(sorry for so many quotes, lol, it's better than a quadruple post though)
You have to wonder where those pickups are being made
If said pickups would have a retail value of £150 here and you get a whole guitar with them for £300- either the pickup manufacturer is supplying manufacturer with USA made product for pennies (which I cant see) or has found a way to manufacture them cheaper somehow or somewhere
that's a distinct possibility, jonathan. I suspect they maybe can do it (for example, duncans in the USA are less than half what they are over here even to the average punter and you'd assume the guitar companies buying thousands of the things are getting them cheaper than me buying one), but even if they are the bona fide pickups, that means less money to go into the actual guitar. And if they aren't, it's a gip.
:drink:
Might be that manufacturers like Seymour Duncan make very low rates for guitar companies like ESP, Heritage ... just to have a positive image effect.
The margin might be really low on this supplier business, and therefore they print their brand name on the pickup and have more upgraders buy their brand ...
true, I didn't think of that, it's advertising for them too. :drink:
ding ding ding ding ding, we have a winner!!!!
remind me to buy you a beer in london!
that is what most people think.. it has quality parts, but that doesnt mean it's a good guitar.. who knows what wood it's been made of, does it need a fret dress, or even re-crowning (low end epis and ibanez guitars especialy.. horrible horrible)
like i said, they look good on paper, but what's underneath the paint?
like the ongoing jacskon/ltd arguement.. ltd has all this name brand stuff, where jackson (only recently) got just name brand pickups.. and they're still a bit more expencive, so people go for ltd, cos they think they get more bang for the buck.. if you want real bang for the buck, buy used 80s'early 90's ibanezes, jacksons/charvels. that's where the gems are
i know for a fact that duncan tried to shift regular production models over to korea (where their duncan designed pups are being made), but cos people said they buy USA products, for the quality, cos who knows what quality the MIK will be, and that they would lose a lot of their customers, they (for now) left the production in the santa barbara facility.
for dimarzios, i wouldnt be surprised if they were already made overseas. i had a PAF pro in my hands the other day and the build was so flimsy.. it looked like it would break :P dunno.. maybe it was tinkered with, but the guy claimed it was new... but over in these parts you never know
:drink: (that's interesting about duncan, by the way, I didn't know that)
A new'ish' phenomenum is taking over, global internet marketing. To my mind (the masses) are caring less about quality/customer service/longevity than price (this is across the board).
This is a two way street. How many on here rave about great deals (many on the internet). Who would go to a shop to try a guitar that they will then buy cheaper online? Many I would expect, human nature.
Is this hurting the industry though? Doubtful, just the mom and pop store.
(agreed with most of the rest of your post, nick, but it's too long to quote, lol)
I agree. In almost everything now, price is the deciding factor in what counts as value. "wow, cd players at £15! what great value!"
Not to mention they'll break in about 15 minutes. Value isn't just about how cheap you can get something.
Far as I can tell, mass production is good for making th cheap stuff cheaper (so is good for the casual user who doesn't want/need top of the range), but for the avid individual, the decent stuff is getting more and more expensive.
I agree about what you said about starter guitars (or starter/budget anything), but a lot of companies milk it too, building in obsolescence or inherent faults in the hope you'll have to buy a new model of theirs sooner.
one other thing about mom and pop stores- any time I go into one they always try to sell me something I don't necessarily want! I'm not fussed on somewhere like Sound Control, but (I feel at least) that you can go in there and try loads of stuff with much less pressure. Whether that's just because I know they're a big concern so I don't feel as much for them, I don't know.
