Where Is Your Guitar Made?
Made in [insert country] doesn't necessarily mean made in [insert country]
A couple of years ago, I had the opportunity to track import and export shipments by company name, so naturally, I looked at some of our competitors.
Surprised? That's an understatement. American guitar brands were importing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of goods from countries worldwide. Chief among those countries was China.
A closer look at the actual commodities revealed everything from tuning machines to string ball ends to bridges to finishing materials, not to mention solid and veneered wood.
In one case, a prominent American brand imports fully formed necks and fretboards. Many of the electronic sound enhancement components also arrive from overseas.
Your guitar may have been assembled or partly assembled in one country, but the truth is that it was "made" in half a dozen others. There's no such thing as an American-made, Chinese-made, or [insert country]- made acoustic guitar any more. Instead, there's a worldwide guitar factory ecosystem.
