So who makes a decent 350-500-watt head...

[LightForce104]

Korea.
Taiwan.

I sincerely hope you're just drawing attention to the fact that those are not made in China, and not lumping all East Asian countries together...

 

[JeezyMcNuggles]

...that sells for less than $1K and is not made in China? Or am I dreaming?

Checked out and liked the Orange Terror. Really like the size, weight and sound and the fact that the pre-amp is tube-based. Their matching 4X10 cab is MIA but though the head meets my desired price point it is, alas, MIC. All the other heads I've looked at are also MIC.

Suffice it to say that my objection to buying MIC stuff has less to do with worries about product quality than it does economics/geo-politics. So, since politics is not an appropriate subject for discussion here, please let's not get into the weeds as to my reasoning about that.

Any recommendations?

Ampeg

 

[Ekulati]

I'll again second the four or five brands that keep being mentioned in this thread. I gigged for a couple years a head that was not on that list but for which I started hearing about difficulty getting warranty service. I thought about it and realized I just can't be in that situation, given the gigs I do. So I sold it and went back to one of the legacy, US made brands mentioned here that's known for stellar customer service. Haven't had to use it though. And that's good.

 

[Danny O Danny]

I love my Demeter 400.
Bass 400

 

[thetragichero]

Milwaukee was one of the last holdouts.

they make the best tools out of those big box store brands too

 

[onamission]

My TC BH550 is designed in Denmark and manufactured in Thailand. I love it!

 

[mikewalker]

I really like MESA products ( have owned several over the years ) but right now I'd say the best bang-for-buck 'Assembled in North America' ultra-portable 500W bass head anywhere is the Traynor SB-500

 

[getBAK]

I did this a few months ago. Settled on a Mesa (fixed) 800+
Very close to being the perfect bass head

 

[Mustang Surly]

My TC BH550 is designed in Denmark and manufactured in Thailand. I love it!

Unfortunately, I had a terrible customer service issue with an amp I bought new from TC, so I won't be buying from them again.

Settled on a Mess 800+

I assume you mean Mesa. Have been looking into that one and the 800. They sound pretty darned nice.

 

[_One//Man//Mutiny_]

Finland's finest at Darkglass have the microtubes 500! I have the original 900 and it's about as good as you can get! ...And that's all I have to say about that

 

[FLAT EARTH]

Mesa d800, d800+, orWD 800, as well as the carbine series sound great to me. Just my opinion

 

[operagost]

China makes both crap and great stuff, as does any other manufacturing country.

Stick with a proven brand and proven model with a solid warranty.

And one that has a tech support phone number.

 

[beatlebass64]

As others have said, Mesa.

Love my Subway D-800. About 5.5 lbs and is rated for 400 watts at 8 ohms, 800 at 4. It pairs well with my Barefaced Super Compact.

 

[SgtHulka]

Probably has been some time since you looked at GK. They made a foray into Chinese manufacturing some years ago, but for whatever reason it didn't work for them. All GK products have been USA-made for many years now. (But, as has been noted, components no doubt come from many countries.)

Just to add to that, the only chinese-made GK products I'm familiar with had the "Backline" moniker added to the name.

 

[devnulljp]

Aguilar
Traynor

 

[Jon McBass]

Unfortunately, I had a terrible customer service issue with an amp I bought new from TC, so I won't be buying from them again.



I assume you mean Mesa. Have been looking into that one and the 800. They sound pretty darned nice.

I looked and looked for over a year, made comparison spreadsheets, pondered, meditated, tried and tested, and decided on the Mesa D-800+. Haven't regretted it for a second. Fantastic US amp that does it all. Plenty of power, rugged yet light as a feather. Not cheap yet a bargain IMO.

 

[mmbongo]

Ampeg

Ampeg is made in China.

 

[logdrum]

PRC (the big China) does not make all electronic parts in the world. Taiwan which is a much smaller country produces a majority of ARM based processors (Google TSMC), semiconductors and is probably the top dog considering it is a small country (but 22nd richest with a good quality of life for its citizens) Intel is possibly the only one left making CPUs and memory products in the US but for the value they are still competitive (so we can still make good but not ridiculously expensive things here). Silicon wafers are mainly from Japan and is the basis for semi-conductor products. Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and India contribute as well. Israel is in the mix as well as well as our neighbor Mexico. Without going deep into politics, many of these countries are NATO/US allies and trade partners, not militaristic if that is a concern.

Supply chain is global and you cannot get away from it.

There are many PCB and electronic fabbing houses in the Silicon Valley area (as well as other states). A lot of musical gear are still made in the US. For example Roland makes their System 500 with Malekko in Oregon. This is a product with analog parts and ICs. You can get electronic products made completely in the US, even if you are purely a design house. Mesa Boogie, I think fabs everything in the US and as stated above many of the components do not come from China. GK too and would be easily within your budget. I am a fan of Mesa products. Best customer support and their repair rates are very reasonable. They will repair a Boogie made in the 70's. No other company will do that.

 

[murph7489]

Time for a dose of reality here...

1. Made in China (with globally sourced parts) means something different than say made in the US or Germany or Denmark (with globally sourced parts).

2. The US, along with several other countries is still a significant player in the higher quality LED device market:

Rank* Company Country Revenue** Market Cap***
1 Invalid Link Removed USA $1,473M $4.58B
2 Invalid Link Removed Japan $1,755M $1.56B
3 Invalid Link Removed Japan $7,192M $3.01B
4 Invalid Link Removed Germany $4,812M $4.09B
5 Invalid Link Removed San Jose --- ---
6 Invalid Link Removed South Korea $986M $940M
7 LG Innotek South Korea $4,155M $3.39B
8 Edison Opto Taiwan $84.9M $74M
9 EPISTAR Taiwan $827M $1.34B
10 San'an Optoelectronics China $1,241M $12.1B

What's interesting is that the market capitalization is $12.1B for only $1.24B in sales, this is a 10:1 ratio which is only possible with the government supporting the industry through such funding. Everybody else is about 1:1, which is indicative of the industry financing from conventional sources. This is what makes parts sourcing so difficult when a government artificially subsidizes any industry.

I study this stuff daily, it's part of a professional's job.

Interesting data, and it makes me wonder what the ratio for US purchased products in that field is compared to the country of manufacturer origin...to be a little clearer as to what I'm asking, lets take the company San'an Optoelectronics from China..They are getting 1.24b in revenue okay, so what is the percentage of that revenue that comes from sales to the US compared to what they sell directly to Chinese consumers..

 

[DJ Bebop]

"Mesa Subway D-800 (and variants)"
Those look/sound interesting.

"Nobody. Even the ones made here are all Chinese components inside. Might be some who etch their own PCB's but that's about it."
Pretty much what I was afraid of. Some of those mentioned above don't indicate where they are made either printed on the head itself or on the website. Seems like they would make a point of stating "Made in the USA" if that were the case.