Gaahleri GHAD-39 First Impressions

[Lance Whitford]

I haven’t had the opportunity to do a full-scale project with the new Gaahleri GAHD-39 brush but have had enough time to decide that out of the box ergonomics did not suit me. Most of this is around the trigger, it is too tall for my liking and the action, even with adjustments, too stiff. I like a shorter trigger with very soft action. The GH-39 appears to be based on generic Chinese designs. Because of this I was able to swap out parts and replace them with items from my spares box which gave me the feel I was after. I also changed to a leaver guide and needle chucking guide to one where those parts are combined in a single unit as I prefer that setup. In the parts shot, the original parts are on the left side. Apart from the trigger it still feels slightly front heavy. It is a very heavy brush, about 10% heavier than most of my others. The only ones around the same weight are my Mr Hobby PS-270’s and PS-289’s, but these feel lighter and more balanced in the hand than the GHAD-39.

 

[Kingpin]

Nice write up Lance

There has been some talk of these brushes on here recently so I am sure Your thoughts on this brush will be of some help to others thinking of buying one

 

[Lance Whitford]

I was thinking about the front heavy feel of the GHAD-39 and why my Japanese brushes can have a lot of heavy metal up front and still feel balanced in the hand. I put a few brushes side by side and it dawned on me that the Japanese brushes had deeper fillets between the valve stem and the main body. I got a bit of modelling clay and added some depth to the GHAD-39’s fillet. The balance was instantly improved. The depth of the fillet is standard across most if not all Chinese brushes that have one. Here are a couple of shots that illustrate the differences between fillet depths of an Iwata HP-CH and Creos PS-771 vs the GHAD-39 and also my improvised modification. Soft clay is no permanent solution but a bit of Epoxy or perhaps some 3D printed prosthetic device might provide practical solutions for anyone inclined to ‘fix’ the problem.

 

[2Diverse]

This is a very good review Lance. It seems interesting to me you had to change pretty much the back half of the brush to use it comfortably. It's a good thing you had spares to choose from, that fit. And you still need to add clay (or?) to the brush to have it balance better. I think these brushes are geared toward newbies who won't know any different.

You mentioned in another thread you find it interesting that all their marketing is going to Amazon. Being a global marketplace Amazon would be a good outlet. I think you may be right, in my understanding of what you wrote, that Gaahleri is marketing them as a better alternative to other Chinese brushes so they can charge a higher premium. It makes a lot of sense. eBay is riddled with sellers fighting to unload knock-off sets for $12 or less. From a business standpoint why join that? Use slick marketing (and packaging as you mentioned,) then sit back and watch the money roll in.

It also helps to find YouTubers et al who may be willing to post a review. Give them one or a dozen and see. I'd be curious to know if any big name players on YouTube (or wherever) received money for their endorsement. I've read here and elsewhere that they aren't using them on their current works. If they were as great as they make them sound you'd think they would be using one.

After watching a few videos and reading what others have said about them I decided I'd never buy one. I wouldn't want it.

I did buy a Creos PS-270 from SprayGunner. $77 USD is a price I couldn't pass up. And it's made in Japan along with a few other high quality brushes. I knew what I was getting.