There are major differences in build quality between the Korean and Stevensville guitars. However, one is going to pay for those differences.
The body on a maple-capped SE is usually made from six to seven pieces of wood. The mahogany back is made by laminating two or three pieces of mahogany together to obtain the correct width for the body blank. The maple cap is made from at least two pieces of plain maple that are laminated to the laminated mahogany back and carved. Two pieces of figured maple veneer are laminated to the carved plain maple cap. If one examines the figuring on the masked-binding on an SE, one discovers that it does not match the figuring on the face of the maple cap.
The body on a Stevensville maple-capped guitar is made from three pieces of wood; namely, a one-piece mahogany back plus two bookmatched pieces of figured maple. If one looks at the figuring on the masked binding on a Stevensville guitar, one will discover that it matches the figuring on the face of the maple cap. That’s because the maple is figured through the entire thickness of the cap.
As mother nature is not good at producing completely blemish-free (a.k.a. "clear") wood, one has to sort through a lot of lumber to find wood that is of high enough quality and the proper dimensions to build a Stevensville guitar. The Stevensville factory could save a lot of money by using a laminated mahogany back. For example, a completely blemish-free mahogany board that is 6/4" thick, 14" wide, and 20" long is more expensive and more difficult to find than two completely blemish-free boards that are 6/4" thick, 7" wide, and 20" long. High-quality figured maple is very expensive. The plain maple cap plus figured maple veneer approach that is used on the maple-capped SEs results in a significant material cost savings.
The bridges used on the Stevensville guitars are machined in Baltimore, Maryland by Excel Machine & Fabrication. The potentiometers and knobs used on the Stevensville guitars are OEM parts, and the pickups are wound at the Stevensville plant.
With that said, the SEs are very good working musician guitars. They provide a lot of bang for the buck. The decision to purchase a Stevensville guitar is a personal one.
Here’s my one-off 2011 Custom 24: