Members scolfax Posted February 27, 2007 Members Share Posted February 27, 2007 From what I can gather from various posts, here is a quick-n-dirty pecking order of guitar quality based on where they are manufactured with some rough price points: USA $600+Japan $500+Mexico $400 - $500Korea $200 - $700China $100 - $300 Sound about right? Can anyone suggest corrections or fill in any blanks? Also, it seems to me that you can find excellent guitars from Korea on up, but are there any good/great guitars coming from China? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members crust Posted February 27, 2007 Members Share Posted February 27, 2007 Indonesia $100-200 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ekimc Posted February 27, 2007 Members Share Posted February 27, 2007 one thing to notice..... but probably has nothing to do with your price chart... lots of high end guitars are made in Japan instead of USA.....like Ibanez J.Custom, Signature ones, and ESP Japan ones (which i personally think is better than the ESP USA ones.... more choice avaliable too) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mr JinX Posted February 27, 2007 Members Share Posted February 27, 2007 I am actually very pleased with the quality of 2 of my indonesian squiers, cant fault um, but I did buy them locally and tried um first Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Burningleaves Posted February 27, 2007 Members Share Posted February 27, 2007 Sound about right? Can anyone suggest corrections or fill in any blanks?Also, it seems to me that you can find excellent guitars from Korea on up, but are there any good/great guitars coming from China? What do the prices reflect? The price zone for getting a quality brand new guitar form that country? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members warriorpoet Posted February 27, 2007 Members Share Posted February 27, 2007 Eastman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Burningleaves Posted February 27, 2007 Members Share Posted February 27, 2007 one thing to notice..... but probably has nothing to do with your price chart...lots of high end guitars are made in Japan instead of USA.....like Ibanez J.Custom, Signature ones, and ESP Japan ones (which i personally think is better than the ESP USA ones.... more choice avaliable too) Price chart aside....for me MIJ guitars have the "best" overall quality I think..compared to MIA, MIM, MIK and the rest. Thats just for the Export to the US ones I have owned, played. They had some KILLER domestic only (Japan) guitars the last time I was there. Japan makes great guitars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dcindc Posted February 27, 2007 Members Share Posted February 27, 2007 You missed India. And I think China is hell bent on upsetting the pecking order this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members scolfax Posted February 27, 2007 Author Members Share Posted February 27, 2007 What do the prices reflect? The price zone for getting a quality brand new guitar form that country? Not necessarily quality. My initial price zone for US is implying that you can't purchase a brand new US made guitar for under $600. I'm not 100% sure this is true though, so hopefully those in the know will offer corrections. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members whitegreyblack Posted February 27, 2007 Members Share Posted February 27, 2007 implying that you can't purchase a brand new US made guitar for under $600 There's your problem, right there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members scolfax Posted February 27, 2007 Author Members Share Posted February 27, 2007 There's your problem, right there. Thanks, I was looking for corrections. Can you give me an example? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Burningleaves Posted February 27, 2007 Members Share Posted February 27, 2007 Not necessarily quality. My initial price zone for US is implying that you can't purchase a brand new US made guitar for under $600. I'm not 100% sure this is true though, so hopefully those in the know will offer corrections. For brand new they have the Gibson MM that just came out for like $350-$400. Thats the only one I can think of off-hand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cincy_cosmo Posted February 27, 2007 Members Share Posted February 27, 2007 Sound about right? Can anyone suggest corrections or fill in any blanks?Also, it seems to me that you can find excellent guitars from Korea on up, but are there any good/great guitars coming from China? I kind of agree but would adjust it to say: USA $600+Japan $500+Mexico $400 - $500Korea $200 - $850China $100 - $600Indonesia $80 - $200 I think you underestimate the Chinese guitars. There are some pretty good ones coming in now and the prices for some Chinese guitars are increasing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Burningleaves Posted February 27, 2007 Members Share Posted February 27, 2007 You missed India.And I think China is hell bent on upsetting the pecking order this year. Now that you can just "plop" the high tec' machines any old place things are def' changing all over. Seems the main issue holding back the new "plants" on the block is the Quality of the woods being used rather than the building process. That and the marketing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gtrdave Posted February 27, 2007 Members Share Posted February 27, 2007 Not necessarily quality. My initial price zone for US is implying that you can't purchase a brand new US made guitar for under $600. I'm not 100% sure this is true though, so hopefully those in the know will offer corrections. Missing from the list is Canada or, in the case of Godin, a hybrid Canada/USA country of origin (Canadian parts, USA assembly).Although it's difficult to place a generic price of said hybrid-manufacture guitars, my experience has been that they're well below similar USA counterparts yet with quality similar to or higher than USA-made guitars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tulk1 Posted February 27, 2007 Members Share Posted February 27, 2007 Believe it or not ... I've seen Vietnamese guitars in the States. Guess labor is getting too expensive in Indonesia? