Made in the USA

[Chad Michael]

…...(UK produced the best speakers IMO).

I can't argue there - love them!!!!

 

[iammr2]

I do get a sense of pride when buying American goods. I should hope anyone would get at least a small sense of pride buying something made in his/her home country.

But, as for music gear, it just so happens that the kind of gear we hot-headed Americans build tends to be my favorite. But not out of a sense of patriotism by itself.

I own a Canadian assembled Hammersmith made from part from all over. I own a parts P bass with mostly USA made parts. I own a MIJ P bass, an American P bass, and an American made LeCompte. I have a USA Ampeg rig, Mesa rig, several cabs, and a Fender PA100. I also have a British made Asdown LB30. I own mostly USA made pedals and have a MIJ one on the way.

So it runs the gamut.

I do find it frustrating that very few cowboy boots are made in the USA. That doesn't make any sense. I had to search for a while to find USA made 11 wide square toe boots. (Double H brand)

I think patriotism is noble. It doesn't mean you hate anyone. It just means that your own country holds a special place in your heart. It holds your loyalty. It holds more reverence for you than any other country. The fact that so many find that weird today is, in and of itself, weird.

I truly hope you love your country, whatever country that is, half as much as I do mine.

Pride in France shouldn't make you a weird Frenchman. Pride in Argentina shouldn't make you a weird Argentinian.

I don't have a problem with a global economy (other than China ripping off EVERY country, not just ours). But I do love knowing that factory workers in my country get paid when I buy socks, tools, gear, etc. I'm able to buy stuff from elsewhere though.

Well said, two fingers.

 

[diegom]

No. Last year I sold a MIA Gibson Thunderbird and purchased an Indonesian made Epiphone Thunderbird Vintage PRO. The Epiphone was superior the the Gibson in every way.

I have heard that from MANY T-bird fans! Epiphone seems to be the Bird to get...

 

[smogg]

Technically my entire rig is "made in the USA" Bass is from Mississippi; cab is from Arizona, amp is from California. However considering one or more component of each piece of gear was sourced from different places around the world they might as well just say "designed and assembled in the USA" As long as the product(s) meet my wants/needs no real concerns about product origins.

 

[goldenglory18]

As a young musician, I was pressured into thinking that MI(other than A) basses and equipment was amateur and that only MIA was "professional." I know better than that now, but even with age and wisdom on my side, I still lean towards MIA over anything.

Call it a learned bias, but I've never been able to get away from it...

 

[user362432]

We have many TB members NOT from the US and this is a global site so the question is not applicable to all the way it's worded. Perhaps "home country" is a better terminology.
I think you have to look at it in this way, sure it's great to buy basses from your country if it's of good quality and reasonable cost but I think a bigger issue is we need to get affordable quality instruments into the hands of our musicians and also to encourage our youth to get into music. Give them crappy instruments to make it affordable and you'll have a lot of kids giving up music.

You said "home country". I am afraid, my bass would be something like this:

 

[Rip Van Dan]

Do you ever feel any pangs of guilt when you buy a bass (or amp) that was not made in the United States?

Uh....NO. Both Jazz Basses that I've owned were made in the USA (1965 and 1982). My amp is an old Eden WT500 that was upped to 800 watts bridged and was not only made in the USA, it was David's amp on his test bench that he used to design some of his Eden cabs. Then my DNS-410 cab from DNA is also made in the USA, so no problems there.

I'm not really so concerned about where it's manufactured any more. I am more concerned about the quality of the item and the price. You can get great stuff made in China and you can also get crap made there. It's a matter of finding the right factory and then keeping close tabs on their production to maintain the quality. Eden had all their Nemesis amps made in China since their inception and they were extremely well made.

