I get the frustration, but all the corporate bashing is a bit much. Gibson and Fender both still make very fine instruments. They both could step up their QC a bit, but I sure as hell wouldn't turn down either one as a gift. Biggest difference in cost between a domestic and import instruments is labor cost. We Americans like our higher wages, retirement benefits, health insurance, and safe working environments. That comes at the cost of higher prices. No way around that. Welcome to the global economy. When comparing instruments by price, the cheaper imports will always seem like a better deal, because generally they are. Modern production techniques like CNC routing allow companies to produce higher quality and more consistent instruments, so that price difference based on labor cost will get more and more glaring as time goes on. Because of that cheap labor, foreign producers can devote more man hours to QC and setup and still have a low priced instrument. Not the case here in the USA. Considering the price difference between a typical Suhr and a USA standard Strat is close to $1000, it's no surprise they can afford to devote more time and attention to their products.
As for the ebony thing. Ebony is a very slow growing wood. That's why it's so hard. Common sense says you that if you run around cutting down all the 100+ year old trees and use up that wood, you are going to have to wait another 100+ years for those trees to re-grow. It's mostly supply and demand and the supply is shrinking very fast. Government regulation has little to do with it. They are simply trying to ensure that we don't run out completely, albeit a bit heavy-handedly. Plus, those cheap Chinese guitars may say that it's ebony, but don't hold your breath.
