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Made in America???

Where was your (main) bass made?

  • Total voters
    441
#103
i do my best to buy EVERYTHING possible made in the US, for a few reasons. that said, my main bass was made in europe, mainly because i can't get the warwick sound out of anything domestic. my other two basses are made in asia, one is for travel (steinberger) and i didn't have the $ at the time for a tacoma (olympia).
 
#105
All three of my Wilkins basses were made in the U.S.A. and that includes the hardware, strings and pickups. I love these basses....a lot. I always try to buy American made if at all possible.


George
 
#106
Pedulla - USA
Lightwave Sabre - USA
Ibanez - Korea
Yamaha DX7 - Japan

Regardless, I used to go to great lengths to buy American-made. Some American products are reasonably priced, do well and hold up well, others do not.

What I see is America making stupid decisions, wealth often breeds complacency, laziness, and greedy decisions. I don't care as much any more if I buy an American product vs. a foreign one, just give me a reasonably priced product of above average quality. May the smartest manufacturer win, and the consumer win. May the lazy greedy manufacturer slowly fade away.

My Pedulla (made in USA) is quite expensive, and it is a pinnacle of quality and worth the price of admission. Same can be said of the (made in Japan) DX7. The other two have manufacturing problems of which I am trying to sort out...
 
#109
I'll take what I can get.
As it stands, my main player is made in Japan, and I also have a bass that was made in England and another that was made in the U.S.

Now when it comes to my whiskey, it has to be made in America, particularly Kentucky.
 
#110
In my experience MIJs are better than MIAs, but thats just the ones I've played. I have no allegience to a country, but I do have allegience to companies that provide good service, eg Nordstrand, Cliff Bordwell, Audere, HG Thor - they're all American and are all a pleasure to deal with.

Davo
 
#111
Most of my basses are American made (6 of my main 7 basses anyways) and I prefer American made basses. Most of my basses are fairly new though, too.

I am not being patriotic (I am Canadian) but a made in America bass has always denoted highest quality to me. Maybe because when I started playing bass 25 years ago, most professional quality basses (Fender, RIC, Musicman, Gibson, Alembec, Pedulla, etc.) were ONLY made in the USA. Far east (including Japan) made guitars were GENERALLY crap back in the '80's. There were exceptions such as Japanese Squiers, but for the most part far east built basses were not much good in general. Spector, Warwick and other European makers were just starting to make names for themselves also, but not really on the radar back then.

Now? IMO Japanese, European and even Canadian manufacturers can and often do make better basses than those made in the US.

My Japanese Sadowsky MS5 is built AS good as my Sadowsky NYC or 3 recent EBMM Stingrays. Same with my Japanese Geddy Lee Jazz and Indonesian Squier VM fretless Jazz. Amazing build quality on both.

To answer the initial question... I PREFER American made as I love EBMM, Fender and Sadowsky basses. Would I buy an expensive Japanese, Chinese, Korean or European instrument? If it looked, played and sounded good.... absolutely. I have owned a Warwick and a Korean made Lakland that were both great basses.

I agree that the CNC machines and general technological advancements we have seen in recent years are really taking the human aspect (or at least inconsistancies bases on human error or lack of training/skill) out of the equation (which can be a good thing).
 
#112
I marked USA, but in reality, the basses that I have favored over the past 5 years have come from all over
USA: T-40, Carvin LB75f
Korea: Lak 55-01
Mexico: Standard Precision

If I had the $ however, I would choose USA every time. I prefer to support USA business, and I don't have any Bass needs that couldn't be met at Lakland, Fender, Rickenbacker or any of the other great USA manufacturers.
 
#115
One of my basses is made in the USA. Both amps are made in the USA. My other bass was made in Germany. For some reason, it just seems like basses, guitars and amps should be made in the USA or England. My only logic is that Rock and Roll was a joint creation of musicians from both countries. I know good equipment in made in Mexico and the East, but somehow it just doesn't have the authentic mojo to it. I also think American quality is now better than it ever was and as good or better than most other countries. That opinion is just based upon my experiences, I'm not a buy American diehard by any means. I remember when MIJ meant junk, then MIJ was desired over MIA products.
 

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