The two Eden EX112-4 cabs that I recently purchased are made in China as is my older Eden Nemesis RS400. The RS400 is every bit the tank (really solidly built) that my WT500/800 is, and has been trouble free for the last 11-years. The two 112's are great little cabs that have far better sound than I expected with the much lower priced E-series of Eden cabs. The D series cabs, now that Marshall has pulled them in-house to Marshall's cab factory in the UK, went up in price again and are about 3 times as expensive as the EX cabs. Yes the D112XST does sound a bit better than the E-series, but not 2 times, let alone 3 times better.

After David sold Eden to USM, they moved manufacturing from Minnesota to Illinois. Things went fine there for a while and then a lot of Eden stuff got out to the market that should never have been shipped. They couldn't seem to get their act together in their new digs. They'd had their Nemesis amps manufactured at that Chinese factory for years and they never had a problem with them. So they decided to start assembling their top-of-the-line WT amps at the same factory in China, and that cured their quality problem. Everything was done right again. So if you buy a used Eden amp and it says "made in China" on it, that's actually a very good thing.

So I don't worry so much about where it's made anymore as much as I worry about how well it's made.

 

[madbass6]

Ask me after you check the labels on your clothes, shoes, appliances, tv...why would basses or amps be different?

Beet me to it!
and don't forget cars !

 

[rtav]

No.

 

[logdrum]

I mostly buy used.I did not intend to but lot of my gear is USA made thenJapan and Canada (Godin). Amps are all US (Even my SVT was SLM era). I had bought stuff made in Mexico, Korea, Indonesia and China. I sold them because they did not sound good to me, not because I though the country of manufacture is not good and those sales were not different from the no MIA, MIC, MIJ ones. The made in Indonesia G&L was the best quality I thought almost rivaling their US counterparts. I found a good deal on a US G&L, so sold the Indonesian made one but should have kept it.

 

[Wood and Wire]

Made in America

Sold in Europe

Corporation tax hidden in Costa Rica

 

[user362432]

Back in 70's if you sell crap on stick and say It's Made in USA lollipop, you will sell it! A lot.
I was smuggling Lee and Levi's jeans from Italy to Hungary back then for several weeks (until become dangerous passing the borders). And you know how much Italians love USA labels! They printed it out in the basements of Ponte Rosso. Talking about copyright laws.... Did Hungarians care if it was genuine USA product? Not a bit.
It says: Made in USA. End of story.
I did pass my MIA fever by overpaying for Rickenbacker and finding out it was just a unplayable piece of wood on the cover of Made in Europe album, holding it in the hands of Glen Hughes...Who still buys Made in England their clothes?
I left playing bass for 20 years and never assumed I would be holding in my hands anything with 4, God forbid 5 strings, when my wife decided to surprise me with a cheap birthday present from Ebay. She knew nothing about bass guitars, except, this was $99 red guitar. It happened to be Yamaha BB300, decently good P rework. And it did started from there.
I am not professional musician, I don't need to flash anyone with my shiny piece of wood.
I buy it cheap to research the sound capabilities and enjoy options. I will never buy MIA Fender, even everyone said: Hey, you have to have, at least, one MIA Fender. (Back in a day, you would be lucky to get decent Fender, out of California, every single one was different, and every single one did not sound like "The One" on the record...)
All other expensive instruments, I don't need it! My Squier VM P from Indonesia sounds better than Fender P bass on which was recorded Brick House. I had that one in my hands! Some people would give 1/2 of the skin from their back to have that P. I don't. This Squier feels better and sounds and plays better than "that black Fender P"
When it comes to amplifiers, I still did not grow up. I have nice collection of old Acoustic amps and cabs and I consider it as Holly Grail for amplifiers. I've got a few modern amps. But, when playing testing and researching sound, I always go back and turn that Made in USA Acoustic as reference sound. Yes it's buzzing and hissing. I don't care. Even better, as my (now deceased) best buddy, guitar player said: When you hear that hissing sound on standby, that's where power comes from. It is the sound of the breathing POWER...

 

[Mugre]

Which do you all think is better?

American company built in china/abroad (eg Apple),

Or foreign company but built in the US (eg the Toyota factory example)?

