Jackson guitars, country of manufacture???

[Nag]

I can't be the only one who noticed this.

Jackson used to specify the country of manufacture of their guitars on the back of the headstock. Now, a lot of the time, there's nothing there (look up pics on their website, you'll see). Now, we know the USA series are made in the USA, and the MJ series are made in Japan, but then, the JS, X and Pro series seem to be a complete blur. Sometimes, on the back of the headstock of a JS/X/Pro series, there will be a country of manufacture specified, but not quite always.

I don't know how else to ask this, so pardon my french, but, what the fuck?

With the JS series, I don't think it matters too much. We know those are the cheapest stuff they offer, so it's most likely all made in China now. But the X series cost close to 1 grand now, and Pro series cost even more than that... in the era of buying guitars online because shops are disappearing and often don't have a wide variety of (modern/metal) guitars anyway, I find that quite dishonest. If I'm gonna spend like 1300 bucks on a guitar I have to buy online because shops don't have it, I'd want to know if it's made in the kinda-nice factory in Korea or the "toss a coin" factory in China, nahmsayin'?

Not cool, Jackson, not cool.

 

[mxbraud]

I can't be the only one who noticed this.

Jackson used to specify the country of manufacture of their guitars on the back of the headstock. Now, a lot of the time, there's nothing there (look up pics on their website, you'll see). Now, we know the USA series are made in the USA, and the MJ series are made in Japan, but then, the JS, X and Pro series seem to be a complete blur. Sometimes, on the back of the headstock of a JS/X/Pro series, there will be a country of manufacture specified, but not quite always.

I don't know how else to ask this, so pardon my french, but, what the fuck?

With the JS series, I don't think it matters too much. We know those are the cheapest stuff they offer, so it's most likely all made in China now. But the X series cost close to 1 grand now, and Pro series cost even more than that... in the era of buying guitars online because shops are disappearing and often don't have a wide variety of (modern/metal) guitars anyway, I find that quite dishonest. If I'm gonna spend like 1300 bucks on a guitar I have to buy online because shops don't have it, I'd want to know if it's made in the kinda-nice factory in Korea or the "toss a coin" factory in China, nahmsayin'?

Not cool, Jackson, not cool.

They seem to photoshop out the markings on the back of the headstocks in the photos not just on the Manufacture Site but also in some of the early photos of a new model for the online merchant sites as well. I believe this is done for one of two reasons and that is either to not detour some folks away if biased on factory location and or because at the time of photo the item was a prototype and Factory location is not finally determined yet? That is my thoughts on this as I notice this stuff often myself.

 

[Nag]

Photoshopping the country of manufacture out on prototypes would be fine. On regular production models though, doing it because "people might not want to spend 1300 bucks on a chinese guitar they often won't be able to play before they have it" is next level bullshit to me.

I read it as : they know that we know chinese guitars aren't the best or most consistent ones, but they still want to sell us chinese guitars for a damn lot of money thanks to nice looking specs/"pro series" because they like money. If my interpretation is wrong, I'll happily hear the arguments, but until then, not cool.

 

[AkiraSpectrum]

A decent amount of official guitar brands' websites don't have the country of manufacture on the picture of the guitar. I'm sure there are many reasons for this (country of origin may be split between two countries for that model, the picture you're looking at is just a 'digital representation, to reduce country of manufacture bias, etc.), and most of them are not nefarious.

Some brands (Schecter for example) specify the country in the spec sheet; but even they will often have somewhere on the site that specs and other details may change without notice.

One strategy is to go to a place like 'sweetwater' and view the back of the headstock to see country of manufacture for examples they took physical pictures of. But even this has limitations as country can change, or the model is being made in different locations like you sometimes see with ESP/LTD.

 

[Nag]

Good points.

I did a quick check on the Pro series, I only looked at RRs and Soloists because I don't really care much about the other models, but I looked at all of those. They all say either "Crafted in Indonesia", or nothing, except for this one : https://www.jacksonguitars.com/en/guitars/pro-series/pro-series-soloist-sl3m/2911000500.html

This one does say China on it, so maybe they forgot to photoshop that one out. But also, it's got that "Jackson" sticker at the base of the headstock, like many of the photos of headstock backs that don't specify the country. It would be safe to assume that no country + sticker means China...

 

[Schweick]

If it's MIA, MIJ, or MIK then the company in question will market this as a selling point. If, on the other hand, there's no explicit mention of the country of manufacture then you know it's either MIC or MII.

 

[Nag]

Jackson don't photoshop Indo-made out of their official pictures.

But I did just check Sweetwater as AkiraSpectrum said, and indeed, their pictures show "Crafted In China" on the headstocks of the Pro series guitars where the pictures on the Jackson website show nothing. So we have proof that Jackson are being deceptive on purpose and photoshop it out.

In other news, the RRT-5 seems to be Indo-made, and that's the one I'm interested in the most.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

It doesn't matter.

You already know going in that you're paying more in distributor and retailer markup than the cost of the instrument itself, so whether that $1500 guitar cost $350 to make in South Korea, $200 to make in Indonesia, or $150 to make in China has no bearing on what you actually receive.

