Is it worth to give 1000$+ for an Indonisian or MIM guitar ? Remember the past !!

[Benjy_26]

Inflation and automation are both realities. It is also true that there are plenty of MIA and MIJ guitars in the used market that sit in this price range. I'll gladly run through those before I scoop an Indonesian guitar for 1k.

[The Dali]

The days of the USA made guitars being better quality AND holding value over imports is LONG GONE. Unless you buy from an independent builder.

The Ibanez Indonesian guitars are crazy good. And Schecter and LTD are killing it with quality. Heck, every single person who ever bought an Eastman guitar made in the last 5 years simple raves about their quality.

As some said above, now it is about SPECS and not location.

With so many great manufacturers, I actually don't even look at Epiphone any longer - why bother? I bought the recent Alex Lifeson MIC Les Paul and it was a nice guitar, but it was $1000 with kind of a junky case and import electronics (aside from the Ghost bridge) (it was nice, but I was disappointed with the experience, no Lifeson swag with the guitar, the trem wasn't set 100% correctly, the case was junky IMO, it just didn't FEEL like a $1000 guitar) - but I can get a LTD with locking tuners, tone-pros bridge and tailpiece, Fluance pickups, a hardcase, and a unique body/neck style (as opposed to just mimicking Gibson 100%) for the same price...

Anyhow... to the original question... every single phone or tablet is made in China and they are all high-quality. Why would guitars be any different?

[Fender_Punk]

You used to be able to buy an ounce of gold for $1k. Inflation is a MF.

[Benjy_26]

Anyhow... to the original question... every single phone or tablet is made in China and they are all high-quality. Why would guitars be any different?

One can argue that a lot of the cost of new tablets and phones is there to pay for R&D. How much R&D goes into a floyded super strat that's punched out by a CNC machine and gets a poly finish?

[The Dali]

One can argue that a lot of the cost of new tablets and phones is there to pay for R&D. How much R&D goes into a floyded super strat that's punched out by a CNC machine and gets a poly finish?

But that R&D has zero to do with whether or not the guitar is well-made. I was only pointing out that China can make cutting edge technology goods, not reason they cannot make competent musical instruments.

Not to mention your point then begs as to why a Gibson would be $4000 and the same Epi is $850?

[solspirit]

Wood stock, not Woodstock

[solspirit]

But what about... the toanz?

The woodz?

[solspirit]

You used to be able to buy an ounce of gold for $1k. Inflation is a MF.

I had a lot of disposable cash in 84 & 85 when it was around $300 ....
Such a fool I was. lol

[Benjy_26]

But that R&D has zero to do with whether or not the guitar is well-made. I was only pointing out that China can make cutting edge technology goods, not reason they cannot make competent musical instruments.

Not to mention your point then begs as to why a Gibson would be $4000 and the same Epi is $850?

I never said China can't make a quality or even competent instrument. I was pointing out that there isn't much invested into an overseas guitar when you consider the manufacturing methods and the cost of labor in a place like China. You brought up high tech, high precision devices made in China. I was merely pointing out that said devices need to sell at a higher price in order to offset R&D costs. A traditional guitar that copies, say, a strat, has literally zero R&D costs. You buy a MIA strat, measure it fully, punch in the beep boops into your CNC machine, and away you go.

Fun fact: it's cheaper to harvest wood in N America, ship it to China to get it made into skateboards, and then ship them back to sell in America than it is to pay Americans to build said boards.

I'm sure that you can't blame labor costs on the full 4k price of a Gibson vs an Epi, but some of it has to be due to labor. I also imagine that the nameplate makes a difference. Look at Lexus vs Toyota. Same vehicle for the most part, right?

[solspirit]

Meh .. six in one half, half dozen in the other. .

[solspirit]

Fun fact: it's cheaper to harvest wood in N America, ship it to China to get it made into skateboards, and then ship them back to sell in America than it is to pay Americans to build said boards.

sorry to say but laws and regulations make it cheaper.

[Benjy_26]

sorry to say but laws and regulations make it cheaper.

Most def.

[LLL]

No customer base should make excuses for, nor promote, nor tolerate... prices going up.

[Dudeman7]

No customer base should make excuses for, nor promote, nor tolerate... prices going up.

No kidding! It is a strange behavior for sure.

If the American manufacturers like Fender and Gibson are not competitive with the other options on the market, I'm not going to buy from them.

Paying a premium for the status of owning an American Fender or Gibson means absolutely nothing to me either. It becomes even easier to pass on them when there are options that are as well made as the current crop of Korean and Indonesian imports.

Bottom line is that it really is great to have the options we have these days. When I was first starting out, Squier and Epiphone were cheap and pretty crappy. They pretty much needed something to make them serviceable, right out of the box. Now, there are Squier models that are equal to or better than the MIM Fender Standards that were around back then.

[solspirit]

The United States is not the only music equipment market.