end of an era... jackson/charvel japan closed

guidothepimmp

From the folks over at the Jackson charvel forum (jcfonline ), it appears the chushin gakki factory where some legendary superstrat guitars were made, is no more... sad sad day. As an avid fan, its a damn shame that these quality guitars will not come out of the Japanese factory anymore

Looks like India and China.

That leaves esp, caparison and ibanez

☹

AlanRatcliffe

guidothepimmp wrote: Looks like India and China.

And the US of course...

That leaves esp, caparison and ibanez

Sorry - http://www.guitarforum.co.za/general-discussion/esp-standard-series-being-dropped/

But don't forget Vigier, Suhr, Pensa, et. al. ?

singemonkey

Fujigen, Tokai, and Dyna-gakki, at least, still going strong.

But yes. It is a bit sad.

Tokai-SA

guidothepimmp wrote:

That leaves esp, caparison and ibanez

☹

I just plunged my Samurai sword into my guts...this is my last post here.

さようなら

?

Ghost93

What the hell is going on with the Japanese guitar companies?

peterleroux

Ghost93 wrote: What the hell is going on with the Japanese guitar companies?

Same thing that's happening to everyone else - they're not competitive with
a) established brands who've realised they need to up their game (i.e. Fender offering superstrats)
b) increasingly good guitars out of Korea, India, Indonesia and now China for much less (although Korean guitars aren't all that cheap anymore)

vic

Ghost93 wrote: What the hell is going on with the Japanese guitar companies?

Maybe the Japanese themselves are buying more and more US-made guitars ? but it could also be (more likely ) that the Charvel-style has fallen out of favour....?

singemonkey

Vic wrote:
Ghost93 wrote: What the hell is going on with the Japanese guitar companies?
Maybe the Japanese themselves are buying more and more US-made guitars ? but it could also be (more likely ) that the Charvel-style has fallen out of favour....?

Japan has always bought tons of US guitars. I don't think the Japanese economy has changed so radically that they're suddenly ignoring domestic products. More likely cost vs. price of producing in Japan. When overseas production reaches comparable levels of quality, some production will head that way. US companies do this too, only they maintain flagship production domestically - as do ESP, Tokai, Deviser (their Momose, Bacchus, and Headway brands), and Ibanez.

AlanRatcliffe

Yeah - the Japanese are the biggest collectors of US instruments.

The Japanese guitars are in a difficult position. They cannot compete with the lower cost manufacturers as the Japanese economy/Yen is fairly strong, they do not have cheap labour and manufacturing/warehouse space is at a premium. That's why the biggest Japanese manufacturers like Yamaha manufacture very little in Japan.

On the other end of the market, they are competing against the iconic US brands (and in the case of Fender/Jackson against their own US-made guitars), which have a long heritage and are well entrenched. Particularly in the US itself as, by the time import duties are added, they approach the same price range as the US-made instruments, so they lose the price advantage that would otherwise allow them to market their top quality instruments effectively to the middle price brackets.

And lets be honest... even in a country like ours where the US and the Japanese guitars are all taxed the same, who wins out? The more expensive US models? Or the similar quality but much less expensive instruments from Japan?

Other than Ibanez and Yamaha (both of whom grew large enough during the Japanese boom to become iconic brands themselves), the only time the Japanese manufacturers do well is when the US manufacturers drop the ball. In fact, Ibanez and Yamaha wouldn't be where they are today if the US manufacturers hadn't faltered long enough for them to take full advantage.

Tokai-SA

Out of interests sake, think about this.

April 2010:
12.64 JYen = R1.00

July 2012:
9.21 JYen = R1.00
November 2012:
8.96 JYen = R1.00

Between April 2010 and November 2012 the JYen strengthened by 30% against the Rand....that killed Japanese exports.

Imagine the Rand improved by 30% against foreign currencies, let's say it went to R6.3 to the USD.
Our gold, diamond and steel exports would collapse, our mines would shut down, and a large percentage of our companies that rely on exporting would shut down.

It's no surprise a company like Jackson/Charvel shut down...they couldn't survive the period when the JYen was so strong, and they relied on exporting their guitars to the USA.
Tokai doesn't rely on exporting, it never has, it hasn't exported a guitar to the USA since 1980...it's learnt to survive without relying on the USA.
Ibanez survives because 90% of it's guitars aren't made in Japan any more.

Luckily for the Japanese the Yen has cooled off, it's now at 11.10, lucky for me as well, I just paid for a shipment today. ?

Charlie4

peterleroux wrote:
Ghost93 wrote: What the hell is going on with the Japanese guitar companies?
Same thing that's happening to everyone else - they're not competitive with
a) established brands who've realised they need to up their game (i.e. Fender offering superstrats)
b) increasingly good guitars out of Korea, India, Indonesia and now China for much less (although Korean guitars aren't all that cheap anymore)

Are the guitars from the countries mentioned really in the same league as the Japanese ones?
Have no idea that's why I'm asking.
Could it be that they don't market their guitars as strongly as the Americans do?
Needless to say, Fender covers everything these days if you look at all their brands etc. so no surprise there.

Capitalism, though the best imo, is often a double-edged sword.