Made in A country is better than made in B country?

This is a common scene everywhere in the world. People are claiming that a guitar made in "US/Japan" is probably better than a guitar made in "Indonesia/China". What do we define as better? Tone? Quality? Craftsmanship? Play-ability? There are a lot of factors that contributes to this meaning of good. Being an avid guitar DIY person for over 4 years, I've came to a few factors that if those points can be rectified, "Good" is only a variable that can be tweaked.

I've once walked into a store with people claiming to me, that a particular guitar "Sx" Strat is not as good as the "Squier" strat and how a Mexican Strat pales in comparison to a US made one. Really (Inserts sarcastic tone here)? I bet that if I were to put that person in a blind test on both instance with the same electronic parts, he probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between guitars. I am not saying that there isn't a difference in tone for different woods. In fact, there is a huge difference between different woods. However, we know that most of the tone of electric guitar comes from it's electronic parts. Which means, the amp and pickups play the most important role in defining that tone. Does that mean that we can buy any cheap Chinese knockoffs, throw in really top end boutique pickups and it will scream like there isn't an end till tomorrow? The answer is no. Imagine if you put and really out of shape person into a pair of top end running shoes. Do you think such a person can finish the marathon with top timing? The answer is pretty obvious. The person wearing the shoes will need training and toning and in guitar terms, setting it up right.

I firmly believe that the guitar sounds as good as the player playing it, and the person setting it up. It's just that simple.Let's talk about setting up. Why do we often hear that Japanese guitars are better than Chinese made ones? Well, that is almost a given and in fact, I agree to a certain point. However, what is so great about the Japanese made guitars are the superior quality of the hardware and by far, the most important point; the quality control. Japanese are well known quality control freaks.

Let's take one variable and change it around for now. Let's say we take a Chinese made guitar and put in Japanese superior made hardware and parts. Let only the body and the neck stay. Put quality control out of the picture and presume that the person who is doing the swap knows what he is doing. Let's put (Insert your favourite guitarist here) as a player for this new guitar. Will the guitar actually sings? My answer to that is yes. Definitely yes.

What I am trying to say here is, the guitar is only an instrument and play-ability is the only thing that stops a guitar from being good. Not the place of it's origin. We have seen good wood from China and that includes Rosewood, Mahogany and Maple. As long as the neck and body fit is alright (This is one of those points that is actually hard to rectify) and the wood is decent to semi decent, as long as the person setting it up knows how to set it up properly, the sub par Chinese made instrument can turn into a high end instrument with quality parts. I've proven that with my Squier. (I have done an awful lot of work with that).

Remember, the guitar is only as good as the player playing it and the person setting it up.

P.S. The pictures of Ibanez RG350 and RG2570 is only an example of Indonesian and Japanese made guitar used as a comparison.

Something came in the mail today!

Something came in the mail today. This is part of my quest looking for cheaper and good pickups alternative. I've yet to test them though. Will probably do so after I finish testing my loot from yesterday (Blackheart Killer Ant).

Alan Entwistle is a guitar designer from UK and his CV includes heading up Hohner’s UK based Custom Shop where he designed models including the JT60, Blond, Black Widow and Revelation. More recently he has designed guitars for Alden and Tanglewood and his electronic circuit wizardry is being incorporated into selected Burns models. People who knows him hails him as the Guru of Guitars in the UK. The line of pickups are his own designed model and manufactured by Artec.

His pickups are one of those which are designed based off Neodymium magnets. For more information about his pickups, please click here.

Changing of Pickups or Changing of Amps

Many times, in a guitar related forum, beginners will tend to ask this question. "Should I spend $X on pickup swap or a new amp"? Usually, the reply will always be another question of what amp he/she is currently using.

Most of us like individuality and want by all means to make our instrument "OUR" instrument. By doing minor things like pickup swap or slight modifications, we can better justify the instrument to be uniquely ours or trying to improve the sound of the guitar by changing the pickups to the ones used by our Idols. I am no difference from the love of doing this.

However, do keep in mind that if the current amp you is a really small one and has pretty much a bad sound (Or what you think is bad), chances are, after a pickup swap, you probably still get a bad sound. This is no surprise as the amp plays a major component in the overall tone of all your gears. So the next time you think of changing the pickups of your guitar (Or any other modifications on your instrument for that matter), do keep in mind that the amp plays an important part of improving your overall tone.