Pretty much as the thread title suggests.
We all know some manufacturers have ridiculous prices for some of their products. Gibson have some pretty ludicrous prices for their collectors choices and artist series, are they worth it? Would YOU pay that money if you had it?
What is the upper value of materials/craftsmanship/man hours/brand?
I'll admit it. I'll pay more for a Gibson to buy into the brand and have that history on the headstock. My upper limit would be £2,500. I might pay more for something that could be 'vintage' but I wouldn't buy it on the basis of it being 'vintage'.
Comments
If I had twice the money, I'd buy one AND get someone to custom-build me another one like it.
'Vintage' only means something if it has the sound you want and it's playable. Otherwise it's only a museum piece.
Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself
For gigging, I don't think I could justifiably pay more than five or six hundred quid to be honest (I might then swap out pickups / electronics though) because accidents do happen and I don't want to take anything too valuable out where I might break it a good resonator might be an exception.
If I had the money, for home use I'd go up to about twice that. Short of major Lottery win "I wonder what all the fuss about '59 Les Pauls is about" levels of cash, I've got more important things to spend money on.
When I was 19 and 'serious' about playing, then I would borrow and spend huge sums so the £2.5k in todays terms would not have been out of the question. Late 20s and family/mortgage means £250 is a massive commitment only sustainable by gigging income. By the time the kids are grown and morgage paid off the budget is less restrictive again. At present buying the branded instrument is the safer investment. In 20 years time the luthier built option might prove to have been better as all those Gibsons flood the saturated and then limited used market.
There's no real reason to add superfluous "quality" past a certain point with electric guitars, you just can't keep adding desirability to a Tele for example, it just starts to look a bit silly.
The only reason I'd ever go over 1500 for anything is for something special like a Super 400, but normal electrics? Nah, never, not even with a giant lottery win.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I went over a grand for the first time with a guitar last year (Gibson), prior to that I'd just been gigging with MIM Fenders and lower end Gibsons. I'm now actually gassing for a PRS of some sort, but that'd be a year or two down the road (unless I get a nice bonus from work which is actually possible).
So I could see me going to £2.5k for something really special. I would think twice about gigging it though!
I don't quite get where you're coming from there.
Maybe the person with 6 cheaper guitars doesn't take all 6 to a gig, but likes to have a selection of guitar styles (strat/tele/les paul/pointy rock machine etc).
Exactly how I do it - almost without exception I end up customising the shit out of my instruments anyway so I prefer to buy cheap, fettle 'em about and keep the ones that turn out to suit me. Currently got SG, Tele, Esquire and Strat types, altogether they probably owe me about £500 and I'd happily gig any of them (once I've put pickups in all of them...:/ )
And it would be made in UK because it's better value, thanks to no boat to ship it across on.
And it would be as good, or better (probably the latter) than anything Gibson churn out of a factory.
And I'd be able to spec it out fully.
cant justify spending more than that really.... especially when i drive a £500 car
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