Official Luthiers Forum!

Hey everyone! It's been a long time since I've posted anything and I hope this is the right spot to be asking this but ....

My friend has recently decided that he wants to open up his own mini business selling guitars that he wants to buy from a Korean company then upgrade them with new hardware and pickups, ext. The company is called Sunsmile, http://www.ssmii.com I've never heard of them and neither has anyone that I know . My friend wants me to get in on this with him (even if its just for fun) but I don't want to be jumping into this if the company is not legit. Does anyone know if the company is legit or know anything about imported guitars? Any response would be really appreciated.

** I realize my friend is a nut and that selling these guitars is probably never going to work the way he thinks but some of them looked cool and I wanted to order one for myself if they were good. **

Just another thing, I'd really like to thank everyone on this site, when I first wanted to get into building I found this site and have been reading every other post since then and it really helped me learn a lot. Thanks everyone!

While the company seems legit enough, something in me can't help but think this is probably a bad idea.... Your friend would probably be better off buying/selling regular known brands or vintage guitars as there's just more of a market for them. I can't think that someone would pay for a Sunsmile guitar when you could just get a Mexican Fender or Epiphone for a little over $250 or a B.C. Rich for as little as $100... And at least those have somewhat recognizable brand names if nothing else.

Your friend should first do the math and see if he can make a sensible profit at a reasonable price point and then think about how on earth he plans to market these guitars.