Why Did I Order This Destroyer Replica From Aliexpress? + Def Leppard "Photograph" Guitar Solo Cover 

It looks really good. I have a 1982 Ibanez Destroyer II (bolt-on neck, 2 pickup, harmonica bridge, stop bar tailpiece version) it looks like Adrian Smith's Number of the Beast/Piece of Mind Era guitar. I have always wanted the 3 pickup Phil Colen model as well. Very nice!

for me 83 was the birthyear of thrash with the release of kill em all, show no mercy and kickstarted speed metal, thrash metal and added speed to what would be death metal, black metal and power metal.

Dude you're awesome! Good for you and great video! Made me happy just to see how happy you were about your favorite axe! Photograph is my favorite song of all time. From one Def Leppard fan to another--- CHEERS! 🍻. That album was a life changer for me. And F the haters---- 🖕🏼😅

Rock on brother! Great playing and I think that your guitar is gorgeous and sounds great too! I hope that the guitar I get from Aliexpress is a nice one. I will definitely take your advice and have watched your other videos and really enjoyed the content and am thankful for your time and effort to make these cool videos to give us some insight on how to go about making a guitar purchase from dealers from China. I also subscribed to your channel! Have a great day!

Great copy Rich, it looks awesome and sounds awesome man. Doesn't matter what it is as long as you enjoy playing it 😀🤘🎵🔥🔥🔥

Fuck yeah dude! Your videos rock. I’ve always been afraid to give my hard earned loot to AliExpress but after all your videos imma go for it. You rock bro. Keep shredding! 🤘🏻🎸🔥

Our stories are very similar, lol…Pyromania was definitely a life changing album for me as well. And my first guitar was from Sears! Now ya got me wanting to get one of these Destroyers 🤔. Love your channel dude

Right on Man. THAT destroyer was epic . Just mesmerizing for a teen kid..still a bad ass guitar for a 54 year old..I had a DT 350 Red black binding .power rocker .or pro rocker bridge. Sonething like that. It was immaculate when I foolishly sold it with original case..Man I'd kick my own 11th grade ass now if I could to stop me from selling that guitar and a few others thru the years ..an original Washburn A10,a deluxe 59er Ibanez .a red 2 humbucker ibanez destroyer.a peavey T30 my first guutar, a 96 strat , a 1983 SQ Japanese 70s Strat .A Peavey Vandenberg. A KOREAN squier,, Man and then the amps ,pedals ..I don't sell squat today. But I wish I'd kept EVERYTHING ...glad you got your destroyer ..bef it was cool af. Playing photograph first time on it...Rock on Man

Beautiful guitar, thanks for sharing your story.

Awesome just got my dream guitar for my 50th the Jackson pc1 solar totally love it

My first guitar was from Sears back around '84. It was a small, cheap POS with the standard tri color burst. The first time I went for lessons at a small music store in Greenwich, CT., the instructor took my guitar from me, set it in the corner, went out to the sales floor and brought back a real guitar. I saved up some money, went to Sam Ash in White Plains, NY. (My hometown was between Greenwich and White Plains) and bought my first REAL guitar. At the time, I was obsessed with Brad Gillis of Night Ranger so I knew my guitar had to be red and have a tremolo. Up on the wall behind the counter I saw a candy apple red guitar with a tremolo. I didn't know anything about different guitar brands. All I knew was, I wanted a red one with a tremolo. I ended up buying that red Ibanez Roadstar II (RS440). The pickups were kind of weak sounding and the salesman didn't even point out that the bridge humbucker had a coil tap function on the push/push tone knob. (maybe he didn't even know about it). A friend noted that the bridge looked like a Kahler. It was big and beefy looking and took a hell of a beating from me as I tried to copy Brad Gillis' tremolo bar antics. It never went out of tune either. The only thing that happened was, while diving the bar, I accidentally swung the arm and the plastic tip on the arm got caught under the high E string and when I brought the bar back up, the string sliced right through the tip and a piece of it went flying.

