The ESP people told you one thing, and they told the shop staff here another...could it be ESP is misinformed about their own products?
BS is so thick here it`s hard to make my way through it sometimes. After so many years of honne and tatemae, I now question everything I`m told in the country `cause I can not tell which I`m getting. Have you been keeping up on all the scandals recently over here? Seems some companies have been lying about their products for ages, decades in some cases and it`s sending shock waves around the country...so maybe the locals can`t tell the difference between the honne and tatemae either.
As I said there is another guy saying the same thing about the Edwards but that the parts come from Korea. You say it comes directly to you but to me it`s just another story on the web and no offence intended but it doesn`t really prove anything. Not saying what you were told is untrue, but it contradicts what I was told here by Japanese shop staff...how are we lowly gaijin, and we are nothing more , supposed to know which is the truth?
I have often said that ESP could sell the Edwards for a lot more than they do because of the quality and didn`t know how they could make a profit....well, having parts mills outside Japan would certainly help to explain how they can sell them for so little. I have no idea why there is such a need for secrecy over here but I don`t ask why anymore...and once I leave this place I won`t have to.
I like my Edwards, if I didn`t I`d have stopped at one. I think used, they are the best bargain available to me in this country and will continue to buy them when I like what I see... so exactly where they are made, milled , assembled, set up or checked over makes no difference to me. But one guy started this rumor on the web a few months ago and now it`s growing like a mushroom cloud...`course that happens a lot on line doesn`t it.