SE Customs Now Manufactured in Indonesia?

jdag said:
I saw a post on a Reddit forum, pointing to a photo of a PRS SE Custom 24. The back of the headstock indicates that the guitar was manufactured in Indonesia.

Is this a recent development? Are all SE Customs going to be manufactured in Indonesia? What about Korea?

Reddit post:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Guitar/comments/7yzvax/gear_ngd_prs_custom_24_se_in_whale_blue_and_a/

Photos:
https://imgur.com/a/K0YHt
Click to expand...
That looks to me a lot like an Indonesian SE Standard with the wrong truss rod cover.

See: http://www.prsguitars.com/index.php/electrics/se/se_standard_24_2018
 
If it is the current stock it is different from the SE Standard in a number of way:

1. SE Standard has white binding along the neck - the guitar in the post & SE Custom does not.
2. SE Standard has a blue head stock - the guitar in the post & SE Custom have black.
3. SE Standard has a white nut - the guitar in the post & SE Custom have black.

Only comparing the photos.
 
jdag said:
I saw a post on a Reddit forum, pointing to a photo of a PRS SE Custom 24. The back of the headstock indicates that the guitar was manufactured in Indonesia.
Click to expand...

I've got a whale blue SE Custom 24 on the way. When it arrives tomorrow I'll check the headstock and post back.
 
I just took a look at a few of the SE Whale Blue Custom 24's on the Moore Guitars website. They have good pics of the guitars - one definitely says Indonesia and others say Korea. The Indonesian-made one is a darker blue than the others - much like the pic the OP showed.
 
Sir Stinkalot said:
If it is the current stock it is different from the SE Standard in a number of way:

1. SE Standard has white binding along the neck - the guitar in the post & SE Custom does not.
2. SE Standard has a blue head stock - the guitar in the post & SE Custom have black.
3. SE Standard has a white nut - the guitar in the post & SE Custom have black.

Only comparing the photos.
Click to expand...
I agree. The 1st thing I noticed when seeing the pictures was the darker shade of blue. And I did think it could be a Standard with a different truss rod cover. So either PRS is now making Customs in Indonesia. Or, that particular guitar is a knock-off.
 
Sweetwater has prs custom 24 fire red burst listed as "new". It also shows Cor-tek Indonesia on the headstock.
 
Victek said:
Does it matter where they are made?
Click to expand...

Nah. Seriously, guitar manufacturers have gotten REALLY good over the last decade or so. One of my favorite guitars of ALL time was my Squier Classic Vibe Duosonic. Don't remember if it was Chinese or Indonesian - didn't matter...it was just a KILLER guitar!

I think the "interesting" nature - at least in my case - is literally "interesting" that the country of origin MAY have changed. At the end of the day, PRS has done VERY well with the SE line - and I believe they will continue to do so.
 
markd21 said:
Nah. Seriously, guitar manufacturers have gotten REALLY good over the last decade or so.

I think the "interesting" nature - at least in my case - is literally "interesting" that the country of origin MAY have changed. At the end of the day, PRS has done VERY well with the SE line - and I believe they will continue to do so.
Click to expand...

Agreed. There's a line of thinking that correlates quality with country of origin; it's simplistic and often wrong.
 
markd21 said:
I think the "interesting" nature - at least in my case - is literally "interesting" that the country of origin MAY have changed. At the end of the day, PRS has done VERY well with the SE line - and I believe they will continue to do so.
Click to expand...

That's my point. It is not where the SE Custom is now made, it is that it was changed from Korea. Maybe for all SE Customs? Maybe for just some because of capacity constraints at the Korean factory? Maybe because of costs (my expectation)?

That being said, PRS and other manufacturers have long stressed the outstanding capabilities of Korean manufacturing, specifically World Music. So regardless of the underlying reason, it is noteworthy to me.
 
jdag said:
That's my point. It is not where the SE Custom is now made, it is that it was changed from Korea. Maybe for all SE Customs? Maybe for just some because of capacity constraints at the Korean factory? Maybe because of costs (my expectation)?

That being said, PRS and other manufacturers have long stressed the outstanding capabilities of Korean manufacturing, specifically World Music. So regardless of the underlying reason, it is noteworthy to me.
Click to expand...
Yeah. The surprise is more about whether or not SE production is moving to a different factory. The quality of the Korean line has long been praised. I knew they built some standards in Indonesia. Will be interesting to see.
 
I'm interested to see how this develops.

From my experience with other products (fishing reels) which have followings as passionate as guitar owners, the divide between Korean made and southeast asian mfg is a vast chasm:confused:. There are at least 4 or 5 major reel makers that farm out their product line to various countries and their Korean made product always holds the higher end of their line, while the Chinese and Thailand stuff is the low end/beginner models.

Not to say musical instruments is the same, Eastman out of China makes high quality jazz guitars, better than any in the price range, so anything can happen, but my initial knee jerk is on the "Uh Oh" side.:eek:
 
vchizzle said:
Yeah. The surprise is more about whether or not SE production is moving to a different factory. The quality of the Korean line has long been praised. I knew they built some standards in Indonesia. Will be interesting to see.
Click to expand...


Looks like the "Cor-Tek" is "Cort". In addition to Korea, it looks like they have an Indonesian factory "PT. Cort".
I just bought a standard 24 and like the quality. It's manufactured by PT. Wildwood. Does anyone know what the PT stands for?
 
Peet said:
Looks like the "Cor-Tek" is "Cort". In addition to Korea, it looks like they have an Indonesian factory "PT. Cort".
I just bought a standard 24 and like the quality. It's manufactured by PT. Wildwood. Does anyone know what the PT stands for?
Click to expand...

PT is Indonesia's version of LLC:
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/pt-perseroan-terbatas.asp

So perhaps we're seeing a consolidation from WMI and Wildwood to Cort? The new acoustic series is made by Cort in China.
 
Victek said:
Does it matter where they are made?
Click to expand...
Short answer - yes it does.

Longer answer - The company I work for makes one of the many gizmos in your cell phone. If you have any brand of cell phone, you have either ours or one of our few competitor's gizmo in there. None of the factories that produce these gizmos are in the USA. All are made in Asia or Mexico. The dozen or so subcontractors we all use, work to our specs but the results are not always the same. The parts may function the same, but the USA workload to keep some subcontractor's quality on par is vastly different.

We are told that PRS inspects every SE guitar that comes from Asia. Why? To keep the quality up to the standards we expect from PRS. If Paul could trust any Asian company to produce with the same number of quality slips that the US factory has, he would stop looking. It is an expense to do so and if he could stop paying for that service he would. Now we may not see a difference between an Indonesian and Korean made SE, just as you don't see a difference in cell phone gizmos, but I bet PRS does. And I'm not saying which subcontractor for PRS might be worse. I haven't audited the companies. But I can say that the location matters because the amount of work to get them up to the level of quality we demand isn't the same.

Now I'm not knocking Indonesian SE's. I trust PRS enough to believe that they will be great guitars. But I am saying that location will no longer matter when Paul stops paying for a USA inspection of guitars from Asia.
 
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