I doubt that you have seventeen minutes of your life to spend watching the above video, but it’s an outstanding tutorial on how to sell a product: Demonstrate the capabilities in short bursts with a little bit of explanation, keep the pace up. It helps that this fellow has some chops and can easily copy the riffs for which each patch is designed.
The nice people at Hello Music put the Eventide H9 Max on sale yesterday, and it was possible to stack one discount on top of another, so after listening to the seventeen-minute demo (twice, in the background, while I worked on my day job) I ordered the H9 MAX. I figured it would be worth it for the ability to easily duplicate the Allman Brothers harmony solo lines — something my Digitech Whammy is theoretically capable of doing but in practice can’t accomplish.
There’s just one little problem, for me in particular and for America in general.
The H9MAX has an astounding list of capabilities. It’s a counterpart of sorts to my AdrenaLinn III, but the focus is on well-known effects and combinations instead of unique and new arpeggiations. While it’s far from cheap, it effectively replaces about $2000 worth of dedicated effects boxes and offers capabilities you wouldn’t get with those boxes over and above.
There’s just one little problem, one I didn’t realize until I started reading forums: the H9, like all other modern Eventide stompboxes, is made in China. This is kind of a problem for me. I don’t own a single made-in-China effects device and the one made-in-China guitar I have is a rather unique item that I bought from TTAC’s Ronnie Schreiber. Knowing that the H9 is made overseas significantly decreases my desire to own it.
With that said, the bulk of the H9 product is made in the US — because the H9 is fundamentally a computer with a very long list of musician-developed patches. The H9 “Core”, which is mechanically identical but has just a few algorithms, costs half as much as an H9 MAX. So I’m paying most of the money for the American content, the same way you might get a Chinese-made guitar case with the low-end Gibsons and Fenders.
The opinion of the Internet is that Eventide’s decision to make the H9 in China is bullshit because Strymon makes their very well-regarded digital effects boxes in the US. I agree, but I’m concerned that the H9’s complexity and processing power makes building it in the United States effectively impossible. The only places where you can build serious-business electronics in the USA are defense contractors and billion-dollar showcases like the new Apple facility. China today is what California was in the Seventies: the place where you could get all the electronics knowledge and chip supply cheap and local. I doubt that will change any time soon, which is depressing.
I could cancel my order, but I think I’ll give the H9 a chance. And I’ll send Eventide a letter telling them that, regardless of the H9’s excellence, I’ll be buying American next time.
While your parochial & patriotic sentiments are noble, and while I can relate to them as I’ve frequently felt the same way about some mass produced goods in the past, you’re swimming against a historical tsunami ignited in the 80s, formally given nation-state blessing in the 90s, and whose wake is still spreading far & wide.
Our legislators & elected representatives have decided to re-shuffle the competitive & comparative manufacturing, technology & trade deck for their real constituents quite some time ago, their real constituents being large, multinational corporations.
$584 is the lowest I could get it down to… Maybe not enough to push me into the buy territory. Let us know what you think of it. Seems super musical, and a nice creativity tool during recording. Hard for me to justify considering how often I take my electric out of the case.
I dunno… the fact that you can get any Apogee product (which is made-in-the-USA) tells me that companies who want to do the bulk of their manufacture here in the states can make it happen. Sure, the DSPs and Microcontrollers are very likely fabbed in the USA, then sent to a low cost region for packaging and final test - but at least I know that the company is making an effort to retain some semblance of a tech industry here in the states. I will buy USA made whenever there is a choice.
we have no one to blame but ourselves. For one, we all amble our double-wide asses down the aisles of WalMart because “we save so much money.” Yes, I’m serious. When one or two companies find they can increase profits by off-shoring manufacturing (because most of us will buy the cheaper one because it’s cheaper) the rest have to either follow suit or die.
Second because our Congresscritters (and Critters-in-chief) enter into “free trade” agreements where foreign companies are free to set up shop here with few conditions, but when US companies want to operate in other countries and said countries impose restrictions and conditions (e.g. China mandating foreign automakers work through a JV with Chinese companies) we just say “well… alright then.”
I am more-or-less the same age as Jack, and in general I try to buy American whenever possible, if only because the product tends to be superior. What my age-appropriate parents reminded me of, is that it is a relatively recent development that the American sourced product was better. I will root, root, root for the home team, but let’s not forget that the early 80’s American cars were appalling compared to the Japanese made Hondas and Toyotas, and that (correct) perception has everything to do with the current acceptance of imports.
I’m old enough to remember when “Made in Japan” meant something cheap and flimsy.
While the ’60s era Teiscos and similar Japanese guitars are collectible today, in general they don’t seem to be worth as much as Matsumoku made guitars from the 1970s and 1980s and Jack tells me that the earlier Matsumoku stuff isn’t as well made as their stuff from 30-40 years ago. So it took a while for Japanese companies to get their shit together.
The same is probably true of China. There are companies there that are capable of making first world quality and others not so much.
It will be interesting when the standard of living rises in China and India and when there really won’t be any more low cost manufacturing countries. At that point, everyone will have to compete on quality.
BTW, I still think Jack should order a custom “Chibson” Les Paul copy from China. Apparently they’ll do just about anything you want to a guitar. I think a lime-green burst with air-cooled Porsche inlays on the fretboard would be cool. Probably cost less than a production Made in Korea PRS.
As an aside, all of those great Chrysler-Ghia show cars of the 1950s came about because the postwar Italians worked cheaply and Ghia charged a fraction of what it would have cost to build those cars in a union shop in Detroit.
Electronics are still made in the US at very competitive prices (at least by durable-good standards). I work for one such manufacturer, and we build parts in SE Michigan for the automotive aftermarket, OE service parts, heavy-truck components, agricultural tools, and LED landscaping lights, just to name but a few various industries that we serve.
It makes sense for certain high-volume/low-cost assembly work to be performed overseas; Leap Frog toys and alarms clocks have a cost-vs-performance trade-off that doesn’t justify even the lowest of domestic labor costs and overhead. But many lower-volume products are made overseas only because of misconceived notions and incredibly naive understanding of total cost models; that rock-bottom piece price is easy to justify to management, but it often comes with substantially higher total-cost-of-quality and logistics (have fun dealing with minimum-buy volumes that often equal a few years’ sales). I suspect that Eventide could find a good deal on domestic manufacturing, but it does require some effort and a mature understanding of product financials.
Jack, drop me an email next time you’re in the area and I’ll see if I can arrange a tour to show you what still exists on US soil. And there are another few dozen similar plants within a figurative stone’s throw, all chugging out electronics despite reports to the contrary.
I absolutely will, thank you!