Dig it... guitars being made overseas are killing it right now!

I have a 2014 Reverend Eastsider T (Pete Anderson signature) guitar (The Tele looking guitar), a black 1987 Fender Contemporary Strat, and a 2000 Yamaha 303-12 electric 12 string guitar. In the 2nd picture below, I have a Takamine Japan classical acoustic electric, a 6 string acoustic electric, and 12 string acoustic electric guitars. About half of my guitar collection is composed of Asian made guitars. I find them to be of high quality in sound & construction, comparable to U.S. made guitars, and are affordable to buy on the used market.

Guitar George
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Had an Epi G-400 SG once which was MIC and it played better than any current Gibson guitar that i've tried. :D
 
Always wanted one of those 12 string Pacificas. They're pretty damn hard to find these days :sick:
There are a couple on Reverb that I saw for under $300. They were made for about 2 years in the early 2000's. I use mine onstage for one song in my cover band. The pickups are average sounding and could use something better though. I'm not sure if I want to upgrade the pickups as I really want a Hamer USA 12 string Eclipse guitar.

Guitar George
 
CNC manufacturing and quality control measures have come a long way in the last decade or two, and have become a lot more affordable. I picked up a 7 string CE a few months ago, that I'm really enjoying.
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I was eying up the Epiphone Korina Explorer because I thought it had to be the deal of the century until I was informed that the only Korina in that guitar is the 1/16th " Korina top . Just the razor thin top is real Korina the rest is anybody's guess .

It's perfectly legal for guitar makers to list a guitar as having a mahogany body even if 1% of it is actual mahogany. Similar to high priced fishing rods , ultra high modulus graphite cost a fortune but rod manufacturers continue to market their rods as being Ultra high modulus at affordable prices . Those two do not coexist , they use 1% high mod material that's why the prices are reasonable .

A true high mod graphite rod is EXPENSIVE as hell.
 
I was eying up the Epiphone Korina Explorer because I thought it had to be the deal of the century until I was informed that the only Korina in that guitar is the 1/16th " Korina top . Just the razor thin top is real Korina the rest is anybody's guess .

It's perfectly legal for guitar makers to list a guitar as having a mahogany body even if 1% of it is actual mahogany. Similar to high priced fishing rods , ultra high modulus graphite cost a fortune but rod manufacturers continue to market their rods as being Ultra high modulus at affordable prices . Those two do not coexist , they use 1% high mod material that's why the prices are reasonable .

A true high mod graphite rod is EXPENSIVE as hell.
Well for decades many guitar brands advertised import models as having “mahogany” bodies when they actually had “nato” aka “eastern mahogany” which is a totally different tree species that bears a resemblance to honduran mahogany. I’ve had a couple of those over the years and it’s not like they were bad by any means but there is definitely a tonal difference between it and real honduran mahogany.
 
Some of those Korean made LTD's are really solid guitars. I got a 2014 Viper deluxe with an emg 57 in the bridge that just kills. Very solid, resonant guitar. It made me sell my SG. I also got a 2004 korean made Viper that is not so good, kinda dead sounding, so I don't know what happened between 2004 and 2014??
 
I just got a 2017 LTD EC1001FR in excellent condition for way under a grand and it's great. It was a GC deal and needed a setup but it plays and sounds great. I don't even want to swap pickups which almost never happens with me. Impressed with this one S Korea build.
 
I separate Made in Japan guitars from MIK, MIC, MIV, etc guitars. Maybe I am the only one, but you do see MIJ tend to command higher prices than the other.
 
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