ShredCow said:
Anyway, heh... this goes to show Ibanez doesn't suck up to popular players. 8)
True. Ibanez doesn't suck up to popular players. If you guys disagree, go find out why John 5 left Ibanez and joined the Fender artist roster, and has his own signature axe. I am not too sure about this, but I think System of A Down's guitarist Daron Malakian joined Gibson recently and currently uses a SG.
SoulJah said:
There's nothing special about this model, Ibanez is merely taking a made in korea SZ520QMBBL with a US List price of 600 plus and slapping his name on it.
IMHO ibanez introduced the MIK SZ to test the market, now that it has proved to be popular, they're gonna put his name on it and earn big bucks.
There's nothing new about this guitar. Almost everything is the same as the exisiting SZ.
Hmm... You might want to step back and look at the bigger picture. Read these quotes:
subversion said:
here's what i know about the Ibanez Prestige issue, if you know more, help me supplement the details. in any case it had been mentioned before...
1. Previously, the authorities of Ibanez's parent company Hoshino, had a row & they decided to shut down Fujigen Gakki, the wing which handles Ibanez production.
2. Plans were under way & we saw many Ibanez models going to Korea, including the Prestige models of the non-RG models.
3. However, they decided not to close down Fujigen (very recent move), mainly due to reasons pertaining to sales impact.
4. As it is, only selected Prestige/ Other models are made in Japan under J-Craft management, however, no decisions were made (yet) as to whether the regular models RG/ S/ SA etc are gonna revert to Japanese management following the decision as stated above.
the Korean Prestige, namely the SZ/ S/ SA models are currently handled by Korea's World Music Company (the reason why serial numbers start with 'W'), the very plant which oversees the production of PRS' SE models. if you are about to doubt these models- don't. the finish/ fit/ playability are top notch.
and
subversion said:
there are people who won't even go near a non-Jap Ibanez. i think it helps if Ibanez states the country of origin in their catalogues, so that they know that even the professionals (eg: Marty Friedman/ Chris Camozzi) have nothing against non-Jap units.
Well, Fujigen has trimmed down its guitar manufacturing operations A LOT.
Fujigen will not be manufacturing Ibanez guitars, unless Ibanez changes its plans. Also, I heard speculation that Fender Japan will cease to exist pretty soon, it has become obsolete.
There are lots of things we don't know about Fujigen.
Given Ibanez's current situation, I think they are also trying to promote their MIK guitars when they release this model, which is a good thing, IMO. Since most people stereotype MIK as inferior to MIJ, which isn't true most of the time. Also, in an evolving economy, companies have to be efficient by practicing cost-savings. This benefits both Ibanez, its dealers and the end users (us).
I strongly believe that outsourcing doesn't necessarily mean a drop in quality, or inferior products.
SoulJah said:
It pisses me off how they market their products, I mean they may be good and all, essentially a company based on endorsements. Try finding some footage of factory operations on the net, or even try to find some useful information on their crap excuse for a website. They are highly evasive about factory production processes. No production is done at Ibanez itself. All japanese production is done at Fujigen, which essentially is a company on it's own, producing it own brand of guitars. Korean, Indonesian and other areas of production are allegedly made by the same folks that make cort.
Well, like what you said, Ibanez is just a Research & Design team. They rely heavily on outsourcing/contract hiring.
The reason why they are "evasive" or "secretive" is because revealing "manufacturing operations" may result in a conflict in interest.
You can't say that Ibanez is a sham, since Ibanez NEVER claim to manufacture guitars. Consumers need to be more responsible and discerning.
Yup, it's got nothing to do with the Japanese business culture.
"sloppy quality control"... Care to elaborate?
There is nothing wrong with outsourcing... It's just a common biz practice.
