Cheap guitars almost always are a bad investment, you end up with a non-functional instrument that nobody wants to buy again. That being said there are better options than Fender and Gibson in terms of money/quality.
Everything. EVERYTHING... is too expensive these days, guitars included. Homes and cars are so far out of a "reasonable spectrum" right now its hard to imagine how things will come back at this point.
They are making fantastic guitars now for under $1000. Once you go past the $1600 mark, you are paying for a name on a headstock IMO. You can get a great guitar for under a grand, that will play as well as any custom shop model.
True. I've played amazing squires that made me question why I ever spent 1600 on a am pro ii. Then I see the rosewood on my neck being very nice compared to other am pro iis and realize I got a little lucky.
I recently purchased the Fender Vintera II Jazzmaster, which is made in Mexico, and the quality is really good. Fender has had sort of a problem with their US manufacturing matching the quality that is found in their manufacturing in Mexico, Japan, and Indonesia. That said, a US made Fender is mostly to be made of better quality wood and better hardware. In terms of resale value, a US made Fender is going to garner a higher price on the used market.
One of the things you might be paying beyond that is consistency. A $1000 guitar has every chance of being amazing, but you're still chancing that it's an outlier and you won't be able to set it up perfectly, because maybe the bridge rout is a little off, or the neck pocket is uneven or tilted so you can't set the action where you want, or maybe the nut is cut unevenly, or the fret ends are over-beveled. The more you spend on it being hand-made by a skilled luthier, the more likely it will be a guitar than can be set up to some degree of perfection. And finally nitro finishes are a big extra cost, but I suppose that's a luxury feature.
@@stevenhickcox7288 I have had several MIM and USA Fenders and the USA Fenders have always been worth the extra money! If a USA Fender is 10 on a scale of 10 then Mexican Fenders are a 6 and the Indonesian/Chinese Squiers are also a 6.
The issue is not so much the cost of guitars themselves, it's the fact that our dollar is worth less now. At least in the US, our food, gas, rent, etc. everything has gone up but wages have stayed the same. I've had 3 guitars on my wishlist for a while now which normally I could afford them after a few months of saving, but I'll be lucky if I can get 1 by the end of the year.
100% correct. Guitars actually cost roughly the same now as they did in the 1950s... but real wages have stagnated since the late 1960s. A family used to be able to have a middle class lifestyle on one income.
The bummer is that band pay has stayed about the same while inflation has gone up. Our equipment is now more expensive as compared to pay … but I guess that’s up to us to ask for fairer pay.
John! Just say no to this kind of crazy spending. You are only one man and can play only one guitar at a time. If you are a player…try (as an experiment) to play one guitar for a month which has great pickup versatility. This can help a person not to be so obsessed with owning so many guitars, unless you are just a collector.
I purchased a Fender American Standard Strat in 1987 for £500. According to an online inflation calculator, that’s £1769 in today’s money. I just checked on Andertons, and an American Professional II Strat is £1749, and included a case. So, that is relatively no more expensive than nearly 40 years ago. Also the quality of more affordable guitars is way higher than back then.
Idk. Adjusted for inflation versus the early days...production guitars are a pretty sweet value. The Internet makes it seem like every bedroom player deserves a custom shop guitar just because they are into the hobby. That's like saying every lady (or fella) that cooks for their family needs a professional kitchen.
Custom Shop guitars are luxury items. Anything above Strat US Standard or Les Paul Standard etc. has veered into luxury items rather than working tools imo. I think the problem is that there was a period about 10-15 years ago where, due to currency fluctuations and over production by guitar makers, you could pick up guitars at good prices in Europe. I got an SG Standard for €999. Today, they’re €1,600. I got a top of the line Mexican Strat for €780. Today their equivalent is €1,100. Now, they’re back to pretty much the normal price plus inflation. I bought a new Les Paul in 1998 for the equivalent of €1,400. Today, that is about €2,500. That is what a Gibson Les Paul Standard costs today.
You feel old getting your GCSE results in 2005. Imagine how old I feel. I am older than the GCSE exams. My equivalent results (O levels) date from 1973. Eeek! Great guitars available for very affordable prices currently, far cheaper than when I was younger and cheap starter guitars are actually brilliantly well made. A change of pickups, pots, caps etc and they can be good working giggable instruments. PRS SE stuff is an absolute steal.
Making a good guitar is not rocket science. With CNC machines you are going to be able to get really good guitars for cheap. It's really a joke that there are guitars that cost $5k and the only reason they are bought is because people need and WANT there to be a guitar that they can afford but the average guitarist can't. Or that they want to suffer, strain, and save their money for a guitar out of their budget as a testament to their love of guitars and music.
There’re so many good guitars in the 800-1200 dollar price range, it’s unlikely I’ll ever spend more than that again, considering that fender and Gibson charge premium prices for even the smallest QoL changes that all the other manufacturers are doing, like stainless steel frets, contoured heel joints, locking tuners, etc.
My last guitar purchase was a new Gibson LP r6 for $2800 back in 2022. That price was exactly in line with inflation. Quality new instruments have always been a luxury item; that's why there's such a huge used market.
I can’t imagine me ever spending more than £700 (inflation adjusted) on a solid body electric. I think £500 is the sweet spot for getting something that will play well and sound good with a setup and possibly a set of different pickups. Also, I’m not scared to take them to pub gigs, which I would be with a £2k instrument. I bought a handmade acoustic in 1992 for £700-£800 and a secondhand Taylor acoustic for about £1200 a couple of years back, but I think acoustics are a completely different proposition regarding what you get for your money.
Acoustics - right, totally different animal. Usually the more money you spend, the better sounding and playing instrument you get. And you have to spend a lot to get a top notch instrument from a small builder or a big maker custom shop where a lot of attention was paid to the instrument, and the attention to the individual instrument really pays off. You can get good mid-priced acoustics, but that's like 1300 to 1700 range compared to 2500 to 4k for high end instruments. Acoustics are expensive and hard to build.
In 2019 I bought my PRS CE24 for $1999.00. Today they sell for $2699.00. That's an increase of 35%. 1. That's an insane price increase in five years. 2. That's too expensive for that particular guitar.
I think that's more of a PRS problem. Funny enough, I did the same thing. I ended up selling my CE24 a month ago for $1300 with hard case included. They're severely overvalued based on Reverb used prices. Turned me off from PRS. Just glad I bought it when it was only $2000 and not $2630.
@@fr3ak1shh I disagree that it's a PRS problem as every manufacturer of everything has increased prices. Perhaps PRS increased their prices more, I don't know ... PRS Guitars have always been deemed 'expensive' but I love the fact that I have owned so many of them and have had ZERO problems. Sadly the same can't be said for Fender and Gibson. I am (was) willing to pay extra for that quality but I'm not motivated in the same way to spend more due to inflation .... I still own my CE24 and won't be selling it anytime soon. It's a fabulous guitar.
@@oldguyplaysbass6503 No brand has increased prices like the high end PRS's. The Cores are outlandishly expensive now. Probably the most overvalued factory guitar brand, judging on the resale price you see on Reverb. I'm glad you had good experiences with yours, I sold mine because it had a bunch of problems and it killed my perception of it. The 6 point term came set so high that even lowering the saddles all the way, it was still over 2mm at the 12 fret. 2 point trems are easy for anyone to adjust, but you have to be careful with PRS 6 point trems to get all the screws to exactly the same height, or you're going to ruin the knife edge. Not something you can eyeball. Also, the pickup selector didn't stay in place well when set to neck, the tiniest nudge would set it to middle. Bridge position was fine. And finally, the tremolo arm set screw just randomly fell out on its own and got lost. I know they usually have a good reputation, but I've had way better experiences with low-mid ranged guitars. Never again, PRS!
You simply perceive expensive guitars to be 'better' because it has a higher price tag. This is basic psychology. Having owned hundreds of instruments over 40y (I used to trade in them as a side hobby), I know how to do my own set ups and electronics, unless I want fancy, a PRS SE, or equivalent S/H is all I'm willing to spend these days. I have played several CS Gibson and Fender and see ZERO value in them except being able to wank on about it to other guitarists. I recent watched a video where Marcus Miller is playing with a guy with a boutique bass, and he's on a Sire and is killing it in terms of tone, and of course he's the better player. So, apart from ergonomics you prefer on a given boutique, and maybe some bling, what do the $ really get you?
