Korean elite

Would you splurge good money on an Ibanez Prestige which is not made in Japan?

My Ibanez SA2020 is Korean, made in the famed World Music plant which was pretty much overlooked by many manufacturers but later became the go-to facility for quality craftsmanship without adding much to costs. These days, anything coming out from WM isn't entry-level by any means. In fact, manufacturers are designating their budget models to China/ Indonesia for more costs cutting. The WM people basically handles upper midrange level instruments but Ibanez was out of the picture at the turn of this decade. We still have PRS SE, Schecter & Chapman instruments, among others, being manufactured there. 

We can agree, judging by visuals alone, that WM takes pride in their craftsmanship & will deliver quality as specified by the brand name owners. I'm especially happy with this SA2020 as it's certainly up there in terms of the Prestige standards but players are not keen of such a compromise. The Ibanez purists still believe that anything Prestige should reflect a Japanese flagship, the reason the Korean Prestige range was short-lived. Thankfully, all Prestige instruments are back into the Japanese camp. It wasn't a case of the Prestige range excluding the non-RG models. We know how it is when it comes to sales; the RGs are still raking in the money. Along the way, Ibanez managed to address this affordable elite issue by venturing into Indonesian territory. They managed to secure the quality-to-price ratio in the guise of the Premium range. The label here is important because it would mean a branching off from the Prestige range & not patronizing it with double standards. From the business perspective, it's a crucial move. Branding affects financial performance.

I'm showing this rear view of the SA2020 where the neck meets the body in a seamless set neck construction. Attention to detail here is seen where the gloss body portion is differentiated from the satin finished neck rear.

I'm still not a huge fan of DiMarzios but I have the X2N (b) & Breed (n) in this guitar for variety's sake. I like how they perform in this one. They will stay put in the mean time.

Couldn't quite remember the previous strings in this guitar but after about two days of playing with tremendous amount of sweat, a fresh set of Darco 9s made for a nicer feel.