To me, it's more than the label, it's the quality of the workmanship of the instrument. The type of wood, the way the frets are dressed, the tuners, etc all come into the equation. I've owned a few Dano Longhorns. I had an original 60's one, then I had a 90's Korean remake, and IMO neither comes close in quality to the Jerry Jones Longhorn I still own. The reason is, the neck is beautiful, he uses great tuning pegs, the pickup's and wiring are all hand made. It's a well made, great sounding instrument, made in the USA. I still own a 90's Dano Baritone, and to get it up to speed, I had to change the bridge & the tuners. But it's still nowhere near a Jerry Jones.
Peavy makes very high quality instruments, however, they are just plain ugly. The same with their amplifiers. If they had a better design, I think they would be more widely accepted.
Squier's are getting better, the problem is they were so bad in the past that they are associated with low quality.
Funny, I remember when 70's Fender's were looked down upon. Everyone said the only good Fender's were Pre- CBS.
I liked the 70's P basses and bought a few quite cheaply in the late 80's. They have gone way up in value.
Then people looked down on the Japanese made Fenders. Those too are going way up in value. I have a Mexican Fender Jazz bass, and it's a fine instrument.
My real guilty pleasure find however is a 70's Hondo P bass. I scored it for around $50, and it's a great bass.