It’s a matter of priorities. I’ve been looking at a Les Paul Standard for a while now but something inside me just can’t pull the trigger on a nearly $3000 purchase. I know that there are discounts now but in the final analysis it is a want not a need. I have some other guitars on my wish list that I wouldn’t feel as bad about splurging on, but most of those are around the $1500 to $1800 mark. In truth, even that number has come down from about $2200 because I can’t justify it in my own mind. I recently picked up a new Harmony for about $1300 and it plays and sounds absolutely beautiful. When compared to that, what Fender and especially Gibson and PRS are asking for their USA-made guitars just seems too rich for me.
My upper limit so far has been around £1,200. I paid slightly less than that for a Schecter Aaron Marshall sig from PMT. Admittedly, as a mostly home player I felt a bit vulgar paying it but that guitar is so good I quickly got over it. I’m sure in time I’ll push the spending threshold when another desirable guitar comes along (I’ll probably be interested in the inevitable Sterling Rabea model) but I won’t ever get into the US-made models - I’ll always stick with imports.
guitars are expensive if you keep buying them. This is true for any product. With the frequency of purchases you make, the more you spend. So, decide if you're an artist, collector or just a consumer. Most dedicated artists settle early on with a reliable tool, then stick with it for their entire life, or until it is no longer able to serve their needs as an artist
I started playing in 2012 at 43. I vowed never to pay more than 1500. Only a couple partscasters have been close to that and they are exotic woods and top shelf parts. All my off the shelf guitars have been less than 1k. And I have some wonderful guitars.
Electric guitars are the cheapest instruments among all others, that is if you're not a headstock wh0re. A decent chello bow costs more than a solid electric guitar.
I never knew that is a thing! Just looked, £90,000 for the most expensive listed, then 1 more POA. Gear 4 music had a full size for £120.00 though tbf.
Good quality guitars nowadays are almost unbelievably cheap compared with when I started playing in the 1970s. We've lived through a Golden Age for the last few years, and while mid-range prices are increasing, the quality at the lower end is rising exponentially. So, this is still an amazing time for anyone to start playing - and the beauty for old-timers like me is that it gives a chance to try affordable versions of all the models that we could previously only dream of.
What a juicy subject! I'm sure others have said it, but the quality of cheap guitars is so good these days that if you know a bit of wiring (and because of TH-cam and Google you do even if you don't), you can mod a cheap or medium priced guitar to be 80-90% as good as the brand-name alternative. Recently I needed a new strat, and researched a bunch as to what to get and mod. The only one I tried that I seriously considered getting "off the shelf" was the PRS Silver sky (not SE, though nothing wrong with it.) In the end I bought a JET JS-400 for 200€ and modded it myself with new wiring, pots, gilmour mod and fender custom shop pups for maybe another 250€ . The neck and playability were for me 90% as good as (or even better athan!) any American fender I tried. Up to about 1000€ was something I was willing to pay to get a good guitar (my main HH guitar is a PRS SE with mods that set me back about 700€ plus another 500€ for new pups & mods and I thought that price a deal for what it's now). My point is, a good cheap guitar gets you in the ballpark. Modding it well gets you soooo close, that it's very, very, very hard to justify paying double or up to 10x more for a guitar that's at best only 20% better, or in a lot of cases even not as good!
The most I’ve paid out of pocket for an instrument is 1200. I’d be willing to trade up for something in the 1800.00 range or find it used for a few hundred less.
The most I've ever spent on a guitar was a grand on a nick johnston signature ( my main guitar now ) I just feel like guitars become pretty similar after a certain price point
For a solid players guitar, I'd want to stay at or under $2500 these days. I could see a one off splurge in the 3s, but manufacturer is important. I'd splurge again on a Suhr, but not a Fender. At the same time, I can be happy with a solid, well-made import guitar, too.
100% dude you are spot on. Materials being used are cheaper, manufacturers cut corners basically on every step of the manufacturing process, so the excuses they come up with as to why they pass the buck onto consumers are un-acceptable
A few years ago I was really looking for an excuse to buy a Fender Am Pro II Strat. Then the lockdown/inflation hit and I really couldn't justify spending almost 2k for them (when comparing to the MIM line for example). For me the guitars around 700-800 euros play more than fine. I also ended up making a one time investment to buy some good tools (nut files, fret leveling equipment etc) that cost a fraction of the difference of a midrange to an expensive guitar. Honestly even 200-300 euro stuff, if you put in some work, you can make them play fine idk. I am not an expensive guitar snob (I own a Gibson for example) and I think you should own at least one more expensive guitar just to compare for yourself.
20ish years ago I used to consider £1500 to £2000 a fair price for a high quality professional working musician instrument. A pro level, US made etc without fancy woods/tops. Plugging that into an inflation calculator makes it £2800 to £3700. Which sort of tracks to k-line, plain suhr, fender (CS entry level) prices. The sad thing is that working musician fee's (and many other vocations wages) have been pretty stagnant for a long, long time making things feel much more expensive. The real problem is that there is not much in the £1500 to £2000 bracket that is of the equivalent quality from 20 years ago. Thankfully we do have incredible quality guitars from Asia sub £1000, which is softening the blow I guess. And of course, buying used puts lots of incredible quality guitars back in that £1500 to £2000 price point. It's a wonderful time to be getting into guitar with entry level or imported instruments, it just feels like the middle area isn't what it used to be.
I've been banging on about this for months and months. Now could be great marketing or duping customers..either way companies like Gibson use stuff like Murphy labs stuff to "acceptably" drive up lower price standard guitars. It's normalisation of high price products.. So let's say 10k for a Murphy labs and we see them everywhere ..especially on youtube....starts to make 5k for a custom shop look more appealing., so 2-2.3k for a Les Paul standard look like a great price...it also means epiphone can ride on the back of "inspired by Gibson" and start charging over £1000 for their guitars...and while we wince a little..and hear a lot of .."£1200 for an Epiphone...are you mad"...but they are still selling because we start to see £2-3500 as a more normal price for a good guitar. It's madness. That said... I know that my strat , that cost me about £500 new back in 1984...should cost over £2k with inflation...which they don't. But something is off somewhere...see back in "84 I was earning a pitance doing my apprenticeship and yet that guitar seemed , expensive but achievable. Now 40 years on and far better off , I paid £2000 for a bass that literally had me coming out in hives at spending that much on it because it was a real stretch... How does that work.......cost of living in general maybe... Weird.......
I paid $10k on a 1952 Gibson L-5N. It’s my main guitar. I gig with it several times weekly and it’s paid for itself several times over now because I play professionally. I also own a 2012 Gibson L-5 Wes Montgomery model ($5k…) and it doesn’t hold a candle to the 1952. As far as solid bodies, I own a 2023 Gibson Standard gold top 1950s…with p-90s, an Eastman SB56 and an Eastman Sb59. Those were all pretty affordable and I wouldn’t spend much more than I did on them. Hollow bodies are my living…I make nothing from solid bodies.
Even when you need sleep, you play beautifully! I see guitar prices differently. When I was growing up and the big green Gibson catalog arrived in the mail, there was a relationship between the guitar's price and how much work went into it. To this day, I'm willing to spend more for a set neck, binding, elaborate inlays, carved top, matched grain pattern...I figure extra labor went in and that's worth more. Mind you, my favorite guitars are all Partocasters, and they're a luxury items since they have no resale value. Off topic, but guitar value should be related to how it sounds, no? A Gruhn/Norm/TH-cam canard is that if it was made by Gibson or Fender in the 1950s, it's fabulous, period. I've played many, and not all were above average. Turn the argument around, and if an old guitar is worth $30,000, a modern guitar with a polyester finish that's not "broken in" (whatever that means) should be worthless because the sound of modern guitars is so inferior. I'm trying to get away from a closet of guitars, but I guess I'd pay $1800 for a stellar Strat or Tele, $3500 for an outstanding 335 and $7500 for a jazz box that sounded great, whether plugged in or not. I think current custom shop pricing reflects the fact that when sales slow down, you might as well get as much as you can from the sales you still get.
$3250 for a Suhr Tele however I traded and Ibanez which knocked off $1100. So around $2500 max on any guitar new or used. Which is why I can’t pull the trigger on a K-Line yet until I at least get a chance to play one first!
A American strat was £365 in 1979 which technically way more than today. A Gibson les paul standard was around £500. Both with a case. Guitar amps were pretty much unaffordable. I worked in guitar shops as guitar sales guy. Everyone bought on finance or traded in their old gear
I read the other day someone's opinion of; "instruments are luxury items." Which I can get behind. And then I think "what would I spend in the luxury bracket?" Which is really only holidays from £1k to an extreme of £5k if we were lucky enough to go to Japan. Would I spend more on a guitar than a holiday? Hell no... £1k is the max, unless someone offered me my dream PRS with enough money in the back to splurge (which is never).
