WGS specifies assembled rather than made in the USA. Are WGS speakers assembled from parts sourced from foreign and domestic mfg's or does WGS design mfg and assemble speakers?
Assembled In VS Made In USA
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I'm not sure if there is some "legal" distinction between the two ... but yes, as is generally always the case in manufacturing, parts are sourced from all over the world, with parts made in the US used whenever possible. We have two of the world's oldest paper manufactures (both in the US) that make the paper cones, magnet material is sourced from wherever the best can be found (that changes from time to time), and, yes, some of the pieces are made at the plant in Paducah, KY as well. And then, all of the assembly is done at the plant in Paducah ... which includes paint (powder coat), wiring, gaussing (charging)the magnet material, labeling ... and the other stuff ... gluing, trimming, soldering, screwing, bolting, final packaging ... I think that's about it ... but I'm sure I forgot something, maybe one of the guys in Paducah will chime in here.
100% of the designing, research, and development is done in Paducah (although real-world musicians play a part ... from wherever they may be). And, prototypes are 100% made in-house.
If you do a little searching of my blog you will find some history on WGS ... which is a fairly "new" manufacturer ... but with root's that go back many decades making speakers in Paducah! Here are a few tid-bits:
https://wgs4.com/making-tone-star
https://wgs4.com/happy-labor-day
https://wgs4.com/win-free-custom-shop-wgs-speaker
https://wgs4.com/warehouse-guitar-speakers-moving-forward-%E2%80%93-infinity-and-beyond
thank you very much Vaughn.
Vaughn pretty much summed it up. There is a formula to decide which term to use. It is based on percentages of where the parts are made, labor, ect. The British Invasion series soft parts(cones, spiders, dust caps) all are made in England. We source our magnets direct from Asia along with the rest of the world. We have a machine shop in Thailand that does some of our plates and the rest are outsourced to another company over there but we own the tooling for all of our parts. The basket are made over there also from our tools. All design and development is done in Kentucky. As far as the American Vintage series goes all of those soft parts are made here in the USA to our specs. The American series could probably say made in the USA to tell you the truth. Anyway, we bring in all the parts and put everything together here in Paducah. From powder coating baskets, glueing magnets to plates, running them down the line setting coils and cones and applying edge treatment if needed. They are then magnetized, on machines built by our parent company in Paducah. Tested, cleaned and packed and shipped to wherever they are needed.
Thanks Vaughn and Dean. I didn't need to know this, but it's good to have the ammo for all the nay-sayers when trying to tell folks about your fine local products! Cheers from Bloomington, IN!
this is a VERY hot selling point as I went through a buying spree of quality speakers after playing through inferior speakers for over three decades.
many, many people are concerned about the vintage competitor's move from across the pond all the way to China. I do not have a strong issue with their quality control concept, other than you are still PAYING THE SAME PRICE for same speaker and they pocket the extra cash. How do I benefit from this? I feel that it's a bait & switch game. As a result I avoided them. Well, almost...still found a Cab with speakers made across the pond.
I think WGS should strongly clarify, in plain as day language, somewhere in their home page about Made in USA vs Assembled in USA concept. Some people think that they are being deliberately mislead; and are instantly turned off. this is a MAJOR issue for a lot of buyers nowadays.