Why are American made Guitars better ??

[Stixx]

Sorry guys I forgot the rule about staying on topic, ignorant statements do that to me .

However since it is the Asian Guitar vs American guitar,
I will have to simply go with the ones that speak to me
and in as much as those are the ones built in Nazreth ,
Austin, Hawaii, and California for the moment that kinda
means I wont likely be adding anything anytime soon from
the Pacific rim. Dought seriously any thing to carry them in will be coming to my garage from there either. Got a real crush going on a certain new little guitar mover from
all over the place that has world content, albeit the radio
probably will be Bose. Not sure how much US content that
will have , a lot I hope. I will admit though that a certain
builder of fiddles from that nether region is making some
mighty fine carved top jazz boxes that are pretty darn cool
for the money. So I guess I should never say never.

Muscle Guitars Rule....................LOL

[SamJ]

American made guitars have more "Mojo"..

Plus I like paying American workers the markup, rather than American CEO's and Chinese slaves!

[romo]

It seems to me that American luthiers really do a good job at quality control, and they make sure that every instrument that leaves the factory is up to their standards. My uncle toured the Gibson factory and said he was extremely impressed by all the attention to detail that the workers put into the guitars and how everything was tested and double checked to be sure it was made correctly and sounded like a Gibson should. An old guitar teacher of mine said similar things about the Martin factory.

I would like to think that foreign manufacturers treat their work in the same way but I can't be sure, especially knowing the stories about manufacturing practices of other countries. I can't go to Mexico or the far east and tour the factory and see just exactly what every piece of wood is put through until it ends up as a guitar. I can't know for sure the the best tome woods are used. I can do that here in America, and I trust the American guitar manufacturers to build quality instruments and not to let imperfections get through.

Its not really fair to compare guitars to the auto industry. American auto makers got greedy and cut back on quality in favor of a little more profit. I don't believe that the big American luthiers like Gibson, Fender, Martin, Taylor have done that.

Like many have already stated, there are foreign luthiers who are just as dedicated to producing high quality instruments as people like Bob Taylor, but their instruments are not very widely available or known in the US. I have played some Canadian guitars that I thought were really nice (the name is escaping me right now) and they were all in the $300- $600 price range and I may consider buying one in the future if I am in the need for a good sounding inexensive guitar. But for now I am going to stick with American made because companies like Taylor and Gibson have not let me down in the past and I trust them to continue to produce high quality guitars.

[smorgdonkey]

Originally Posted by Stixx

funny I don't recall the Acura NSX even showing up at LeManns never mind winning against a
corvette. What trumped up bogus race was that one.??
LOL

First of all...it wasn't a race it was a track test.
Secondly...just because the NSX wasn't there doesn't mean that it wouldn't have cleaned up if it had been.
Remember that there were YEARS that Michelin tires weren't on the racetracks? Well that wasn't because they weren't good enough...when they were on racetracks prior to their hiatus nearly ALL of the winning cars were wearing them. Michelin decided to stop supplying race teams with the tires as it was just EXPENSIVE advertising. I believe they re-entered racing to some degree but I don't follow it now so I can't elaborate.

*EDIT* Oh yes...and I've been to Race City here in Calgary and I've seen cars under $15,000.00 absolutely smoke Corvettes in the 1/4 mile.

[Brett Valentine]

I think another aspect I didn't see mentioned is immigration from around the turn of the century. You have the D"Angelicos and D'Aquistos and others who came and built obscure but amazing instruments (like some of the harps guitars) not to mention some amazing repairmen who immigrated as well. There is a strong Italian tradition that extends back to builders like Amati and Stradivari and the apprenticeship tradition.

Here, you have Gibson and Martin first building on European designs and then develoiping over time and establishing strong tonal and manufacturing identies.

I think those "unbroken lines" of craftsmanship mean something significant, plus the mistique of some of the players, plus America's growth through the 50's and greater world exposure. I think it made more of a di9fference when things were done more by hand,eye, and ear rather than by CNC.

