Originally Posted by: ren
I guess I should have also added that if you had 2 US (or 2 mexican) strats, one of them might be terrible while the other is amazing. Like I said, buy based on what you like, but keep your eyes peeled for shoddy workmanship regardless of the guitar's place of birth.

Another fine example.... Gibson QA is pretty terrible - seen how much 'B' stock they have out there? US made, fairly expensive, and not great in all cases.

In a blind 'Pepsi Challenge' test with (for instance) a US strat and a Korean one, I bet you can tell which is which without too much investigating... If you can only run to the korean one though, don't torture yourself.. :D

Ren makes all good points there... The moral of the story that I was trying to get across... and I think that Ren is trying to convey as well... is: Don't base your opinion about a guitar souly on where it's manufactured... I think we were both trying to get at the same point we were just coming from two different places.

I was going to mention the notoriously bad Gibson quality control... but since I'm a known Fender man... I didn't want the Gibson people feeling that I was taking a cheap shot... I notice that Ren used "fairly expensive' to desribe Gibsons guitars... They're grossly overpriced and terribly expensive... That's pretty much the whole truth...

And if you were putting a Korean strat against an American strat... You'd be putting a Squire against a USA Fender... Which isn't a fair comparison at all... Squire are the only TRUE Fender licensed guitars that are made outside Mexico and the US... I would almost gaurantee that if you put an American Standard guitar that costs 800 dollars... in the hands of a beginning player... and blind folded them... They couldn't tell the difference between the 800 dollar US Standard and a 600 dollar Mexican Deluxe... So that kind of helps to illustrate the point that me and Ren are getting at... base the purchase on what feels good to you.. and what you specifically want in a guitar.