Up until a few years, a Korean company called Samick made more than 60% of the world"s guitars. Samick "ghost built" many of the world"s major brand names guitars in their factory in Korea. Ghost building is where a brand outsources a third party manufacturer to make their brand guitars.
Today, Korea is still renowned as a dependable source for high quality musical instruments and many manufacturers have part or all of their line made in Korea. However, times are changing and public knowledge needs to be updated and change with the changes.
Korea has been turning out guitars for a good many years and as time goes on so does technology improve. Korea is being overtaken by another major international manufacturer: China. "Made in China" has carried a stigma for many years: "Made in China" = "cheap and nasty" and "of dubious quality." In the 20th Century and the early part of the 21st Century this was true.
However, the year is 2008 now and as part of the Chinese goverment"s move to dominate the world of manufacturing, during the last 3 or 4 years new factories with all new state of the art equipment were built and staffed boosting China"s quality and volume of manufacturing light years above what it was and miles ahead of the Western world! This includes guitar manufacturing. "Made in China" = "bad" is the PAST. Korean factories and equipment are getting old now.
A high quality, instrument made in China today will impress anyone. Many major US and EU manufacturers have taken advantage of the change and have their products made in China now. MADE IN CHINA DOES NOT EQUATE TO POOR QUALITY PRODUCTS ANY MORE. MADE IN CHINA = SUPERIOR QUALITY PRODUCTS MADE IN STATE OF THE ART FACTORIES WITH STATE OF THE ART EQUIPMENT.