Korea vs Indonesia (QC etc.)
- Thread starter GuitarJon
- Start date
Necroing an old thread, but I have had the worst luck with Cor-tek Indonesia. I've bought five guitars made at that facility:
2006 Ibanex RG2EX1 (300USD): Great guitar for the price. Built like a tank. Played nicely. Sounded amazing with a pickup upgrade.
2019 or 2020 Cort KX500MS (700USD): Garbage. 7th string had no sustain and sounded horrible. Cheap finish and poor fret work as well. Neck felt nice, though.
2025 Hils HN3 (550USD): Horribly uneven frets; unplayable at any reasonable action height. Returned for another...
2025 Hils HN3 (550USD): Horribly cut nut. Low E was resting high above the other strings. Ground bone dust and glue smeared around the groove. Aluminum bridge is cheap and worn with grooves from the strings when I took it out of the box. Tuning pegs were also very difficult to turn. Sent back and walked away.
2024 LTD Deluxe Arrow 1007B w/ Evertune (1800USD): Finish very poor. Buffing swirls all over it fresh out of the box. Also other blemishes that I can't really identify. They look like oil residue but it's in the finish. Tuners were installed crooked due to holes being drilled at the wrong angles. Sounds good and looks good. But doesn't FEEL like a guitar in that price range. This guitar is what brought me to this thread. I've finally reached my breaking point. No Indos again. Ever.
I'm 1 out of 5 on Cor-tek Indonesia. By contrast I've owned a 2008 BC Rich Jr V NJ Deluxe and a Sean Guitarwork Custom V, both made at WMI Korea and they were basically flawless. Sound and play great. Though neither of them are as good as my ESP E-II M-I, which is the best bang-for-buck guitar I've ever played.
2006 Ibanex RG2EX1 (300USD): Great guitar for the price. Built like a tank. Played nicely. Sounded amazing with a pickup upgrade.
2019 or 2020 Cort KX500MS (700USD): Garbage. 7th string had no sustain and sounded horrible. Cheap finish and poor fret work as well. Neck felt nice, though.
2025 Hils HN3 (550USD): Horribly uneven frets; unplayable at any reasonable action height. Returned for another...
2025 Hils HN3 (550USD): Horribly cut nut. Low E was resting high above the other strings. Ground bone dust and glue smeared around the groove. Aluminum bridge is cheap and worn with grooves from the strings when I took it out of the box. Tuning pegs were also very difficult to turn. Sent back and walked away.
2024 LTD Deluxe Arrow 1007B w/ Evertune (1800USD): Finish very poor. Buffing swirls all over it fresh out of the box. Also other blemishes that I can't really identify. They look like oil residue but it's in the finish. Tuners were installed crooked due to holes being drilled at the wrong angles. Sounds good and looks good. But doesn't FEEL like a guitar in that price range. This guitar is what brought me to this thread. I've finally reached my breaking point. No Indos again. Ever.
I'm 1 out of 5 on Cor-tek Indonesia. By contrast I've owned a 2008 BC Rich Jr V NJ Deluxe and a Sean Guitarwork Custom V, both made at WMI Korea and they were basically flawless. Sound and play great. Though neither of them are as good as my ESP E-II M-I, which is the best bang-for-buck guitar I've ever played.
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Jazz Padd
Roadie
- Messages
- 154
I had an Indonesian made Ibanez archtop for a while. The guitar was well made and looked good, but the hardware was poor.
The first part to fail was the tailpiece, easy enough to replace. In looking into that, I found a discussion on another forum in which some one replaced the pickups, upgraded the wiring, and other parts and had themselves a fine guitar. I considered doing that but decided to sell it instead.
As some one has already said here, the factories seem capable of making good guitars, but the companies that order from them hobble the quality capabilities in the interest of keeping costs low as possible.
The first part to fail was the tailpiece, easy enough to replace. In looking into that, I found a discussion on another forum in which some one replaced the pickups, upgraded the wiring, and other parts and had themselves a fine guitar. I considered doing that but decided to sell it instead.
As some one has already said here, the factories seem capable of making good guitars, but the companies that order from them hobble the quality capabilities in the interest of keeping costs low as possible.
JerEvil
Roadie
- Messages
- 668
Yeah I’ll happily take MIJ or MIK if I’m slumming used for the same dough. I got my E-II for $1200 and the MJ Jackson for $1600. Both are mint. No way I’m spending that kind of money for an Indonesian guitar.
