Pepe Silvia wrote: ↑Tue Nov 10, 2020 8:04 pm
Balaguer is not far from me and I always thought they were reasonable for a semi-custom guitar, but when I just checked their website again I discovered they are assembled from Asian parts? I always thought they were made in America.
IIRC they have a Standard line (set options, a few finish choices) for reasonable money, MIC; the Select (semi-custom but a ton of options) for still reasonable but not "great deal" territory, MIK; and the USA line (just about whatever you want, but limited availability) for $$$$$, made in their US shop.
Honestly considering the amount of shenanigans you can get up to with their Select series, I think the price is reasonable - sure, the simpler stuff is a bit pricey, but say you want a Tele Bass VI with an offset trem and mini-humbuckers, you can get that for not exorbitant amounts of cash. I've gotten my hand on a couple of the Standards and even with those the quality is more than fair for the money - they go for Fender Player prices, and I think Balaguer edges them out on consistency of QC. I remember hearing somewhere that they do final QC and setup at their US shop for all the Balaguer lines, and that would line up with my experience: the Standards punch way above their weight.