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Chinese Made Gutars?

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#81
Spirit of Ox said:
I can't say enough good things about the Chinese Fender Modern Player line. I own the Jaguar bass and it's absolutely fantastic in every way. The neck is near flawless with one tiny high spot on the 13th fret, everything else perfect. The pickups are pretty decent too. If you want a cheap bass, these are the way to go.
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+1
I love my MIC Fender Tele Modern Player. With the exception of a loose output jack (just needed to tighten the nut) it was nearly perfect right out of the box. A little setup and now she's one of my favorite Fenders. Had her for a couple of years with absolutely no issues and everyone who sees and hears it loves the look and sound. If you haven't looked into a MIC Fender Modern Player you really should. Might be the best bang for the buck in the Fender line up.
 
#87
P bass guy said:
Stating the obvious here, but there are two different conversations going on in this thread.

Chinese / over seas manufacture by legitamte companies that choose move manufacturing overseas to cut costs.

Counterfit / knock off products being illegally produced and sold in the US.

One of those things is just fine by me and one is not.
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I agree!

And to take this a step further, Fender didn't actually move their manufacturing overseas. They created more manufacturing over seas in China and Indonesia. To the best of my knowledge they didn't close down their MIA production capability and move it to China. So I'm not sure why all the vilification of Fender all the sudden. Seems to me from a global perspective, Fender opening up shop in China and other countries is potentially helping to raise the household income levels in those countries and potentially offering opportunities for other economies and job markets to prosper while allowing workers to develop expert level skills in new areas.

Now obviously that wouldn't be as true if Fender was in fact contracting with sweat shops, forced labor or child labor. However, I haven't seen any reports that indicate anything like that is happening at the Fender factories. Has anyone else casting stones at Fender seen any reports of overseas labor wrongdoing? If so, let me know and I'll cast stones too.
 
#88
IrishRifles said:
A curious thing I recently was told about by another member.
Does anyone know what the deal is with these Chinese made guitars, some I see are what look to be knock-offs of American brand name guitars?
I see they are sold through outlets like Allibaba.com.
icon_shrug.gif
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It all depends on who the manufacturer is. MTD now has stuff made in China and it is just as good as the stuff that was coming out of Korea and Indonesia.. If the parent company has good QC then it should not matter. If it is some fly by night brand or an obvious knock off then buy at your own risk.
 
#92
48thStreetCustom said:
What are everyone's feelings on buying a used Chinese (non-counterfeit) bass? Seems like the damage is already done at that point.
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To each their own, but I don't have any issues with any bass new or used made in any shop anywhere in the world as long as its not counterfeit, doesn't involve slave/forced/child labor and at least attempts to be reasonably environmentally responsible. To the best of my knowledge, Fender operations in China meet those standards.
 
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#93
I've got no problem with buying goods made elsewhere. Like others have said, we each have different priorities when voting with our dollars. Today Americans as a political body seem to have no problem demanding high shares of businesses revenues for a variety of reasons, and corporations respond to this by seeking lower costs wherever they can. This is a rational act, just as my seeking high quality at low cost in my bass gear purchasing is a rational act.

At some point the loss of good jobs and expertise will achieve a critical mass and the economy will really suffer in a way we've yet to see and the real standard of living will fall. Hopefully at that point Americans will demand reductions in the regulatory and tax burden we all pay for, but I have my doubts. On a personal level I would of course like the US to adopt sustainable tax policy sooner rather than in the face of a crisis, but hey, that's just me. In the mean time I will spend my money with the company that provides the best value for me and hope that doing so hastens the day when reason once again prevails here.

By the way, counterfeiters should be hunted down and utterly destroyed, IMHO.
 
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#96
drummer5359 said:
If you want to live in a country with an economy that is based on manufacturing, you need to buy products made in your country. It's pretty simple to me.
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That's true enough. Liberty is a scruffy thing, however, and people will do what they do. A company like Fender can't depend on noble sentiment for survival, and IMHO it's not reasonable for us to expect them to. (Drummer5359, I'm not suggesting that you are saying that, I'm just musing.)
 
#100
P bass guy said:
Stating the obvious here, but there are two different conversations going on in this thread.

Chinese / over seas manufacture by legitamte companies that choose move manufacturing overseas to cut costs.

Counterfit / knock off products being illegally produced and sold in the US.

One of those things is just fine by me and one is not.
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This. To be sure, alibaba and ebay are loaded with knockoff crap. There are also Chinese factories that are very well-run, do good work, and produce an excellent product. I used to work at an oriental rug shop where the owner kept very close oversight of his production; he actually set up workshops in Pakistan and made regular inspection trips out there. Knew his stuff backwards and forwards; and some of the inventory came from China. They did good work. It's simply false that Made In China = cheap crap, or environmentally irresponsible, or abusive or workers, or any of the other generalizations that are made here. Just plain not true. Now, there IS less regulation, and many companies where those things ARE true - but that doesn't make it true of everything.

There's a lot of "Yellow scare" over the Chinese economy, all of which sounds a lot like the edition we had in the 80s over the Japanese economy. Back then, the Japanese were going to take over the world, their economy was growing so fast. And you heard all the same stuff about Japanese products supposedly being cheap crap. What actually happened? The fast-growing, developing economy matured and leveled off. The Japanese now enjoy a high standard of living and there are very big, powerful Japanese corporations in the world like Toyota and Sony; but their economy has stagnated and isn't going anywhere fast any more. China has been growing fast because it's a new, developing entry into the capitalist world. Chinese corporations doubtless will become big and remain major players for a long time. But the signs are already there; wages are rising, real estate is having all kinds of issues, there are public finance and credit/banking problems, all signs that the rapid growth won't go on forever. Companies are not shifting jobs there at the rate they did in the 90s because you don't save so much any more. And as the Chinese have a growing prosperous middle class, they're going to have to start dealing with things like working and environmental conditions.
 
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