Core Guitars are live

eog

https://www.coreguitars.co.uk/

Absolutely no affiliation but I’ve been following these guys with interest on social media since I saw them at the London Guitar Show last year. Anyone think they’ll take the plunge?

Jez6345789

Wish them well 
Think it has some way to go, to be honest as found the website and choices a bit limited but you have to start somewhere. 
Also please pick some more interesting colours if we are talking custom

Tat2dstesh

Loved the concept but when I had a look at the site it seems really limited on choice and was not expecting that price. 
I'm curious though if they make the bodies and necks themselves or just put them together? 

oh_pollo

Good luck to them but that website is doing them no favours.

grungebob

As a start up with seemingly no other info or exposure I’d be pricing a Tele and strat around USA standard pricing at least until the brands more known.  

At the moment it’s around £6-700 too much of a risk. 

eog

I agree, the guitars are quite a bit more expensive than I thought they’d be

Philly_Q

They look OK, but very plain, functional and kind of "cold" - and the website adds to that impression.  It doesn't look like much careful, loving hand-finishing goes into making them the kind of instruments you'd pick up and immediately bond with.

Moloch

I specced one up. More than £600 more expensive than my Dennison of almost the same spec (except my Dennison has a gorgeous top and finish), for a deeply uninspired, generic-looking guitar. I'll pass.

hollywoodrox

If I had the money for a custom guitar I would be veering more towards the Stormshadow line as they do some awesome superstrats in great colours . Cameron Cooper has one 

EricTheWeary

I had a quick go. £2k for a strat basically. Might be a really good £2K strat, dunno. Bit hard to get excited. 

Tat2dstesh

If I had 2k it would certainly be spent on a high end gibson or fender as the value would keep.. if I went custom I would be going to paul Richardson or feline.
For a new guitar company the price is very high end and the resale I can imagine would be very low. I was thinking originally they would be the Gordon Smith price range 

johnl

To be fair, for too long the guitar market has been dominated by expensive, desirable guitars and cheaper less desirable ones. I think we should all salute their ingenuity in creating and exploiting the "even more expensive and even less desirable" niche. 

Jez6345789

I am glad I was not alone in my impression, I really want to see UK companies do better at guitars and as much as we have some good ones there is not a lot of new blood pushing through.

duotone

Came out at £1762 for me. No I didn’t bother adding it to my cart!

Cols

Looking over at Core Guitars’ FB page, there’s some nice looking guitars - especially their own design Persephone.  

The website is quite clinical.  It needs to answer the question “why should I spend over £1000 on this guitar?”  Good hardware alone won’t do it; it should showcase stunning woods, outstanding finishes and craftsmanship.

Question for the OP; what was it at the London Guitar Show which caused you to start following them?  They should lead with that.

Teyeplayer

Much as many of us love a strat or tele, do we really need more of the same? If I want something slightly different or uniquely finished I’d go to @GoldenEraGuitars or @rexter. I know from both of these gents I’d have a quality platform from which to assemble my ‘dream’ guitar (whichever it is that month). I simply can’t see any benefit that Core are bringing to the market. 

As others have said, good luck to them, but they need to find their own thing.

eog

Cols said:

Question for the OP; what was it at the London Guitar Show which caused you to start following them?  They should lead with that.

You got me thinking there. I think it was partly the prospect of being able to spec out your own guitar at what I thought would be a lower price point than what I'm seeing on the site. It was also the fact that it was group of young guys starting this company here in the UK, which I'd be inclined to want to support. 

p90fool

I just specced out a pretty ordinary alder Tele with trem and ebony board for £2,358.

I think they have a battle on their hands, especially without a gallery of beautifully shot examples of their work. 

Cols

eog said:

Cols said:

Question for the OP; what was it at the London Guitar Show which caused you to start following them?  They should lead with that.

You got me thinking there. I think it was partly the prospect of being able to spec out your own guitar at what I thought would be a lower price point than what I'm seeing on the site. It was also the fact that it was a bunch of group of young guys starting this company here in the UK, which I'd be inclined to want to support. 

The spec your own guitar bit is fine.  It’s not a huge range of body options, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing for a new company.

The human element of ‘ bunch of group of young guitar enthusiasts starting this company here in the UK’ doesn’t come across on the website.  It gives the appearance of a parts ordering and assembly process rather than lovingly handcrafting a guitar.

I think they should bring actual photos of finished guitars more central to the website.  Appreciate that they’re still in the startup phase and may not have many guitars to show, but they should show off what they can do.

The pricing is a tricky one.  I have no idea of the economics of running a custom guitar shop, but they’re asking a high price at the outset without a reputation to trade on.  I’m sure @StormshadowGuitars, @FelineGuitars and @GoldenEraGuitars could tell tales of what it’s like trying to get off the ground, but I’m sure there was a bit of a money-burning period of making guitars, growing a reputation and, for all I know, selling at a loss before they became established.

Stemcor

Have to agree with other posters that the website really is not good enough. It’s aimed at selling guitars and not really telling me anything about the company.

Are these guitars cnc machined or made by hand ? I have no idea from the website. I specced a strat type for just over £1600. I could probably buy a new MIA strat for the money so where’s the u.s.p. that’s going to make me buy a core ?

A UK luthier once told me that his accountant told him that he needed to sell guitars for £2k each to make a living. I can understand the pricing but they need to show where the value lies in spending the money. This would also help resale values to hold.

Moloch

They're just so painfully generic. They look like kit guitars and being 'Made in the UK' isn't going to impress anyone in this price range.