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Comment by julianlam | Hacker News Reader

That's because that crappy $500 guitar back then has been replaced with a $125 crappier guitar today.

I recently bought a $150 crappy guitar (Squire Bullet Stratocaster) and it's honestly pretty excellent. It stays in tune, there are no playability issues, and it sounds good once you have your amp settings dialed in. Electric guitars are really simple and undemanding instruments and it doesn't take a lot to make them well. The particular model I bought was manufactured in Indonesia.

It's true that I don't think you could find a decent acoustic guitar for anywhere near that price. I recently paid $500 for my first acoustic because I saw a clear difference in quality between the one I selected (Taylor GS Mini) and the competition in the $200-$400 price range.

When itcomes to guitars Indonesia is the new Korea just like Korea was the new Japan.

I have one of the last Korean Ibanezes(2005) before production of mid and low end models was almost entirely moved to Indonesia, and in 2006 the Korean ones were much better in comparison.

Nowadays, after almost 15 years the Indonesian made Ibanezes caught up.

I’m fairly certain China is the new Indonesia. My $100 Fender DG-7 was made in Indonesia 17 years ago, anything in that price range even inflation adjusted would be made in China now.

Thing is, nowadays even $1000+ instruments are made in Indonesia, which was unheard of 15 years ago.

I think the quality is still hit or miss. I have a Chinese Epiphone LP Standard from 2017 or so, and it is a fine guitar, but this is after leveling frets and replacing the nut, bridge and pickups. Before that it would not stay in tune, buzzed at several frets, sounded dull both acoustically and through pickups and especially the "hotch" bridge pickup was a wonderful combination of muddy and thin. If you are thinking "but that's how a Les Paul sounds", you have no idea how muddy and thin. To be honest, the "59" neck pickup wasn't bad, but Tonerider that replaced it is better.

Another guitar I use regularly is a Squier Bullet Strat. It sounds kind of like Strat and it doesn't buzz at frets because of super high action, but it won't stay in tune, the ends frets are sharp and so are saddle adjustment screws that are a couple of millimeters too long and the icing on the cake is that basically anything played on second string makes something under pickguard rattle unless you press it at a certain spot. If you have to ask, it's audible through pickups and kills sustain.

I think you can find equally bad USA-made instruments at several times of the price if you look hard enough, but I wouldn't call these good instruments.

A Squier Affinity Stratocaster was my first electric guitar. This was more than 20 years ago, so may be the quality has gone down recently, but there was really nothing wrong with it mechanically. The action was perfect (and fairly low), all the fret ends were well-dressed, the neck was perfect and it had great sustain. I didn't get any fret buzz even with Ernie Ball Super Slinkys. It stayed in tune once I learned how to wind new strings properly and stretch them out, etc. The pickups were shit, though.

Sounds like you have Japan-made Squier. I haven't seen one in person, but they do have a good reputation and probably cost now more than when they were new. The current cheapest Squiers are completely different guitars, and apparently even these have good and bad ones and I one of the worst. There are people who claim that you can get a good guitar if you buy a pile of Harley Bentons or Squiers, keep the best one and return the rest. My Epiphone was apparently a customer return.

No it was Indonesia-made. I guess I got lucky!

Japanese Squiers are great. My uncle, who is a fantastic guitarist and has all kinds of amazing guitars, often still gigs on his late 80s Squier Strat.

Fender owns Squire so it will be essentially the same guitar but made from cheaper wood and cheaper components.

Back in the 80s I bought a Charvel (Japanese) as I couldn't afford a Jackson (US made) - the cheaper Floyd Rose tremolo was disappointing but it was fine to play. Eventually switched to an Ibanez RG 570 which was super nice to play.

If "essentially the same" means "subcontracted for the company that owns the name and copyright to headstock shape". Original Fenders have already changed so much that the company sells replicas of their old products, and on the other hand there's nothing that prevents competitors (including G+L, the company Leo Fender himself started after selling the more famous one) making the exact same guitar if they change the shape just enough that it can be recognized as different brand.

Essentially the same in that an electric guitar is a few pieces of wood with some hardware and electronics. How well those pieces are put together and the quality and specs of each component makes the difference.

The type and grade of wood used will also affect the string vibration and what overtone frequencies are refected back into the strings. It takes 20-40 years to mature a mahogany tree so while your boutique makers will spend the time to source the perfect timber you won't get that for a mass produced guitar.

There are guitarists who swear by their guitar tech who will adjust everything from bridge height, neck tension, even reseat and glue the neck before they pick it up the first time. I pulled the neck off my old Charvel more than once to get a lower, more even string height along the fretboard. Second time I filed back a few frets that had nicks or weren't quite evenly set and sanded the epoxy coating off the neck and replaced with shellac for a smoother raw wood feel.

Ok, I misunderstood that you meant there's something special in Squier that would make it more Fender-like than a G+L or any of the almost-clones that don't have any direct relation to the original manufacturers.

My Squier Bullet made in mid 2019 is the best guitar I have ever played.

It sounds more than okay (which is subjective). The body is light but without any head dive present. The neck is a dream and the fretwork is impeccable.

The tuners are bad but not awful. That's the only bad thing I can say about it.

And tuners are super easy to replace.

In this case there are no drop in replacements unfortunately. You'd have to drill holes. But I'm okay with keeping these stock regardless, they're fine if you tune up.

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