How come?

[_koppen]

How come Jackson import guitars made in Japan are so cheap, compared to the made in Us ones.?

I mean, Japan is a very high quality industrial land, with big wellfare.
How come it can be so cheap to build guitars over there? Anyone now?

[Axewielder]

[jdr94]

i think its just cause Made in the USA is supposed to mean the best of the best. i mean were americans so naturally we want to portray our stuff as the best. at least thats my opinion of it. also made in US are all customs i believe. someone correct me if im wrong.

[Spivonious]

I think people pay more for the "Made in USA" sticker. Wouldn't it be funny if the guitars were made in the same factory?

[GinSonic]

USA:
Largely made, designed and hand assembled domestically using higher grade cuts of wood and top grade components.

Japan and or other Asian/European manufacturers:
Lower labour cost plus factory assembly to USA design standards, oftentimes using less expensive local wood for body/neck {Agathis, Eastern Basswood, etc.}, and less expensive components. {Duncan Designed instead of real Duncans}
G.

[scotty]

I thought because Made In USA meant hand made, or at least at one time?

[javert]

The difference in quality has little to do with the nations (at least in the case of Japan) they are produced in, just look at the early Japanese Jacksons. The Japanese are generally as highly skilled as anybody else in the world. It has more to do with branding.

GinSonic, European means lower labor costs? That's just completely wrong or you a referring to certain eastern European countries. The minimum wages in Europe are way higher than in the US, except for a few countries. There's very little production of anything actually going on in northern Europe due to the high labor costs.

[Brian]

A lot of it depends on what you're getting.

There are instruments made in Japan (ESP customs for example) that are done by a small team of builders only using the highest quality woods, parts, etc. And of course, you pay out the nose for it. Especially these days with the rising costs of everything and the dollar not being terribly strong. The quality is superb (in most cases).

As Ginsonic pointed out, cheaper labor and cheaper parts and "assembly line" type production of certain manufacturers instruments keep the costs down. Unfortunately this usually means the quality suffers too. Sub-par cavity shielding, dodgy fretwork, plastic inlays, licensed hardware, the list goes on.

I don't know how much stuff is truly 100% hand made these days. US or abroad. Seems you can still claim your product is "hand made" if at some point in the build process someone does something by hand even if 85% of it was done on a CNC machine.

[javert]

When the labor cost is lower, guitars of an equivalent quality could in principle be made, but that's just not good business if you want also to sell your more expensive models made elsewhere. It doesn't make sense for companies to basically produce a product that aims at the same market as another product. In the case of Jackson that would mean having Jackson USA and Jackson Japan competing for the same money.

[GinSonic]

......GinSonic, European means lower labor costs? That's just completely wrong or you a referring to certain eastern European countries. The minimum wages in Europe are way higher than in the US, except for a few countries. There's very little production of anything actually going on in northern Europe due to the high labor costs.

I stand corrected. I did fail to mention EASTERN Europe, like where the BC Rich Calibre Series are made, etc. {Romania? Slovania? Don't quite remember.}

Also concerning USA built axes; Aside from using premium woods and components, more care and labour go into the finishing aspects as well. Hand sanding, fret dressing, organized wiring with solid soldering, etc, all add to the cost of USA shop guitars.

I bet the SD Charvels would be less expensive by $200 - $300 if done in Korea!
G.

[Larz]

My 1984 Washburn from the Japanese Matsumoku era stands right up there with my 2008 USA made KV2 in terms of build and playability. Both are awesome, although the trem on the Washburn is nothing more than a fine tuner by comparison to the Floyd.

But when you get down to different models, some are outsourced obviously to be more cheaply made with parts of varying desirability/quality, such as knobs, switches, trems, wood, just so the guitar can be sold at a more affordable cost to consumers in certain cases.

[Confuse-a-Cat]

How come Jackson import guitars made in Japan are so cheap, compared to the made in Us ones.?

I mean, Japan is a very high quality industrial land, with big wellfare.
How come it can be so cheap to build guitars over there? Anyone now?

It's not really to do with Japanese labour being any cheaper, it's to do with how they're made. A lot more time will be devoted to each individual USA guitar, while I imagine each Japanese guitar is built much quicker, and with more reliance on machines. This makes labour costs for each Japanese guitar significantly lower even if their wages are similar to the US factory. Then you have the fact that the materials and hardware used on USA guitars will be more expensive, and finally I'm sure you're paying quite a bit just for that "Made in USA" sticker as well.

[Newc]

Look up an episode of "How It's Made" featuring Godin guitars of Canada. They automate 80% of the work, including the fretwork! It's amazing!

Machines can get closer tolerances than hand-work because it's all mathematics. With hand-work, you get inconsistencies in every little detail.

I'm assuming this is also done in the Japanese Jackson factory to save on labor costs, in addition to using lower-quality and lower-priced components such as pots and jacks and the Korean Floyds.

I don't see where Jackson is using lower-quality wood than their USA models. Maybe Eastern maple on the necks is less expensive than Northern Hard Rock maple for the USAs, but it's not a lesser quality as far as stability goes. Haven't seen any imports with birdseye or flamed maple necks, but not all types of maple do that, AFAIK.

That doesn't mean the wood isn't as good, it's just that figured wood is not as abundant and therefore more expensive.

[DonP]

Am I on a guitar forum or an economics forum?

[Brooke]

Jackson Stars has a custom shop too. Their high end stuff is awesome.