Guitars and too expensive, but they've always been too expensive. There was a time when a lot of hands on attention went into making these guitars we love so much and you could somewhat justify the sticker shock. Nowadays, so much is done with machines that you wonder where the money is going? My first Strat was an 83 or 84 and it cost $400. That was not cheap in 84. Regardless, my 2nd new strat was in 99 and I got it on sale for $650. My latest new strat cost was also on sale for $1822. An American ultra. Btw, I've had to have every one of them worked on by a luthier to level the frets. Even the ultra! It only has a couple of bad spots, but that's enough when you play lead. Even at that, it's drastically less than a Suhr or K line or Xotic. Even less than comparable Kiesel. So, I'll get it fixed up and enjoy it for years to come. I could possibly pay $2500 for a top notch instrument, but I haven't done it yet, so maybe I really won't? Yeah, it's much easier to find a nice used strat for $1k or a Schecter for $500-$800.
Unfortunately the price of guitars has increased incredibly. Especially after Covid. I purchased a brand-new Fender Player for about £500 before Covid. They went up during and after. So did the Ultra range. It was slightly under £2k before Covid. Suhr’s were about £3k before Covid, now they are towards £3.6k.
@@joeking433 Objectively speaking? They are better than most guitars in the market. It's worth trying one to get a feel for yourself. But that doesn't mean that they aren't way too expensive anyway. Should be under £3k in my opinion. But hey ho, I don't set the prices.
Great playing as always , where can we get the backing track from ? I just can't stop listening to this intro jam, it is the best piece of music I've heard for a very long time now. Is it possible you can make some kind of a tutorial or some general explanation of what was the thought process behind that thing you've played , that would be huge !! Thanks .
Ive always had more affordable guitars. The most expensive guitars i have owned are around the 1,000 dollar range. Once i bought a Revstar Standard II (RSS02T) and felt how nice that guitar is it made me want to upgrade my collection. Instead of buying new guitars i decided to take my current selection and upgrade them into something i like more. Its been really fun and ive learned a lot. I took my PRS SE Custom 24 and rewired the entire thing, changed the pickups and changed the tuners. That guitar is always loved the construction, how it felt, played, and how it looked, but hated the cheap pots, switches, and hated its pickups. Now its a guitar i absolutely love. The most recent one was taking my Butterscotch Blonde Player Series Tele and transforming it into something completely different. Bought a new neck, new bridge, rewired it, changed the pickups, new tuners, and once again its now a guitar i cant put down. My point to this share is that i wanted to get more professional level instruments, but instead of paying 2,000 for a new instrument i decided to spend half that and turn an instrument i already had into something much better. Still costs quite a bit, but i had loads of fun and learned so much. I didnt just learn how to solder, but how to cut a nut, and level/crown frets. These are skills that i think every guitar player should learn. Learning how to set up and maintain your instruments is priceless.
A Les Paul Standard in 1959 cost $280. Adjusted for inflation, that is just about $3000 today, which interestingly is what Gibson charges for the production line Les Pauls (50's or 60's). Of course Custom Shop is really a vanity thing - if you can afford them, go ahead. But that's not in my budget. I do own a 2009 Custom Shop Les Paul Junior, for which I paid just about $2000. Stellar guitar. But, yes, all of these prices are bonkers. You know what else is binkers? Concert ticket prices. One has to be rich to enjoy these things. But thankfully, great guitars can be had for $500-$1000 (PRS for example, but the Epiphone guitars are also really good these days). We just havea to not be snobby about SE or Epi on the headstock.
I got my Gibson Tribute DC Junior in 2020 for £499. Only four years later you could never get a new Gibson for under a grand if they brought them out again.
I wanted a new Martin D18e and a new Les Paul Standard, I ended up buying a new Yamaha FGX5 and a new Yamaha Revstar Professional. I have no regrets in the guitars I bought, yet I saved MORE money than I spent .. so much is charged for the headstock name
€1600 to €2000 would be my top price range for guitars but I think its all down to personal choice. I got a Schecter Nick Johnson Diamond series for roughly €1000 and I love it !! Sounds amazing and is so easy to play. I would rather spend the extra on a good amp.
Wonder if the companies are feeling it too with less sales of high end models? PRS for example are releasing SE after SE (silver sky SE, swamp ash special SE, CE SE, DGT SE, NF3 SE) and not so many big core model releases. I hope there is a continued shift to ‘good’ affordable models rather than excellent top end but poor low end.
When I bought my PRS DGT it was less about the price, and more about having one nice guitar that I don't have to do anything to (pickup swap, setup, etc). With the PRS (US made) I know the wood is properly dried before building and wont give me any trouble over time (neck twisting, fret sprout, etc) and the overall instrument is built with longevity/dependability in mind. The price was a lot for me, but logical as it's one of only two guitars I own (one for Fender-ish tones, one Gibson-ish), rather than having several Player-series/SE/Epiphone/.etc. In that way I was able to justify buying a US DGT which was about $4k. Is that the price limit for me? Not exactly; but that's the guitar I wanted, and could justify. I would NEVER pay that for a Strat/Tele/Les Paul however. It's also a guitar that I play a lot(!) so it has to be dependable. Because I can get what I need/want from the DGT, anything priced more than that is too much.
Top line for me has been a grand since the 90's. Which tells you that I don't typically buy new guitars or custom guitars.🤪 The deals are out there, definitely not as much as they used to be.
It’s a difficult one. A $600 guitar is built like a $300 guitar these days. I think a PRS SE & Schecter is probably one of the best you can get for that price & still tends to have quality issues. People see budget issues in $1k guitars these days.
From what I've seen, you should be able to get a very good sold body electric guitar for about $500. Under that, you're more likely to run into inferior parts and making. Over that, and you're probably paying a premium for brand name, exotic woods, and finishes. When I purchased my "Reissue Strat" many years ago, the salesman said something I didn't appreciate at the time, but turned out to be sage advice. He said a Strat was easier to mod than other guitars. At the time, I didn't know how frequently guitars were modded by my favorite guitarists. I've ended Modding a lot on my Strat as my tastes and needs have changed. So, my advice is to purchase a guitar you can Mod without guilt or hesitation. 😎
Well, that gets a big DUH! Of course Fender Strats are the best modding platform because one, it has a bolt on neck! And secondly because there are so many third party parts made for it.
Most expensive guitars i have purchased was my Gibson V 120 and one of my Kiesels, i think they cost me around $2100, i dont think i would ever pay over 2grand for a guitar again but at the same time i dont regret either purchase.
Inflation in the past 4 years is at around 20%, which means that $1000 in 2020 is equivalent to $1200 now. My limit is around $600 and recently I got 2 guitars for $220 and $250. They're both fun to play and have great tones.
I’ve always had to play above my gear, because I never had the money to buy anything expensive. And years and years later, that way has served me well not only in playing music but in virtually everything else.
I think they’re cheaper than they’ve ever been. I just walked out of Guitar Center here in New York City and it was full of cheap used high-end guitars that were around $1000 It is the cheapest time ever to get high-quality equipment
Just got a 2012 Chinese tokai love rock for £299 (with a hard case) and it’s amazing for the money 🤷🏼♂️ got an epiphone LP junior last year on sale for £300 and equally, it’s great. I thought i wanted the Gibson equivalent but for 4-5 times the price at the time, it just didn’t make sense 🤷🏼♂️ I have some more expensive guitars (American Special Strat, custom shop strat, American standard tele…) but budget / more affordable stuff had become so good 🤷🏼♂️
Inflation is severely understated and wages lagging. I wouldn’t have any $2000+ guitars if not for effective dollar debasement hedging. I remember getting like $40 for gigs back around 1990. I bet that hasn’t increased all that much.
Dear John I believe your generation is quite unlucky having to pay 3.5k for a Fender CS guitar. I am 50yo, back in my session days (2004-2011), I purchased my Masterbuilt Tele for the at the time extreme amount of 3.5k Euros, my PRS CU24 cost 2.3k, your everyday American Strat was 1100 Euros and the wages could support all these purchases. Nowadays my wage is 35% down from 2010 and I am looking at the PRS SE line as something I can grab if I save for like 9 months reducing my diet to ham an' cheese toasts 😑
most of our various cultures are busy jettisoning artists and devaluing art by not paying living wage prices to the artists. It's a sad reality, and will be to the massive detriment of our various cultures.
