Guitar country of origin: Does it matter?

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Holy-diver

Well-known member
Does this even matter anymore? I have owned a lot of guitars from various eras and countries and it seems to be it is a completely individual instrument based thing. I have guitars from Indo that are perfect and better than some USA guitars I have owned in the past. What do y’all think?
 
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It matters from person to person?

I, personally, don't care a ton about country of origin except I will not buy guitars from China.

That's it. I don't like slave labor, I don't like the way companies have outsourced to China, and I don't like the way most people are ignorant of the economic problems that result from it.

If someone else doesn't have a problem with it, that's fine. They can vote with their dollar and I'll vote with mine.

I prefer to buy guitars from the USA, Japan, and Germany, but I don't mind Korea and a few others.

It's purely a political thing more than anything else. I'm sure china could make good guitars if they wanted to, and indeed i've heard that eastman guitars are nice. I don't care.
 
I only typically buy guitars that are USA or Japanese made, but mostly USA. I do have a Korean made guitar in there, but I got it on a trade, and it was cool and kind of rare. It always has, and always will be that USA made, or higher end Japanese made guitars will maintain resale value and always be in demand and will bring more money. Sure, Korea has made some SICK high quality guitars in the last 15 years or so and there are a lot of really nice playing Mexican made guitars, but I'm not paying money for a $1000+ new Korean or Indonesian guitar that'll be worth much less 3 or 4 years down the road because they aren't from the USA or Japan, or maybe there are some other high end European brands. If I'm going to spend $1000+ on a guitar, it'll be a used Warmoth, Fender, something along those lines that are USA made.

Now, if I wanted just a fun guitar that I didn't expect any sort of resale value attached to it, I'd buy a used Schecter Sun Valley Super Shredder, one of the Mexican made Charvels or something like that and have my fun. If I lose a little bit of $ on a sale/trade, it's no biggie.
 
If I’m paying Gibson or prs money it better be USA…. But thanks to cnc machines you got decent stuff coming out of lesser developed countries…
 
It's a heuristic but not end all, be all. Particularly for brands that sell across different piece points, you can see that the country of origin usually differs depending on the price point.
 
No. Quality matters though. With modern machining, the gap between high end and low end is narrowing. Cheaper guitars are getting better, but quality control still varies. I won't buy Chinese guitars, even though some I've played felt great (Charvel Desolation series). I don't want to personally support China. Some of the Korean factories are on par with Japan now in my opinion. But, the worst part of free trade with these markets is where USA needs to cut corners to compete. This was the downfall of companies like Peavey, and where companies like Gibson get by on brand recognition instead of quality and innovation.
 
Just depends on what's important to the person. For me I spent so many years with crap equioment only dreaming of having great USA/Japan/Europe made gear that playing something from Indonesia, China, etc...just feels off. I'm sure it's mental more than the guitar itself unless it's some $150 thing that's really noticeable.
Sound wise, probaby not a ton of difference, just a feeling.

Plus I've been playing for so long and gone through so much gear I don't really feel like trying to make cheaper gear work. In the end, I'll end up spending more on several cheaper models than just getting what I wanted in the first place.
 
At this point in my life absolutely--I won't buy a "affordable version" of a guitar I am craving. My 25yr old self did and enjoyed the crap out of cheap knockoffs all day long.
 
I have guitars from everywhere. I prefer the older Japanese and USA stuff. But I have some nice Korean and Indonesian guitars that hang right in there.
 
I guess this also depends on your needs. At this point, I'm looking for high end or bespoke guitars for my needs. My love for Spector basses if for the quality of the instrument. I enjoy instruments from every country of origin from them (except China, the Performer is cheap garbage meant to hit a price point).

Now, if I was guiding a beginner to their first instrument, that's where I would talk about overseas guitars.
 
It's interesting how standards have changed over the years. When I was getting into playing USA and Japan was king of the hill. Korean made guitars were mid tier, but catching up. Mexican made were the bottom of the barrel beginner stuff. Now it almost seems Korea and Mexico are the same status of Japan and USA of old. China and Indonesia seem to be the low quality now. But it's also different too. Not so much in actual quality, but more an issue of quality control. China and Indonesia appear to be able to produce quality guitars. It a problem of what would be considered factory seconds making it to the public.

All that said, it doesn't matter much to me where things are made. Of all the guitars I own, I've bought only 3 brand new ones. My first and second guitar back in 1994 & 1995 which were a Mexican Squire and Korean Ibanez Iceman respectively. The 3rd was a Ibanez Talman Bass a few years ago. Outside of that everything else has either been 20-30 years old used or I built myself.
 
It makes no difference to me. If I like a guitar, I buy it. I prefer if a guitar is not made in the US, but I would not refuse a good guitar based on the country of origin alone. I own a mix of Japanese, Chinese, German, Russian and US guitars. I guess that says it all.
 
It feels like the question has a few hidden assumptions.

If you're asking "if there are two literally magically identical guitars right down to the wood grain on the inside and out but they materialized into existence in two different countries, does the country of origin matter?" in which case the answer is no.

But if you're asking if there are any countries I fear would take shortcuts, hidden or obvious, on production guitars you'd buy off the shelf, then the answer is yes absolutely.

I think you can get a great guitar from most developed nations if you try hard enough though, sure.
 
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What I have been seeing more recently is a lot of great consistency from the Indonesia factory that makes Jackson and PRS. The prices have gone way up but truthfully the quality seems to have as well.
 
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I kind of don't tend to care with guitars Chinese made Epis are great, better than your average low to mid tier Gibsons now and I don't have 3,000 dollars for what I would actually want...... Chinese Strats and such I have always thought felt cheap...... the Indonesian stuff is good the MIM stuff being made now is great in regards to a Fender Vintera or a Charvel Pro Mod for example......


Mainly for me where MIA matters is in amps. There are good Chinese amps too but the American counterparts are always so much better. Maybe I don't have 1500-2000$+ dollars laying around for an MIA Guitar but when ever I play an American Amp that money pops up somehow ^_^


But in general the competition between imports vs other imports vs domestic is good for guitar....... it just makes for better and better products.
 
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Holy-diver said:
What I have been seeing more recently is a lot of great consistency from the Indonesia factory that makes Jackson and PRS. The prices have gone way up but truthfully the quality seems to have as well.
Click to expand...
The PRS stuff is kind of meh despite top end Indonesian builds...... IMO Ibanez, Shecter or Jackson make better Indonesian builds with probably Shecter leading the pack.
 
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