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Where is your gear made?


chris_b

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Over the years I've owned gear made in the UK, Denmark, USA, Germany and Italy. Recently I realised that I've never owned the full set of UK made gear at the same time, so I've been contemplating putting together such a rig.

 

In the past I have owned UK made gear, 2 Wal basses, Vox and Marshall rigs and now use UK made cabs, covers and leads, Barefaced, Roqsolid and OBBM, and I briefly owned a Thumpinator but I've never gigged a full set of UK made gear. I'm limiting this to actually made in the UK. I had a lot of time on my hands during Lockdown!

 

Is this something that people think about? Does anyone load up their car with exclusively UK made gear when they head off to a gig? What have you got? What do you like about it?

Edited by chris_b
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For me, nope. I've not once thought about where my gear was made until seeing this thread. I mostly care about whether it works and sounds the way I want it to.

 

That's not to say that I won't ever consider place of manufacture in the future. I'd like reduce my personal burden on the environment, but that seems like a totally different topic. 🙂

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I must admit the same thought had gone through my mind, but I was also allowing Ashdown, which I’m not sure are built in UK?

 

Put it together with a Barefaced cab and a nice bass from one of the several UK builders and I think you’d have a great rig.

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I used a Vox AC30 for quite a while, a long time ago. Despite it not being a bass amp it worked very well. I wish I still had it. 
Apart from that I’m pretty sure I’ve never used any other UK made gear, unless any leads, plugs, straps, covers, microphones and stands etc. are UK made. 

Edited by Cliff Edge
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I would only use UK gear if it was stuff I specifically wanted, that just so happened to be British.

 

I do have a UK built Ashdown ABM and a couple of Barefaced cabs but also have US built GK heads and a Markbass combo made in Indonesia.

 

I have read articles which say that, as companies need less and less humans involved in the manufacturing process, cheap labour will no longer be a reason to 'offshore' manufacturing plants, in order to save money.

 

In the near future manufacturing will be a mostly automated process, where labour costs are minimal and it will be more cost effective to base your manufacturing plants near where your customers are, to cut out the cost of transporting your goods over large distances from the factory to the consumer.

 

Many manufacturers are already doing this.

Edited by gjones
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I'm very lucky to be able to play gear that was either built by personal friends here in the USA, or by myself in my own tiny home workshop. The actual parts used are a mixed bag as far as country of origin though. What do I like about it?  The passion and expertise that went into making it, mostly.

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36 minutes ago, gjones said:

I would only use UK gear if it was stuff I specifically wanted, that just so happened to be British.

 

I do have a UK built Ashdown ABM.

 

Until now my main criteria for buying gear is that it makes the right sound and I can afford it. That will never change, but including specifically UK made gear is something that might be of interest to me.

 

Which ABM do you have? Apart from the custom amps, I thought their amps were now built in China.

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The closest I've come was a Shuker P Bass and Ashdown rig excluding leads and a few pedals that were probably built elsewhere.
 

It wasn't a conscious decision as my GAS knows no international boundaries 

 

The Shuker and a couple of Status basses are the only UK-built instruments I've owned. I've had some Brit-built Ashdown kit and Trace Elliot stuff too but it was never any reason other than I fancied trying it. 
 

That was all a few years ago now, so it would be interesting to see what rigs could be pulled together currently. 

Edited by Old Horse Murphy
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Its not high on the list of my worries, but actually, the a few gigs ago I played live I played a Shuker bass into an Ashdown CTM100 into a BC112 amp, using leads made by some guy on ebay in Sheffield, so if you ignore the Helix HX FX pedal, yes, it was all British.

 

So as others have said, it is not something I really care that much about, but turns out a lot of my gear is british. The CTM has now gone, replaced with an ABM600 (which I assume isn't built in the UK but by a UK company), and the last bass I bought was british too!

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I rocked Pictao strung Wals through Trace Elliot for many years back in the day, but it wasn't a conscious decision to use all UK-made stuff.

 

I've used a lot of different stuff since then, but now I use German basses and cabs with an American amp.  It's the perfect set up for me.

 

Although I might well be buying another Trace amp soon.... O.o

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All my instruments of note are Alphers so made in UK. My cab is an Ashdown ABM 4x10, so UK company but not UK made. I am between amps right now, but would like a UK made head. 

 

However my pedalboard doesn't have a single UK made pedal on it and I don't see that changing. 

 

But to answer the other question, yes I think about this quite often, I would like a full UK made rig. 

 

Support local builders. 

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1 hour ago, chris_b said:

 

Until now my main criteria for buying gear is that it makes the right sound and I can afford it. That will never change, but including specifically UK made gear is something that might be of interest to me.

 

Which ABM do you have? Apart from the custom amps, I thought their amps were now built in China.

 

It's an ABM EVO lll bought for £134 from Ebay a couple of years ago. Quite a bargain.

 

20211023_171804.jpg

Edited by gjones
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It doesn't really bother me.

 

I don't buy into this MIA automatic superior quality for a certain brand of instruments though. Its too inconsistent over the years to be anything like true, even as a general rule, and it's not like Made in America has ever been a byline for quality workmanship in cars, electronics, or pretty much anything else.

 

Given the choice Id rather not buy goods from a regime with ampoor record on human rights, but really thats close on impossible so I just roll with it.

 

By the time ive got the sound, function, and price/quality balance I'm after, then land of manufacture is pretty far down the list.

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Still have a head and cab made by Ashdown in England, use UK made cables and have owned a couple of Status basses but as long as the gear works and I can afford it, where it is made is not really something I think about.

 

Even the US made Fenders are made with overseas parts and that is why they can`t say made in the US anymore due to Californian laws. But that`s another can of worms. Is it made in the UK or assembled here with parts from all over.

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I don't give it much thought beyond the usual prejudice people get over where the instrument itself is made with the type of "X being better than Y and Z being the "pinnacle" you're charged a premium on".

I'm pretty sure my Sire is from Indonesia and I think my Cruiser is korean, Harley Benton have a bunch of locations so who knows.

As for strings, Fender amp and accessories...not a clue, I threw the packaging away long ago.

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3 of my current 4 basses are USA (3 fenders and a ric) the other is a Chinese Fender. Main rig is half Brit (TE) and wherever the SWR ext cab was made. Pedals who knows where. I mainly buy stuff for the noises they make rather than whats on the 'made in' label. 

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