Guitars have gotten expensive, but they are still on the cheaper side compared with other pro/semi-pro level instruments. For example, we bought my daughter a used oboe for $5000. A new oboe is $10,000. I like the mid-level Fenders, esp the Player series. Good quality for a mid-range ($900 new or $700 used) and easily upgradable.
Most I ever spent was on the new NF3 I just got (800 US). I have prefer to buy cheap and utilitarian. 3 cheaper sounds more preferred than an expensive single sound.
$1500 US was my limit for years. I bought a new Les Paul Std '60s in 2020 for $2500. The most expensive guitar I've ever bought. I love it though, and compared to today's prices it was a bargain. New Fender prices are insane.. these are 2-3 piece body guitars, bolt on neck, no binding. no nitro. I don't get how Fender can ask so much... Insane to me. I do want another Fender, but will buy used for sure.
If our purchasing power as consumers drives sales largely to the $500-700USD range, manufacturing will be focused in Asian countries with lower labor. Even though the QC seems consistently good, those guitars will have cheaper hardware. They have to cut costs. I've purchased these lower priced guitars and some of them were pretty good, but compared to the two K-Line guitars I have, they are noticeably lower quality, mostly in the pick-ups. I bought both of the K-Line guitars used - a Springfield for $1,500USD and a Truxton for $2,500. I kind of agree about the price threshold, but I would rather have fewer, hand crafted guitars, than a wall of $500USD, made in Indonesia.
I spent a lot of money on two guitars 20 years ago, before responsibilities kicked in, and can’t imagine spending that much money again any time soon. Now I’d only be able to get an import guitar for the same price Add to that, any guitar that would really excite me to own would feel morally wrong to spend that much money, right now anyway. Fortunately, cheap stuff is light years better than the equivalent from the 90s. Back then a guitar that stayed in tune was a luxury! My opinion is that a decent guitar, meaning very nice for a student and adequate for a professional, should cost around $1000, with at least another grand spent on sending the guitar signal somewhere; an amp or silent rig. That’s a lot of money already, so a basic student rig, while less, is still an expensive venture. To me, guitar begins to become more luxury and less tool around $2,000 to $2,500, though that is a very subjective opinion. A professional musician should be able to have a tool of the trade that should also be a nice thing to have; a toy/tool if you will
I am right there with you on ho much I would be willing to pay for a guitar, a new Am Pro II Fender Jazz Bass is about $1800 and that is the most I would spend on something new, although, I am more likely to find a used standard for around a grand and go for that. But when you have a players mindset it doesn’t really make sense to get the most expensive thing, cause then you don’t want to jump around stage with it, it’s an investment when you spend $5000 on a guitar, well if you’re not rich I guess lol.
1500 is it for me also and that’s a stretch it went up from 1000 max post covid when everything went up. Currently tho I have 1 guitar that I got used (traded in at guitar center ) it’s a made in Japan fender traditional 60’s strat with a rosewood fretboard and it was 900. As a hobby guitar player I realized I only need 1 guitar. I play with a gx-100 with the 4cm with a boss katana 100 head and a line 6 vetta cabinet that has celestion g-12’s in it. You helped influence this for me and I am very happy with my set up which has been a very big process, lots and lots of amps, pedals and guitars. I will say another guitar that was great but wish it had the rosewood fretboard is the Ibanez genesis rg550 those are priced at a 1000.00 but less if you buy used but only have maple fretboards. They are really great tho.
About £5k is my limit. I paid that for a Super Heavy relic Strat. It was one of those where I saw it and had to have it. I part exchanged a Friedman S type against it. I prefer fewer of higher quality. But prices are going up and for some without justification. The Epiphone for example or non-custom Gibson.
I mean it doesn’t take too much to get a nice electric guitar these days. All of the low to mid range guitars are much higher quality than they used to be, and if they’re not to your immediate liking, they can be modded to your liking with the amount of amazing necks and pickups available today. All in all, YMMV. For instance, that K Line you’re playing is nearly 5k retail, it doesn’t do anything functionally different from a lower priced Strat. You were willing to pay for the craftsmanship, branding, and boutique ideal because it was within your mileage. The only thing I would actually say is overpriced is quality amplification. I’m not even talking boutique handmade, a lot of these PCB mass manufactured are way too overpriced for the parts, even modeling is getting a little pricy if you want something above line 6 quality
If you buy a new IPhone you are buying something that costs billions to develop. Now compare to a Fender or Gibson. It is ANCIENT technology and should cost relative peanuts.
Ha - you feel old - I got my GCSE results in 1997 😮! But yes, guitars are very expensive now; Squier strats (nice ones) will set you back the best part of £500!!
Taking Les Pauls as an example, I just picked up a 2020 Trad Pro V used for $1150 (the used market is always my preference). They're still going for around $2200 new, and the Classics are close to that as well. Whereas a Standard, that's essentially the same guitar (a few minor differences, but nothing drastic), is sitting around the $3000 mark. Ridiculous.
I paid £1400 for my Les Paul Standard Plus in 1990. That was a real stretch for me then. In today’s money I’d guess that would be over £5000 so current Gibson prices seem cheap relatively speaking. I think the real high end customer shop stuff is too much though. I couldn’t pay £10,000 for example no matter who built it! But if you earn salaries like top execs, premier league footballers etc. then £10,000 is nothing. My most recent guitar is a Fender Pro2 Strat which I got in a sale for £1400 and iwas happy to pay that and I’d gig it, whereas I never gig my Les Paul because I don’t want some drunk damaging it or some tossed stealing it - I couldn’t afford to replace it. I’m actually looking at getting the DGT SE as the price seems to have dropped a bit now. Still think £900 is a bit steep for Indonesian made but no one is making me oay it. Best value guitar I own is an Epiphone Les Paul Special. Cost £300 new and sounds great. Love the P90s on it. I’m not keen on the TV yellow colour but it plays well. In fact I’m playing it more than my Gibson at the moment. I guess you just have to decide for yourself whether a guitar is with the price to you. Oh, I got my GCE results in 1978 by the way and bought my first flat for £12,000 a few years later.
I'm glad you mentioned inflation of the top because apart from housing & groceries which are way above inflation and wages/income which is vulgarly below inflation, the vast majority of things are pretty much inline with inflation. It's just the three big things that aren't are the things that make living feel crippling. I know anecdotally I have a 1957 Gibson GA-8 I paid $1200(CAD) for. Saw a price guide for a 1960 GA-8 which was $90-ish (USD) which translates to about $1250 (CAD). The amp held it's value apparently. On the how much luxury guitars cost. I recently got to play some expensive guitars including finally playing some core line PRS, Suhr, Fender/Gibson Custom Shop, and in the video I made about the PRS I sort of surmised "You need to pay over $5000 in order to have every aspect of the guitar build treated with absolute care. To be an artisan product." Not saying great guitars don't exist well below that, in fact the $2k-$5k range for me is the avoid zone. But the above $5k for me is where mass production ends & luthier begins. There's maybe a couple of builders & brands who can do it below that, but I fear they're too few & far between.
My "American Professional II" telecaster was $1800 USD this year. I think it's a good quality instrument for the money. I regret buying the $2400 American Vintage II '57 Strat. It's not any better built.
I think if you go for the last model of a guitar for example as Fender have released the Player 2 range the older ones will be a good deal . PRS seem to offer some good deals sub £$500 and second hand PRS guitars are a great buy . Vintera Custom Shop and Murphy lab guitars are way overpriced, they’d all be found out in blindfold tests . I paid £100 for an Antoria Strat copy back in the 70s and it gave a real Strat a run for its money at half the cost as did the Ibanez range /lawsuit gear that was around then .
All I can say is I was buying cheaper quality guitars only to take a bath when selling them. I think the best way to go is buying used quality guitars that will at least hold their value , come close to it or possibly even increase a bit. My 2 cents not that anybody cares lol.
I recently got a DGT SE for what be seems about 465 pounds in your world. (600 USD) These days I consider $1kUS a cheap guitar. There are bargains to be found still.
Just got a slightly discounted PRS Studio for approx 3700,- of your pounds, amazing guitar but way more expensive than i thought i ever would pay for a guitar…
I bought a used one-off “semi-custom” Agile (MIK) after over a decade of looking at them and it’s an absolutely killer instrument for a stupidly cheap price. It has great pickups, roasted neck & board, stainless steel frets, etc. and it’s been my go-to even though I have significantly more expensive guitars in my collection. That being said, I top out around $2k for used Music Man’s and Gibson’s. I would not go past $3k unless it was for one of the handful of holy grail JP models that I’ve been after for years.