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members scolfax Posted February 27, 2007 Author Members Share Posted February 27, 2007 Here's the updated list from your comments, with some typical brands added: Japan $500+USA $500+ (Gibson, Fender, PRS) [Gibson Melody Maker = anomaly]Canada $360+ (Godin)Mexico $400 - $600 (Fender)Korea $200 - $700 (Epiphone, Agile, Xaviere, PRS SE)China $100 - $300 (Gibson knockoffs) [Eastman = anomaly]Indonesia $100-200? (?)India $100-200? (?)Vietnam $100-200? (?) I've marked a couple entries as anomaly's, since they seem outside of their respective price ranges. OT, what makes the Gibson MM an order of magnitude cheaper to manufacture than a Les Paul Studio? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MCHsmokey Posted February 27, 2007 Members Share Posted February 27, 2007 I don't understand what your list is trying to achieve. There is no direct correlation between price of guitar and quality or even adding a country of origin in the mix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members whitegreyblack Posted February 27, 2007 Members Share Posted February 27, 2007 Thanks, I was looking for corrections. Can you give me an example? I would abolish the pricing completely. It relies on far too many generalities, will get outdated very very quickly... And with the used market being so big in the guitar world, it can be tossed straight out the window for a huge portion of guitar buyers. You'd have to manage your list like the Blue Book if you want to try to be guide to guitar pricing... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members scolfax Posted February 27, 2007 Author Members Share Posted February 27, 2007 I think it can be safely said that most mass-produced guitars manufactured in the USA are "better" than most mass-produced guitars manufactured in China. I'm trying to find other generalities like this within a narrower range. For example, based on the collective knowledge of HCEG, despite China's rising quality, Korean guitars are generally thought to be superior. I think a list like this would be useful for new guitar buyers. Because of the way guitars are marketed, and assuming that you can come to reasonable conclusions from a list like this, it would be more important to know if your Ibanez RG was made in Korea or Indonesia, than the price and features of that guitar. I removed the prices, but I think I was hoping for a way to compare, say, a cheap Mexican guitar vs. an expensive Korean guitar. I know that every guitar is different, and that wood quality and setup are critical. I am not looking for a Unified Therory, just a reasonable ballpark. Japan USA CanadaMexicoKoreaChina IndonesiaIndiaVietnam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blackmonday Posted February 27, 2007 Members Share Posted February 27, 2007 Epiphones are mostly Chinese now. I've marked a couple entries as anomaly's, since they seem outside of their respective price ranges.OT, what makes the Gibson MM an order of magnitude cheaper to manufacture than a Les Paul Studio? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members stype Posted February 27, 2007 Members Share Posted February 27, 2007 I think the price can be anything. Lakland Skyline basses (made in Korea) cost around $1400 usually. As I see it, some countries have cheaper labor than others, but you use quality parts and well trained staff and you can build a great instrument in any country. All I'm saying is you can't judge a guitar's quality by its country of origin. If gibson wants to make a cheap guitar with cheap wood and cheap hardware and electronics in China, don't associate China with the quality of the instrument. Its gibson that tells them how and what to build. But they could build the same cheap guitar in the US, but with higher labor costs it might not sell as well since it would be more $$$. Just the same, a high quality guitar can be built in Korea or any other country, if thats what the company wants to make. I think companies always build their highest quality instruments in their local country because people are always willing to pay a premium for that, but after that I'd have to say it varies by brand. Fender might build cheaper guitars in one country and much cheaper guitars in another, but a different company could have set their factories up differently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gorebuc Posted February 27, 2007 Members Share Posted February 27, 2007 Only Fender makes em in Mexico, right? And they go from $400 up to around $700, I think. The higher end models are very nice. I love my '69 Thinline. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members scampi Posted February 27, 2007 Members Share Posted February 27, 2007 Is Esteban from this planet? If there's any dispute over who gets to be at the bottom of the list, Estebania will do Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jake.lind Posted February 27, 2007 Members Share Posted February 27, 2007 Believe it or not ... I've seen Vietnamese guitars in the States. Guess labor is getting too expensive in Indonesia? Why doesn't that make sense? Guitar making today is more about engineering than heritage, and what Korea lacks in heritage, it doubtless more than makes up for with engineering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.