I had Georgia made toyota sequoia. I won't say it was a disaster but I was dissatisfied enough that it pushed me back to Honda. In that time I read an article in Consumer Reports that all the Toyotas made in America scored lower in customer satisfaction than the ones MIJ.

I bought 6 pairs of Thorlo socks. MIA. They were almost 9.00 dollars each pair. Most of them started unraveling before a year was up. I get better life out of the 6 pairs for $7.00 that I buy at Costco. I was at an outdoor store and bought ONE pair of Darn Tough socks for 11.00 dollars. Unlike the 6-12 sized Costco socks, the Darn Toughs are sold to size. The pair I bought shrank so much after 3 washings that I could no longer wear them.

I do have an Ash Bed that was built in Maine that has lasted 35 years through all of our young married couple romping, 3 moves, 2 kids and 2 dogs over 100 lbs.

 

[GretschWretch]

I play USA-made instruments mainly because I feel sort of odd playing uniquely American music on an Indonesian-made instrument. It's weird because I don't feel that way about much else in my life. And I seem to have no trouble using non-USA-made pedals and other equipment. So I am conscious that my position is contradictory.

Ohhhhh! I feel SO SORRY for you. In my dodderage I have imploded into wanting to play 50s and 60s American music on 50s and 60s American instruments. A much harder row to hoe. (No criticism of you here; just a lot of whine and self-pity by and for me.)

 

[juancaminos]

We live in a world economy, there is nothing you or I can do about that. I do try to support local businesses first, U.S. companies after that. In the end I buy what I need as long as the price is reasonable which is not nessecarily the cheapest.

 

[74hc]

Most of my basses are not just made in the U.S.A., but in California as well. I always try to purchase locally if possible and practical.

 

[selowitch]

It's an interesting and perpetual question. I have a couple of USA-made instruments (a Fender bass and a Music Man) that are excellent but also a couple of Chinese-made instruments (a Fender acoustic guitar and a Traveler TB-4P) that are excellent, too. The non-US manufacturers have really upped their game in recent years and some things made in Indonesia, Korea, and Mexico, et al. are truly fabulous. Sure, I would prefer to support domestic manufacturing when possible, but ... I have limited funds for gear and need to stretch my dollars and therefore I cannot afford to buy USA-made gear exclusively.

 

[mikewalker]

Pics or it didn't happen.

here 'tis (on the right...)

 

[baddarryl]

I look at it this way if my purchases can help to save just one job or even save 1/10 of a job to remain here at home then I would buy American and often pay more for it without hesitation. I just walked into the Redwing boots store and asked him if he had USA models and they had 4 out of the whole store for me to choose from. Yes they were the most expensive there but I don’t care if helps keeps a Redwing manufacturing facility open as well as his small store. Many of us are old enough to remember when a manufacturing job was a good job that would support a family and there were many about. Those days are long gone and it’s a sad thing. I am hip to the global economy and all of that stuff, but if I can in my simplest ways buy things from home I will. That goes for the small independent businesses as well. I will go to the small independent store before the big box store anytime I can.

In fact I am a business owner and I am mullying about the idea of trying to manufacture something simply to offer people jobs. I do employ people in my current business, but I want to employ more. Yes it’s good for me, but it is good for them too.

 

[tshapiro]

It hasn't been missed at all; many people in this thread subscribe to the same short-sighted view.

A corresponding basic economic point for you: if you trade with others, and others trade with you, the money stays in your larger (in both senses) economy and eventually comes back to you in one form or another. You forget that if I buy something made in the USA, that _also_ benefits your economy, and vice-versa - we make each other stronger. If you close your borders, whether explicitly or implicitly, this benefit fades away.

The USA is not independent and self-sustaining, nor is any other country. We all depend on trading with each other, and are the richer for it.

Even out sourcing can be a net benefit, if done with a long-term view of leveraging each other's strengths, like NS Design drawing on Czech expertise in bass-building. Where it tends to weaken us all is where it's done with a short-term view of cutting costs without regard to the impact on quality.

Good points