Most I've blown on a guitar was 5K USD (8k AUD) It was a NAMM Ormsby. I do regret that. I also regret buying the gibson custom shop limited edition Les Paul quilt at 6.5K AUD. (it was on sale, 30% off). I've had some amazing purchases at sub 2K AUD prices. (I'm in Australia). Our GST is set at ten percent. I don't know what your VAT is but I'm certain that it's way too much. 2nd hand is the way to go really. Unless you find something you just fall in love with. I'm currently watching a guitar on Reverb that's listed at 22K AUD...If I win the lottery this week......
I consider an electric guitar to be functional artwork...What a tree can achieve given a couple of hundred years just sitting in a bunch of dirt can be astonishingly beautiful and completely original...
Until wages catch up with inflation all of the dream guitars will remain a dream for most... the Murphy Lab seems to stick out particularly as just obscene prices... BUT - the cheaper end of guitars has got a lot better, Squire guitars are unrecognisable from their 90's counterparts, PRS SE range seems to be insane value for money. Just as one end gets out of reach, guitars that are still very real instruments are in reach albeit under a different sub-brand. (Ephiphones for over 1300 however, is ridiculous!!)
No., beginner guitarists are spoilt for choice nowadays., growing up all I recall for a cheap electric guitar is a Squire or a Gio., now those are considered premium over the choices you could find in Temu or a Benton or something...but for collectors or the custom stuff then yes they charge so much now
I bought a Suhr S-type SSS for £3000. Way too much money but it plays/sounds wonderous and makes me happy. I can't do it proper justice, I'm a total dilettante. I guess a fool and his money are easily parted. It is perfect
My most expensive guitars are two Parker Niteflys. One was $1200 and the other was $1600. I think they are worth it because I think Ken Parker made the most technologically genius guitars ever made. So many guitars are just Strat clones with no real innovation. Another reason they are worth the money is because they quit making them. I have also been buying necks and building Strat style guitars. I have a composite neck from KLOS, two aluminum necks from Hoxey, and a USCG roasted maple neck. Those guitars seem so much more cool than just a Fender Custom Shop Strat. If I want to go that route I would buy a Custom Shop Strat neck for $1200 and put it on a regular MIM Fender Strat body.
![Megan Thee Stallion - Neva Play (feat. RM) [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/TpYTyAaTRts/mqdefault.jpg)
We are living in the era of great cheap guitars, we are just so passionate about headstocks still 😂
It’s the traditionalist in us. We grow seeing our guitar heroes playing Gibson’s and Fender’s so what do you expect.
What are your favorite cheap guitar brands?
Correct
Cheap guitars almost always are a bad investment, you end up with a non-functional instrument that nobody wants to buy again. That being said there are better options than Fender and Gibson in terms of money/quality.
Squier and Epiphone. I like classic style guitars. At the same time I enjoy modding them to my preferred specs.
The cost of living is ridiculous, not just guitars, food shopping, having children, housing, cars, not just guitars
exactly
@@toliskoskinas I've had to return so many guitars ive bought due to being skint ,
Cost of living is such a reprehensible concept when you think about for a minute.
@@GitShiddy still, it affects the only thing we own: our lives 🙁
@@toliskoskinas Exactly. Which is why it's so repugnant. It'd be hard to chase back but, how'd we let that happen?!
Don't worry, bar gigs still pay the same as they did in 1979!
😂❤
😂😂😂😂
Totally!!!😅
Everything. EVERYTHING... is too expensive these days, guitars included. Homes and cars are so far out of a "reasonable spectrum" right now its hard to imagine how things will come back at this point.
They are making fantastic guitars now for under $1000. Once you go past the $1600 mark, you are paying for a name on a headstock IMO. You can get a great guitar for under a grand, that will play as well as any custom shop model.
True. I've played amazing squires that made me question why I ever spent 1600 on a am pro ii. Then I see the rosewood on my neck being very nice compared to other am pro iis and realize I got a little lucky.
I recently purchased the Fender Vintera II Jazzmaster, which is made in Mexico, and the quality is really good. Fender has had sort of a problem with their US manufacturing matching the quality that is found in their manufacturing in Mexico, Japan, and Indonesia. That said, a US made Fender is mostly to be made of better quality wood and better hardware. In terms of resale value, a US made Fender is going to garner a higher price on the used market.
One of the things you might be paying beyond that is consistency. A $1000 guitar has every chance of being amazing, but you're still chancing that it's an outlier and you won't be able to set it up perfectly, because maybe the bridge rout is a little off, or the neck pocket is uneven or tilted so you can't set the action where you want, or maybe the nut is cut unevenly, or the fret ends are over-beveled. The more you spend on it being hand-made by a skilled luthier, the more likely it will be a guitar than can be set up to some degree of perfection. And finally nitro finishes are a big extra cost, but I suppose that's a luxury feature.
@@stevenhickcox7288 I have had several MIM and USA Fenders and the USA Fenders have always been worth the extra money! If a USA Fender is 10 on a scale of 10 then Mexican Fenders are a 6 and the Indonesian/Chinese Squiers are also a 6.
This is a man who truly understands guitars as tools vs luxury items.
The issue is not so much the cost of guitars themselves, it's the fact that our dollar is worth less now. At least in the US, our food, gas, rent, etc. everything has gone up but wages have stayed the same. I've had 3 guitars on my wishlist for a while now which normally I could afford them after a few months of saving, but I'll be lucky if I can get 1 by the end of the year.
100% correct. Guitars actually cost roughly the same now as they did in the 1950s... but real wages have stagnated since the late 1960s. A family used to be able to have a middle class lifestyle on one income.
Too expensive? In my collection, IMO - Gibsons: Yes. Fender AmPro2's & above: Yes PRS SE's: No
The bummer is that band pay has stayed about the same while inflation has gone up. Our equipment is now more expensive as compared to pay … but I guess that’s up to us to ask for fairer pay.
John! Just say no to this kind of crazy spending. You are only one man and can play only one guitar at a time. If you are a player…try (as an experiment) to play one guitar for a month which has great pickup versatility. This can help a person not to be so obsessed with owning so many guitars, unless you are just a collector.
I purchased a Fender American Standard Strat in 1987 for £500. According to an online inflation calculator, that’s £1769 in today’s money. I just checked on Andertons, and an American Professional II Strat is £1749, and included a case. So, that is relatively no more expensive than nearly 40 years ago. Also the quality of more affordable guitars is way higher than back then.
Thanks for stating some facts. Too many bias options in the comment section IMO anyway.
Correct, but wages have not paced with inflation. That’s what people are feeling right now
That's pretty cool... but if you were to sell it depending on what condition its in it would certainly worth more than 1769
Have your wages kept up with the inflation over that period of time?
Good thing people’s wages have increased similarly
Oh wait…
These days I buy used. Jordans Guitars are amazing at providing high end Guitars for a reasonable price.
Idk. Adjusted for inflation versus the early days...production guitars are a pretty sweet value.
The Internet makes it seem like every bedroom player deserves a custom shop guitar just because they are into the hobby. That's like saying every lady (or fella) that cooks for their family needs a professional kitchen.
Custom Shop guitars are luxury items. Anything above Strat US Standard or Les Paul Standard etc. has veered into luxury items rather than working tools imo.
I think the problem is that there was a period about 10-15 years ago where, due to currency fluctuations and over production by guitar makers, you could pick up guitars at good prices in Europe. I got an SG Standard for €999. Today, they’re €1,600. I got a top of the line Mexican Strat for €780. Today their equivalent is €1,100.
Now, they’re back to pretty much the normal price plus inflation. I bought a new Les Paul in 1998 for the equivalent of €1,400. Today, that is about €2,500. That is what a Gibson Les Paul Standard costs today.
You feel old getting your GCSE results in 2005. Imagine how old I feel. I am older than the GCSE exams. My equivalent results (O levels) date from 1973. Eeek!
Great guitars available for very affordable prices currently, far cheaper than when I was younger and cheap starter guitars are actually brilliantly well made. A change of pickups, pots, caps etc and they can be good working giggable instruments.
PRS SE stuff is an absolute steal.
