Chinese Production Secret

[shinobikama]

I recently ordered a Series One only to find out that it was made in CHINA and NOT KOREA. All the ones I tried before at the stores were made in Korea, and it wouldn't surprise me that the HT stuff was Chinese, but the Series One stuff made there is VERY disappointing. The reasons I take issue with this are:

1. Blackstar didn't make it known to us that they would move the Series One stuff.
2. The little email response posted does very little to demonstrate to customers how we can trust that Chinese production is superior or at least as good as the Korean plant.
3. It's very suspicious after convincing us all that their Korean production was top notch that they would quietly start making their flagship line in China.

I sent Blackstar a message and haven't heard a response, but I doubt if they do decide to respond that they will provide any real insight into their Chinese plant or at least a thorough enough explanation to ease our minds. These are not cheap amps, so spending $1500 vs spending $500 on a Chinese made amp IS a big deal. I have to say that if we can't get a satisfying response from Blackstar, then they will lose me as a customer.

[JohnBNY]

I have a Series One 200 and a HT100 head, and both are made in Korea. I do recall a post by someone some time ago who raised the question of the amps being made in China. Blackstar's response, if I recall, was that the Chinese made products are as good, if not better, than the amps made in Korea. I though it was a strange marketing response, since they not so subtly claimed that the Korean made amps are not as good as the Chinese built ones without any explanation as to how or why. They could have just said the quality is just as good.

In any case, why do you feel the Chinese made amps are inferior to the Korean made ones? Have you had issues with the amp? My IDCore 20 is made in China, and it seems to work just fine.

[shinobikama]

Quality is beside the point, and I doubt very many people can analyze every soldered component and determine if component quality or build quality has changed. Simply gauging whether an amplifier lasts some arbitrary amount of time is not a very good way to measure quality.

I do not have the amps to compare side-by-side, but the fact that after touting their Korean manufacturing plant, and only after five or six years, Blackstar secretly began producing in China. Korea has worked very hard to maintain a reputation for quality manufacturing, and no one moves to China to improve quality - only to cut costs. A couple of years ago, Korean manufacturing costs started rising a little because they work to ensure quality production.

It takes a LOT to move manufacturing to other countries. There are entirely new sets of laws, new workers, moving costs, etc... there are so many things and the costs are extremely high. Therefore, Blackstar wouldn't have move it if they weren't going to be profiting more than enough to offset the costs of moving production.

Moreover, this all started happening around the time that Blackstar had great success with their Guitar Center special stuff like the ID series and Fly. The Series One stuff is SUPPOSED to be a cut above in terms of quality and components, but now they're made in the exact same facility as the budget line stuff.

It's not necessarily the move to China (though they have a very sketchy reputation in manufacturing quality), but how Blackstar went about it deceptively. The Series One amps cost between $1500 and $2000, so it's not the same as going out and buying a $300 Bugera and finding out it's made in China.

What if you ordered a Mesa Boogie or Friedman amp only to find out that it's made in Taiwan? I doubt that would sit well even with the people who think where something is manufactured matters. There are very good reasons why people spend more money to buy products produced in developed countries which have high manufacturing standards.

All of that being said, you are exactly right. Blackstar's personalized, obscure little response to an inquiry is severely inadequate. They seem to be ignoring the issue all together as if it doesn't matter, but it damned well does when people are spending lots of money only to get something they didn't expect. Blackstar made a lot of hype to convince people about the Korean plant, and as soon as people started to trust it, they secretly switched to China. That completely kills my trust at this point.

To make matters worse, I sent Blackstar a message several days ago, and they've obviously ignored it. Blackstar has told us absolutely nothing about their Chinese facility, and made no effort to demonstrate that we're buying the same quality they promised from the Korean plant. In fact, they decided to say nothing and ignore everything related to it.

Hey, if the dummies who shop at Guitar Center want to spend $2000 on a Chinese-made amp, then they can go right ahead and make Blackstar richer, but sooner or later Blackstar will lose out. They probably won't care either because they've positioned themselves where they can terminate their Artisan and Series One lines and just sell the Guitar Center budget stuff. In fact, once they terminate their premium products, they can start bumping up prices on their budget stuff. Thus Blackstar has apparently become just another greedy manufacturer.

[JohnBNY]

I see your point. And to your point about focusing on the lower end models, I rarely see the Artisan or Series One amps being advertised.

[BobK]

Does it matter where it is made? Its wood, glue, metal bits, solder and a screwdriver. If it works, where does it matter where it is assembled?

[ht40guy]

Soldering quality is probably a big worry here. There must be hundreds of solder joins in an amp, and if a solder join is not 100% it can fail easily. Although most joins are machine soldered now, its not foolproof and when you pay alot of money you want a reassurance of excellent quality. The soldering by hand of everything else is open to cold and dry joints even more. Ive seen some terrible soldering quality from China, and a much better level of quality from America, Britain, Australasia. Just my 10 cents worth.

[123racetra]

I Recently got a series 1 el34. It was made in china and 87 days later it took a crap and red plated a tube. About a week later I was able to get it to a shop and get it fixed. I got it there on the 93rd day and Blackstar would not cover the tubes cause it only covers 90 days. I thought that was pretty shitty. It broke while the warrenty was good. The problem was covered. I dig the amp for the most part, customer service is a 5. So are they worse or better from China, I dont know. Ya get what ya pay for!