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HALO guitars horror story. (Please read!)

11K views 23 replies 18 participants last post by  shannon 
#1 ·
My friend, who shall remain un-named for the purposes of this story, ordered a Custom Halo about 11 months ago, and it came in a few weeks ago, and went back out a bit later. The company gave him a runaround, making all sorts of lies as to the production status of his piece, and he used to work for a Halo DEALER, to boot.

He had ordered a Les Paul body shape, 24 fret set-neck, with Duncan Blackouts and a Kahler bridge. He said he paid about $1100 for it. I had the (dis)pleasure of seeing this guitar before it was returned to Halo. It played fine, and the blackouts sounded great. However, the Trem was not mounted properly on the body, the pickup rings were just generics, and when installed, they were torquing, and it just... looked like crap. The body was painted red, just as he requested, with an unpainted neck, but the masking job was terrible. There was red paint on the neck heel, as if it was masked, and when painted, the paint seeped under the tape and onto the neck, not the proper way of painting the body and then setting-in the neck.

After some friendly arm-twisting by my friend, the president told him that his guitar had not actually been made in the USA shop, but in China (honestly, we weren't surprised).

He's keeping the Pickups and the Kahler, and the rest of the guitar went back for a refund less parts. It's a damn shame, really, because I've played several Halo guitars, and they were rather nice, and they some really cool designs, and was considering ordering one for a while. But now, I just can't justify dropping the bank on a guitar that might conceivably have such an ordeal attached.
 
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#9 ·
I thought Halo said sometime ago that they would no longer do China guitars and all guitars would be made in the US from now on. If they were serious about improving their quality and reputation, this is not the way to go about it. Now I am starting to think that this is the generic excuse given to unsatisfied customers.
 
#10 ·
Typical Halo style not to mention the 8 strings that they were putting out that required you to remove the fixed bridge completely during restrings. There were no holes drilled thru the body or ferrules on the back for the "string thru". Also, the bridges weren't even installed straight, yet cocked off center a few degrees
Complete and utter shit in my eyes. :noway: :lame:
 
#12 ·
That's pretty crappy. If I wanted to get a custom guitar that wasn't made in the US or Japan, I'd get an Agile custom, which would probably even be quite a bit cheaper. $1100 for a Chinese made guitar just doesn't seem right, especially when there's apparently no QC. I think Halo might have some potential, but it seems like every time I hear about them taking a step forward, I hear a few instances of them taking steps back.
 
#15 ·
Halo have had an awfull reputation ever since I first heard of them, I wasn't going to ever buy one, but still, that is abysmall service.

They will eventually find themselves with bugger all customers, apart from a few people fooled into buying one.

Shit company, shit guitars.
 
#17 ·
Put me squarely in the not surprised a bit camp. Not only are they shitty Chinese guitars, they are shitty Chinese guitars imported by a guy who doesn't give a fuck about customer service.
 
#20 ·
Actually the XSI prototype was done at their shop in Texas... no idea about the production models though.

With that said, this sounds a LOT like what happened with my custom Octavia, only with less horrifying defects (mine had crooked bridge, uneven frets, wrong construction, wrong fretboard wood, neck bowed before the replacement was finished so I just got a refund...)
 
#19 ·
Put me in the squarely surprised camp, that it took this long to get a "Halo Horror Story" thread.

I think I've spoken to maybe one or two satisfied Halo customers, and even then my reaction was to assume they wouldn't know a well-crafted guitar if it walked up and introduced itself to them.
 
#21 ·
But according to Waylon, if your neck warps, your guitar isn't trashed because the Kahler's saddles can be adjusted to compensate! :rolleyes:

I find it amazing that there seems to be NOBODY at Halo guitars with an eye for detail. And Waylon is so enthusiastic about responding to customer requests, that all anybody has to say is, "I want a fishbowl incorporated into my guitar so i can get that really 'liquid' lead tone" and he'll respond with, "Done... all our production models will now have on-board fishbowls," without even considering whether it's a good idea that actually adds value to the instrument.

All of the pics i've seen of their new line seem to be very similar to their old stuff... less-than-stellar attention to detail, thick, wavy clearcoats that make the guitar look like it was dipped in plastic, and nothing but excuses from Waylon that they're prototypes or they somehow "overlooked" things like body contours in the rush to get instruments out the door to NAMM.

That XSI has appeared in numerous pics and videos, and i STILL don't think it's actually been shown being played. In his most recent video, it didn't even look like the bottom string was sitting properly in the roller saddle. It also doesn't look like it's had its intonation set.

I'm sure Waylon is a nice guy with the best of intentions, but he needs to hire some people who have a clue.
 
#22 ·
But according to Waylon, if your neck warps, your guitar isn't trashed because the Kahler's saddles can be adjusted to compensate! :rolleyes:

I find it amazing that there seems to be NOBODY at Halo guitars with an eye for detail. And Waylon is so enthusiastic about responding to customer requests, that all anybody has to say is, "I want a fishbowl incorporated into my guitar so i can get that really 'liquid' lead tone" and he'll respond with, "Done... all our production models will now have on-board fishbowls," without even considering whether it's a good idea that actually adds value to the instrument.

All of the pics i've seen of their new line seem to be very similar to their old stuff... less-than-stellar attention to detail, thick, wavy clearcoats that make the guitar look like it was dipped in plastic, and nothing but excuses from Waylon that they're prototypes or they somehow "overlooked" things like body contours in the rush to get instruments out the door to NAMM.

That XSI has appeared in numerous pics and videos, and i STILL don't think it's actually been shown being played. In his most recent video, it didn't even look like the bottom string was sitting properly in the roller saddle. It also doesn't look like it's had its intonation set.

I'm sure Waylon is a nice guy with the best of intentions, but he needs to hire some people who have a clue.
the intonation is something else i noticed, none of the guitars he posted had the intonation set properly
 
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