Re: What is the Value of "Made In USA" for SD Pickups?
MIA doesn't automatically indicate quality to me. There are plenty of examples of offshore products being higher quality then their American counterparts, for less money. I drive a Subaru because I couldn't afford the time off from work to constantly take the Chevy to the shop.
On the other hand, there are plenty of people out there who will pay more for American products of lesser quality.
I've played guitar for 35 years, and owned Gibsons, Fenders (MIA, MIJ, & MIM), Dean, Hamer, Schecter. I presently own two guitars: an MIM Fender and a combination Korean Schecter body with a MIM Fender neck. I own them because for my purposes (intermediate player playing for pleasure at home) the additional "value" of MIA instruments is not great as the additional cost.
Both guitars have Duncans in them, though. I bought my first Duncan in 1983, and don't think I've bought another brand of aftermerket pickups since. To me, Duncan (to date, "USA Duncan") means quality and consistency. It means good technical information (advertising, catalogs, website), which allows me to make informed decisions. When I make a purchase, I generally find the literature accurately describes the products and more often than not I'm happy with my purchase. I think I've taken advantage of the 21-day return policy only twice in over 20 years.
I'm sure it's possible to make quality pickups in other countries, but I wonder about the consistency. Without Seymour, Scott, MJ, and others around, how can SD the company ensure that each pickup gets made right?
Case in point: When I bought my Schecter goldtop PT, it came loaded with a Duncan Designed HB103 set. Both pickups had HB103 labels right on them. Schecter's website and Duncan's website agree : "The HB-103 was patterned after the SH-6 Duncan Distortion™ set."
According to the Duncan tone chart, the Distortion neck pickup is 12.7 k ohms. But my pickup measured only 8 k. When Seymour and Scott came to toen, I took the guitar along and had a chance to talk about it with Scott, wondering if he could tell me what it was. But he flat-out didn't know - the specs didn't match up with reality. Finally, as Seymour was setting up for the jam session, he and Scott gave it a listen. They proclaimed it a "Ceramic Jazz", since Seymour could hear the ceramic magnet and the coil resistance was in line with a Jazz.
So, here's an offshore pickup with Duncan's name on it, that is completely off from its published specs. SD needs to figure out how to prevent that kind of problem if its going to manufacture off-shore.
As an American, I would really prefer to buy American, but I'm not willing to accept sub-standard products just because they are American. I think SD is unusual in that they are an American company with better quality than their foreign competitors. For that, I'm willing to pay.
It seems we have to differentiate between China and other countries. I've worked in China a couple times (once for 7 months) and came away with the impression that they don't play by the same rules as everybody else. The intellectual property issues that are in the news so much are a glaring reflection of that. Though not quite as adamant as Zerb, I consciously try to avoid anything made in China (unless I need cheap throw-away tubes for troubleshooting). Mostly this means not shopping at Walmart.
Long story short - I'm a loyal SD USA customer, but I put more stock in the 'SD' part than the 'USA'. I would be highly suspect of SD without the USA; the company would have to prove itself to me all over again. I'd probably be willing to try other brands in between.
Stay American, and I'll pay the premium for SD products. I wish the USA had more companies I could say that about.
