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There is probably something to be said for the experience of the workers that have been in those factories, but the same applies to any factory in any country, and I think there's more recognition for that in the last 15-20 years; PRS acknowledging WMI on their PRS SE headstocks when they first launched was a big deal, and now being quite happy to praise the expertise of the guys at Cor-Tek when they moved from Korean to Indonesian production. Places like WMI and Cor-Tek can build pretty much anything for anyone, and do it very well.
I think the only thing I get a bit snobby about now - and I'm well aware it's snobbiness, nothing wrong with the guitars themselves - is thickness of finish and body shapes being off. For example, the finish on PRS SEs and other Indonesian factory guitars I've owned is so thick they practically look double glazed. Epiphones are great guitars, but they cannot get any of their body shapes right so they all look slightly off. That's a personal hang-up, though.
We're definitely at the point now where pretty much any import guitar is one set-up away from being a reliable professional-grade instrument, which makes them no different to stuff built in the USA, on a practical level. What it comes down to these days is the care and attention that factories can dedicate to the build rather than the location of the factories themselves.
I'm sure some of the more life-experienced members on here will be along shortly to say how much better budget guitars are than back in their day, when all this were fields / all these far-Eastern factories were rainforests.
And here is a thing - I've played more *incredible* US Fenders and Gibsons than I've played *incredible* Squiers, Epis etc. Whether or not confirmation bias is involved in this is a bit of a philosophical debate - and one that will rage for ever.
The cheaper models often use cheaper hardware, cheaper materials, less TLC during build, be made in the non-US factories. The US made ones will inevitably be more top of the range so the better hardware, better woods, fancier pickups, better (well, often not) QC and be made in the US to try and build and maintain that perception that US is better. People then automatically associate 'made in USA' with better guitars because that's where the manufacturers premium stuff comes from. Also, if you're from America, you quite possibly (and fairly) have a desire to buy stuff built at home. It all feeds in to the abbreviated catch all term 'I want a US made guitar' which rolls off the tongue better than 'I'd like one of this companies high-end offerings'.
If you based it on the ability to build a guitar and that alone, absolutely no reason Fender couldn't have their custom shop stuff built in the same place as their Squiers. I mean, probably not tomorrow, but with a small amount of thought and transition. Obviously they would never do that because being made in the US of A is all part of the up-sell and marketing.
Everyone knows tone is in feet and inches