Stevie T’s like “Thank God it’s not about me!”

Chapman have handled this alot better than they had other issues before. You are 100% correct to highlight the bigger problem concerning the factory itself. Fingers crossed for a greater silver lining, in the future.

Solidarity and sympathy for those who lost their jobs

KDH is like my main man for guitar news. He's always on top of it

Seems to me that Chapman are handling it very well. They have kept people informed, given refunds, and acquired a new source of UK guitars and not taken orders until it is up and running. They couldn’t really do any more.

That's cool man. Nice to see a fair and balanced reporting from you! Certainly adds to your integrity. 👍

Rob sees new Chapman video from KDH Rob anxiety raises!!!

I appreciate the effort you put into bringing us this story.

The name U- KGB is just hilarious to me

Hoping the best for all of the companies struggling. Life’s tough and it’s also tough for someone to be honest about quality control.

Aside from the great content, the idea with the background light is very nice touch! If I may provide some advice: some additional soft light source would eliminate the lowlight grain you very often have. This way you can go down to your native/lower ISO and have a much clearer image! And set your shutter speed two times higher than your frame rate. So if you shoot in 25p --> have a 1/50 shutter speed. If you move your camera 10-20cm forward and yourself 30-40cm (from my perspective) to the left, we could see you perfectly with a better guitar-background. Just a thought! Try it out!

Yo KDH your videos are gas. One of my fav youtubers atm

This is great guitar music journalism. Keep it up KDH!

Still hoping for a video on the ridiculous lawsuit from Fender to a mom and pop company that makes windguards for flutes. You are certainly someone who could contribute to the discussion.

Thanks for your coverage, your content has improved over the years. Well done!

The real headline is "KDH Charitable Towards Chapman"

With things I see in business regularly, I think they get some big bonus points being proactive with their customers. So many would let it linger until the customer contacts them hoping they can just resolve it and not lose the sale.

I’d love to hear some of KDH’s thoughts and even research findings on Crimson Guitars. Not that I think anything weird is happening at Crimson, just that KDH is so passionate about British guitar anything I’m surprised I haven’t heard him talk about them yet.

I am an American who has been to MANY a musical store, in MANY a state, and I have never seen a Chapman in real life. I have seen a few Solars, an Ormsby, a few old Parkers, and even a Dingwall in real life, but never a Chapman. I don't believe they were very popular in the states, for whatever reason.

This dude loves every time there is chapman news. He is like tmz for guitar news.

KDH is apparently the sole remaining investigative journalist in the business.^^

Im guessing its the light levels when you filmed, but the video looks static-y and low res, despite being on 1080. like an iphone in lower light conditions. great vid as always of course!!!!

The main issue, for me, was that they were attempting to charge insane amounts of money for a guitar you could happily find the equivalent of for far less cash, by a more reputable company with a proven track record.....but.....any blow to English guitar building is to be lamented.

I think KDH may have bagged himself a signature model for this video :) I think KDH has indeed highlighted the utterly tragic reality of the Guitar Industry - that Chapmans "UK Built Guitars" - have become bigger news - higher profile - despite being no more than a very poorly executed dream - than A) UK Guitar Builders themselves who actually made the guitars B) Gordon Smith acquiring the hardware to enable them to continue developing this amazing Heritage Brand. Gordon Smith have been building guitars in the UK for 50 years - Their guitars are incredible quality, and I just think its tragic that Chapman seem to be able to overshadow the "real builders" with marketing and brand image (although hats off to Chapman as a great marketeer - genuinely - not my cup of tea but credit where its due ). Hopefully, this Saga has opened the eyes of players who were less aware of the reality that very few brands actually make their own guitars these days - Whether it be Ibanez or Chapman. My focus will always be on the guitar - not the image and if others did the same there would be little room for Chapman guitars - or many others come to mention it - all of which are "mehh" / "same ol same ol'" all with different marketing approaches but basically all the exact same cookie cutter product.

If I was going to pay custom UK built guitar money, I'd not want the name Chapman on it - I'd want the name of whoever made it, and I'd want all the money to go to them rather than a large chunk of it lining Rob's pockets. I'm glad Auden/Gordon Smith stepped in to slurp up the UKGB stocks and tools though, they really are making some absolutely amazing guitars at the moment. Played a GS Strat type a couple of days ago which blew me away with both the quality and the fact it was a top notch UK built instrument costing slightly less than the rather average in comparison US Fender Pro Strat next to it on the rack.

How are there so many guitar brands we've never heard of? 🤘

Hey man you still take pictures of players circle codes on daddario strings? I have a few that Id like to send for someone to use, cant use them mysef Im from South Africa. Thanks and keep up the great work delivering the news!

