I used to carry  very few imported guitars, I personally would rather sell USA made guitars. In the downturn economy that happened in 2001 and a seeming rebirth of American pride, many of my customers refused to buy Asian imports. This helped our economy and forced the import prices down. The economy has turned around now and sales are brisk. I am very happy to report that prices on most Asian made guitars have come way down.

Companies like PRS have made the same mistake that Kramer made in the 80's, they are bringing in Korean guitars of a much lower quality and are currently destroying their own credibility and resale value at the same time. I don't believe that a company with PRS's good name should have cheapened themselves by importing those cheap Korean guitars.  It seems they have now switched to Korean Hardware on their American guitars. What's next ?  maybe they will have the bodies built in Korea also.  How would the American buying public even know.

 My principal bitch with Ibanez of course was their pricing. The pricing on Ibanez guitars has come way down, I have not seen any loss of quality from 2000 to 2003 in fact some of the lesser priced models have improved in quality. This fact serves to prove my point, when I complained about them being so overpriced in the past few years. This trend has been almost universal, In fact, there are very few Japanese & Korean companies who have not complied with the pricing. The biggest offenders would be ESP & Schecter who are both owned by the same Asian conglomerate. These 2 companies, attempt to give the impression that they are actually US owned companies.  THEY ARE NOT!!!!  THEY ARE MOST DEFINITELY OVERPRICED!!!!  It would be foolish to spend your money on these brands. In fact I have seen little American flags on the ESP guitars recently, when you look closely it says "Inspected in the USA".  They must really think the American buying public is stupid!!!  Are They Right??