We have very similar guitar stories. In 1985 I was 15 yrs. old. A guy from school was in his garage playing Over The Mountain with one of his friends on drums. I heard it and went over. 2 weeks later I had my first Charvel. Was a model 2. Beat to schitt. Didn't matter. I was, at that moment, obsessed. My first guitar I went NUTS over was Warren's Crossed Swords Charvel and then, my Holy Grail, George Lynch's ESP Kamikaze in the In My Dreams vid. A couple months later, I saw, and was able to touch one in a shop near me. $1,495.00 in the mid 80s. Fast forward to 2001, I bought one for $750.00 from the guy who turned me on to the guitar in the very beginning. We became best friends that day in his driveway. As soon as I got my guitar, we played together daily. Was SUCH a great time to be a hair guitar freak. To see it as it happened, and cry uncontrollably the first time I saw the schitt that killed my beloved in a flannel shirt. Hated that garbage and I still do. When I heard he'd killed himself, I was convinced he'd taken time off the heroin, started to clean up, listened to their first album, and immediately ran to K-Mart for a Remington 870 and a box of 00 buck shot. The suicide was a bit extreme. They could have started making hair metal type music and ditched the flannel. But, there's the Courtney thing.

A friend of mine found a 1980’s Washburn Explorer type guitar on the street totally disassembled in someone’s trash pile. This is back in the mid 1990s’s. Anyway, the guitar was missing its tremolo system and I went to my local guitar shop where a friend of mine worked, and he gave me the random lost and found assorted junk parts box for me to fish through. Low and behold, I found a completely assembled Kahler tremelo, which he gave me for free! I took the guitar to my trusted luthier and he installed it perfectly. It worked flawlessly.

Fabulous!!!!

When I saw the Red Ibanez DT 300 Adrian Smith played and I knew I had to have one!!!! That guitar was why I wanted to play guitar. Never got one but, I got the DT 400

Great to hear the sound &your opinions 🤟🇨🇦

4 years was a long... time to wait for "Hysteria" to come out. Before the internet the only information I could find about the band was from magazines which I couldn't afford! Lol. Great guitar!

First electric guitar I owned was a Hamer Slammer (Strat) Metal Red. Actually not a bad guitar actually. I think it was $99 as well and it came with this epiphone SS 10watt amp. Yeah that was the greatest gift ever ! I had gotten an acoustic years before but I really wanted an electric. Ive bought a few china make Chibs and I was shocked how well built these guitars were and after a little bit of work they were great sounding and playing guitars. My ex's son still owns one and its a nice guitar. The other I sold to a friend (he knew it wasnt a real Gibson). I regret getting rid of the Gold one :-(

DUDE! Ok so you're in California - I also was on the hunt for the Phil Collen Ibanez during that same time period - I saw 1 and only 1 ever and it was at Music Unlimited in Dublin California. I ended up with a Charvel model series guitar because the Destroyer 2 was just out of my price range. A few years later (90ish) I had $ for a new guitar and none were to be found. Ended up spec'ing out a les paul and ordering it custom, but that Ibanez is still a bucket list guitar for me. I saw Phil playing his in a photo recently (as in on this tour) still amazing looking

That guitar looks and sounds wicked.,,I’m glad you could purchase this black destroyer, well my taste in guitar type changed over the years , being an Angus Young fan I got my first SG in my teens but then later I got stuck with the limited vocabulary of the guitar after hearing Hendrix , Trower, Gallagher SRV, so I changed from Gibson to Fender USA Stratocaster which I still have ... I particularly didn’t like the telecaster when I was younger but now it’s almost my favorite guitar so you see .... things change with time

Cannot agree enough with you about Pyromania. Just so much good ROCK! I'm a Van Halen guy, but, Def Leppard is a solid second.

That guitar looks sick! 🎸

Looks great and sounds great to me brother!

I have several Ibanez Destroyers but not the DT555. So… I ordered one like yours from AliExpress and waiting on its arrival anytime now. Thanks for the inspiration!

Real or Not it Looks and Sounds Great ! and the Playing was Awesome !!!

Very Cool! Great Video! keep up the good work! ;)

Why? WHY NOT🔥🔥🔥

Def Leppard!

My first guitar as a kid was a 1981 Ibanez DT 400 Destroyer 2. Man I wish Ibanez would reissue is. Might have to go the Allieexpress way.

