Ray
Just got an email from a Knife Magazine, and the thing starts with the story that if you arent buying American you arent looking after or interested in American jobs and so forth. Now there are a lot of good American knives. There are a lot of good knives from elsewhere - developing economies , if you will. But here's the thing. The non-American made knives are o so very often, so much cheaper to buy. And so often the buying experience is just so much better. This has been my experience.
And I try and fit this into context of music equipment and then further into context of buying stuff made in South Africa. There are guitars made in SA. I dont know about guitar "factories" but certainly custom instruments can be purchased here. And bits can be bought here as well but they are originally sourced from somewhere over yonder. And if you scout around you can get them in yourself pretty easily and in some cases like delivered to your door.
So, I dont have a hard and fast opinion on this. I just find that comms like this email I saw are trashy attempts at persuasion, sort of bordering on coercion. What do you think of this?
guidothepimmp
You mean like how made in USA guitars are better than Japanese, Korea, etc.. guitars?
vic
guidothepimmp wrote
You mean like how made in USA guitars are better than Japanese, Korea, etc.. guitars?
? :?
Bob-Dubery
People in the USA tend to be more earnest, less cynical than folks in some other countries. Cultures vary widely, even amongst people who happen to speak the same language. I saw a whole West End play, by an American company, built around the notion that the Americans don't understand irony. It's OK to wear you patriotic heart on your sleeve in the USA. So, given where it's coming from and the context, I think that "coercion" is too strong a word to use.
They have a point. If you spend your money as close to home as you can, then more of that money stays close to your home and benefits people in your own city/state/country.
Paddy
I was recently at a week long air show in the states and without fail everyday at 12pm they had a troop of parachutist jumping while their national anthem blared through the PA. The one parachutist had the USA flag strap to his leg. Not just a normal one, a huge one. It's name was, and I kid you not, Megaflag!!! One of the biggest flags in the states. Every spectator had to stand to attention and remove hats etc etc. but the interesting part is after all this they thank the sponsors of the air show. And they make sure to mention those sponsors who manufacture in the USA. One in particular was the manufacturer of the lights used on airplanes, they made sure that it is mentioned that they are the only manufacturer of those type of parts that still produce those part solely in the states.
Mind washing the public to give their economy a boost I guess.
Reinhard
I'm afraid to gig a guitar that is South African made. Chances are you get to a gig and it refuses to play unless you string it up with Elixirs and then proceeds to set the stage on fire. Just too risky...
Norman86
Thats an insult to guitar builders like BvanS guitars..
And to amp and pedal builders like Craigamps.
These are quality "boutique" South African made guitars, amps and pedals.
Bob-Dubery
Reinhard wrote
I'm afraid to gig a guitar that is South African made. Chances are you get to a gig and it refuses to play unless you string it up with Elixirs and then proceeds to set the stage on fire. Just too risky...
I used to gig a Smoothtalker. I should never have sold that guitar, it was the best gig guitar you could have. People were so busy looking at it and pointing at it and talking about it that you could play like an absolute klutz and nobody would notice. Great for releasing the pressure.
More solid than a Telecaster too. Not that I ever had to, but if you hit somebody with Smoothtalker they're going to stay down.
Warren
Tongue...
Cheek...
?
Norman86
i would hope so..
but i have noticed the attitude of "it can only be usa, all others are inferior".
Reinhard
Norman86 wrote
i would hope so..
but i have noticed the attitude of "it can only be usa, all others are inferior".
Dude, of ALL the ways you could have interpreted my post, THAT is what you got out of it?
Sometimes I feel we all just need to light the f**k up on this forum. All this PC pussyfooting not to hurt someone's "feelings" is ridiculous. And if you don't have a sense of humour it's not my problem either.
Bob-Dubery
OK... let's all remember what the golden rule of this forum is.
If in doubt then see
here. You want even have to read as far as rule 1.
Norman86
not directed on you Reinhard.. There are people on the forum with that attitude though..
thats whats irritating! it has to be a made in usa insturment, or its not good enough to play, or be mutilated.
there is always a call to support the local shops and not buy online..
imo, support the local builders that the local shops dont want to support.
just because its an SA product doesnt make it inferior!
Rant over. possibly..
RJN
different strokes for different folks! 8)
flatfourfan
guidothepimmp wrote
You mean like how made in USA guitars are better than Japanese, Korea, etc.. guitars?
BOOOOYAKASHAAAAAAAAA!
Malkav
Quality isn't country specific, those rasmus guitars and Dingwall Combustion basses are made in China and I have yet to hear of a single negative to be brought up about them - Guitar building though it does take skill isn't rocket science and anyone from any country if they put in the effort could probably make wonderful guitars once they have enough experience.
That being said some of the people who I do know have had less than marvelous luck with locally made guitars, and having tried a few in question I have never been impressed - The guitars in question however were not made by the luthiers who seem to have really good reputations though (Mervyn Davies, Mark Maingard, Murray Kuun etc) I have yet to try any of their work so I cannot comment on it, though having had conversations with some of them and just based on the general perception of their guitars I'm willing to bet they're very good instruments.
That being said, I've never owned a made in USA guitar and so far would not want to as there aren't really many guitars made there that interest me that much. To date the majority of my guitars are Japanese and realistically it'll probably stay that way, they're just very consistent and even when I have compared Japanese made guitars to Americans I've found quite often the Japanese ones have tighter quality control, mainly in the actual finishing. The American guitars in question all played and sounded great but there'd be slight little finish blemishes or stain leaking onto binding, dust caught under the poly, which IMO isn't acceptable given that the less expensive Japanese ones were all flawless.
Manfred-Klose
piece of wood with strings on it, magnet under the strings
thats my kind of guitar ?
i have found Japanese guitars to be very accurate. and love them.
i would always do my best to support local guys, and i am a fool for anything custom.
Keira-WitherKay
In answer to the posts re usa made guitars ,let me say the big names fender / gibson apart from being historic instruments hold resale value
and its not that other eastern made instruments are inferior BUT they just don't hold any resale value .....
And i have found this out personally ,I recently aquired a top end japanese built guitar on paper it looked perfect, but i had serious dissapointment with it , but do you think i could sell it , even when i offered it at a giveaway price .... Advertised it For ages not one call,,,, then i had to trade it at a loss to just get rid of it
so thats why i would never invest any substantial money into a non usa name brand ever again , i been badly burnt and it left a scar.
Malkav
Keira WitherKay wrote
In answer to the posts re usa made guitars ,let me say the big names fender / gibson apart from being historic instruments hold resale value
and its not that other eastern made instruments are inferior BUT they just don't hold any resale value .....
And i have found this out personally ,I recently aquired a top end japanese built guitar on paper it looked perfect, but i had serious dissapointment with it , but do you think i could sell it , even when i offered it at a giveaway price .... Advertised it For ages not one call,,,, then i had to trade it at a loss to just get rid of it
so thats why i would never invest any substantial money into a non usa name brand ever again , i been badly burnt and it left a scar.
I've never seen anything of the sort, if you're selling internationally at least, locally people don't seem to really get it, but older Ibanez guitars like original series Jems and Universes have a huge amount of resale value and are heavily sort after. Maybe in prior years the historic brands like Gibson and Fender held more resale value, but as the market is changing that seems to be filtering down into the Eastern brands as well. In fact things like the RG2077XL which isn't really that old a model (90s) are now very rare and sell for prices equivalent to or greater than they originally retailed at, I have perved over the XL RG series guitars quite often and am always dismayed by the fact that they are slowly going further and further out of my price range ☹
Norman86
i dunno... im not purchasing to sell..
