No offense, but it probably does. I'm not a guitar snob, I'm informed, and you could be too!
Ever walk into a guitar shop and wonder what the difference is between Gibson and Epiphone, Fender and Squier, ESP and LTD? Let me tell you, there are *tons* of differences. Without naming any names, this is how it works:
"Parent" company designs an instrument, usually with slightly different features. These differences are usually negligible, though.
"Parent" company then sends specifications to a factory in Mexico, Indonesia, China, Korea., who then proceeds to produce the instrument according to spec, (and here's the clincher) using cost-effective parts and labour. What "cost-effective really means is "cheap". Lower-quality parts (cheaply produced, themselves, in a factory that specializes in producing cheap crap), underpaid workers who assemble the guitars in less-than-ideal facilities and then ship them in containers back overseas...what this means for you, the consumer, is that the instrument you buy is so cheap to produce that the retailer can offer it to you at an enticingly low price. The wood will be lower grade (contain knots, flaws), it might not have been properly dried, resulting in warps, the wiring will be flimsy and sometimes messy, and the finish quality will show flaws or poor technique.
This isn't always a bad thing, mind you. If you know you're buying b-grade stuff, and that's what you can afford, then it's fine. But if a salesman (or anybody else) tells you "this is just as good as a real Gibson" or Fender, or whatever, what they really mean is "for the money, this is the closest you're gonna get to a real Gibson". The rule of thumb (and there are always exceptions) is that the quality is proportional to the price. I have a Mexican-made Fender and I love it. You can definitely find "good", enjoyable instruments in lower price ranges, but they will definitely not equal the value of a higher-priced one. Also, anything but top-of-the-line instruments will not have a good resale value.
Below are a few examples of parent-child company relationships.
Parent ---> Child
Gibson ---> Epiphone
Fender ---> Squier
ESP ---> LTD
Some companies don't have a child company, and offer lower-cost instruments under the same name. Ibanez and Jackson do this, as well as many others.
If you're really interested in this stuff, it pays to do a bit of research, because there's a lot of information out there and it's not all true and/or important.
Let your budget guide you, but take a look at the price range of a company to see where your target price lies.
Thanks for the little edu-blurb. Learned something I don't need to know but is interesting never-the-less. Cheers. The info will likely come in handy one day.
ReplyDeletecan i tell everyone how much that guitar you paid for in the store actually costs to make ? It's quite unbelievable that they can make a guitar for so little money, and still have it be profitable. Also, the mark-up profit margin from distributor to retail store is dwarfed only by the margins of the pharmaceutical industry.
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