Making a good guitar is not rocket science. With CNC machines you are going to be able to get really good guitars for cheap. It's really a joke that there are guitars that cost $5k and the only reason they are bought is because people need and WANT there to be a guitar that they can afford but the average guitarist can't. Or that they want to suffer, strain, and save their money for a guitar out of their budget as a testament to their love of guitars and music.
There’re so many good guitars in the 800-1200 dollar price range, it’s unlikely I’ll ever spend more than that again, considering that fender and Gibson charge premium prices for even the smallest QoL changes that all the other manufacturers are doing, like stainless steel frets, contoured heel joints, locking tuners, etc.
My last guitar purchase was a new Gibson LP r6 for $2800 back in 2022.
That price was exactly in line with inflation. Quality new instruments have always been a luxury item; that's why there's such a huge used market.
I can’t imagine me ever spending more than £700 (inflation adjusted) on a solid body electric. I think £500 is the sweet spot for getting something that will play well and sound good with a setup and possibly a set of different pickups. Also, I’m not scared to take them to pub gigs, which I would be with a £2k instrument.
I bought a handmade acoustic in 1992 for £700-£800 and a secondhand Taylor acoustic for about £1200 a couple of years back, but I think acoustics are a completely different proposition regarding what you get for your money.
Acoustics - right, totally different animal. Usually the more money you spend, the better sounding and playing instrument you get. And you have to spend a lot to get a top notch instrument from a small builder or a big maker custom shop where a lot of attention was paid to the instrument, and the attention to the individual instrument really pays off. You can get good mid-priced acoustics, but that's like 1300 to 1700 range compared to 2500 to 4k for high end instruments. Acoustics are expensive and hard to build.
I’d suggest a made in Japan Fender Strat or Tele for £1200, as solid choices just above the PRS SE’s in price, if you want a more traditional guitar.
Also some Japan market ESP, Schecter, Yamaha etc. can be incredible players with great build quality.
In 2019 I bought my PRS CE24 for $1999.00.
Today they sell for $2699.00.
That's an increase of 35%.
1. That's an insane price increase in five years.
2. That's too expensive for that particular guitar.
I think that's more of a PRS problem. Funny enough, I did the same thing. I ended up selling my CE24 a month ago for $1300 with hard case included. They're severely overvalued based on Reverb used prices. Turned me off from PRS. Just glad I bought it when it was only $2000 and not $2630.
@@fr3ak1shh I disagree that it's a PRS problem as every manufacturer of everything has increased prices. Perhaps PRS increased their prices more, I don't know ... PRS Guitars have always been deemed 'expensive' but I love the fact that I have owned so many of them and have had ZERO problems. Sadly the same can't be said for Fender and Gibson.
I am (was) willing to pay extra for that quality but I'm not motivated in the same way to spend more due to inflation .... I still own my CE24 and won't be selling it anytime soon. It's a fabulous guitar.
@@oldguyplaysbass6503 No brand has increased prices like the high end PRS's. The Cores are outlandishly expensive now. Probably the most overvalued factory guitar brand, judging on the resale price you see on Reverb.
I'm glad you had good experiences with yours, I sold mine because it had a bunch of problems and it killed my perception of it. The 6 point term came set so high that even lowering the saddles all the way, it was still over 2mm at the 12 fret. 2 point trems are easy for anyone to adjust, but you have to be careful with PRS 6 point trems to get all the screws to exactly the same height, or you're going to ruin the knife edge. Not something you can eyeball. Also, the pickup selector didn't stay in place well when set to neck, the tiniest nudge would set it to middle. Bridge position was fine. And finally, the tremolo arm set screw just randomly fell out on its own and got lost. I know they usually have a good reputation, but I've had way better experiences with low-mid ranged guitars. Never again, PRS!
Cheap guitars are too good now, but we want expensive ones
Bang on John: anything above $1500 is beyond my comfort mark
You simply perceive expensive guitars to be 'better' because it has a higher price tag. This is basic psychology.
Having owned hundreds of instruments over 40y (I used to trade in them as a side hobby), I know how to do my own set ups and electronics, unless I want fancy, a PRS SE, or equivalent S/H is all I'm willing to spend these days.
I have played several CS Gibson and Fender and see ZERO value in them except being able to wank on about it to other guitarists.
I recent watched a video where Marcus Miller is playing with a guy with a boutique bass, and he's on a Sire and is killing it in terms of tone, and of course he's the better player. So, apart from ergonomics you prefer on a given boutique, and maybe some bling, what do the $ really get you?
It’s a matter of priorities. I’ve been looking at a Les Paul Standard for a while now but something inside me just can’t pull the trigger on a nearly $3000 purchase. I know that there are discounts now but in the final analysis it is a want not a need. I have some other guitars on my wish list that I wouldn’t feel as bad about splurging on, but most of those are around the $1500 to $1800 mark. In truth, even that number has come down from about $2200 because I can’t justify it in my own mind. I recently picked up a new Harmony for about $1300 and it plays and sounds absolutely beautiful. When compared to that, what Fender and especially Gibson and PRS are asking for their USA-made guitars just seems too rich for me.
My upper limit so far has been around £1,200. I paid slightly less than that for a Schecter Aaron Marshall sig from PMT. Admittedly, as a mostly home player I felt a bit vulgar paying it but that guitar is so good I quickly got over it. I’m sure in time I’ll push the spending threshold when another desirable guitar comes along (I’ll probably be interested in the inevitable Sterling Rabea model) but I won’t ever get into the US-made models - I’ll always stick with imports.
guitars are expensive if you keep buying them. This is true for any product. With the frequency of purchases you make, the more you spend. So, decide if you're an artist, collector or just a consumer. Most dedicated artists settle early on with a reliable tool, then stick with it for their entire life, or until it is no longer able to serve their needs as an artist
As you pull out a 4k K-Line. I mean that is an oxymoron.
I started playing in 2012 at 43. I vowed never to pay more than 1500. Only a couple partscasters have been close to that and they are exotic woods and top shelf parts. All my off the shelf guitars have been less than 1k. And I have some wonderful guitars.
Electric guitars are the cheapest instruments among all others, that is if you're not a headstock wh0re. A decent chello bow costs more than a solid electric guitar.
I never knew that is a thing! Just looked, £90,000 for the most expensive listed, then 1 more POA. Gear 4 music had a full size for £120.00 though tbf.
Good quality guitars nowadays are almost unbelievably cheap compared with when I started playing in the 1970s. We've lived through a Golden Age for the last few years, and while mid-range prices are increasing, the quality at the lower end is rising exponentially. So, this is still an amazing time for anyone to start playing - and the beauty for old-timers like me is that it gives a chance to try affordable versions of all the models that we could previously only dream of.
What a juicy subject! I'm sure others have said it, but the quality of cheap guitars is so good these days that if you know a bit of wiring (and because of TH-cam and Google you do even if you don't), you can mod a cheap or medium priced guitar to be 80-90% as good as the brand-name alternative.
Recently I needed a new strat, and researched a bunch as to what to get and mod. The only one I tried that I seriously considered getting "off the shelf" was the PRS Silver sky (not SE, though nothing wrong with it.)
In the end I bought a JET JS-400 for 200€ and modded it myself with new wiring, pots, gilmour mod and fender custom shop pups for maybe another 250€ . The neck and playability were for me 90% as good as (or even better athan!) any American fender I tried. Up to about 1000€ was something I was willing to pay to get a good guitar (my main HH guitar is a PRS SE with mods that set me back about 700€ plus another 500€ for new pups & mods and I thought that price a deal for what it's now).
My point is, a good cheap guitar gets you in the ballpark. Modding it well gets you soooo close, that it's very, very, very hard to justify paying double or up to 10x more for a guitar that's at best only 20% better, or in a lot of cases even not as good!
easy solution is to buy used. . so many good deals out there on essentially brand new but used guitars
The most I’ve paid out of pocket for an instrument is 1200. I’d be willing to trade up for something in the 1800.00 range or find it used for a few hundred less.
The most I've ever spent on a guitar was a grand on a nick johnston signature ( my main guitar now ) I just feel like guitars become pretty similar after a certain price point
For a solid players guitar, I'd want to stay at or under $2500 these days. I could see a one off splurge in the 3s, but manufacturer is important. I'd splurge again on a Suhr, but not a Fender. At the same time, I can be happy with a solid, well-made import guitar, too.
