Considering less than 5% of the worlds population live in the US....
95% don't see this as an issue, sorry.
95% don't see this as an issue, sorry.
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Made in the USA
- Thread starter bulldean
- Start date
Why don't Americans refuse to buy from American companies that export the majority of their jobs? I'm sure Fender and Gibson employ a lot more people under the Squier and Epiphone brands.
Wouldn't it be better if Americans bought from brands that hadn't signed their soul away... Rickenbacker or maybe your local luthier.
Wouldn't it be better if Americans bought from brands that hadn't signed their soul away... Rickenbacker or maybe your local luthier.
First I don't expect anyone who doesn't live in the US to care. But I do live here and I do care.
I buy USA made stuff usually because I live in the US and want to support the local economy. If I didn't live in the US I wouldn't care. Not trying to get political just stating my preferences. I won 3 basses 2 of which are made in the US. I've not purchased certain pieces of gear because of where they are made. Oddly enough, my wife, who is an immigrant to the US is one of the most loyal to US-Made goods people I've ever known. She's actually told me "buy whatever bass you want, but it is it made in USA?"
I asked fender once where an amp was made once. They said Mexico and I said I'd buy it if it were made in the US. I was shocked at the reply of "The people who make the gear in our California factory are very similar to those who work in our Mexico factory." I was shocked. It was never about race/ethnicity for me, but Fender went there when I asked. If I lived in Mexico I'd buy the MIM before the MIA.
We're just waiting for Ric to announce its $300 bass.
To simplistic or naive of a viewpoint. Movement to globalism with free trade is the only logical forward step in progress and growth of any nation. Countries that eschew that and instead promote nationalism with protectionist policies like imposing import tariffs always wither and die. Always.
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For me, anything made before 2000: likely American; anything after, likely import. But since most of what I buy is used, the US economy still benefits.
John Hall will never do that, he fears they will be of better quality that what his Santa Ana plant puts out now (which wouldn’t be that hard to do actually).
No guilt at all. In fact some of my favorite gear from other hobbies and areas of my life are primarily from companies and nations outside of the United States because their products are superior to the U.S. offerings in those niches and markets.
It just kinda happens that the gear I play music with as a bassist comes primarily from companies owned and run within the United States.
It just kinda happens that the gear I play music with as a bassist comes primarily from companies owned and run within the United States.
I understand your point of view and am not arguing against your logic. I will however add that it's not quite as simple as it might seem from the outside. China like in any country has a huge range of quality and cost options available from dirty and dangerous sweatshops to clean and safe factories where workers are treated as good or better than some North American factories. We work with the latter which costs more but means we get a better built bass by people who care about their employees. Add our own labor at this end and you end up with a bass which as you experienced is "expensive" for an import (still inexpensive for a boutique manufacturer though) but feels and performs at a level that you would expect from a North American made bass.
No. I'm Scottish (real Scottish, not Scots-American
) and have lived in Scotland all my life. 'Made in the US' just doesn't translate into better quality over here. it doesn't carry any weight as an adage, culturally, out with guitarists. If anything it carries a whiff of jingoism to it, when repeated so rabidly on guitar and bass forums, which is a bit off-putting. Why cloud your judgement on the best *anything* based on the geographical location of the factory and who it may have been employing?And I don't care for the part time humanitarians who claim to suddenly feel a deep empathy for factory workers in China or Indonesia as a means of justifying their own xenophobia.
My only interest is in gear that works. To get my gear to work I've had to do a lot of work to the gear! This is as true for my US-built Rickenbacker as it is for my Mexican Fender or Korean Dearmond (and the myriad other basses I've owned over time). Production line instruments are always a compromise in quality. Fretwork can always be improved, and electronics can always be upgraded and installed better.
If you want a faultless instrument then pay a luthier to build your bass. They might be in America or they might just be down the road from me here in Scotland. There are Chinese luthiers who hand-build acoustic guitars that are absolutely top class. There are American production-line brands who know they can get away with churning out garbage.
Tell me about some Scottish luthiers
If they have websites, it'd be greatly appreciated if you could share a few.
