Hi Riis... Been way too long since the last time we chat. I hope you're doing fine.
I haven't read all the comments/replies on this thread, I'm just gonna give an opinion based on my experience. I worked a a Manager for 3+ years in a Musical Instruments factory in Indonesia, we made Guitars, Basses, Amps, PA Speakers. I supervise everything from design to the manufacturing process, and since I quit that job, I opened my own business in selling Instruments, esp. Basses and their accessories, and believe it or not, I have only one Indonesian made Bass I have been selling for the last 4 years or so, and that is the Sire Basses, been selling them since their 'Gen 1' model. So, here is a few things I can say about Indonesian made instruments, especially Basses:
-Like others have said, in the end it all depends on the price point, the more expensive, the better the build, parts, woods, quality control, etc. This is no different than any other mass produce instruments made anywhere in the world.
-Here, we have limited resources for wood, hardware, pickups, and even things like frets, strings, and the smallest parts like pickguard screws, we still have to Import them, mostly from Korea or China, woods like maple, ash or alder are from north America or Europe, we have local Mahogany and Rosewood but the quality is sometimes questionable. How about Ebony, you wonder? Our Maccassar Ebony is exclusively for Export, so we have to buy them back from outside of Indonesia, a pretty sad fact. So for the woods and parts, it's mostly not made/sourced locally. The factories here just make the Guitar/Basses itself. So the parts, woods of Instruments made in Korea, China, even Mexico (my Korean parts supplier was supplying for Fender Mexico) made instruments are the same as Indonesian ones.
-Big factories like Cort, Sire, Yamaha, Ibanez, etc uses CNC Machine, you can search on youtube for the PRS SE Factory tour, that is in Indonesia. Almost every process are done by automated machines, that's pretty much how everybody do it these days.
-For the human part of the process I can say that we are better than China, but not as good as Korea who has more experience in the business. Perhaps not speed-wise better than China, but the people who does the work like Fret dressing, Neck Joint, Sanding, Final QC and setup are more talented and has better understanding of what the instruments are made for.
So with all that being the factor of a good/bad Instrument, like any other mass produced Bass and Guitars, the variations of quality within a batch can be quite broad, you cannot say they are all good or all bad by only playing one Bass, even the Korean and Chinese made MTD Kingstons have this variation, I know because I sell them, I also sell the US made MTDs which never fails.
The variations in quality become smaller as the price increases, even within the same brand, more expensive models are more consistent in build quality, feel and sound. I think this goes not only for overseas made Instruments, even US made Fenders has this issue. Specifically for Basses, I'm a fan of two Indonesian made brands that for me is the most consistent compare to the others, they are Sire and Lakland, no surprise about the Lakland though, as they are not cheap compare to the others.
All that being said, if you wanna get 'value for money' I suggest you try them in person, even two Basses with the exact same color, etc can be very different in feel and sound, and you can find a $500 Bass that plays and sounds as good if not better than a $1000 Bass, but they are unlikely to be better than a $2000 Bass, and you certainly can't expect much from a below $400 Bass (new price) these days IME, regardless of the brand and made, though you might be really2x lucky. Yes, I'm one of those guys that believe there is an 'X' factor in an instrument.
And I just realize I haven't been active in this forum for a whileHave a great day guys!
Thank you for the insight and candor!
Riis
