that's a good one!


But what does 15% mean!??

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Well, exactly.

For instance. We're told that the brass ends on Fender Bullet strings are manufactured in Germany; the rest of the string is produced in the Mexican plant. So by length around one percent of that string is German. By width perhaps 95% is German (depending which string we measure). If you count the bullet end as one part and the string as the other then it's 50-50. And by volume - well, we'll let Archimedes work that out.

Now. Let's start figuring what nationality Vox's new Virage guitar has on its birth certificate.

Or let's not.

Cheers - C

Used to be true, not so now. 2 Brand new Steel Mills in the US, SeverStal was built 2 years ago and TKS is being completed as we speak. These are the two most modern plants in the world. Previous to this the most modern plants in the US belonged to NUCOR. The US Steel and Arcelor mills are very old. Their newest dating back to 1963.

Forging and Casting are very different processes. The US is very strong in Forging and Small Castings. Large Castings (like Machine bases etc.) is predominately made outside the US because of environmental regs.

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AmDlx HSS
62 Hot Rod
Luke w/Piezo
Carvin Belair

I know Steel Mills in general terms. I do industrial technology specifically to the Steel mills. My familiarity with Foundries, etc is limited so I'll leave that to someone else.

The US Steel industry is very competitive, the quality is very good, pricing is stable, and delivery is sure. Keep in mind that Steel is heavy, logistics are very expensive. The Koreans make arguably the world’s best steel right now, but their overall cost is not drastically less than ours. European Steel is also excellent (on par with the US), but they have a legacy cost burden that can price them out of competitiveness. The Chinese Steel in general is a lower quality but their labor rates are very low. That being said they (China) will have many times more labor hours built into the process. They normally have @ 10X (or more) the amount of workers that we would have at a facility of the same size in the US. A mid-large US mill may have 3 - 4K hourly workers, in China it would be a city of 30 - 40,000. So when you add logistics as well, I am not sure how competitive it really is.

I am just not sure how to define American Steel anymore. US Steel and NUCOR are the only remaining US-Based big producers and they aren't even the biggest in this country. That honor belongs to ArcelorMittal (Luxembourg) and SeverStal (Russia) is closing in on #3.

This hijack had probably bored everyone enough already. If you want to know more PM me.

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AmDlx HSS
62 Hot Rod
Luke w/Piezo
Carvin Belair

Actually very interesting. And now I know how you come to be doing all that travelling!

(No PM'ing on this website, BTW...)

Cheers - C

Yep...lucky me. I was just in your neck of the woods a couple of weeks ago too. London and Ijmuiden over three days.

No PMing? Then they need to remove the PM button on the bottom of the screen.

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AmDlx HSS
62 Hot Rod
Luke w/Piezo
Carvin Belair

Good question, depends. Labor is still the key. Americans want everything for free. Many aren't willing to pay an American worker a livable wage to assemble the products.

As far as castings for the parts. I know that a lot of the reasons that we are lacking in some casting technolgy and such is EPA regs.

FWIW: The industry is old. They are looking for young talented Engineers. Just recently, I met a 25 year old kid...really bright. He is a Bio Chemistfrom John Hopkins. Why he works at a Steel Mill instead of a becoming a doctor, should tell you something about the talent they are looking for.

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AmDlx HSS
62 Hot Rod
Luke w/Piezo
Carvin Belair

Don't forget Sparrows point in Baltimore when in comes to steel.
News article.
One of the world’s richest businessmen blew through town Monday for a whirlwind tour of his latest acquisition — the Sparrows Point steel mill.

Alexey Mordashov, general director of Russian steel firm Severstal, pronounced the plant in overall “good shape” following his first tour of the mill Monday. But he pointed out a few areas of concern, including the blast furnace at the heart of the mill.

“Each piece of the facility has its own profile, its own needs,” said Mordashov. “A change of hands is a good time to do some of these things.”

Mordashov joined Severstal North America President and Chief Executive Officer Ronald Nock and other company executives for a tour of the plant Monday. The company purchased Sparrows Point in March for $810 million from fellow steel giant ArcelorMittal, which had been ordered by the U.S. Department of Justice to divest the plant.

Nock said the plant’s blast furnace will be shut down for two to three weeks in August to undergo improvements and upgrades, the first step in the company’s pledged five-year investment plan in Sparrows Point. The company said it will invest more than $500 million in the plant and will bring the steel mill back up to its full capacity of 3.6 million tons of steel per year.

“We have a very strong market for steel right now,” Mordashov said. “If you run the plant at full capacity, it positions you better in terms of cost.

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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

Old news, that purchase was about a year ago. Changed hands form ArcelorMittal to SeverStal. Oddly, I was there the day after it was announced.

The port at that location is one of only a few deep water ports in the US. It is rumured that it is still owned by Mr. Mittal.

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AmDlx HSS
62 Hot Rod
Luke w/Piezo
Carvin Belair

I love my Highway One, its the best Strat i have owned and i chose it over a bunch of US Standards amongst others.
People get really hung up about origin, i dunno, i think the longer you have been playing the less relevant this kind of thing becomes. If a guitar feels good it does'nt matter where it was made.

I have some vintage stuff (including pre cbs) and Japanese models, they are all good instruments.