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The quality gap between foreign and american made guitars is closing fast.


Boumtje-Boumtje

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Im still yet to see any well known builder or luthier from china, japan or korea. At least to the extent of what we have in the UK and US!

 

 

Just one example I can think of off the top of my head is the Yairi family of luthiers from Japan who have made a name for themselves hand-making amazing acoustic guitars since at least the early 60's. I'm pretty sure there is still a line of Yairi guitars today.

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There's nothing that you can do by hand that machines can't do equally well and machines don't have bad days either

 

 

+1.

 

Some of the folks on here have an obsession of the "human element" in making guitars by hand, but doesn't consistency go a long way??? Handmade is cool for a one-off, but if it's a common build style... why not CNC? I see nothing wrong with it. Both have a place in the biz.

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Never ceases to amaze me how many folks still believe that simple geography can dictate the quality of a guitar. There are some great guitars made in the US, for sure, but the idea that the US is (or has ever been) somehow intrinsically capable of building a better guitar than anywhere else? As put much more eloquently above, this is at best nonsense, at worst borderline racist.

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Never ceases to amaze me how many folks still believe that simple geography can dictate the quality of a guitar. There are some great guitars made in the US, for sure, but the idea that the US is (or has ever been) somehow intrinsically capable of building a better guitar than anywhere else? As put much more eloquently above, this is at best nonsense, at worst borderline racist.

 

 

You're posting on a forum mainly made up of American members from a country that still has an identity and some pride.

 

So I can forgive the Gibson pedestal worship.

 

However, us poor {censored}ers in the UK cannot even fly a Union Jack without being seen as racist assholes, let alone sing the praises of a British made product.

 

I mean we have Marshall, but they {censored}ing break down every two minutes.

 

{censored} it, I wanna be an American , fly the Stars and Stripes and tell the world how great a Gibson is.

 

I'm jealous :(

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Never ceases to amaze me how many folks still believe that simple geography can dictate the quality of a guitar. There are some great guitars made in the US, for sure, but the idea that the US is (or has ever been) somehow intrinsically capable of building a better guitar than anywhere else? As put much more eloquently above, this is at best nonsense, at worst borderline racist.

 

 

THIS.

 

By the way, I play Gibson because I like them. I don't stand on a god damn soap box and deride other people for playing "lesser guitars," or get all pissy when people say their Agiles are comparable to Gibsons. {censored}, maybe to them, they are. Who gives two {censored}s, at the end of the day I'm just playing my guitar, not pleasuring myself to how much better it is than some other guy's.

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I have seen and heard {censored} guitarists with very expensive guitars and amazing guitarists with {censored} guitars.

 

For every Slash quality, $3000+ Les Paul sporting guitarist, there are probably 1000 $3000 Les Paul sporting hacks like me.

 

So much for status

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Never ceases to amaze me how many folks still believe that simple geography can dictate the quality of a guitar. There are some great guitars made in the US, for sure, but the idea that the US is (or has ever been) somehow intrinsically capable of building a better guitar than anywhere else? As put much more eloquently above, this is at best nonsense, at worst borderline racist.

 

 

Yanks are big on "me first" in guitaring because Americans invented the electric guitar and no company's electric guitars - regardless of quality - are as iconic as those that say Gibson and Fender.

 

Yanks don't go about trumpeting the alleged superiority of American tea and crumpets - you guys have that - so allow the Yanks some leeway with electric guitars.

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Adolf Rickenbacher, born in Switzerland. He settled in Los Angeles in 1928


A Swiss / German invented the Electric Guitar
:thu:

 

Oh, nonsense.

 

The earliest electric guitars were hollow bodied acoustic instruments with tungsten pickups made by the "Rickenbacker" company in 1931. While one of the first solid-body guitars was invented by Les Paul, the first commercially successful solid-body electric guitar was the Fender Esquire (1946).

 

So, the guy came over here, to AMERICA, and lo and behold, three years later he comes up with this novel design.

 

Note that he didn't come up with the design while mired in Euroland. :)

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Zenbu, who makes over-ten-thousand-bucks hand made guitars in Japan beside Yamaha? I'm sure some of those names are simply completely unknown in Europe and US, being small builder for Japanese market only.

 

 

ever heard of Masaru Kohno? his classical guitars were used by well known classical guitarists like Julian Bream and Sharon Isbin. and also won a gold medal in guitar making in belgium in '67.

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as was mentioned above about the japan/asian guitar invasion of the 80's , the american guitar makers got lazy and complacent, the Asian invasion of the 80's was the kick in the head the north American market needed to force them to start to up their standards of production and quality control....

 

unfortunately the Americans still havent quite caught up to the asians imo,,,,the asians are all about innovation in production methods and improving on production quality standards ...

 

while the western market was still relying on sloppy inaccurate out of date traditional methods of production, the assians were investing in highly precise computer operated CNC machines and robotics and other modern manufacturing production line techniques to accurately and precisely mass produce their products..

 

the Asians are all about scientific precision the north Americans were about sentimental tradition...

 

to clarify my above comments, im not talking about the lone artisan luthier who hand crafts and instrument thats on par with a work of art, that sort of quality cant be beat...what im talking about above is the big brand name companies of asia and america and their production line methods for their manufactured products of which both are a far cry from the lone exceptionally skilled artisan who spends over 300 hours to hand build just one master piece of a guitar..

 

hand made guitar

archde8.jpgarchde3.jpg

 

link to website for more photos

 

:)

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If you think you're going to convince most in this forum that foreign made guitars are on par with American made guitars whether they're made in a custom shop or not,you're wasting your {censored}ing breath.That being said,I agree with you,I think they are RIGHT on par.except for price of course

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