[Art]

Howdy!

Firstly, I think that Tele USA is a fine company and what I have tried from them has been impressive. BUT, I can see why some feel uncomfortable about the "made in china" thing. For me (and this is just my feelings about it) it is because:

1. I prefer to support countries that require companies to pay a fair wage to their empoyees and have reasonable labor laws. These are people after all, they should not have to be treated like garbage just because they happen to be born in China.

2. It is hard for me to believe that people who are treated so poorly are really paying close attention to detail and precision. Do they have some type of intrinsic pride in this product? Or is it the same as assembling a washing machine to them?

3. I really relate to in a personal way (and it seems others do too) for whatever reason to Microphones, Guitars, Outboard and such. I like to think that the people assembling/manufacturing have pride in their products and that it was built with great care. It is inspirational to use a fine German microphone, because of the heritage, history and pride of the brand. Chinese mass producton of musical instruments makes it all feel like a video game, like kids will play with it if we make it cheap enough. The China model is based on low price not high quality. Not to say that the Chinese can not make quality products, sure they can. But why do companies go there, to save money obviously.

4. In my experience, audio products made in China do not seem to become classics and hold their value too well.

That being said certain products I do not personalize with as much and the "made in china" thing is not as painful, for example a guitar tuner or Masterlink? Now of course the explanation for this is complicated, but I am more than comfortable admitting that my psychological state is questionable.