Imported Guitars

08/17/07

 It is intelligent to buy an imported guitar (If it is cheap) It is not intelligent to buy an imported guitar for a lot of money.  In Fact That Would Be Downright STUPID

I personally would ALWAYS rather sell USA made guitars.  (Impossible In Today's Economy)

In the down turn economy that happened in 2001 (After 9/11 ) and the phony seeming rebirth of our cherished American pride, many of my customers refused to buy Asian imports. This actually  helped our economy and forced the import prices down.  I am very happy to report that prices on most Asian made guitars have come way down. 

VERY IMPORTANT

However some of the more clever companies like ESP, Schecter & Daisy Rock for example have kept their prices high. Many consumers do not even realize these are very low cost Chinese, Indonesian & Korean imports. Gibson proved a long time ago, If you keep your prices high the uneducated consumer will assume your product is better. This is a sad but true fact.  These companies are flourishing today.  Before Ibanez lowered their prices they were just as guilty and I think they even sold more units when their prices were higher. As of this writing Ibanez guitars are priced very fairly except for a few odd examples.

Companies like PRS have made the same mistake that Kramer made in the 80's, they are bringing in Korean guitars of a much lower quality and are currently destroying their own credibility and resale value at the same time. I don't believe that a company with PRS's good name should have cheapened themselves by importing those cheap Korean guitars.  It seems they have now switched to Korean Hardware on their American guitars. What's next ?  maybe they will have the bodies built in Korea also.  How would the American buying public even know.  (Many companies are already doing this in Mexico, Korea and Thailand) The guiltiest company is a large American Company who must remain anonymous if I don't want any lawsuits.  Currently they are having their bodies, necks, pickups. tuners, and various other parts cheaply made in Asia. They assemble these guitars in the USA and then legally they can call them made in USA.

Everyone is guilty to an extent. Myself included, Many of you know that I am the only distributor for Mosrite in this hemisphere. I have been the exclusive distributor dealer for over 6 years. Most of the saleable Mosrite product comes from Japan made in the Tokai factory. These Mosrite guitars are extremely high quality and they are not cheap (nothing Japanese is ever cheap). 
Well try this one on for size..... Mosrite of Japan ship me Painted Bodies, Necks, Pickups, Bridges, knobs. screws etc etc.  I then assembled them in my shop. we ship them back and the Japanese market pays an extra $2,000.00 because now these models are legally made in the USA.  The Japanese culture has lost a great deal of their national pride.  The kids over there and the adults are willing to pay slightly more than double for something that is the exact same product except that it comes with a little sticker (Made in USA). I'll bet the conservative Japanese population is going completely crazy over that.  The fact of the matter is the Japanese love our culture. They have copied it for years and years. Everyone knows the best Fenders are the Japanese Fenders... Let me clarify that statement !!!!  I said Japanese, I did not say, China, Korea, Indochina, Thailand, Vietnam, India, Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil, The Philippines, Czech republic. I said Japanese !!!

My principal bitch with Ibanez of course was their pricing. The pricing on Ibanez guitars has come way down, I have not seen any loss of quality from 2000 to 2008 in fact some of the lesser priced models have improved in quality. This fact serves to prove my point, when I complained about them being so overpriced in the past few years. This trend has been almost universal, In fact, there are very few Japanese & Korean companies who have not complied with the pricing. The biggest offenders would be ESP & Schecter who are both owned by the same Asian conglomerate. These 2 companies, attempt to give the impression that they are actually US owned companies.  THEY ARE NOT!!!!  THEY ARE MOST DEFINITELY OVERPRICED!!!!  It would be foolish to spend your money on these brands. In fact I have seen little American flags on the ESP guitars recently, when you look closely it says "Inspected in the USA".  They must really think the American buying public is stupid!!!  Are They Right??

I sell Zemaitis & Caparison Guitars they are both quite Good...
But they are definitely way too much money !!!!   They are imported, The caparison uses generic parts which makes it very overpriced. 

The Zemaitis is insanely priced but it is a great guitar and all the parts are proprietary.