the deep south.  It took four hours to travel 80 miles.  I paid the guy an equivalent of $30.  I would have probably been haggled or scammed for more, but my girlfriend knew the area and Vietnamese, so I was safe.  I literally thought I was going to die in the car ride - the traffic was very unsafe and reckless.  Again, culture shock was setting in.  It took a few days, and I got the hang of it.  

In Omon (near Can Tho), I was visiting my girlfriend's relatives and was pretty much treated like a king by everyone in town.  Most have never seen a white guy, much less one with blue eyes and reddish hair.  They soon found out I sang and played guitar.  I was invited to a stranger's wedding and asked if I could sing "Hotel California" by the eagles (they all know this song for some reason).  I said yes, and they had me sing it 5x that night.  I had "lady boys" trying to flirt with me all night, and I guess I was on everyone's facebook in that Vietnamese town.  Word spread.  They were impressed and had me sing more American songs, mainly Backstreet Boys and N'sync, which was actually fun to do while drinking banana whiskey.

The next few days, I was lounging around and played a beat-up acoustic guitar at the house I was staying at.  Random kids would come by and hear me play.  The strings were literally so rusted they were black.  It was a cheap acoustic guitar and played ok, despite the bad neck back-bow.  Random kids would stop by and want to play guitar with me.  I would play 80s tid-bits such as "Wait" by White Lion, "Mama I'm coming home," Firehouse, Scorpions, Van Halen, The Police, and many 80s era ballad acoustic stuff.  They never heard anything like it.  After a few weeks, I told my girlfriend I NEEDED TO SHOP FOR GUITARS.

First of all, I soon realized I wasn't going to find anything with quality in my area, especially an electric guitar.  This is a poor country and most kids and people are lucky to afford an 80s imported cheap acoustic which needed serious TLC.  Electric guitar is not common, and Rock n' Roll is not really there or popular from what I've seen.  No one would be able to afford tube amps, or really any of the cheapest crap amps we wouldn't touch in America.  This really shows up in their culture.  Electric guitar is dead there - simply because most can't afford it.  I desperately craved rock music and blasting my stereo as time lingered there.  Either way, this was an adventure, and I wanted to see what I would find.  I visited three shops in the Can Tho area, all ending in something rather interesting.

SHOP ONE:  I step into this small, maybe 300 sq. ft. shop full of mainly acoustics and flutes.  The owner's eyes lit up.  He was rather excited to see an American in his shop.  Some acoustics have very deep scalloped fretboards, which are used for some ancient music to get a certain tone.  I played a few of them and some regular acoustics - none were setup right or tuned.  He seemed surprised I knew these things.  I seen some interesting flutes.  He wanted to play some for me.  He was a damn good flute player and I enjoyed the tone he got out of these handmade flutes.  Fast forward 3 minutes, and I'm buying a fucking flute.  I don't know how to play flute or even held one in my hand before, yet here I am buying their best flute for $25 - which is probably 3-5 days of work for the guy.  Yeah, didn't expect that one.  Anyway, time for the next shop!

2nd GUITAR SHOP:  The next place was in some weird alley where my car could barely fit.  It was pouring rain, and as I stepped into the shop, the owners were shocked.  Again, it was all just acoustic guitars for maybe $50-$150.  I seen some imports and off-brands I couldn't really make out.  They played cheaply and were not hand-built to my knowledge.  The action seemed high on them but I honestly only played one or two.  It was always chaotic and I could never really relax.  They wanted me to buy some weird contraption that plugged into an amp but wanted $50, an obvious price hike for what it was because I'm American.  I said no but felt bad and bought some strings for $7, which had no brand name on them.  I left and was off to the most interesting shop.

3rd GUITAR SHOP - THE ULTIMATE VIETNAMESE GUITAR TWEAKER:  I was leaving the day craving more electric guitar sightings - everything was acoustic.  I had one final destination in some area outside Can Tho.  We waited for about 20 minutes for the guy to get home.  Again, he didn't realize it was me and was rather excited to show an American his collection.  He opened the door, and there sat about 100 guitars, about half of them "project" guitars which he was modding or fixing.  He found out I was from America and soon replied as my girlfriend translated, "Why the hell are you looking for guitars here?  You have the best guitars in the world!"  I said I know but was just curious and had time to kill.  The dude had total GAS and had so many project guitars, which were probably used to jab parts off of.

I played about 20 of his electrics, all of them pretty much crap but he did his best to fix and make them better.  He seemed impressed that I knew what what to look for in the guitars.  It's tough to repair electric guitars there.  It's not like here where we can find guitar parts easily or buy online.  It's expensive as hell to maintain and fix electric guitars when you are in these developing countries.  I showed him pictures of my Hamer Chaparral elite and a 12 string import Hamer bass I used to have.  He didn't recognize the name but did recognize the Floyd Rose, something which he said he doesn't see much of.  He liked the boomerang inlays.  He kept saying how lucky I have it in America with guitar selection.  I didn't buy anything but offered $10 for his time, which he said no because he had a fun time chatting about guitars.  I think next time I visit I'll bring him a nice parts guitar I have laying around.

So, in summary, I spent three weeks in Vietnam searching for guitars and ended up buying a flute.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Great story! Many thanks for sharing. I think you had the usual unusual outcome of your quest. B) 

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I didn't see any shops actually make the guitars. They had mostly cheap imports from somewhere and maybe 1-3 Vietnamese "handmade" guitars.  If you go to "guitar street" in Saigon,  you will see more building, but it's mainly acoustics.  Here is a write up on it:  Guitar Street

I didn't see NEWER import guitars from China, Indonesia, etc.  They were all crap from the 80s and early 90s.  I didn't even recognize the brand names on some of them.  I seen a few Washburn G series and Yamahas, but that's it.  I seen a few Arias and cheap strat copies I didn't recognize, and I know quite of few off-brand 80s and 90s imports.

