£1000 Gems

Tannin

Some brands are famous for holding their value. Martin  is a stand-out: you see three-year-old second-hand Martins being advertised for 90% of the new price, and very likely selling close to that mark. A 10-year-old Martin in only decent shape still sells for a lot of money. Gibsons too - you won't pick up a J-45 or an SJ-200 cheap unless it's broken, and enen then you'll stil pay overs. So if you are buying with an eye to selling one day, those brands make some sense - until you remember that you are paying overs for the name in the first place and you could probably buy more guitar for less money by looking at some other brands.

But what about the reverse? 

Suppose you just want to buy the best guitar you can get for £1000 or £1500 

We saw in this thread - https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/224678/lakewood-m32cp - that Lakewood guitars don't  sell for much second-hand (and these are very fine instruments of first-rate quality). Another thread a month or so back bemoaned the resale price of Larrivees - now there is another quality make. Over here in Oz I have been eying a beautiful Breedlove guitar at one of my favourite retailers on offer at a less than I reckon it's worth, and not getting any buyers. Another example: I paid $3000 for my (then) 9-month-old Mineur, a lovely single-luthier guitar it would have cost me close to $6000 to order new.

So let's make a list: Which top-quality guitars tend to be second-hand bargains? I'll start:

* Any used single-luthier guitar (except for a handful of very famous makers). THese tend to be the best bargains of all.
* Lakewood
* Larivee
* .........

over to you....

ElectricXII

My new-to-me used Gibson J-35 cost a grand. The same woods and build quality as a J-45 for much less cash.

Tannin

^ And  (if I may say so) much better looking. 

Strangefan

Dowina ftw. 

CavemanGrogg

Yamaha, if you avoid the online hype about ''vintage'' acoustic Yamaha guitars and buy brand new, £1k will get you an extremely good all solid wood steel string acoustic or classical guitar that will seriously give the more saught after brands stuff costing 5 times the amount and more a tough challenge for the money.

Ortega, not their sub £1k range, but their private reserve stuff

RickLucas

Blueridge

tsj93

I've got a Ramirez in the classifieds I may be tempted to move on for not much change after a grand

Tannin

Cheers Lads. I will try the question again, making  it clearer this time. 

Which guitars are SECOND-HAND bargains? Or, putting it the other way about, which guitars are high-quality instruments but have poor resale value?

CavemanGrogg

Breadlove is another, brand new costs a lot, second hand can be had for a bargin, though their quality has taken a huge dive over the last several years

Tannin

Is that so? Sad to hear, @CavemanGrogg I know they have started offshore manufacturing somewhere cheap, but also still make higher-end guitars in Oregon. Is it the Chinese ones that are sub-par? Or has their in-house standard slipped?

(I was about to post a link to that Breedlove I mentioned earlier in the thread (which would be old enough to come before the quality slip you mention) but it seems to have sold at last. (Either that or the owner got bored waiting and took it off consignment.)

CavemanGrogg

Tannin said:

Is that so? Sad to hear, @CavemanGrogg I know they have started offshore manufacturing somewhere cheap, but also still make higher-end guitars in Oregon. Is it the Chinese ones that are sub-par? Or has their in-house standard slipped?

(I was about to post a link to that Breedlove I mentioned earlier in the thread (which would be old enough to come before the quality slip you mention) but it seems to have sold at last. (Either that or the owner got bored waiting and took it off consignment.)

Both, once they started the production of their cheaper made in China line, their made in Oregon ones - their mass produced line, quality really took a dive, the proper custom ones that they do are still extremely good quality, but like all custom and made to order guitars, the person who buys it brand new pays a fortune for it, and then loses a fortune selling it on the second hand market.  It really is a shame, about 10 maybe 12 years ago I bought a Premier Concert from Breedlove - almost  no dealers in the UK then, fantastic acoustic, I really love the bridge, one of the best if not the best bridge I've used on a steel string acoustic.  The new ones, quite a big difference, tested a bunch of them when I bought the Hanaka, and I was dissapointed, however that was looking at brand new ones selling for brand new prices, they are still good quality guitars, just not as good quality as they used to and can make them, but since they don't hold their value, they're very good value second hand, especially their custom ones, but not so easy to find second hand ones as they are not a brand with an established history like Gibson, Martin and so forth, and they are a young company, just over 30 years old I think.

enjo

Eastman (although ironically for this thread I just sold mine to buy a Martin).
I paid £500 for a new E1-OM, just sold it for £375 - that is stonking value for money IMO, all solid woods, played really well and sounded fantastic. 

crunchman

Furch - they are good value new, so tend to be good value second hand as well.

I don't get the love for Larivee and Lakewood.  The ones I've played have been ok, but nothing to write home about.

lincolnblue

CavemanGrogg said:

Breadlove is another, brand new costs a lot, second hand can be had for a bargin, though their quality has taken a huge dive over the last several years

I didn't know that about their quality. I have one (admittedly from their Atlas range) from 2004 and it's a stunning instrument. Don't see enough of them over in UK 

Gassage

£500 and get a Tak GC93. 

Incredible value.

CoolCat

Tanglewood

BigPaulie

I'm not sure there are any used bargains at the moment.

Prices are still at stupid levels even though stock levels of new instruments are improving.

artiebear

Really hard to be definitive. In  perfect used market, a Larrivee ( lovely guitars, easily up with Martin or Taylor, assuming that is your soundscape ) .
Anything European without the daft kudos attached.

CMW335

1990 Gibson J-30 exact same spec as the Hummingbird bar the finish and fancy guard for not much more than a grand

Mellish

@CMW335 ; - now that is a beauty. If you want to sell at some point, give us a shout  

bertie

CoolCat said:

Tanglewood

aiye - picked up my all solid parlor for less than £275(including fees) at auction

Gassage said:

£500 and get a Tak GC93. 

Incredible value.

never played a Tak that hasnt needed to be strummed like popye with a pick like a paving slab to get any response out of it  - that was quite a while ago mind you