Is Korea comming of age?

[buzzsaww]

Re: Is Korea comming of age?

dillion, there's a company that makes some crap! ugh!
tidbit, did you know afganisstan maufactures a lot of pharmceuticals?

Originally posted by 2Loud2Old:
Now I've noticed Dillion, a Korean knock-off manufacturer, has a new "budget" line....

...made in Vietnam!

So... I suppose in a few years, all the real crappy guitars will be made in Afghanistan??? [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">

[pro-fusion]

Re: Is Korea comming of age?

Originally posted by 2Loud2Old:
Now I've noticed Dillion, a Korean knock-off manufacturer, has a new "budget" line....

...made in Vietnam!

So... I suppose in a few years, all the real crappy guitars will be made in Afghanistan??? [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I can see it now: the new ESP LTD "Opium" line...and the great thing is, they could still have a Mustaine signature model!! [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Jerry From Ghana]

Re: Is Korea comming of age?

IMO when it comes to solidbody guitars and high gain amps, tonewood is among the least important factors. Shit, the guitar don't even need to be made out of wood and it'll still sound almost the same.

Find a good looking guitar with a comfy neck, even frets, decent pickups and which stays in tune and you're in business. Plenty of Korean guitars meet those criteria, with or without a couple of simple upgrades.

[charvelguy]

Re: Is Korea comming of age?

I think Korea is capable of hitting Japan quality, altho Japan I think was more attentive to each instruments detail/nuances. Modern day Korean instruments are certainly paying attention to have high end features like flame tops and elaborate inlays. The playability isn't bad either and the quality is better than I thought it would be years ago when they first started saturating the market. Some of the inlay work can be sloppy/overouted and the frets uneven. That's happened on some USA's I've seen too.

Schecter/Cort/Dean/Dillion/LTD definitely comes to mind as forerunners in having some nice players for a decent price. Guitars are trying to mimick the uniqueness of having high end features while still retaining player quality and affordability in a mass produced product. All in all, I'm still favoring Japan just because most of those have aged and they had the mass production with quality retention thing down.

[Accept2]

Re: Is Korea comming of age?

The biggest difference between Japan and Korea, is Japan has made sought after originals, whereas Korea simply makes copies. The original designs coming out of Korea are laughed at more than anything...............

[pro-fusion]

Re: Is Korea comming of age?

But 20 years ago, the Japanese companies (all of them) made almost nothing except Fender and Gibson knock-offs. I guess Yamaha had some fairly original designs, but Ibanez was mostly known for its Les Paul and SG copies, and the Japanese Tokai strats of the late '70s-early '80s were legendary for being at least as good as the strats Fender was putting out.

Korea has yet to make the jump to many original designs (although some of the self-logoed Samicks are new designs, rather than knockoffs), but I'm sure that's coming soon.

[charvelguy]

Re: Is Korea comming of age?

If you are saying most Korea stuff is USA designed and they're just turning them out, I can see that point. Dean has some new designs like the Chafin Del Sol. Schecter too always has some different C or A series. I see some designs by Cort that are original and playable. CL-1500,1400, M-1200 series.

I used to laugh at Japanese copies, ..till I owned a '77 Rocket Roll SR, which I bought as a backup in '82. It got slammed by the other guys at rehearsal with the stock squealer pickups. Once some Duncans went in, no more slams.

Japan had a period of like 10-15 years of peak production for copies and originals and now nobody is laughing at MIJ anymore. Especially during the time when Fender's only production plant was in Japan, I think that really established Japanese manufacture as being very credible. They made some damn fine guitars and still going. Ibanez too, was turning out original designs, the Icemans, Artists, the Sabers, RG's & Jems

Nowadays, I think Korea is going thru the same phase with major manufacturers churning out instruments from there. I'd be game to buy a Korean Tokai V copy w/o much hesitation.

Some Korean makes strike me now about the same as MIJ stuff did when they were the new imports 20 years ago. 10 years from now, Korean might just be the next desirable items to hang onto.

Then we'll probably be dissing some other countries other than Korea.