They seem to cut corners a lot in Vietnam.  I heard this from the locals as well as Vietnamese-Americans.  They also talk about this in the articles on "guitar street" where the makers of the higher quality acoustics admit that many people in Vietnam are building guitars, but the quality and woods are very poor.   Everyone is out to make a quick buck.  Yes, we see that in the states, but the southeast Asian countries are a little more extreme due to many factors.

I don't see a market for electric guitars in Vietnam in the near future.  They would then have to buy an amp, cords, etc.  Even spending $50 each on some cheap amp and guitar is too much for the general population.  Hell, they don't even change strings.  Most I played were rusted black.  It's simply cheaper and more convenient to get an acoustic. They will, however, spend money on Karaoke systems (mainly middle class families).  Coffee and Karaoke are the main entertainment venues in Vietnam.   

As for the banana whiskey, it was interesting, but I'll take American/European liquor and beer any day of the week.  As with the guitars, the liquor seemed to be made cheaply.  Vodka Hanoi and "Men" Vodka were very good though.  

 

 

 

 

 

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Cool Darren -- I spent a few months in Vietnam in 1995 and traveled from Saigon all the way to Hanoi with my Yamaha acoustic (that I still own today). I attracted lots of attention traveling with a guitar - they were really excited to see a westerner but more excited to see and play my guitar. Great country, and great people -- but hot man -- holy cow - Saigon was a cooker -- Hue and Hanoi were much cooler but Saigon was brutal.

Any photos you can share with us?

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9 hours ago, DarrenD said:

I didn't see NEWER import guitars from China, Indonesia, etc.  They were all crap from the 80s and early 90s.  I didn't even recognize the brand names on some of them.  I seen a few Washburn G series and Yamahas, but that's it.  I seen a few Arias and cheap strat copies I didn't recognize, and I know quite of few off-brand 80s and 90s imports.

So damn, they sell all these expensive guitars to us? B)

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I didn't get any pictures of the shops - wish I would have.  The heat got very bad near the end of July.  It was actually the hottest climate I've ever experienced.  

Next visit I'll be sure to stop by guitar street and take plenty of photos.  Hell, maybe I'll even bring the cheapest Hamer usa guitar I can find and bring it into the country to trade and leave there.  They are very interested in American-made guitars and I could probably get the nicest hand-made acoustic for it.  That, and it will probably be the only Hamer in Vietnam.   

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On ‎10‎/‎2‎/‎2018 at 4:00 PM, gtrdaddy said:

It's amazing that all cheap imported guitars aren't being made there considering cost of labor. The average Vietnamese person makes like a hundred bucks a month or so, and the Chinese make all of $500+/- per month

The fundamental issue with making anything 'overseas' isn't labor costs -  it's the training and rework costs associated with getting a 3rd-world country to understand and implement 1st world quality expectations and controls.  Third-world countries have no qualms about becoming industrialized - they have a BIG problem meeting the manufacturing tolerances and quality needs of their product customers.  I have relatives in the electronics industry who make regular trips to Southeast Asia to oversee production problems associated with Industry chasing the 'cheapest labor pool' they can find.  Besides - do you REALLY want a guitar that's made in Vietnam? 

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When I arrived in Vietnam in March 1971, one of my first moves was to buy a no-name guitar from a shifty looking little fellow in Da Nang. After some haggling (an old guy helped me there as I was still a Cherry Boy), I think I paid $15.

I got to say that it was a piece of shit. The open tuners would go out of tune after a couple of church licks. There was no truss rod, and the action was insanely high. The strings were like bailing wire. I'm not even sure what the fretboard was made of, but it looked like some sort of cheap laminate.

Through good times and bad, that ugly POS was always there for me, and we had some good times jamming with friends playing their POS guitars. Now when somebody went back to the world, it was the custom to souvenir your stuff to the buddies you left behind. Reefers, the small refrigerators we used, were an especially prized item. I souvenired my old POS guitar to my best buddy.

Forty-seven years later, I find myself wishing I'd put that old beat up box in my hold baggage. I'd give anything to not be able to keep that damn thing in tune. In quality, that old guitar was No. 10, but in my heart, it will always stay No. 1. I'm pretty sure it would probably be my most prized guitar. 

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Cool story mudshark.  There are plenty of guitars exactly as you described still there.  Next time I go back, I'll see if I can find a 60s or 70s import no-name crapola and send it to you for old times sake.  That, or some Vietnamese random guitar.  They still have them laying around and don't throw out those types of things, no matter the condition (as it seemed to me, anyway).  

As for the manufacturing talk, as with everything, they would probably need to train the workers very well.  Their standards are very different from ours when it comes to those things.  However, they do work their asses off when they are trained in something.  Their electrical is so messed up, though.  Like I said, everything is so unregulated there.  

But you know, the youth in Vietnam seemed very excited about playing guitar.  They were exhilarated about music and singing.  It's a large part of their culture.  There are no bars, just Karaoke and singing it seemed.  Their equipment is garbage but the people have incredible musical talent and will.  There aren't as many distractions like cell phones and computers.  It was typical on a week day for a family to sing karaoke for 2-3 hours straight.  They would be singing until midnight on Wednesday, and I would be like "Is this normal?" Why yes, yes it was.

And again, it included me singing "Hotel California" another 4-5 times!  Damn!  I'll take American rock, recordings, and guitars/amps any day of the week.  In fact, I was strangely craving this after week one.  However, they love music just like all of us.  You could argue they love it even more than us in some ways.   But yes, I'm pretty thankful I get to talk about this on a guitar forum that discusses the best guitars in the world - and I've owned multiple.  Yeah, I feel lucky.

 

 

 

 

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