Me trying to understand if he likes chapman based on the thumbnail:

Considering where the world is headed economically this probably isn’t the first time we’ll be hearing updates that may not be so great

Thanks for the video. You do great work for the guitar community. Always bad when a guitar builder closes. Brands really start becoming meaningless when so many companies subcontract their work. Brand A subcontracts its guitars to Brand B. Brand B closes and Brand A switches to Brand C. Brands these days are just decals for the most part.

@KDH good journalistic work you did here. Top job mate!

where is/was this factory? And what was their purpose, building luthier guitars?

"Bet you didn't see that one coming" Get out of my mind, dude!

Damn, I wish Chapman Guitars didn't break the news. Then we could've had The Chappening - Part II on this channel 🔥

I wonder if anyone saved the Statement that Riff City guitars released a couple of years ago about the whole Chapman Guitars fiasco, but soon after took down? I'd like to see it as I didn't get a chance to look at it when it was posted (and removed.)

I do not play guitars but I do play the bass, still... I really enjoy your videos you put out. I like it when you dive deep into these topics and share them with the music community in general. Thanks for that. It is good to stay informed :)

I'm glad to hear the Chapman guys talked to you, at least they did _that_ right.

That's a BUGGER hey! Sorry to hear that!

Its hard times in Europe/UK now and its unfortunate...

Years ago I signed an endorsement deal with a brand that will remain nameless. Most of their production was done in Asia and then they were sort of set up and fine tuned by the company in Europe. When I asked him if there was a difference in quality vs producing them 100% in Europe he said "That CNC machine doesn't know whether it's plugged in in Birmingham or Bangladesh. As long as the materials are the same you'll get the same quality no matter where the bodies and necks are cut. He was right. They're killer guitars. I'm very happy with all of mine.

Why'd they close? Energy costs?

I'm from Cornwall and never knew we had a Guitar builder here. Nice!

Fair reporting - I still think there has been too many problems for me to warrant ever giving them a dollar though. Just no confidence at this point.

Good vid mate, thx for the details. Unfortunately, this is not only happening to guitar mfgs in the UK/Europe/US. This is what globalization of mfg does. Only a small proportion of local mfg will continue in the western part of the world.

I'm excited for the KDH Signature Chapman

KDH bringin us the str8 fax 💪 Great video man 🤘🔥

I got my Chapman ML3 Pro Modern during one of their epic deals so I didn't pay a whole lot for it. It's solid, it's a perfect WMI Korean guitar. The other brands selling their guitars out of that factory in Korea make you pay significantly more for the same specs. It's the Hot Blue one, makes people go nuts in person especially when I tell them it's one of my cheapest guitars!! Try one, give a guy a second chance I don't think many of us would be much better under the same circumstances.

It's highly possible that Chapman were only involved with this factory because the factory company were putting out very seductively priced contracts to get big orders in in order to keep the factory open. Hence why it was a preorder system and not a masterbuild up for sale batch.

Wouldn’t be surprised to see Crimson pick up the Chapman UK builds. They’ve recently been moving staff over to manufacturing 3rd party guitars and have some connections with Andertons/Chapman already. The only issue may be scale, but I don’t know of any other UK manufacturers that can build in quantity anyway.

The difference is solar announced a European hand made guitar and the delivered those guitars within a month of the announcement

I wish/hope that Chapman would get their act together. Two years ago, I bought a Korean-made Chapman. Of the handful of guitars I own, it is the best built (by far) & has the best value-for-money feature set. (If you're interested, my other guitars are two US-made Gibsons & an LTD.)

The internet: Cheap far eastern guitars with a pickup swap & set up are better than any overpriced custom shop Also the internet: Reeee!!!!! they closed down a british guitar factory!!

Very fair video that. No-one wants to see a guitar factory close and workers lose their jobs.

Really enjoy your videos great stuff

Need more lights in your studio turned on, this video came out a little grainy, other than that all good as always 😊

I always enjoy your videos because you’re only factual and not trying to cause drama for clickbait. Always informative 👍🏻

These youtube guitar brands are like if I asked aliexpress factory to build a guitar exactly the way I want it and slap my branding on the headstock and dropshipped it at a much higher price lol.

Auden MIC will be Chapman's production facilities ?

As you are from Ireland, do you have experience with Chris Larkin guitars? I had a bass from him and it was killer

fair as always. that sucks about the factory.

