their main factory is in paris.

Neither the US government nor manufacturers GAF about American workers.

My uncle, he passed away twenty years ago, played the French horn with the US Navy Marching Band. I'm fairly positive his instrument was made in the USA.

Germany and France make quality musical instruments and have always made quality musical instruments. Though it's sad for US jobs to move over there, the quality is still good.

China makes crap musical instruments because they use inferior metal alloys. Selmer moving manufacturing over there means band programs won't be buying Selmer instruments any more.

it is better than i am, but in the "toy" category.

Most instruments are made for schools and school-age students. These have almost entirely moved to China long ago. But professional-level instruments have largely remained here. And that is still largely true, but the professionals are mostly buying from more boutique manufacturers, not from Steinway. Steinway now owns several of the big brands that were big in the WWII era: Conn, Selmer, King, Bach, LeBlanc, Ludwig, and have done virtually no innovation for decades. Just milking a cash cow, and the cow doesn't have much left to give.

I think the only real exception to this rule is Yamaha, which remains the biggest instrument maker, but even Yamaha has moved student lines to China.

Meanwhile, Chinese instrument makers are moving up the quality scale quite quickly. There is a company based in England walled Wessex -- a good English-sounding name. They started by importing the cheapest brass instrument they could get from China. Their claim to fame was that they would make repairs if the Chinese quality was shoddy. They would lap valves, redo solder joints, or whatever before selling to their customers. Over time, their partner in China became pretty good at producing student instruments that didn't need rework by Wessex. The Chinese company literally opened an upper story in their building where they moved the most experienced craftspeople. Wessex started developing professional-grade instruments coming from the upper floor. And now, after about 20 years, Wessex is a well-respected brand, even among professionals, especially for their tubas. The tuba market became open when Hirsbrunner closed down. That had been one of the most popular professional brands.

Bottom line, this Cleveland development is the result of 40 years of bad manufacturing policy in the USA. It seems the only thing we value is people who can flip paper and turn things into empty companies with a trillion dollar market cap and a pile of crypto. We need to tax those paper-pusher MFers out of existence and get back to celebrating people who work for a living, people who invent useful things, people who help people, and so on. Our national priorities are completely fucked up and we should not act like we can fix it with a nip here and a tuck there.

We need a revolution. Not a penny to the DNC. All of my donations are to candidates who understand that we have to think in bold, revolutionary terms.

It's as if they didn't bother to look at Trump's actual record on manufacturing, he had 4 years of it to judge him by. The US lost manufacturing jobs under trump and gained them under Biden. Not a one of them bothered to look at his record when he and his surrogates were out their spouting lies about bringing manufacturing jobs back. t6rump and his pals know only one thing, how to make money by screwing over workers.

I feel for their kids, cause those kids are screwed because of their elders choices to be misogynistic racist homophobes.

I don't feel bad for the three time Trump voter at all. I do feel bad for all the people he screwed, including his family, by being such an idiot!

Some Selmer instruments are already made overseas in places like Germany and France, but this is fine because those countries have a long history of making good quality instruments.

China has a long history of making terrible quality "instrument shaped objects." Virtually all of the cheap instruments you see online, where you can get a beginner sax for $100, when it should cost $2,000 if made well, are made in China. They do this by doing a crap job manufacturing them, and also by using cheap metal alloys that won't hold a repair and won't hold up to the normal rigors of being played, like having pressure put on the keys by your fingers. The keys get out of alignment, then you take your instrument to the shop and the shop says, sorry, we won't repair this crap instrument because it won't hold the repair and you'll be back next week saying we did shoddy work (when they didn't--it's the poor quality of the metal.)

Really sad to see that Selmer is moving their plant over there because they're a huge name in the band industry, and have been for decades, but now, one to be avoided going forward.

how people that voted for Trump think he cares anything about regular, simple folks like themselves.

... "I don't care about you; I only want your votes." And the idiots cheered.
They deserve whatever fate befalls them. The rest of us do not.

candidates in November." Proving that these people DO NOT CARE about the economy or jobs - even their own. All they really care about is culture war crap.

Never gonna give it up. Elkhart was ground zero for instrument mfg then.

Definitely hold on to that! The Mark VI is a legend among Sax players. So much better than the Mark VII that came later....And given it's age I can only imagine the smooth sweet tone it produces.

my Conn trombone was made there also.

Really..they'll stick with Trump unless they end up on the street...he is their guy.

However, the Chinese makers can, and sometimes do, make high quality musical instruments. The key is to use the best materials and slow down production to ensure ideal quality control. When those two things happen, the quality goes up dramatically, but so do the prices. The major brands set the quality parameters and the Chinese factories produce instruments that fit those parameters.

You can also order from Temu or other direct shipping companies. If you do, you pay much less, but you get the crap that doesn't meet the standards of major brand names.

Most of the musical instruments currently branded by well-known companies are now made in China. Same think with all sorts of consumer products we think of as being made by US manufacturers. They're not. It's becoming more and more impossible to make top-quality products in the USA. If you do, they will be priced right out of the market. So, companies are shifting production offshore - usually to China. The country of origin is still on the product or packaging, but nobody reads that stuff any more.

What you can't do, as a consumer, is assume that random items ordered direct from China will match the quality of products branded by companies with reputations for quality. What you get in a direct order might even be made in the same factory, but of lower grade materials and with far worse quality control.

When it comes to musical instruments, particularly traditional ones, people should only buy from retail sources that make it possible to thoroughly test the actual product you're buying. That's the only way to go, now. If, on the other hand, you're a professional musician, you end up buying instruments from the best makers, and only after a thorough trial. Anything less is not acceptable.

One way or another.

China makes all the cheap off-brand instrument you see for way lower than they should cost. They are made with poor quality metal just like Harbor Freight tools, and bend when you try to play them normally. They're a mess.

... like Paulson consider their financial success as the only valid measure of the nation's success. Little people, like the ones upon whose backs people like Paulson made their fortunes, are merely livestock to them, and therefore, expendable, and not worth a second thought.
They only take; they never give.

"WE LIVED BIGLY WITHOUT THEM!!!! THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION PRESIDENT DONALD J TRUMP!!"

Skilled labor requires years of training, and those workers are highly paid. Or at least paid way better than minimum wage.

I can remember when it was the pride of American workers to have the experience, training and dedication of providing their skills to trusted and beloved employers. I'm talking about my Grandpa's generation - between the wars. And my Dad's generation - after WWII.

But nowadays, employers believe that every worker is disposable. Therefore labor unions are meaningless. The goal of every American company is to use only robots that never complain and never demand breaks or paid holidays.

During the 2016 campaign, Trump promised to not let them send the jobs to Mexico. He said if they sent the jobs to Mexico, they wouldn't get their tax break.

They sent the jobs to Mexico. They still got their tax break. Trump did nothing. He lied.

That's how Trump, Paulson, and their ilk accumulate wealth and power.

......a close ally of Donald Trump."

We need to tag 'em all with this. Only a handful don't fit.

They should have learned by now that the GOP is the job killer party. They’re the part of outsourcing.

Fuck Czika’s stupid boomer ass.