Boat Forum / Boats / March 2010

I've never tried a Chinese Les Paul Standard copy, but I've heard that at
least some of them are very good.
My problem (shared by many) is that some are passed off as being "real" ....
meaning authentic Gibsons .... at a price that is 20-30 times their actual
cost.  They even stamp "Made in USA" on the back
of the headstock for gripes sake.  Not all Chinese companies do this ...
some are legitimate and licensed to build guitars for major manufacturers,
but those are clearly identified as being manufactured in China.  Fender has
some of their cheap "Squire" models built in China.   Ibanez also has some
of their guitars manufactured in China and they are noted for being of
exceptionally high quality at a reasonable price.

A solid body electric guitar isn't exactly rocket science to build and can
be easily reverse-engineered.
Acoustics are an entirely different matter and requires a degree of
knowledge and luthier craftsmanship to build a good one.   Same with archtop
electrics.

I bought a Chinese made copy of a Martin D-28 just to see what the quality
was.  It's certainly playable, and good for a beginner looking for a halfway
decent, inexpensive guitar to learn on, but is a far cry from a "real"
Martin.  It has a spruce top, laminate rosewood back and sides, is equipped
with a truss rod and copies of Grover tuners.

It cost me $200.  It probably cost the importer $100.   A real Martin D-28,
made in Pennsylvania retails for $2,300 at Musician's Friend (Guitar
Center).

Samick (based in Korea) is one of the world's largest manufacturers of
musical instruments, including guitars.   For a minimum order of 1000
guitars, they will reverse engineer a custom built acoustic (you send them a
guitar) and will manufacture and sell it back to you at about 10 cents on
the dollar compared to your cost to build it here at typical labor costs.
Materials for a quality acoustic guitar (wood, hardware and finish) is less
than 20 percent of the overall cost, unless really exotic tonewoods (like
Brazilian Rosewood) is used. The remainder of the cost is labor.

This is what US builders are faced with in terms of competition.   Granted,
the resale value of these imports (if they are known to be imports) is less.

My last comment ...   Guitar companies like Martin, Taylor, PRS, Fender and
others have been forced to introduce lower end models manufactured overseas
in order to compete.  Even Taylor now has their lower end models, up to and
including the 300 series ... made outside of the USA.   The 300 series is
now manufactured in Mexico.

Then again, Grand Banks boats have been built in Singapore for years.

Eisboch

See, that's funny as I have two Samsung Thinline TV's and both have broken down
twice in less than three years. First time within 6 mos... Seems a whole bunch
of them had some bad capacitors made in South Korea or somewhere like that, and
hundreds of them failed. Samsung really doesn't care much, if you are under
warranted you can take the thing to be fixed on them, if not, you are out of
luck...

Scotty

It was do or die for the big 3, that's for sure.

We also have an '88 Mustang (convertible), but it only gets driven about
1000 mi/yr since I married it in '97. <g> It was my wife's daily driver
until out 1st kid. Now it only comes out of my warehouse in the summer when
it's not too hot. Even a convertible is no fun when It's 100 degrees
outside. Same deal with that car... fluid, brakes, one clutch (5 speed), and
tires. AAMOF, when I had the clutch done at about 120,000 miles, I told the
mechanic, that it was the original clutch. He said that it was impossible...
until he pulled it and saw the markings.

Back in '01 when we bought the Tahoe, the dealer offered us $5,000 for the
car as a trade. It's a black, mustang convertible GT, in very good (not
mint) condition, with 125,000 mi on it. I told him that we'll keep it. I've
been offered 10k for it numerous times. I wouldn't sell it for twice that...
it's a FUN car.

I have no problems with "American made."

--Mike