 

[Flappydoodle]

End of the day, if they’re not saying proudly made in X, assume it’s China. If they’re not being upfront about it, assume it’s China. (Then don’t buy it)

 

[MaxOfMetal]

Jackson don't photoshop Indo-made out of their official pictures.

But I did just check Sweetwater as AkiraSpectrum said, and indeed, their pictures show "Crafted In China" on the headstocks of the Pro series guitars where the pictures on the Jackson website show nothing. So we have proof that Jackson are being deceptive on purpose and photoshop it out.

In other news, the RRT-5 seems to be Indo-made, and that's the one I'm interested in the most.

Remember, they can change the factory, and really any spec, at any time. There are disclosures of such on every brands website.

The days of a brand sticking to a single factory, OEM, or country of manufacture are long gone. It's cheaper and easier to contract out multiple OEMs in different regions to limit impact from regional supply chain issue.

 

[Nag]

They can change that at any time, yes, and I'm fine with that.

The things I'm not fine with :
1) not specifying on a guitar itself where it was made, which turns out, actually isn't the case, but
2) photoshopping "crafted in China" out of the promo pics of their guitars that they make in China, since the purpose there is to mislead people

If I know beforehand that a guitar was made in X country, I can decide whether or not I agree to spend the money they ask for on it. Trying to hide that info from me specifically because they know I'll want to make that decision is bullshit.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

They can change that at any time, yes, and I'm fine with that.

The things I'm not fine with :
1) not specifying on a guitar itself where it was made, which turns out, actually isn't the case, but
2) photoshopping "crafted in China" out of the promo pics of their guitars that they make in China, since the purpose there is to mislead people

If I know beforehand that a guitar was made in X country, I can decide whether or not I agree to spend the money they ask for on it. Trying to hide that info from me specifically because they know I'll want to make that decision is bullshit.

Saying something is "hidden" implies that they're trying to trick you, when if you actually care enough to buy the guitar you can either ask the dealer for more info, look at pictures of the item before buying it, and/or hold it in your hands to determine for yourself if you want it still.

This all just seems like getting worked up over nothing via a hypothetical that doesn't quite exist.

If country of origin is so incredibly important there are several avenues you can go through to find out in the regular course of purchase.

 

[Nag]

I don't have any big music stores nearby that have any significant amount of metal guitars, and usually, when you order a guitar, you have to pay it before you can hold it, and once you can hold it, they won't give you the money back to return it. So IMO it's a quite legitimate concern, and yes, hiding where a guitar was build specifically when it was built in China is tricking the customer, because of the reputation that China has (and it probably has it for a reason).

 

[MaxOfMetal]

I don't have any big music stores nearby that have any significant amount of metal guitars, and usually, when you order a guitar, you have to pay it before you can hold it, and once you can hold it, they won't give you the money back to return it. So IMO it's a quite legitimate concern, and yes, hiding where a guitar was build specifically when it was built in China is tricking the customer, because of the reputation that China has (and it probably has it for a reason).

You started this thread three hours ago. In less than three hours you have figured out where the guitars are made. An email or phone call to a retailer would have taken 10 minutes tops.

 

[Nag]

Jackson's dealer search doesn't work outside of the US and their website shows no distributor for western Europe either.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

Jackson's dealer search doesn't work outside of the US and their website shows no distributor for western Europe either.

Why does it have to be a Western European dealer to tell you where a guitar is made? What's wrong with asking Jackson directly? Why not just go on Reverb and look at pictures of actual guitars?

You said you were going to order the guitar, why not ask them?

 

[Nag]

WE seems more trustworthy when I live there. Might just be a me thing. As for asking Jackson directly, if they're already actively shooping the info out of their promo pictures, you know...

I didn't say I was going to order any guitar. I'm considering options though.

 

[Chri]

WE seems more trustworthy when I live there. Might just be a me thing. As for asking Jackson directly, if they're already actively shooping the info out of their promo pictures, you know...

I didn't say I was going to order any guitar. I'm considering options though.

Jackson/Fender isn’t out to scam anyone. They’re not going to tell you a $3-500 guitar is MIA or MIJ over the phone.

 

[Nag]

But they could tell me that a 1300 bucks guitar is made in Indonesia, Korea or what do I know instead of China. Especially if the production is split up, for all I know, the same model might be made in two different factories in two different countries at the same time, have two different standards of quality because of that, but still be sold at a unique price. I am indeed not okay with spending 4 digits on a Chinese guitar. For now, anyway. I'll wait and see if their reputation gets better over time.

Either way, I dunno what Max is mad at. I used this website for its intended purpose, respected the rules, and got what I wanted. I fail to see the problem there. As long as I don't do anything that's actually not allowed here, I don't get it.

 

[Chri]

No one is mad, or saying you’re breaking rules. You’re just overthinking everything. If you’re that concerned just purchase from a dealer with a good return policy. Your MII, and MIK guitar has as good a chance of being a lemon as MIC.