what about in terms of woods?? does china guitars can be proud of themselves??
in electronics and hardware, japan guitars is great for me, ive seen a lot of fender mij AND IBANEZ RG guitars MIJ and i like the hardware configurations of it..lalu na yung mga strats..
it really depends, its not good to say all mic guitars and their manufactures are the same, normally the use mahogany and basswood alot for bodies and mahogany and maple for necks, ebony and rosewood for fretboards, however if you have a really nice contact they can also produce for you spalted maple tops(which i have a project that will be using this), zebra wood or flamed and quilted maple tops(not veneers),ash,alder,phonenix(never saw this but hopefully soon),
they do use veneers quite often for really low budget guitars(50 usd worth strat or tele type), they charge more on the shape and its $5 more to use better wood
electronics and hardware they do use korean hardware if you tell them to do so, electronics wiring are that needs to be worked on i could say it doesnt hum but its cheap wire i tend to change these with cloth coated wires and better pots, the capacitors are what you would see in your china made epiphones, or indo or china made ibbys.
pickups, they do have alnico but mostly use ceramic, likely Semchina pickups(try visiting their website), or sometimes wilkinson licensed pups.
any preferred brand will cost you extra,
