Guitar brands and third party manufacturers. Who makes it , where and does it matter.

[Eagle]

My basic take on this is most bigger brands do it and some smaller brands are only an office. Do I care? Yes and no . If there is transparency and value for money in the product the answer is no. A great example is Ibanez Japan, Fugi Gen Gaki makes everything and things for other brands too. This is open knowledge and nobody is trying to hide anything. At the other end is Tanglewood a small British company that makes nothing and the entire range is moved from one factory to another whenever it suits them. Squire and Epiphone have also moved, Squire multiple times and several entirely separate companies produce products at the same time none of which are cross compatible even.
Try getting aftermarket parts for a Squire.
A big company example would be Kramer at the hight of its success made nothing in house, they had a decoy wooden duck maker producing their bodies and a Japanese kit part maker doing the necks. In fact when Ed Van Halen wanted the famous headstock on his guitars they cut up a bed headboard for the wood to convert a Strat kit neck . It was also not even maple.
Does any of this matter to you guys or are you just looking at the product in isolation?
I know a lot of people not happy with Strandberg charging £2k plus for made in Indonesia regardless of the finished article.
It has been the case in the past that the manufacturer has used countries with lower cost to produce only their low to mid price products but today any factory in China can produce anything that they want at any price point.
I would love to know what you guys think?
If it’s open is it fine? Or when companies just don’t say and hide the information is this relevant or just marketing.

 

[PLX]

I have it on good authority that nothing really matters.

 

[Stone]

I can't speak for other, just based on my limited exposure to the guitars i have had, that being said Made In Indonesia seems to offer the best bang for the buck with good QC
both my 2 Revstars, my PAC510 and my Ibanez have all had extremely good QC
My LTD is made in Korea and that one as well is fantastic, my Godin is made in North America which is outstanding for price performance/QC
the worst QC ive encountered are 3 MiM guitars, which i will never buy another MiM guitar ever again

 

[Iron1]

I only care if the guitar makes me want to play it. If not I could give a rip where it's made, what it's made from or any of that... everything else is cork sniffing, IMO.

 

[Eagle]

I can't speak for other, just based on my limited exposure to the guitars i have had, that being said Made In Indonesia seems to offer the best bang for the buck with good QC
both my 2 Revstars, my PAC510 and my Ibanez have all had extremely good QC
My LTD is made in Korea and that one as well is fantastic, my Godin is made in North America which is outstanding for price performance/QC
the worst QC ive encountered are 3 MiM guitars, which i will never buy another MiM guitar ever again

I've tried to not go in to too much detail about quality control because all (almost) companies let stuff through the door that they missed. The lower the price the more random stuff is as well. For instance if you cut up a tree for minimum waste some of the pieces will match exactly to the most premium cut and it by random chance may get put on a body the also is the best bit and be sonically suitable. It does happen. I would strongly disagree about MIM .I don't doubt your experience but I don't think it is representative. FMI Mexico are IMO the best value guitars on the market by quite a margin. Indonesia is producing some great stuff too. Korea is no longer a budget destination and Japan is the same as USA.
Mexico Taylor and Martin are very good because they like FMI have there own facility that uses the same methods and CAD. the problem that used to happen was when a third party would just build something similar . A great example was the Korean Fender Light Ash series Strat and Tele. They aren't even the right shape.

 

[Eagle]

I only care if the guitar makes me want to play it. If not I could give a rip where it's made, what it's made from or any of that... everything else is cork sniffing, IMO.

Perfectly valid . But knowledge is power. You can never know too much or be too good at anything.

 

[Eagle]

I have it on good authority that nothing really matters.

And Beelzebub has a devil put aside for you.

 

[PLX]

And Beelzebub have a devil put aside for you.

*has

 

[Eagle]

*has

Typo

 

[JCW308]

I used to care about brand names until I tried a Harley Benton Fusion T HH FNT. It's perfect in every way and I'm still basically in shock that it has become my #1 player.

 

[Eagle]

I used to care about brand names until I tried a Harley Benton Fusion T HH FNT. It's perfect in every way and I'm still basically in shock that it has become my #1 player.

Cheap stuff gets better and better because of CNC and modern manufacturing.

 

[PLX]

Typo

I have a Korean-made Dean ML.

They will have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands.

 

[FuzzyAce]

None of my guitars are in stock form, except for a Mustang bass and a Takamine acoustic. The rest have been refretted, modded to my needs. I've never really spent a great deal of money on a new guitar and most were bought used, for very low prices. Most of the money went into them after purchase. My MIJ Tele ('96) and Squier ('86) I bought collectively for $250. That was about 11 yrs ago. A friend gave me a MII red strat she picked up from Goodwill for $15. It's one of favorites -- of course after I refretted and changed hardware, etc. I prefer deals like that because I know I'll end up modding them (it's a sickness ). I have quite a few partscaster builds too.

So I don't get overly hung up on place of origin it's more about creating a bound with an instrument.

 

[JasonE]

I haven't really been in the market for a new guitar for a number of years. I did get the itch for something specific last fall and did buy a PRS Studio. That was the first new guitar in at least 2 or 3 years. I have pretty much everything covered that I want. I am also not really in the customer base for the import guitars. Everything I own is US made.

With all of that being said, I have worked on and played a good number of import guitars. It is very obvious that modern building techniques are positively influencing the build quality. If the quality of today's instruments was available back when I bought the bulk of my instruments I would have had no issues purchasing them instead of the guitars I bought. We are truly living in a time of great instruments being available at many price points. From what I have seen when a new location is spun up the quality and workmanship is not great for a few years. Once they get good, they raise their prices because they are producing a better product and putting more manhours into them then the company that is contracting them moves to a new location to save money and the process starts over.

 

[MindCrime]

I used to care about brand names until I tried a Harley Benton Fusion T HH FNT. It's perfect in every way and I'm still basically in shock that it has become my #1 player.

Well, I can't speak for Harley Benton because I've never owned one, but I feel the same way about my Cort G300 PRO.

And I'm REALLY blown away by the NEW Cort X700 Triality that was just announced a few days ago for the 2024 line up !

Do not confuse this new model with the Duality I & II models. This is very different !

 

[MindCrime]

And BTW, Cor-Tek makes Cort in Indonesia so there's no mystery there. But everyone knows that. They also make PRS SE models.

Cor-Tek has been in business for over 50 years...(since 1960 !)

 

[duzie]

I have a Korean-made Dean ML.

They will have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands.

No pic lol

 

[PLX]

No pic lol

 

[TheTrueZoltan!]

And Beelzebub has a devil put aside for you.

 

[duzie]