hehehe! this reminds of a story of a famous guitar player who was approached by a fan complementing him on his guitar.
"the sound of your guitar is great! what tone, what emotion!"
the guitar player smiled and put his guitar in the case. then he said "does it sound good now?"
i think a good guitar is only one part of the equation. the fingers, the strings, the amps, the pedals and even the songs played determine tone. thats my opinion. madaming gitarista dito na hindi orig ang gamit, pero the skill level is up there, and their tone is great. the other side of the coin, meron gitarista dito na puro custom high end ang gamit pero tunog utot naman. hehehe
pero iba pa rin ang "orig." for example to play a '68 strat or a 50's tele squire would send chills down my spine. pero hindi lahat ng orig maganda. kahit orig na gibson/fender pumapaltos din. CNC produced kasi.
i suppose what matters is what matters to the player. if he/she thinks that imported/custom gear will get the job done, rock on! and there's nothing wrong with playing local gear, you're helping the economy at least
. and hopefully once the local manufacturers realize that pinoy musicians are not tone deaf, they'll start making decent gear.
to me the song comes first, not the gear.