I would say 12B hit the bullseye with his statement. To this day there still are foreign manufactures making some instruments that are on par with Fender and some better and not doing so for the purpose of fraud. And when it comes to small builders all I can say is that not all great Luthiers are in the U.S. and that goes even more so with acoustic guitars. Seems to me a lot of these foreign companies were making various musical instruments well before many here in the U.S. and some here seem to have brought there craft from foreign soil anyway.

Plus we have to remember it may not be cheap always because the use of inferior material but the cost of Labor and all things associated with labor cost (Ins, taxes,regulatory fees, pension,) just outright cost of doing business.
The average auto worker in the U.S. makes just over 29.00 an hour but with all the aditional add ons including retiries accounting for about +15.00 dollars an hour + the cost of bennies come to a cost of about 75.00 per Hr. Now I no guitar manufactures here are not in the same boat but there associated cost other then labor is still very high where as in many foreign makets it is not.

_________________
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

On this one the fender decal fooled me good!! anyway it sucks that there are fake ones

How many times have you seen people here on this forum asking about where to get fender logos for there look alikes or partscasters? Its not aways foreign makers who put these labels on.

_________________
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

Maybe in a climate where forgeries abound, it might not be the best idea to hike prices across the board, without a corresponding increase in quality.

Fakes succeed when the cost of goods exceed the value of said good.

_________________
I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

How is that irrelevant? Most of this post has been about faux Fenders and people assume most are foreign made when in fact many are also homebrew or foreign made and homebrew applied fender labels. Then with the foreign made label being implied many think it means cheap WRONG! that is. (Label meaning overseas made)

Now if someone sells a guitar saying it is a fender when it is not that is wrong but I also believe if someone puts a fender label on a homebrew that is wrong even if for themselfs, it sure don't make it play better so whats the point of that.

OHH yea I also think many companies in China or whereever wanted to realy make a strat to pass as a Fender Strat they could do it with no problem and people could not tell the difference. Heck the Korean's did it with our U.S. currency the superdollar.
To duplicate a solid body Guitar is not that hard for a company with the resourse's and desire to do so. And it can be done in a quality way at a lower cost then here in the U.S. if they desired to. It is the way things have become here sadly.

_________________
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

I completely agree that blatant forgeries are bad bad bad. My God i'd hate to be suckered into buying one on the basis that its the real thing. Yes the whole decal buisiness is a bad one but with todays technology theres a lot more fender could do to make it not so much of an issue in the future. Incorporate holograms, watermarks, all that kind of stuff.

I wonder how many chinese guitars get a fretjob and new fender hardware and are sold on as legit items?

_________________
No no and no

I don't know if everyones seen this but this is a link for a chinese fake Malmsteen strat

.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYwiBQHMCTM&NR=1

He seems to make it work.
Those peavey jsx's are very dominant amps though. It doesnt seem to matter what you plug into them it sounds the same.

The $80 strat video is in the related section. Wow thats about £60. I'm not into brand loyalty at all. If that guitar plays well for £60 it could have 'my moms a goat' written on the headstock and i'd play it.

_________________
No no and no

Yeah, I saw that. They have counterfeited many models.

I replaced the images in my first posts of this thread with bigger images. CV wanted to see something closer, so this should help.

Cheers, keep the discussion going! My point for starting it was for information .... so guys don't get ripped off. Ya gotta do your homework about Strats (and guitars in general). The funniest posts here are those that go: "I just bought some Strat and I want to figure out what model it is and if I got a good deal." Wouldn't a guy want to know what kind of deal it was before letting go of his hard earned cash? Hmmm?

_________________
Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

hah Orville, that's what i think every time I see a new one of those posts!

What happened to finding out what something is before you buy it?

They should all follow the fine example that Niki set, when he was considering buying that Strat. Dilligence saved him. I doubt the people involved even actually had a guitar. There are so many scams out there, I think you really need to play it safe with your money.

_________________
I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

Yea they are good! I never could buy something if I did not no what it was.

_________________
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

I saw a fake Crashocater on a chinese site some months ago.

Got to say it looked JUST like the real thing inth photographs.

It was a copy of one of Eric Clapton's designs.

So my point is this: -

1) Why buy something that you KNOW is fake?

2) I could never feel comfortable owing a fake - how can you lie to yourself. let alone to anyone you show it to.

3) A bit like the fake Rolex, or Mont Blanc pens that the yellow perils keep putting out into the market.