Nice guitar man. I've always been a budget buyer concerning guitars. I actually learned how to mod and set up guitars, just so I could buy inexpensive gear and fix it if it sucked. Lol now I actually make money doing it, but it started out as a necessity. I love counterfeits. You get the look you want, and then you can make them sound and play as good as you want. In the end you have a good guitar, that looks like your dream guitar, AT THE TIME, and you'll have much less money in the thing. Keep rocking brother 🤘

I went ahead and ordered one from Ali today. The seller has above 90% positive feedback, and customers have been super impressed in their reviews. The one I ordered has the correct bridge and nut; it's absolutely identical to the real one. I can't wait to unbox it. I also went and ordered a James Hetfield ESP Snakebite in snow white, and they're even making a new plate so they can put the correct info on the back of the headstock. I also ordered the Ken Lawrence guitar. I have a history of buying guitars on Ali like yourself, and I've been very lucky to have had no trouble at all when I ordered a fake Gibson Slash Victoria Goldtop; it even came with a fake Gibson Slash case. And an Epi Black Beauty. All my previous orders/guitars sounded excellent too. If I ever decided to sell, I'd disclose that they're copies; I know I'd easily get what I paid, or a little more. Either way, I'm happy with that, but I have no plans to sell them at the moment.

I feel for you.. in 1982 I got a used harmony for Christmas, I loved the fact I got an electric guitar but man what a hunk of junk!...

I think it’s really cool

Very nice, think I might get one. But maybe one like Adrian Smith from Iron Maiden had. Same back story lol. Great video, subbed

“Hey mom is that meatloaf ready yet?” Is my favorite part of this lmao but great video

Love it, always wanted one also. Can u say who built it first u? Would like to get one

Nice

They're ALL nice. If that Explorer had block inlay.I'd say it.

hey man...ALI EXPRESS has a kahler style bridge available for $100 -$129 available in black and chrome...yep.theyve had them for th past 2 years I know of for sure as I'm going to order one for my hohner professional 1980's shred guitar.

Cut to the chase @ 5:30. 2019 gets a "pretty good" strat. 6:07 gets a

I got my REAL Ibanez Destroyer for $225…. In 1985…. Not black, but a beautiful blue-green sunburst. Still got it! Enjoy yours!

Completely agree with you about not wanting to buy a decades old guitar. Alixpress is great for buying unicorn guitars. I personally have allot of fun putting custom orders for stuff that otherwise would cost thousands in a custom shop. Personal logo's,touches and custom colours that otherwise would be impossible to obtain...heck even wood choices! Baritone versions,7-string,left-handed,custom guitar designs,... That's where Aliexpress just shine's like no other imo. Great video!

A friend of mine had the actual black\white binding Ibanez Destroyer II X series in the 80's. 3 Humbuckers and the standard LP style bridge. All gold hardware. He had a genuine gold floyd rose installed on it. I remember it being rather terrible to play as the neck was fat and slow. I do wish I had known more about gear back then I bet it could have been made to play better. He wanted it because of Iron Maiden (Number Of The Beast era).

I have an original built in Japan 84.

Does it stay in tune? And even more importantly, does it feel good ( or at least acceptable) playing it? I am thinking about getting one but i am worried it might have mechanic issues

Heheh. There was also the red destroyer that Adrian Smith played at same time that I wanted as much as the Collen one. Never got either. Sad they don't seem to play these instruments anymore as they totally made their names on them.

The Bald Shredder gives excellent advice about the process to purchase a custom guitar from AliExpress.

Honestly, man, at this point I don't care if these guitars are "real" or not. If it's a good guitar, it's a good guitar. I'm looking at buying one eventually, but I'm taking my time to make sure the guitar I choose is a decision that I'll be happy with down the line.

My first guitar was the JCPenny Harmony too. It was absolutely horrid.

Man I remember seeing that video when it came out on Mtv I wanted that guitar also and still do, how can i order one just like yours

This is awesome dude, all of my guitars are China cheapies, if someone has a problem with it then they can send me an American made I wouldn’t bitch! Good solo by the way. 🎼🎸🎶

I have 3 Chibsons, one is a Slash Appetite for Destruction Chibson, and another is a 335, and the one I just got is a Fender Strat replica. And honestly my Slash one and my 335 one are the two guitars I use the most. And I have 2 $700-$800 and these Chibsons I have to say are better than those.

Well done. Your alter ego nedds to be developed. 🤘😎🤘

Kahler bridges are available from Ali now lol

OMG!!! This is of of my dream guitars!!! How do I get a DT 555 from aliexpress!!!!!