I don't think it's weird to be a patriot, but I don't find it weird that other people are a little nervous about being patriotic. It's a little too easy to go from loving your own country to: (1) hating someone else's, (2) forgetting the terrible things we've done, (3) hating people who aren't patriotic, etc. I think that's what people are nervous about: that patriotism will run amok. I know that not every patriotic person does this, but it's pretty common these days to find people that go a little too far. I mean, I get nervous when I hear people say *why* they think MIM / MIK instruments aren't as good as MIA ones. Sometimes folks say some pretty xenophobic stuff about Mexicans and Koreans in defense of MIA instruments.
Growing up, a USA Fender was the gold standard we all drooled after. While I have nothing against non-USA basses, and will play whatever works(I own a MIJ), there is still a small part of me that prefers/covets a USA made Fender bass.
Tell me about some Scottish luthiers
Scottish luthiers share a hefty overlap with the folk music world, for obvious reasons. We have lots of guys who will repair and build fiddles or banjos!
ACG guitars are based in Moffat, and make superb custom basses: Invalid Link Removed
Reiver guitars are based down in Moffat as well: Invalid Link Removed
Closer to me here in Edinburgh is Chris McIntyre: Invalid Link Removed
Jimmy Egypt is legendary over in Glasgow: Invalid Link Removed (lots of generic brand instruments, but he/they do build their own).
Rory Dowling makes superb acoustic instruments in Fife: Taran Guitars
Of course I can't skip over the Bond Electraglide; a failed attempt at a mass production modernised guitar in the '80s, with a weird saw-tooth profiled fretboard and built in electronics. Too weird in the '80s, and too weird now: Bond Electraglide - Wikipedia
That said: I don't feel guilty when I buy instruments made elsewhere. I feel guilty when I feel like a Korean or Mexican-made instrument is not as good as an American made one—just because it's American.
For example, my Korean-made, American-assembled Schecter is a really good bass, I feel. But in the back of my head, I just keep thinking, "Should I have just bought something …American? (Because American is better, right?)
It's funny, because I have a stupid bias for Japanese instruments too… "What's better than American? Japanese, of course! （ ❀◕◡◕ฺฺ ）"
For example, my Korean-made, American-assembled Schecter is a really good bass, I feel. But in the back of my head, I just keep thinking, "Should I have just bought something …American? (Because American is better, right?)
It's funny, because I have a stupid bias for Japanese instruments too… "What's better than American? Japanese, of course! （ ❀◕◡◕ฺฺ ）"
Worrying where a few hundred of your hard earned dollars goes in the global economy is much like worrying where a single drop of water flows to in the ocean.
If you think you know where the money is going or the rightness or wrongness of it, you don't. For all you know, you could ultimately be affording a meal for a young Chinese boy who will someday grow up and discover the cure for cancer, or even an American serial killer.
There are far more nobler and effectively realistic principles for you to live your life by. Focus on them.
If you think you know where the money is going or the rightness or wrongness of it, you don't. For all you know, you could ultimately be affording a meal for a young Chinese boy who will someday grow up and discover the cure for cancer, or even an American serial killer.
There are far more nobler and effectively realistic principles for you to live your life by. Focus on them.
That probably accounts for a lot of it. British brands in the '50s and '60s were pretty rough compared to Fender. A red Hank Marvin Strat was the gold standard for guitars in Britain in 1962. So much, in fact, that some brands like Watkins simply made Red Strat-shaped guitars as substitutes. With all the will in the world Watkins weren't building guitars to the same standards as Fender.
Fender's trajectory is probably similar to the rise of rock 'n' roll during the same era, here in the UK. Plus, with the post war trade embargo in place, there would be something desirable about the unobtainable status of real Fender instruments. A Fenton Weil guitar was a poor substitute. Fender was the real thing.
What I find interesting is that Fender basses didn't pack the same punch in Europe in the '60s. Watch old live Beat Club clips from the '60s (when it was a live TV show broadcast from dance halls around Germany) and you see all sorts of Gibson basses alongside other brands; and Fender are just one of the pack. Fender's hegemony in bass land didn't really happen until the early '70s in the UK.
Very cool and thank you for sharing. I was aware of ACG but I hadn't realized they're in Scotland. Otherwise, it appears I have some new websites to drool over.