Brett

[Stixx]

You make a good point on immagration , of course almost
everyone is an immagrant in American if you go back only
a hundred or so years.

Which brings me to CF Martin. He wanted to build guitars.
It was his passion. The Fiddle makers in his homeland told
him he should build fiddles and not bother with the vulgar
guitar as there was just no future in it. LOL Ain't that a hoot. As Americans prmier manufacturer of Guitars and with a history unparallelled in the industrial revolution
short of Henry Ford, I think it is just way cool that you can
still get Martin to build you a guitar just the way they did
before Wold War II. The call it the authentic and some
scoff at it but whether you like it or not it is compelling
to know that some things are still the way they were in the
so called good old days.

I was once a scoffer of Martins and didn't "get '' them.

Now I have a few examples of what I consider ther best
work and there a many more I'd love to own if I were a
collector or had more room to keep them.

And some would argue that Bill Collings is doing his best
to improve the breed and in a few cases has done well.

Gibson has been the biggest dissapointment as the new
folks seem bent on mass producing less than stellar products and going full on modern marketing to a mass
distribution system which guitars IMO were never designed
to do . Still you can still get a decent J 45 if you look hard
enough and if a few rough edges in side the box don't bother you you can still capture the ''Gibson'' tone which
is so endearing to those of us from the old school.

Then there is Taylor who makes really pretty guitars and
great strummers for the worship market. The new R Taylor
guitar I played recently was really nice in understated elegance.

The Guitar company that I think bears mention of late is
from Asia , I believe and that is Eastman. With elegant simple styling over hand carved tops from Asian fiddle makers these jazz box entre's give a real valuse to those
of the archtop ilk. Do they compare with a 17,000 dollar
Bill Collings arch top. Well I dunno, I do know they beat
the heck out of most jazz box guitars I've played anywhere
near the pricepoint but there is so much tradition steeped
in jazz box guitars that they may well be a while getting a
foothold in this limited market. I would have to admit though if I were going to buy a jazz box new, I'd jump all
over and Eastman. All solid hand carved great looks and
all under , well can't say that. You know what i mean. LOL

[markwayne]

I think the root of this idea comes from the fact that if you are playing music originaly created in America, then insturments built here were probably involved at the inception and will, therefore, always have a bit of a leg up for authenticity. You can play bluegrass on an Asian guitar but a Martin is going to always be more authentic.

I also agree that because there are so very few things made in this country anymore, that I'm more than happy to purchase quality American makes such as Martin.

>How many US made cars do I see in a week?
>
>none.

I see tons of them: every single Honda Accord you see was built here (in Maryville, Ohio). They don't sell the US Accord anywhere else. Every Acura TL was built here (same plant). I'm sure that there are many more makes but these are the only ones I own and can, therefore, state were American built. I believe it's the US makes that tend to be built overseas these days.

Wayne

[mishmannah]

Originally Posted by martinedwards

The North half of this Island of Ireland has 4 guitar makers of any volume.

George Lowden
Dermot McIlroy
Avalon
Emerald

I DARE anyone to say that Lowden & Emerald aren't inovative!!!

Amen to that.

[Stixx]

Loudin's are a rarety in these parts but one dealer is getting a few in now. The Avalon's seemed a good value
when they came out , espcially the ones made in Ireland.

The Loudin's would do better for me if they had a higher
finish on them which translates to lower maintenance and
I had to change a bunch of strings at a Martin clinic once
and it made the one bad thing about the bridge design
acutely aware to me , Getting stuck strings of those and
the Atlas Breedloves really slowed me down. That is small
stuff though and the tone of tose beefy woody sounding
guitars is really something.

I never could decide what to do with the tone for my style
i found a bit overbearing . Perhaps someone with a much
lighter touch fingerstyle would make good use of so much
power. If I had room for a few more though i wouldn't be
surprised if one was to come home to live here as they are
very interesting guitars. Especially the Loudin'.

