golden age

if the golden age of Japanese guitars was from the 70's to the late 80's
and the Korean from the mid 80's to the early 2000's
is this now the golden age of Chinese guitars? I've seen some really good for the money guitars;& i wonder if people will be discussing vintage Chinese guitars one day if so what would be your candidates for a future classic?

i doubt it as the actual woods and harware used are cheap

carl300367 said:

i doubt it as the actual woods and harware used are cheap

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If you look at the "Classic Vibe" series from Squier...you?re wrong.
Such great guitars btw.

There was a Korean golden age for guitars? I`ve said before that I think we`ve been in a second golden age for Japanese guitars for some time, they have been making outstanding guitars again for a while. Never seen an MIC that tempted me.

sneakyjapan said:

There was a Korean golden age for guitars? I`ve said before that I think we`ve been in a second golden age for Japanese guitars for some time, they have been making outstanding guitars again for a while. Never seen an MIC that tempted me.

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+1

Korea and China may be making some decent guitars now, but there's no sense of them making guitars that rival the great American companies in their prime. I played a few classic vibe strats and the MIM Fenders I played immediately after felt way better - and even those felt somehow "cheap." Only way I can describe it.

I can't think of a Chinese or Korean guitar I've played that has exuded the sense of total quality that you get from many Tokais or ESP guitars, or some MIJ Fenders.

gypsyseven said:

carl300367 said:

i doubt it as the actual woods and harware used are cheap

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If you look at the "Classic Vibe" series from Squier...you?re wrong.
Such great guitars btw.

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Great guitars.... Tonerider pickups in them as well.

Although earlier comments on cheaper wood is true, does the fact that wood is cheaper detract form its suitability for use making guitars. If the wood has a similar density and sonic qualities does it matter that it is alder and maple rather than mahogany.what is it that defines a good guitar build quality? the quality of the materials or the electronics, If you took two well made guitars and put identical pick ups etc. sonically would you really hear the difference between alder or mahogany

Gaffers said:

Although earlier comments on cheaper wood is true, does the fact that wood is cheaper detract form its suitability for use making guitars. If the wood has a similar density and sonic qualities does it matter that it is alder and maple rather than mahogany.what is it that defines a good guitar build quality? the quality of the materials or the electronics, If you took two well made guitars and put identical pick ups etc. sonically would you really hear the difference between alder or mahogany

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You?re kidding...

Gaffers...sounds to me like you own Chinese or Korean guitars and if you like em, why does it matter what other people think of em? And let`s remember...the experts who are paying thousands for Japanese guitars today used to say the same things about Japanese guitars not all that long ago...did the guitars suddenly get better or did people wake up and realize their generalizations were just BS? If those people would have been paying attention before they could have got those same MIJs for far less then that they are today. People should just play what they like, I have never ever bought a guitar worrying about what a bunch of people I have never met on the web may or may not think, I buy to please myself.

meanwhile do the blind test in vintage section... it comes about...

I have american Japanese Korean and Chinese guitars and I love them all, I started as a bass player and still have my Rickenbacker 4000 I bought in 1976 I also have a Korean squire one of the 1987/8 E 10 silver series a 1957 strat replica (I think fender were trying to undercut a Japanese manufacturer)this is a very nice guitar. I have a Japanese acoustic a Nashville D30 this was my main guitar the one I earned my living with I raised my daughter with the help of this guitar also I have a Chinese 51 precision bass witch is much better than the current squire versions and also my Korean love rock. After over 25 years of playing mostly acoustic guitar, problems with my right hand has led me back to playing bass and electric guitars and I'm enjoying it. I remember the days when most Japanese guitars were awful and see a lot of similarity with today's market, but even the cheap Chinese guitars are better than most of the Japanese were in the early 70's

I agree! I remember when in the seventies we were considering japanese Fender copies as ****. So I bought an US Fender telecaster which was and still is the real ****: warped neck, bad lacquer melting with the lining inside my gigbag, etc... I think that the chinese are now beginning to manufacture very great guitars. History has always been a cycle.

Right, I`m not sayin` everything they made in Japan was great...or even good...no shortage or MIJ crap out there too from the same era that is considered the golden age and before...but I have some old nylon string acoustics that are outstanding...have a 1948 Suzuki and a 1950 Kiso Susuki pick guitar...both dated on the labels... that are fabulous as well as a whole bunch of other Japanese makers from the `early `50`s to the early `70`s...they certainly built some great guitars during the time when they were exporting a lot of junk...guess they sent the junk to the big nosed gaijins and kept the good stuff at home.
I`ve seen some absolutely beautiful MIC Eastman guitars here so they can build top notch stuff but I think manufacturers are asking them to fill a different niche. Even Japanese companies are moving out of the country now, production costs are too high, economics are pretty bad here as anybody who watches business news knows and Japan is undergoing huge changes that haven`t been seen before. Who knows where it will all end.

oddly enough I also have a kiso Suzuki classical guitar which is over 40 years old and a lovely guitar with a really rich bass tone, I've had it since I was 14 years old and will never part with it. on the whole I've been lucky with guitars. one day it will be expensive to make guitars in china and production will move to another country with cheap labour and wood, and there will be another generation discussing the relative differences between known and exotic materials.

Funny you should say that...was just reading today how the Chinese workers are now picking and choosing jobs that pay more and with Apple being exposed, for lack of a better word, about some of their suppliers recently can`t be too long before production costs make it less attractive and factories are moved again. I used to teach an elderly Japanese woman English who has a son in Viet Nam working for one of the big Japanese electronics companies who have a factory there so it has in fact already begun.

you could say that even the third world is a finite resource for exploitation, once we have moved in exploited the poor people, and built a load of factories, and trained the workforce they throw us out and we have to move to the next poor country till eventually there are no poor undeveloped countries left. The world may then have a level playing field, although it's probably moor likely that our economies will have collapsed by this time and we will be the new third world: ah well around and around in circles