Attachments
Piing
Shredder
- Messages
- 1,603
Here are the pics of an indo PRS SE McCarty 594 that had a faulty contact at the pickup switch. When I opened it, I found that someone did a butchered job.
- Traces of old wires that were previously soldered to the switch and have been cut. It looks like this is a recycled switch.
- When touching the cables, the white wire of the bridge pickup was disconnected. Faulty soldering!! Maybe it was not even soldered, just touching, or a cold-soldering.
- Green wire partially melted.
- Very dirty and unprofessional job. The person that did that had zero soldering skills and probably had to meet some deadline in a rush.
It didn't came with a proper setup. I had to do a major adjustment at the truss-rod, and reverse the G string saddle for properly intonation because it already arrived to the end.
Brand new. That was the first batch of this PRS that arrived to Thailand, just a few days after it was globally announced. It didn't had any trace of having been unboxed before I got it. I grabbed it directly from the shop of the PRS dealer, few minutes after they received that lot.
BTW: I was accused of malevolence for exposing this matter at TGP. PRS seems to be sacrosanct and above criticism there
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Funny that you post those. I'm actually considering the MJ Rhoads and the E-II Arrow. What are your thoughts on them? Which would you recommend? I was a little skeptical of the switch to the basswood on the Rhoads but I love the way they look. And I've got an SL1 with the JB so I know it'll sound killer.
Here are the pics of an indo PRS SE McCarty 594 that had a faulty contact at the pickup switch. When I opened it, I found that someone did a butchered job.
- Traces of old wires that were previously soldered to the switch and have been cut. It looks like this is a recycled switch.
- When touching the cables, the white wire of the bridge pickup was disconnected. Faulty soldering!! Maybe it was not even soldered, just touching, or a cold-soldering.
- Green wire partially melted.
- Very dirty and unprofessional job. The person that did that had zero soldering skills and probably had to meet some deadline in a rush.
View attachment 50259
View attachment 50272
It didn't came with a proper setup. I had to do a major adjustment at the truss-rod, and reverse the G string saddle for properly intonation because it already arrived to the end.
View attachment 50260
Brand new. That was the first batch of this PRS that arrived to Thailand, just a few days after it was globally announced. It didn't had any trace of having been unboxed before I got it. I grabbed it directly from the shop of the PRS dealer, few minutes after they received that lot.
BTW: I was accused of malevolence for exposing this matter at TGP. PRS seems to be sacrosanct and above criticism there
I wish I still had the photos of the HILS HN3 that I was sent. The nut was horrendous. You get a nice little QC check-off sheet with every guitar. Both of the ones I got had serious issues and were signed off on by the same guy. It's pretty funny to think about some guy just signing every piece of paper in a big stack without even having any guitars in front of him.
JerEvil
Roadie
- Messages
- 668
Yeah i was too at first. Honestly they’re pretty neck and neck in terms of quality. Tempe RR SOUNDS better and I like the bridge-feel better underhand but both are phenomenal.
My biggest issue with the E-II is I need to get rid of the Fishman Moderns. I HATE them.
The neck on the E-II is fatter too which I don’t mind. The Jackson has a faster/thinner neck profile.
Both are keepers though for sure.
I have a Sean Guitarworks Custom V that I bought while living in Korea. https://www.seanguitarworks.com/en/custom-v
I got the illusion colored one. It's basically a blue/purple candy paint type thing. Great guitar. Love it. But it has the Fishman Fluence Moderns. Really overrated pickup. I hate them. Really washed out kind of wah sound in the mids is the best way I've heard somebody describe them. The note separation is non-existent. Both my JB and EMG81 are infinitely better. Oddly enough, the 7 string version of those pickups are actually pretty good because in spite of what I mentioned above, they do a really good job keeping that 7th string nice and tight.
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JiveTurkey
Goatlord
- Messages
- 20,928
Fishman paid someone a LOT of $ at some point to put their pickups in what seems like all guitars everywhere. Ugh.
Sascha Franck
Rock Star
- Messages
- 9,570
From my very brief testruns (basically just checking guitars in shops), they're a pretty mixed bunch, but I found the Greg Koch signature set to be pretty awsome in a Tele of a mate (too bad the switch/pot mounting plate sucks as much as any standard Tele mounting plate).
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