I think it’s clear what’s happening is American manufacturers like Gibson are having to find ways to make American customers adapt to permanently paying much higher prices for what were once cheap imports. These guitars will now occupy the pricing position that entry level American made guitars were in previously. So now they’re willing, after decades, to put the actual headstock shape on them and offer some new appointments that bring them a little closer.
This was always the inevitable result of outsourcing for cheap goods, they eventually aren’t cheap anymore. Everyone acted like the party would never end but one by one, from Japan, to Korea, to China and Indonesia the dominoes keep falling.
