Can We PLEASE Stop Referring to "USA Electronics" In Core Guitars ???

C

CrimesAgainstMusic

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So in a thread about the S2 McCarty 594 Special Edition, the fact that it was equipped with USA pickups (a true and valid thing) AND "USA Electronics", were cited as reasons to prefer this over the garden variety version ...

USA pickups ? OK . But mind you, the price differential at $1.950 for the garden variety, and $2400 for the super duper ... (with USA Electronics ? ) is the $500 cost of the USA pickup ...

Well I have said in the past, that there ain't no such thing as "USA Electronics" ,as long as we are talking about high quality, top of the line CTS pots. But as a professional goofy thing... I had to verify this from the source.

So I reached out to CTS. CTS, or formerly "Chicago Telephone Supply" , is a 19th century company, that supplied components... for Alexander Graham Bell's telephone !!! :)

About 1960, they realized they were so diversified, and not just making telephone components, they changed the name to "CTS". The company we all know & love.

So , as a procurement professional in both private and government sectors, I had to know what was up,

So I asked , AND CTS CORPORATE REPLIED:

All CTS pots are manufactured in Taiwan.

Regards,

Corey
mail


And Corey has a legit CTS corporate e-mail address, that I will not post here (or even my own) but as indicated in undocumented Google searches, Taiwan is the joint . But if you go on line, and check the CTS website, their customer relations folk will reply.

Actually been to Taiwan, outsourcing Stanley tools... (But hey it was the corporate direction at the time)

So it would be correct to say "CTS electronics specified for American made guitars " , but that they , and other CTS spec pots, along with Alpha and others... ARE ALL MADE IN ASIA ...

So please stop casting shade on "cheap Asian made pots" , to contrast them to superior, packaged with apple pie, Amurrican Made Pots ... :) They ALL Asian ...

What I'm bumming about , is my recent discovery that Core bridges, are no longer John Mann's Killa Dilla All Brass Jobbies

I put one in a SE CU24 ... and it is transformative. Looking to buy more ...

Current equipment may be all brass and all that, but they ain't USA made ...

So where is the cost savings ?
 
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Does CTS make the PRS pots?

The bridge thing is bothersome to me too. However, my newest trem model PRS was made in 2015. I think that was right before they made the big change.
 
jxe said:
so it's your fault taiwanese stanley tools are junk, i knew it.
Click to expand...
Nope !

I was just doin' my job at the time :) I was a corporate schleb ...

They got around to outsorcing me soon after ! :)

But Taiwan (and SE China) ... is beautiful. And you would not believe the food. Took me a month, to "re-adjust" to what we call "Chinese Food " upon return !

I strongly oppose war between China and Taiwan... 'cause too many cute chiks would get hurt !!! :):):)
 
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bodia said:
When peeps say USA Electronics, they really mean the same stuff that goes in the Core models, not that they're actually MADE in the USA. At least that's the way I have always taken it.
Click to expand...
Right. That's what I mean too. USA Core model pickups, pots and switches as opposed to what comes in a SE.
 
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CrimesAgainstMusic said:
So in a thread about the S2 McCarty 594 Special Edition, the fact that it was equipped with USA pickups (a true and valid thing) AND "USA Electronics", were cited as reasons to prefer this over the garden variety version ...

USA pickups ? OK . But mind you, the price differential at $1.950 for the garden variety, and $2400 for the super duper ... (with USA Electronics ? ) is the $500 cost of the USA pickup ...

Well I have said in the past, that there ain't no such thing as "USA Electronics" ,as long as we are talking about high quality, top of the line CTS pots. But as a professional goofy thing... I had to verify this from the source.

So I reached out to CTS. CTS, or formerly "Chicago Telephone Supply" , is a 19th century company, that supplied components... for Alexander Graham Bell's telephone !!! :)

About 1960, they realized they were so diversified, and not just making telephone components, they changed the name to "CTS". The company we all know & love.

So , as a procurement professional in both private and government sectors, I had to know what was up,

So I asked , AND CTS CORPORATE REPLIED:

All CTS pots are manufactured in Taiwan.

Regards,

Corey
mail


And Corey has a legit CTS corporate e-mail address, that I will not post here (or even my own) but as indicated in undocumented Google searches, Taiwan is the joint . But if you go on line, and check the CTS website, their customer relations folk will reply.

Actually been to Taiwan, outsourcing Stanley tools... (But hey it was the corporate direction at the time)

So it would be correct to say "CTS electronics specified for American made guitars " , but that they , and other CTS spec pots, along with Alpha and others... ARE ALL MADE IN ASIA ...

So please stop casting shade on "cheap Asian made pots" , to contrast them to superior, packaged with apple pie, Amurrican Made Pots ... :) They ALL Asian ...

What I'm bumming about , is my recent discovery that Core bridges, are no longer John Mann's Killa Dilla All Brass Jobbies

I put one in a SE CU24 ... and it is transformative. Looking to buy more ...

Current equipment may be all brass and all that, but they ain't USA made ...

So where is the cost savings ?
Click to expand...

PRS pots are not made by CTS
 
Simon Says said:
PRS pots are not made by CTS
Click to expand...
The volume pot is CTS. Some report Bourns. Personally all of my core volume pots in a guitar and from the accessory store are CTS. If you look at the image in the accessory store there are stampings on the pot image that coincide with being CTS.
 
SinSir said:
The volume pot is CTS. Some report Bourns. Personally all of my core volume pots in a guitar and from the accessory store are CTS. If you look at the image in the accessory store there are stampings on the pot image that coincide with being CTS.
Click to expand...

My 35th anniversary came with Bourns
 
Simon Says said:
My 35th anniversary came with Bourns
Click to expand...
I've heard other people say bourns too.. and it could be entirely true. Personally from 97-2022 core I've only seen CTS. PRS could have multiple contracts or supply chains, especially since the pots are made to PRS spec. To me that's the key more so than maker, PRS spec. The PRS volume pot taper is my favorite.
 
I’m with bodia, that’s how I’ve always taken it as well. It’s a way to mark the different tiers of quality, for the most part it’s known that the foreign built models use cheaper / inferior hardware. I don’t think I have ever seen anyone claim that the pots and or switches are US made.
 
So, where are the Bourns made ??? Idaho ? Kentucky ? Deetroit ?

Probably in the same Taiwanese factory that makes the CTS models ... :)
 
I agree with above, it's more about the electronics of the core line than US made. We could say imperial. Maybe that's part of it, imperial being associated with US and metric foreign. Whatever we choose to call them at the end of the day, pots made to a higher spec. If you compare the core electronics to SE side by side it's noticeable just by looking.
 
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