Pertaining to your opening:
We only use the term "made" for inanimate objects. Anything 'animate' or sentient is not generally referred to as "made."
"Prejudging" would imply that I was making a judgement prior to experience. I specifically offered anecdotal (first-person experiential) evidence relating to the specific kind we are discussing: Chinese-built basses.
Sterling may, indeed, have a difficult time getting replacement necks for their Indo-produced basses to the US. Your claim here is a non-sequitur. I didn't claim Indo-basses were easy to get replacement necks for, I claimed that Chinese-made basses, in my experience, were difficult to get replacement necks for. I claimed that Indo manufacturers weee doing a good job, implying no need for a replacement neck.
If one can get Sadowsky MetroExpress bass necks from the US Warwick supplier website, then I'll assume that must be a special order? This would have to count as special pleading on your part - specifically, privileged information - as I have scrolled through the 14 pages of available replacement parts on said website, and no replacement bass necks were extant on said website.
If it is the case that "supply chain parts in a number of industries has suffered for awhile," it nevertheless bears no weight in my earlier statement. Pancakes might suffer from international supply chain woes. That has nothing to do with Chinese manufactured bass necks or our discussion.
Whether or not "X-brand Chinese-made bass" replacement neck availability is a matter of "that brand stocking them domestically" isn't really an issue that you can speak to here, unless you can show me how I can get a Sadowsky replacement neck for the specific bass in question domestically. If you, in fact, can, then you only prove my above claim that you are appealing to special information you are privileged to, given that there are apparently no replacement necks on the website you cited. Also, if you can do so, why did you spend so much time authoring a lengthy polemic against me, instead of just directing me to the section of the website with said necks for sale?
The fact that "Buying a replacement neck for most ANY bass is going to be more difficult than other 'standard' parts" does not make my worries about such a fact "spurious" in nature - as you so eloquently accused - given that I brought up the possible need for a replacement neck specifically because it is a key - non- 'standard' - element of an electric bass, the defect of which defeats the entire function of the instrument. Standard parts aren't a worry for my opinionative statement: if I had been worried about a 'standard' part, it (trivially) wouldn't be problematic, since any number of third-party manufacturers could supply such a need. That is the opposite of a "spurious" metric, the neck is a major element inherent to the function of the electric bass in question.
If quality control issues have been an issue for Sterling by Music Man basses, it has no relevance to your polemic post. It could only support my opinion ("I wish these weren't made in China") given that you say such issues have been numerous, "as have QC issues for certain batches of Metro Express." That is my entire - plainly stated - issue with sino-produced instruments. Particularly those priced in this range.
That a line of Squire (CV) basses have appreciated in popularity and value from 15 years ago and "are regarded to be some of the best Squires ever made" is also a non-sequitur to this discussion, as I'm sure even you won't put a Squire bass (CV or other) into the same category of price/brand/quality expectation as the Sadowsky MetroLine.
Geography, as it relates to your "Indonesia/Korea/China" comparison has exactly nothing to do with my desire that these Sadowsky basses not be produced in a Chinese factory, nor my anecdotal support for said desire. It doesn't bear that "my issue with China as a manufacturing location" must be due to "other considerations, indeed." Even though this was a slick ad-hominem attack, it was merely an ad-hominem attack, indeed. Why, my friend, must my desire be due to "other considerations"?
Interestingly, some internet searches do bear out that 60 to 65% of guitars are built in the Cort-Tek factory in Surabaya, the Yamaha, and the Samick factories. So, my friend, you've made a likely quite viable claim about the volume of Chinese guitars and basses.
You mention in your third to last paragraph that a domestically made bass would undercut another domestically made line of basses from the same manufacturer - excepting without qualification that Lakland did exactly that with a line produced in Chicago. Then you mention that Roger Sadowsky could have had such a production partner make a mass production line in Germany, which he did not for this MetroExpress line… he made them in China. Your closing sentence for this paragraph asks "shall we go on about the (now Indonesian made) Skyline Series?" Well, I suppose you could have, though I'm not sure what the point would have been. You didn't elaborate.
Your closing, accusatory sentences are in keeping with the broad straw man you've sought to make of my claim that "I wish [MetrolineExpress basses] weren't made in China," yet are also problematic. You've accused me therein of prejudging Chinese-made basses. I have done no such thing. I have, in my possession, a Chinese-made bass, and a specific problem inherent in the production of that bass, and its supportive supply chain, could have rendered said bass wholly unplayable and a complete waste of money for at least 12 months.
I have simply implied a categorical syllogism by stating my opinion:
All A's are B's (all Chinese made basses are basses that could have this problem).
C is an A (MetroExpress is a Chinese made bass).
Therefore all C's are B's (MetroExpress basses could have this problem).
My opinion was not intended - nor did it prima facia appear - in any way, to be less than "equal or in good faith" as you put it.
When one strawman's another's position, that action itself is, by definition, not "intended to be… in good faith"… your entire post suffers from a lack of philosophical charity. You've presented my opinion as something completely different from what it was - clearly - and I don't appreciate that.
However, you did so with a fantastically glib and smart use of verbiage, and argued against what I don't say in a very eloquent and convincing manner. Nicely done!