The universe is trying to tell Rob that these guitars have no place. People won't even buy the budget line anymore, his prime and brand recognition has passed since way long ago and Andertons have outgrown him for a good while now

Who makes the guitars that are like Gibson Firebirds in a Singlecut design? I thought it was PJD, but can't find them. Im really intrigued by them; I really like the sound of the Firebird but never liked the first itself. They look cool but they're cumbersome, like playing an old WW2 BAR with strings.

Been waiting for this one

Doug who runs Auden is a really good man, they're in safe hands there.

Why did the UKGB factory close?

Getting the popcorn!!

26 people. That is more of a large workshop than an actual "factory". Seems to me that they were building for a number of small brands, which begs the question - why did they shut down? I am assuming that they employed 26 luthiers or at least 26 people with broad skills, and not just 26 assembly line workers. In that case, if orders fall you can just temporarily lay off a few people and keep moving ahead. It's larger operations that tend to liquidate, not makers of hand-made items.

Wait is there another reason I don't want to consider buying Chapman? I recently got my first Gretsch and I'm never looking back! Incredible guitars, supremely comfortable and LIGHT, and awesome players all around! And they have some of the most fair pricing out there today! I'm telling ya all you need is a Gretsch and a strat and you're fuckin set

Right, drink poured, snacks of choice to hand... Love a bit of KDH / Chapman malarky 😊

Rob Chapman sent the anonymous to hold you off a day.

Rather just go with Manson if I'm going with a UK builder. New strat prototype is coming from them soon... 🔥🎸🔥

This is one where Chapman Guitars should not be blamed for, but should be considered one of many companies affected by another company closing. And I think that offers of refunds was a smart move…even if it cost Chapman Guitars money in the end.

Gordon-Smith: “still a joke to you, am I, Robert?”

Makes You wonder why the factory closed when they may have had reason to expand!

Like yourself when I saw the announcement my real concern was the loss of UKGB

Guitarzilla is back!

Saw the title and said "on not again...what now?" LMAO but surprised it isn't bad news about Chapman for a change.

So PJDs address is the same as UKGB.... They're separate entities but we're sharing a unit then? Splitting the rent or something?

What’s happening to Chapman kinda reminds me of what happened with Kramer in the 80s

KDH on the nail

I hope the other factory and maybe some of the smaller builders can offer a few of those people some jobs. I do think that this drama should be avoided as public knowledge. Its a production problem that should stay within the company and they should just focus on delivering their orders.

Always asking the important questions, you’re welcome 😅 5:33 (it is me 😂)

You're being a good friend.

Chapman tried to fill a niche by offering custom UK made guitars but sadly picked a builder that must have been in dificulty for some time. It is never good to hear of skilled people loosing their jobs, hopefully some will be offered positions in the new factory. There is only a limited demand for custom made guitars, i searched a few years ago when i wanted a custom guitar made to a very high standard, i found 42nd Street guitars and they made me an excellent one, their website is still there.

you're a legend

It’ll probably be a bad/sad day for the guitar world. But Rob Chapman going out of business can’t happen/come soon enough.

Thanks for the unbiased scoop on this situation. I'm sure you'll be back to busting Chapman's chops when the time calls for it :D Rock on!

I would be curious to know if Brexit had any influence on the demise of the company.

Well that's a shame. At the end of the day you can't help but wish good luck to all parties involved. Everyone wants others to succeed. We're All in This together. We're all musicians.

Looks like Chapman stops at nothing to gain PR, we've seen it before with the whole charity thing and it seems to be his modus operandi. His narcissism really hits new levels.

You're really getting good at KZfaq, dude. I hope if you want to continue doing this as a career you enjoy further success.

I love the pronunciation “Northampton shyer”. 😂

3:07 tosses the casual devil horns. Metal head muscle memory gesticulation.

i'm not a huge fan of rob or champan guitars (i had an early ml2 and hated it) but i like how they've handled this. clearly a proper respectable company these days, nice to see.

"shit... Here we go again"

👍👍👍

This isn't the Chapman news I was hoping to hear.

i was a fan of Chapman but i started to dislike him after he did some shady things such as asking his fans to donate money to cover the stolen gears ( didnt insure) at that point, he already made a fortune from his guitars. why not cover it with his own money? and take it as a lesson? hes a very quesationable guy

PJD finally re-wording to handbuilt rather than handmade but 'affordabe' is laughable. As far as the news of a major guitar manufacturing plant in the UK going under though, truly shite news. Nicely covered as ever sir.

Yeah, not the easiest of times for Chapman. I found it quite hilarious that the big reveal at The Guitar Show, Birmingham, the Danish Pete signature Chapman, was an instrument with a masking tape on the headstock that had DPT (Danish Pete Tele) scribbled on it. Amateur branding at its best