100% dude you are spot on. Materials being used are cheaper, manufacturers cut corners basically on every step of the manufacturing process, so the excuses they come up with as to why they pass the buck onto consumers are un-acceptable
A few years ago I was really looking for an excuse to buy a Fender Am Pro II Strat. Then the lockdown/inflation hit and I really couldn't justify spending almost 2k for them (when comparing to the MIM line for example). For me the guitars around 700-800 euros play more than fine. I also ended up making a one time investment to buy some good tools (nut files, fret leveling equipment etc) that cost a fraction of the difference of a midrange to an expensive guitar. Honestly even 200-300 euro stuff, if you put in some work, you can make them play fine idk. I am not an expensive guitar snob (I own a Gibson for example) and I think you should own at least one more expensive guitar just to compare for yourself.
20ish years ago I used to consider £1500 to £2000 a fair price for a high quality professional working musician instrument. A pro level, US made etc without fancy woods/tops. Plugging that into an inflation calculator makes it £2800 to £3700. Which sort of tracks to k-line, plain suhr, fender (CS entry level) prices.
The sad thing is that working musician fee's (and many other vocations wages) have been pretty stagnant for a long, long time making things feel much more expensive.
The real problem is that there is not much in the £1500 to £2000 bracket that is of the equivalent quality from 20 years ago. Thankfully we do have incredible quality guitars from Asia sub £1000, which is softening the blow I guess. And of course, buying used puts lots of incredible quality guitars back in that £1500 to £2000 price point.
It's a wonderful time to be getting into guitar with entry level or imported instruments, it just feels like the middle area isn't what it used to be.
I've been banging on about this for months and months. Now could be great marketing or duping customers..either way companies like Gibson use stuff like Murphy labs stuff to "acceptably" drive up lower price standard guitars. It's normalisation of high price products.. So let's say 10k for a Murphy labs and we see them everywhere ..especially on youtube....starts to make 5k for a custom shop look more appealing., so 2-2.3k for a Les Paul standard look like a great price...it also means epiphone can ride on the back of "inspired by Gibson" and start charging over £1000 for their guitars...and while we wince a little..and hear a lot of .."£1200 for an Epiphone...are you mad"...but they are still selling because we start to see £2-3500 as a more normal price for a good guitar. It's madness.
That said... I know that my strat , that cost me about £500 new back in 1984...should cost over £2k with inflation...which they don't. But something is off somewhere...see back in "84 I was earning a pitance doing my apprenticeship and yet that guitar seemed , expensive but achievable. Now 40 years on and far better off , I paid £2000 for a bass that literally had me coming out in hives at spending that much on it because it was a real stretch... How does that work.......cost of living in general maybe... Weird.......
I paid $10k on a 1952 Gibson L-5N. It’s my main guitar. I gig with it several times weekly and it’s paid for itself several times over now because I play professionally.
I also own a 2012 Gibson L-5 Wes Montgomery model ($5k…) and it doesn’t hold a candle to the 1952. As far as solid bodies, I own a 2023 Gibson Standard gold top 1950s…with p-90s, an Eastman SB56 and an Eastman Sb59. Those were all pretty affordable and I wouldn’t spend much more than I did on them. Hollow bodies are my living…I make nothing from solid bodies.
Even when you need sleep, you play beautifully! I see guitar prices differently. When I was growing up and the big green Gibson catalog arrived in the mail, there was a relationship between the guitar's price and how much work went into it. To this day, I'm willing to spend more for a set neck, binding, elaborate inlays, carved top, matched grain pattern...I figure extra labor went in and that's worth more. Mind you, my favorite guitars are all Partocasters, and they're a luxury items since they have no resale value.
Off topic, but guitar value should be related to how it sounds, no? A Gruhn/Norm/TH-cam canard is that if it was made by Gibson or Fender in the 1950s, it's fabulous, period. I've played many, and not all were above average. Turn the argument around, and if an old guitar is worth $30,000, a modern guitar with a polyester finish that's not "broken in" (whatever that means) should be worthless because the sound of modern guitars is so inferior.
I'm trying to get away from a closet of guitars, but I guess I'd pay $1800 for a stellar Strat or Tele, $3500 for an outstanding 335 and $7500 for a jazz box that sounded great, whether plugged in or not. I think current custom shop pricing reflects the fact that when sales slow down, you might as well get as much as you can from the sales you still get.
$3250 for a Suhr Tele however I traded and Ibanez which knocked off $1100. So around $2500 max on any guitar new or used. Which is why I can’t pull the trigger on a K-Line yet until I at least get a chance to play one first!
That opening jam was so nice, JNC. So nice.
A American strat was £365 in 1979 which technically way more than today. A Gibson les paul standard was around £500. Both with a case. Guitar amps were pretty much unaffordable. I worked in guitar shops as guitar sales guy. Everyone bought on finance or traded in their old gear
I read the other day someone's opinion of; "instruments are luxury items." Which I can get behind. And then I think "what would I spend in the luxury bracket?" Which is really only holidays from £1k to an extreme of £5k if we were lucky enough to go to Japan. Would I spend more on a guitar than a holiday? Hell no... £1k is the max, unless someone offered me my dream PRS with enough money in the back to splurge (which is never).
I spent $2500 on a Martin Custom Shop and that was well worth it. Usually the $2000 mark is the most I feel ok about spending on an electric.
A good enough guitar was never so bloody affordable!
Guitars and too expensive, but they've always been too expensive. There was a time when a lot of hands on attention went into making these guitars we love so much and you could somewhat justify the sticker shock. Nowadays, so much is done with machines that you wonder where the money is going? My first Strat was an 83 or 84 and it cost $400. That was not cheap in 84. Regardless, my 2nd new strat was in 99 and I got it on sale for $650. My latest new strat cost was also on sale for $1822. An American ultra. Btw, I've had to have every one of them worked on by a luthier to level the frets. Even the ultra! It only has a couple of bad spots, but that's enough when you play lead. Even at that, it's drastically less than a Suhr or K line or Xotic. Even less than comparable Kiesel. So, I'll get it fixed up and enjoy it for years to come. I could possibly pay $2500 for a top notch instrument, but I haven't done it yet, so maybe I really won't? Yeah, it's much easier to find a nice used strat for $1k or a Schecter for $500-$800.
Unfortunately the price of guitars has increased incredibly. Especially after Covid. I purchased a brand-new Fender Player for about £500 before Covid. They went up during and after. So did the Ultra range. It was slightly under £2k before Covid.
Suhr’s were about £3k before Covid, now they are towards £3.6k.
What makes a Suhr worth that much money?
@@joeking433 Objectively speaking? They are better than most guitars in the market. It's worth trying one to get a feel for yourself. But that doesn't mean that they aren't way too expensive anyway. Should be under £3k in my opinion. But hey ho, I don't set the prices.
Here in Canada prices are high I paid around 1400 for a limited edition Mexican Strat but it’s an awesome guitar. Love, the Content on this channel
Great playing as always , where can we get the backing track from ? I just can't stop listening to this intro jam, it is the best piece of music I've heard for a very long time now. Is it possible you can make some kind of a tutorial or some general explanation of what was the thought process behind that thing you've played , that would be huge !! Thanks .
Ive always had more affordable guitars. The most expensive guitars i have owned are around the 1,000 dollar range. Once i bought a Revstar Standard II (RSS02T) and felt how nice that guitar is it made me want to upgrade my collection. Instead of buying new guitars i decided to take my current selection and upgrade them into something i like more. Its been really fun and ive learned a lot. I took my PRS SE Custom 24 and rewired the entire thing, changed the pickups and changed the tuners. That guitar is always loved the construction, how it felt, played, and how it looked, but hated the cheap pots, switches, and hated its pickups. Now its a guitar i absolutely love. The most recent one was taking my Butterscotch Blonde Player Series Tele and transforming it into something completely different. Bought a new neck, new bridge, rewired it, changed the pickups, new tuners, and once again its now a guitar i cant put down. My point to this share is that i wanted to get more professional level instruments, but instead of paying 2,000 for a new instrument i decided to spend half that and turn an instrument i already had into something much better. Still costs quite a bit, but i had loads of fun and learned so much. I didnt just learn how to solder, but how to cut a nut, and level/crown frets. These are skills that i think every guitar player should learn. Learning how to set up and maintain your instruments is priceless.
A Les Paul Standard in 1959 cost $280. Adjusted for inflation, that is just about $3000 today, which interestingly is what Gibson charges for the production line Les Pauls (50's or 60's). Of course Custom Shop is really a vanity thing - if you can afford them, go ahead. But that's not in my budget. I do own a 2009 Custom Shop Les Paul Junior, for which I paid just about $2000. Stellar guitar. But, yes, all of these prices are bonkers. You know what else is binkers? Concert ticket prices. One has to be rich to enjoy these things. But thankfully, great guitars can be had for $500-$1000 (PRS for example, but the Epiphone guitars are also really good these days). We just havea to not be snobby about SE or Epi on the headstock.
