Question: Have you found that your American made guitars seem to have more issues than your imports?

dougpg

dougpg

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On the right is my MIJ 1996 50th anniversary strat. I used it almost exclusively from '96 to 2001. 6 to 8 gigs per month. countless rehearsals. countless hours of practicing and it is gig ready right now. I've never had any problems with it whatsoever. None. Right now. I have a 2015 American Tele HSS. I play it every day but have only played 2 gigs with it. It has fret issues at 16 and 17 and I have to fix the pick up selector or possibly the coil split switch. Back in my day,(lol) you could buy a guitar that would last a life time with no issues besides maintenance.
 
I don't have any import guitars. I have a few Warmoth's I've built and a guitar @telecaster911 built for me. None have had any issues but they were built by people who knew what they were doing, well one of them was, the other 3 were built by me and I sorta know what I am doing :grin:

I do have a MIM Fender bass. The tuners aren't the best and I need to replace the nut on it and I need to check the jack and switch. Sometimes it cuts out and sometimes it cuts in and out when I use the switch.

I don't really think country of origin necessarily matters these days. You can get a killer made in a foreign country guitar and terrible USA made guitar and vice versa.
 
I only own 2 made in USA guitars, my old 85’ D28, and an old 83’ Carvin DC, my first good electric guitar.
I’ve owned others in the past, including Gibson’s. I didn’t sell em because of problems but because of GAS for something else, or it just didn’t fit me or the style I was into. Not because the guitar was a dog.
I currently have a MIJ White Falcon, as high quality as any production USA guitar imo.
My experience has been the higher end the guitar, the higher the build quality. In other words you get what you pay for. But that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate a more affordable budget instrument, which are miles above what they were when I started out in the early 70s. Nowadays most issues with lower end stuff are easily and cheaply fixed.
Idk, maybe I’ve been lucky.
 
Lerxst said:
OP: is this observation based on more than your sample set of two guitars?
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Just two at the moment. I've had vintage American that were supurb. A '78 Gibson LP, a '66 ES330 and a '73 Strat 3 bolt neck. All great. I also have a late eighties Peavey Impact USA that is still a favorite.

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I only have non-domestic guitars and basses. I have played a lot of U.S. gear that was nice. Mostly to compare and take note of ways I wanted to improve the feel and play of my guitars and not pay for the labor.

I’ve been lucky, I guess, according to some because I’ve never received a guitar when ordered that had to be returned. My mindset was everything ordered needed to be set up and acclimated . Once done I have found them to maintain their adjustments.

Now, I tend to rotate them more. But when I was buying guitars I was more inclined to keep them out and play them every day for a few months and then move on to something different. Now after having most of them for at least 6 to 20 years, when I switch I expect to take it from the case, tune it, and play for hours and not deal with unexpected problems. That’s way it’s been for the last 5 years since I retired.

I wouldn’t expect more or less from a US made instrument. Like I mention, I feel I have been fortunate acquiring gear. If I had purchased several guitars that had to be returned due to quality failures I would think of them differently.


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I haven’t played an American instrument that’s any better than a good MIK instrument. I think the build quality of the better Epiphone guitars is on par with Gibson.
 
DinoMikeSr said:
I only have non-domestic guitars and basses. I have played a lot of U.S. gear that was nice. Mostly to compare and take note of ways I wanted to improve the feel and play of my guitars and not pay for the labor.

I’ve been lucky, I guess, according to some because I’ve never received a guitar when ordered that had to be returned. My mindset was everything ordered needed to be set up and acclimated . Once done I have found them to maintain their adjustments.

Now, I tend to rotate them more. But when I was buying guitars I was more inclined to keep them out and play them every day for a few months and then move on to something different. Now after having most of them for at least 6 to 20 years, when I switch I expect to take it from the case, tune it, and play for hours and not deal with unexpected problems. That’s way it’s been for the last 5 years since I retired.

I wouldn’t expect more or less from a US made instrument. Like I mention, I feel I have been fortunate acquiring gear. If I had purchased several guitars that had to be returned due to quality failures I would think of them differently.


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I have been lucky too. I've got some Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Indonesian besides American band the only one that has faltered is the Tele.

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Never really had issues with any guitar, imported or not.

My Duesenburg (German) and my brother's Edwards (Japanese) play and sound better than any Gibson I've tried out though.
 
I never really paid too much attention to this. I don't actually have guitars that really have issues beyond the normal maintenance stuff. I have plenty of import and US stuff.
 
A sample size of two isn't much to go by. I could have an excellent import and a bad domestic guitar and all that tells me is I have an excellent import and a bad domestic guitar. I don't pay a lot of attention to where my guitars are made, but the two I know were American made were much better than the ones I know are imports. Of course, I paid at least three times as much for the two American made guitars.
 
Gary Blanchard said:
A sample size of two isn't much to go by. I could have an excellent import and a bad domestic guitar and all that tells me is I have an excellent import and a bad domestic guitar. I don't pay a lot of attention to where my guitars are made, but the two I know were American made were much better than the ones I know are imports. Of course, I paid at least three times as much for the two American made guitars.
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That's true Gary. I have 4 import electrics and 2 American made. The Tele has the issues mentioned earlier and I have an excellent Peavey Impact that had shitty saddles that I replaced with graphite. I've had it for 28 years and that's all that was bad. None of my imports had any issues. I don't have 2 of the same style US vs import. That would help but that's why I asked the group. Much bigger sampling.
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