You’re funny! Garth meets Wayne;) I have few aliexpress set neck guitars, they are 5 year old, still straight like an arrow. But disclaimer they need some work, most are not playable as received.

The 16 year old me was foolish enough to think I could build my own destroyer out of scrap wood lying around my house and friends houses. My attempt was very disappointing.

Hi, bro! How are you? Thanks for this video. Can you please let me know the name of the Aliexpress seller so I can get in contact with them? Thanks a bunch! Awesome story, vid and playing, man. Peace! Keep Rockin' for the ages :)

Cool video Richard, laughed my balls out of my pants 😂

Bottom line: If you love the guitar and are happy, nothing else matters!👍

Hey man.. Killer guitar! I really wanna get one just like it. Do you have any info that may help me? I’ve always loved that guitar. I even saw them on that tour! If you have any links to the seller or anything, I’d really appreciate it. Thanks in advance!😊🤘

Killer AXE

Nice playing man. And yeah, paying way to much for a guitar that’s been beat to death doesn’t sound appealing.

Actually have the xseries. Thinking about a few replicas on aliexpress. .. just fig I comment

I want them, but no chance of importing them to Germany. Customs will destroy them

How trustful is this *chibanez*? Does it play and sound well? I found exactly like this in AliExpress and eBay.

dude i have a few dhgates that are dimes, I follow the rules though i just use them in my room, they are for me to jam and i love them after about a year each as far as putting work into them they have legendary pickups, Bl l500xl, dimebuckers, polished frets, and check this out, floyd rose Originals, in all of them but one, it has a special, great guitar man, it sounds great man i mean come on we all heard of the Dime tax, a Washburn now, like 15 grand dude theres no way i can get that i cant even afford the paint for my guitar kit world build yet,..and i'm a fender employee haha California cost of living blows man lol thank you for making a vid not shitting on these, used to jam and enjoy, they are great man, maybe i should do better vids on mine,...hmm

Are you uk based. I'm sort unsure of ordering from uk

So, Richard, have you met Phil Collen in person yet? That’s a nice looking Ibanez Destroyer copy. If it sounds good, play it. Oh, and by the way, did your Mom make you some more meatloaf after this video? 😂

I am not satisfied with your reasoning as "to why" :P j/k .. My first recollection to the first Def Leppard song that got me hooked was "foolin" .. .. What an album.. I got my first walkman that year as well.. I wore that cassette out

May I know the seller?

Where’s the trem? 👏👏👏

Ibanez was sued by Gibson. Ibanez’ Destroyer was modeled after the Gibson Explorer. I own an Ibanez candy apple red Destroyer 2.

Im not crazy bout kahler thats why i dont have one

Well let's see 250$ vs 2500$ even if it sucks you can do a few upgrades and you have something close to the real thing...

You look like the room mate/son that lives with his parents in the insurance commercial.

Dude can I borrow it?

Id rather play a dummy than watch a real thing on a photo!👍

It looks pyromania killer does it play like it looks?

pete wilis played a hamer explorer lol

.... i mean, the last note of the solo doesn't have vibrato, but I can see you doing vibrato. the E on the G string is still sounding as you shift to the E on the B string. did you really mime a youtube solo????

I kinda get why chinese guitars gets so much hate. It was the same when they moved production from the US to Japan back in the day, then Korea, then Tawain, then indonesia and finally China. To create great guitar building traditions and reputation takes time but China is getting there. Remember the Chinese invented gunpowder 100’s of years before europe and built the great wall. I’m buying chinese guitars and mod them to my liking. The big brands are so overpriced and it’s just not worth the money. Im not paying $1500+ for a name on a headstock.

Phil Collen is the reason I play Jackson!

So this guitar is nice when you get it, but it has horrible intonation issues. The pickups are junk. Ive had the fretboard basically rebuilt to make it playable. It looks nice as a wall hanger, it plays like a $50 prize at the state fair.

Like I say to never Trumpers, "Why Are You Watching This Video Anyway"? But all fun aside, I ordered my first Les Paul copy from Aliexspress and was totally disappointed. The body was fine, two piece believe it but the neck was a nightmare. This was a fun and funny video to watch..

Sadly Phil Collins is in poor health and has or will shortly retire from music.

. I think you surprised a lot of us with the solo and the track... Thought for sure you were gonna suck. Guitar looks and sounds great.