Made in Korea

Korean guitars from the late '80s and '90s have developed a reputation they certainly didn't have when they were hanging new on guitar store and pawn shop walls. Back then, “Made in Korea” usually just meant “import guitar.” They were the affordable alternative to the American and Japanese guitars a lot of us really wanted. Today, some buyers see that same Made in Korea sticker and realize they may have just discovered a hidden gem.

By the 1990s, Korean manufacturers such as Samick, Cort, Peerless and others had accumulated decades of guitar-building experience and were turning out some genuinely good instruments for a long list of familiar brands. I don't know exactly how they did it, but there was a little bit of magic going on with some of those '90s Korean instruments. I worked with a guy back in the early 2000s who had an incredible-playing and -sounding Epiphone Les Paul Standard. It sounded remarkably close to the real-deal Gibson, played beautifully, and the guy had paid about $300 for it. I've run across enough guitars like that over the years that I don't automatically dismiss an unfamiliar guitar when I turn it over and see “Made in Korea.” Quite the opposite—it makes me want to take a closer look.

If you've never paid much attention to the Korean guitars from that period, I recommend trying a few. Don't buy one just because it says Made in Korea—there were cheap guitars made there too—but don't dismiss one because it doesn't have the “right” country stamped on the back of the headstock. Pick it up. Play it. Look at the fretwork, neck, hardware and construction, and listen to the thing. Some of these old Korean guitars sound and play way better than they have any right to, especially considering what they cost. And because they still don't carry the collector premium attached to many American and Japanese guitars from the same period, there are some genuine under-the-radar sleepers still floating around.