Quote:
Originally Posted by letterk
...Made in USA usually carries a premium in price that isn't necessarily reflected in the quality of the instrument...
|
Pretty much sums up my feelings - Japanese instruments hit their stride in the mid-70's "lawsuit" era and never looked back, with the Koreans catching the wave by the late-90's; IME Chinese/Indonesian instruments can be iffy - while Eastman has become a force to contend with in the bread-&-butter pro-level market (and if you want a modern Benedetto-style archtop that won't cost you an arm, a leg, and a couple other vital appendages
, they're the only game in town) IME the other Chinese firms, as well as the bulk of the Indonesian product, are 5-8 years away from matching their standard of quality. Quite frankly, I'm far less impressed with American instruments as a whole than I used to be (with some notable exceptions in the lower end - Martin 15-Series, Gibson J-15/LP Tribute, Taylor koa GS Mini-e,
et al. - that represent excellent value-per-dollar) - while the USA marques have the name recognition, there's no longer a compelling need to spend massive amounts of money to obtain high-quality, fully-professional instruments...