In the interest of sharing some hard to find information I include the following:

The largest number of mid to high quality guitars is now coming from Korea. This includes both Acoustics and electrics. The Korean guitars are very good from the lowest priced ones to the highest. In the electric guitar market almost every company is distributing some models made in Korea with their brand name on them. The following are a list of Korean Companies I found online

\http://www.unsung.co.kr/

http://www.rira.co.kr/index-m.html

http://www.saein.co.kr/2005/company01.php

http://eng.samick.co.kr/

http://www.arammusic.com/english/main.htm

http://mdcustomshop.com/kr/

http://www.cort.co.kr/english/index.asp

  Of these Samick is the worlds largest guitar manufacturer with factories in Korea, Indonesia and China. Cort is second largest. They both produce a range of models from different factories. Which factory makes which models is something most music stores don’t even know and most distributors will avoid revealing. Company websites also do not have this information.

  Anyone can design or have designed a range of models and have a name put on them.  Michael Kelly, Dillion, Raven West, and Agile are examples of smaller companies specializing in top quality Korean models built to their specs.. There are certainly plenty of others. It is common for guitars made in different factories in different countries to carry the same Brand name. The lowest price models are coming from Indonesia and Chine with the better ones coming from Korea. There are only a limited number of guitars still made in Japan and the Japanese quality is equal to American made. Another practice is to order parts from overseas and assemble the parts here in the U.S. and label the instrument made in the U.S.A.

 The whole point of this is that a brand name means little. Any time you consider the purchase of a guitar the more information you have on where it was made the better chance you have of getting your monies worth

Amongst guitars made in Korea are models sold as Alverez, Agile, Carlo Robbeli, Cort, Michael Kelly, Washburn, Peavey, Raven , Raven West, Hamer, Samick, Schecter, PRS Se, G&L tribute, Xavierre, DeArmond, Fernandes, ESP, Tokai, Dillion, Gretsch, Jackson, Kramer and Some Fender Squire. This may not be 100% accurate although it is close Some companies particulary Fender market a whole range of models and brands with the lowest priced now coming from Indonesia and China. This makes it hard to buy any particular guitar without knowing the exact specs and who made it. For example there are now new Gretsch DuoJet copies being sold that are made for Fender (who now owns Gretsch as well as Jackson and Kramer)that are made in China, there were similar models made in Korea and the standard high quality Gretsch’s are made in Japan. There are good guitars coming from China but in general the quality of both Indonesia and Chinese instruments is below that of Korean instruments. Beware of sellers who will not reveal the manufacturing source of their product. You have a right to know and should not pay the same prices for lower cost Chinese imports. Rondo music online is an excellent resource to see the range of models and prices avilable. They carry both Chinese and Korean models.

An interesting aspect of the Chinese guitar production is that the Hollow and semi hollow bodied guitars which are traditionaly more difficult and costly to manufacture are of higher quality than the "Fender" and "Gibson" type solid bodies. My friend Fatdog at Subway guitars explained this to me. Therre were already factories making stringed instruments ( Violens, Cello's,etc.) that shifted production to electric guitars. Ibanez in particular has made a great impact on the market with their Artcore series.