Just what does assembled in USA really mean?

[jmendoza]

I probably have the year wrong, but my buddies LP standard had the Made In USA stickers on the PUs. It might well be a 2005 or later come to think of it. I was probably wrong about it being an Elite, but it has the nicest flame top I have seen on an Epi Paul.

 

 

 

Now, this is very interesting:

 

We took a real strong Neodymium magnet and put it next to a piece of the copper wire from the windings we took off of a Epiphone "Made In USA" stickered humbucker we had dissassembled. The piece of copper wire stuck to the magnet, which copper should not do, as it is non-ferrouse...well at least pure copper is non-ferrouse. I have some Belden (USA) #32 copper enameled magnet wire I use for winding home brew PUs, which will not stick to the magnet. This makes me very suspicious of the country of origin the materials in the Epi's PU came from. It's a clever game USA manufacturers play to qualify something as being made/assembled in the USA. They often import all the components and then assemble them here, but that is entirely different than manufacturing the product with components that were also made here as well. Therein is where the difference lies (pun?).

[flyingarmadillo]

"Made in the USA" or "Assembled in the USA" ? There's a big difference. To be labeled "Made in the USA" all or almost all of the product's components must be made in the USA. "Assembled in the USA" means just that. All of the parts can be foreign, but it was assembled here. It's possible they outsourced the wire but wound the bobbins and assembled the pups here. That would probably qualify as "Made in the USA".

[kidblast]

what's the top headstock look like? (the "open book" scroll, or a rounded oval?) is it perhaps an Elitist? Those had USA made electronics.

 

pictures would help!

[357bullfrog]

"Made in the USA" or "Assembled in the USA" ? There's a big difference. To be labeled "Made in the USA" all or almost all of the product's components must be made in the USA. "Assembled in the USA" means just that. All of the parts can be foreign, but it was assembled here. It's possible they outsourced the wire but wound the bobbins and assembled the pups here. That would probably qualify as "Made in the USA".

. What is it ...say 40percent of the parts must be American made to qualify as made in the USA or atleast that's what a line worker up in Cleveland said a few years ago

[flyingarmadillo]

. What is it ...say 40percent of the parts must be American made to qualify as made in the USA or atleast that's what a line worker up in Cleveland said a few years ago

 

 

The law is a little vague, it says "substantially all". There have been several court cases where the standard was 90% and higher. However, 40% would be clearly be "Assembled in America" and not "Made in America".

[capmaster]

Regardless of country of origin, copper for electrical applications should not contain ferromagnetic impurities. Correct electrolytic refining, that is using proper voltages and currents, would prevent that. Recycled copper calls for removing iron in most cases, crude copper made from ore will typically contain nickel. When used for transformers, contaminated coils may excessively heat up through losses, and guitar pickups may sound mushy and muddy.

 

To be honest, I wouldn't have thought that Epiphone coil wire may contain ferromagnetic elements. :unsure:

[jmendoza]

I agree capmaster, the windings should be pure copper. So if the wire is not pure copper, and contains some iron, it will have more ohms per foot in resistance. This means that the same amount of winds will give a greater resistance than pure copper. Or, the same resistance will be achieved with fewer winds. Either way, the pick-up probably will not react the same as if it was made with pure copper wire. Now, I have heard people talk about enamel versus polyurethane coating on the magnet wire making a difference as well. I could see this having an effect if the actual coating was of a different thickness. I do know that you have to crank up your solder pot to 850F to burn off the polyurethane coating to tin the wire, whereas the older enamel only took about 700F to tin.

[357bullfrog]

I gotta agree. Something's wrong if the copper sticks to a magnet . Plus as flyingarmadillo said made in the USA and assembled here are two different things. You know .... Like a can of soup in a grocery store that says ; real homemade flavor: unless grandmas in the basement with a stove it AiINT homemade

[stein]

Couple points, or maybe "questions":

 

Gibson, Epiphone, or even pickup manufacturers do not make the magnet wire. Or coil wire, whatever you want to call it. It has to be sourced from someone else.

 

So, where they get it, and who makes it, is a good question.

 

Another thing, ANYTHING "audio" where the signal is made or passes through a wire, the sound is absolutely determined and effected by the quality and qualities of the wire. The type of coating (which acts like a dialectic), in addition to the purity, and the grain of the copper. How MUCH better or worse one "brand" might be over another, or what determines good or bad, that's debatable. But for sure, cheap makes bad sound, and good makes good sound.

 

But it's worth asking where the wire is sourced, and if/when suppliers change. I checked a few years ago, and it seemed Gibson was sourcing the wire from a manufacturer with plants all over the world.