Re: What am I missing?

Don Pearce <nospam@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

So come on, tell me why I should have spent and extra grand or so on
the real thing? I must be missing something.

When I started playing bass in the 1970's, the cheapest bass you could
buy really wasn't worth playing. Then, especially in the UK where
Fenders were way overpriced, there was a huge gap before you found the
first really good players. The level of automation even in the Fender
mass production factories was fairly low. Quality control was often
poor.

Then, a whole lot of good instruments started being made in Japan. They
were cheaper and pretty playable (and some were really cheap indeed and
unplayable).

After that two things happened. Instruments started being made by cheap
labour all over asia, and CNC machining became the norm.

Now, jump forward to the shiny new millennium and the rise of China as a
manufacturing centre. People are paid a miserable wage to make
instruments out of materials bought at the lowest price point, sometimes
using materials that are no longer allowed in the west (such as lead
based paints), on high quality CNC machines. Look around you, all that
stuff in the shops is way cheaper than it used to be, and it's just as
good as it used to be, for a limited time, until the non-stick coating
peals off, or the enamal cracks.

As instruments there's really nothing wrong with them. The frets are
all in the correct places, the body wood, although lighter than the
equivalent Fender, is often pretty good as a tone wood. You may have to
do some shielding work to the electronics cavity (but that's true of
even expensive instruments made in the west), and the strap buttons may
pull out of the soft wood (matchsticks and 'liquid nails' will solve
that problem), and the frets will wear down faster than the Fender, but
less fast than a 1970's cheap guitar.

You'll be able to play gigs and record with that instrument, and if you
have the skills to replace the bits that break (and it sounds like you
do), you could have a long and happy relationship with it.

Your next experiment is to buy an equivalent cheap lead guitar made by
exploited workers in China. You'll be able to compare the similarities
and differences much more clearly.

You'll probably discover that the cheap guitar is, like the bass,
perfectly serviceable. It won't be quite as 'nice' as your 'good'
basses that cost an order of magnitude more, the wood grain in the
fingerboard might not be straight for example (the grain of the
fingerboard wood on my OLP appears to be centred somewhere near where my
head is), and the paint might not be so nice (and may contain unpleasant
chemicals), but you might find you end up using it for gigs in
preference to your 'better' guitar, that can stay at home safe and
sound.

So, you're not missing anything. They really are making good stuff,
often with a limited component life span, in China. And by the time it
wears out and you buy your next one it will be even cheaper.

By the time you buy the one after that, who knows, we could be all under
water or choking down the warm oxygen reduced air while we revel in the
last days of our cheap consumer society.

--- Derek

--
Derek Tearne - derek@xxxxxxxxx
Many Hands - Trans Cultural Music from Aotearoa/New Zealand
http://www.manyhands.co.nz/

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