First thing I'd do though is put some bridge pins in it. LOL

[Jim Bo]

Originally Posted by playataylor

HAhahah too funny.... It's a guitar to play while you are taking a bath and the humidity penetrates the wood, then it sounds fantastic; they did not tell you that..

creative. The strings can be used to hang everything from toothbrushes to fingernail clippers. What a great idea!

[mario1956]

Yeah, Mark, I know what you mean. I have a Mazda 6 that was made in Michigan, and my daughter's Pontiac was built in Mexico. How about that???

[Antonio Salieri]

I won't pretend to know about all of the mass produced imported acoustic guitars, but many of the electric guitars being produced in Korea (and China more and more) are of outstanding quality. It is interesting to note that Fender, G&L, Gibson, etc., are sending their USA pups & hardware overseas to be installed on the import guitars.

I look at the quality/cost equation, but I do wonder about the pay and working conditions of the foreign workers. I have read that skilled workers in Korea are well-paid, but I haven't done the research to confirm or refute that statement.

If I were a righthanded player my electrics would likely be Peavey USA (underrated & undervalued) & Godin (manufactored in Canada & assembled in the USA).

[Jim]

In theory one could make a top quality guitar anywhere, but I have never understood why the Asian manufacturers have rarely ever tried to go beyond student models. For example, how many Asian acoustics do you see that are made with all solid traditional tonewoods? 99.9% of them are built with plywood backs and sides. How many Asian guitars use alternative woods such as nato and others that I can't even pronounce to increase the profit margins? If you scrape the paint or top veneer off a Japanese Fender knockoff, how many sticks of wood are under there that were glued up to make the body? I think Asian guitars are fine for what they are - cost effective choices for a person who is not in a position to spend much money or who prefers not to for some reason, but they are simply not in the same class in terms of being fine musical instruments as the better US made ones plus a few other makers in places like Canada and Ireland. Sure this could change in the future, but so far I have seen no indication of it happening.

Perhaps one reason is the kind of music that is played on most acoustic and electric guitars. It is music that is dominated by cultures and players from America, Canada, the UK, and a handful of other European countries. Sure there are players from every country in the world, but how many Chinese rock or folk or blues (etc) bands make it big in the world in these kinds of music? How many French, or Kenyan, or Pakistani, or Bolivian, or Serbian, or whatever countries are making it big in this kind of guitar centered music outside of their own countries? I don't get that either but it is true.

[sirflyguy2000]

Originally Posted by Rick Turner

Probably because the whole point of import guitars has been to make them cheaply. Thus the cheapness is built into the very design, and it's fairly obvious. The edges on the metal parts are cruder, the plating isn't as good, the finishes are thicker, the wood is boring, the interior work is sloppier, the woods are all substitutes, etc.

In fact there are some extremely wonderful "import" guitars from Europe and Asia. The Kiso and Kohno guitars from Japan. Various luthier guitars from Europe. The Lowden and Avalons from Ireland. And you know what? They're not cheap or inexpensive. You can buy near equivalent guitars made in North America for similar prices.

And you know what else? US-made guitars just have a better resale value than guitars made just about anywhere else in the world except perhaps those made by the top builders in Spain, Germany, or England. It's all about perceived value.

Perfect answer, Rick.

[Folkstrum]

Well, as for "Asian" guitars, you need only look as far as Blueridge, Johnson, Guild GAD's, Carvin, Breedlove, etc. These are so well-beyond "student models" they are blowing away many an American builder.

You must be living in a cave not to have seen the rise of these instruments to near equality with their U.S. counterparts. And it's not all "hype." Japanese guitars have established a well-respected niche in the market. Now it's the Chinese imports finding their way into respected bluegrass bands and individual owners. Just visit a few guitar forums, or check in at the UBRF, or elsewhere. You're living in the past.