Import Guitars in 2020: High quality, High End, the new era and my opinion

As you my know, i've always gone toward what i consider the best quality vs price balance when i buy a guitar.

Cort factory in Korea has always been a good place to build guitars, but clearly remember the day i entered a shop and found for a really cheap price an Ibanez AXD81. It was made in china and it was the main reson it was not selling.

I love how it looked andd there was not a single flaw in the construction. No visual defects. No other issues.

It was around 2003-2006, brands made the first step to change the quality of import guitar. As far as i know they send people from the "custom shops" to the big factories to train both in building and QA check.

And that move leads to today market.

I take this as the main example:

It's a beautyful MAJ200XFM fro Sterling. Its priced around 1800 euros and it is made in Indonesia. It really tells us how the world is changing.

But, where do brands want to go with similar moves?

Let's look at the situation. We have all the brands that we all look at (Fender, Gibson, Ibanez, Music Man, ESP, Jackson, Schecter, Charvell, Dean, Yamaha to name a few) with their own small factory for high end production and the a small number of imort builder like Cort and World Music Instruments that ghost build the most of their lower priced guitars.

Some brand will hint this by using a different name (Squier for Fender, Epiphone for Gibosn, Sterling for Music Man) some will use the same brand (like Ibanez, Schecter, Jackson). But the stratigy is no different.

You want that guitar, you can afford the real deal, we can offer you a better deal.

But as they rise the quality (and also the price) of their import lines, they are eating their own high end market. Why?

My guess is that. You need to have a high end production, more for the reputation than for the money you directly made from that sales. Squier sells more than Fender and i think the earn from Squier (in percentage, not per single sale, obviously) is better. For a lot of reason. Production cost vs market price. Facility cost. Taxes.

So, if i build better quality import instruments that people are happy with. As a brand, i can focus on being a designer and a promoter of my brand. And let someone else do the hardwork.

That is the future i am thinking of. We will be buying more import guitar, better made, probably in the same factory, with the same quality and we will be choosing focusing on the design we like better than on the build quality.

So if i want a classic strat, i can buy a Squier, i can buy a cutlass from sterling, a charvel dinky, an ibanez AZ (to name some) just by choosing the desing a like better, knowing that it will be build by the same hand and at the same quality.

A tip on buying a guitar in the far low end of the price range. If you are buying for the chapest, as you go down there will be less quality check and the quality may vary from one to one. Go to a real shop. Spent some more money but get your hand on the one you will buy. Just check that everything is ok with your eyes. The finish, the fretwork. You wil find a better one, one that you will be happy with for a longer time. 

Be your own quality check department!

This is the safest way to buy a cheap guitar and find a good deal (the cheap guitar that rivals the expensives ones) and avoid the lemon, to avoid issues.

good luck on your next import guitar!