One of my son's friends brought his guitar like this by a few weeks back. You are right, it's amazing how good they are for the price. Of course it's made in China.
Mmmmhmmm, you think I'm gonna diss Chinese made products, no way. Lately they've been getting raw and ugly press for repeated failures in manufacturing, leading to massive recalls of their products mostly related to safety. So safeguards must be put into place that bring their products up to the rest of the world's standards.
When I first started guitar building, I was also interested in violins. Played a cello for 4 years in public school music. I borrowed my brother in law's fiddle, it was "Made in China". I've forgotten the brand but I think it may be "Lark"? But it was truly inferior to other instruments I'd seen.
Fast forward about four years, I purchased a fiddle from International Violins, it was a Palatino, and dirt cheap. The quality was amazing, and quite different from the Lark from a quarter century earlier. Palatino comes in varying quality of woods too, but all solid. So, as you move up the scale you get real ebony, flamed maple backs and sides, really good wood.
Lately I've looked at a few Cellos from China and been totally blown away at the gem quality maple figures on the back of some of the instruments. Folks who are not hung up on name brands will likely be very happy with some Chinese instruments of the "quality variety", I'm sure there are still some junk stuff available too.
I got to go into the edge of China once in 1988. Quangzhou was our brief destination. A world much different from what most of us know. When you see someone living in tarpaper shack at the edge of a field, it helps you understand how far things have progressed. I can only hope that life improves for the average Chinese as time passes.
Thumbs up on the Blueridge, the quality seems to be there for the cost.
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(OK, that was a joke, please, nobody jump on me for disparaging bluegrass musicians, or their ability to read/maintain gainful employment,etc.) ![[uncle]](./images/smilies/surrenderflagqv6.gif "Uncle")