I got my Gibson Tribute DC Junior in 2020 for £499. Only four years later you could never get a new Gibson for under a grand if they brought them out again.
I wanted a new Martin D18e and a new Les Paul Standard, I ended up buying a new Yamaha FGX5 and a new Yamaha Revstar Professional. I have no regrets in the guitars I bought, yet I saved MORE money than I spent .. so much is charged for the headstock name
€1600 to €2000 would be my top price range for guitars but I think its all down to personal choice. I got a Schecter Nick Johnson Diamond series for roughly €1000 and I love it !! Sounds amazing and is so easy to play. I would rather spend the extra on a good amp.
Wonder if the companies are feeling it too with less sales of high end models? PRS for example are releasing SE after SE (silver sky SE, swamp ash special SE, CE SE, DGT SE, NF3 SE) and not so many big core model releases. I hope there is a continued shift to ‘good’ affordable models rather than excellent top end but poor low end.
When I bought my PRS DGT it was less about the price, and more about having one nice guitar that I don't have to do anything to (pickup swap, setup, etc). With the PRS (US made) I know the wood is properly dried before building and wont give me any trouble over time (neck twisting, fret sprout, etc) and the overall instrument is built with longevity/dependability in mind. The price was a lot for me, but logical as it's one of only two guitars I own (one for Fender-ish tones, one Gibson-ish), rather than having several Player-series/SE/Epiphone/.etc. In that way I was able to justify buying a US DGT which was about $4k. Is that the price limit for me? Not exactly; but that's the guitar I wanted, and could justify. I would NEVER pay that for a Strat/Tele/Les Paul however. It's also a guitar that I play a lot(!) so it has to be dependable. Because I can get what I need/want from the DGT, anything priced more than that is too much.
it's not inflation that's the problem, it's that income didn't grow in line with inflation
Top line for me has been a grand since the 90's. Which tells you that I don't typically buy new guitars or custom guitars.🤪
The deals are out there, definitely not as much as they used to be.
It’s a difficult one. A $600 guitar is built like a $300 guitar these days. I think a PRS SE & Schecter is probably one of the best you can get for that price & still tends to have quality issues. People see budget issues in $1k guitars these days.
Guitar prices now are totally ridiculous.
Got my first Suhr Classic S for 2.444 Euro in 2018.
Now, the same guitar costs 3.690 Euro.
From what I've seen, you should be able to get a very good sold body electric guitar for about $500. Under that, you're more likely to run into inferior parts and making. Over that, and you're probably paying a premium for brand name, exotic woods, and finishes.
When I purchased my "Reissue Strat" many years ago, the salesman said something I didn't appreciate at the time, but turned out to be sage advice. He said a Strat was easier to mod than other guitars.
At the time, I didn't know how frequently guitars were modded by my favorite guitarists. I've ended Modding a lot on my Strat as my tastes and needs have changed. So, my advice is to purchase a guitar you can Mod without guilt or hesitation. 😎
Well, that gets a big DUH! Of course Fender Strats are the best modding platform because one, it has a bolt on neck! And secondly because there are so many third party parts made for it.
Mexican fenders tend to have narrower string spacing.. little change but mentally can feel quite different without being aboe to explain why
Most expensive guitars i have purchased was my Gibson V 120 and one of my Kiesels, i think they cost me around $2100, i dont think i would ever pay over 2grand for a guitar again but at the same time i dont regret either purchase.
Another symptom of late stage capitalism- prices are going up but wages remain stagnant
Inflation in the past 4 years is at around 20%, which means that $1000 in 2020 is equivalent to $1200 now. My limit is around $600 and recently I got 2 guitars for $220 and $250. They're both fun to play and have great tones.
I’ve always had to play above my gear, because I never had the money to buy anything expensive. And years and years later, that way has served me well not only in playing music but in virtually everything else.
I think they’re cheaper than they’ve ever been. I just walked out of Guitar Center here in New York City and it was full of cheap used high-end guitars that were around $1000 It is the cheapest time ever to get high-quality equipment
Just got a 2012 Chinese tokai love rock for £299 (with a hard case) and it’s amazing for the money 🤷🏼♂️ got an epiphone LP junior last year on sale for £300 and equally, it’s great. I thought i wanted the Gibson equivalent but for 4-5 times the price at the time, it just didn’t make sense 🤷🏼♂️ I have some more expensive guitars (American Special Strat, custom shop strat, American standard tele…) but budget / more affordable stuff had become so good 🤷🏼♂️
Inflation is severely understated and wages lagging. I wouldn’t have any $2000+ guitars if not for effective dollar debasement hedging. I remember getting like $40 for gigs back around 1990. I bet that hasn’t increased all that much.
Dear John I believe your generation is quite unlucky having to pay 3.5k for a Fender CS guitar. I am 50yo, back in my session days (2004-2011), I purchased my Masterbuilt Tele for the at the time extreme amount of 3.5k Euros, my PRS CU24 cost 2.3k, your everyday American Strat was 1100 Euros and the wages could support all these purchases.
Nowadays my wage is 35% down from 2010 and I am looking at the PRS SE line as something I can grab if I save for like 9 months reducing my diet to ham an' cheese toasts 😑
most of our various cultures are busy jettisoning artists and devaluing art by not paying living wage prices to the artists. It's a sad reality, and will be to the massive detriment of our various cultures.
Guitars have gotten expensive, but they are still on the cheaper side compared with other pro/semi-pro level instruments. For example, we bought my daughter a used oboe for $5000. A new oboe is $10,000. I like the mid-level Fenders, esp the Player series. Good quality for a mid-range ($900 new or $700 used) and easily upgradable.
Most I ever spent was on the new NF3 I just got (800 US). I have prefer to buy cheap and utilitarian. 3 cheaper sounds more preferred than an expensive single sound.
$1500 US was my limit for years. I bought a new Les Paul Std '60s in 2020 for $2500. The most expensive guitar I've ever bought. I love it though, and compared to today's prices it was a bargain. New Fender prices are insane.. these are 2-3 piece body guitars, bolt on neck, no binding. no nitro. I don't get how Fender can ask so much... Insane to me. I do want another Fender, but will buy used for sure.
If our purchasing power as consumers drives sales largely to the $500-700USD range, manufacturing will be focused in Asian countries with lower labor. Even though the QC seems consistently good, those guitars will have cheaper hardware. They have to cut costs. I've purchased these lower priced guitars and some of them were pretty good, but compared to the two K-Line guitars I have, they are noticeably lower quality, mostly in the pick-ups. I bought both of the K-Line guitars used - a Springfield for $1,500USD and a Truxton for $2,500. I kind of agree about the price threshold, but I would rather have fewer, hand crafted guitars, than a wall of $500USD, made in Indonesia.
Got my first Suhr Classic s in 2018 for 2400 Euro.
Now the same Guitar costs 3690.
I spent a lot of money on two guitars 20 years ago, before responsibilities kicked in, and can’t imagine spending that much money again any time soon. Now I’d only be able to get an import guitar for the same price
Add to that, any guitar that would really excite me to own would feel morally wrong to spend that much money, right now anyway.
Fortunately, cheap stuff is light years better than the equivalent from the 90s. Back then a guitar that stayed in tune was a luxury!
My opinion is that a decent guitar, meaning very nice for a student and adequate for a professional, should cost around $1000, with at least another grand spent on sending the guitar signal somewhere; an amp or silent rig. That’s a lot of money already, so a basic student rig, while less, is still an expensive venture. To me, guitar begins to become more luxury and less tool around $2,000 to $2,500, though that is a very subjective opinion. A professional musician should be able to have a tool of the trade that should also be a nice thing to have; a toy/tool if you will
I am right there with you on ho much I would be willing to pay for a guitar, a new Am Pro II Fender Jazz Bass is about $1800 and that is the most I would spend on something new, although, I am more likely to find a used standard for around a grand and go for that. But when you have a players mindset it doesn’t really make sense to get the most expensive thing, cause then you don’t want to jump around stage with it, it’s an investment when you spend $5000 on a guitar, well if you’re not rich I guess lol.
1500 is it for me also and that’s a stretch it went up from 1000 max post covid when everything went up.
Currently tho I have 1 guitar that I got used (traded in at guitar center ) it’s a made in Japan fender traditional 60’s strat with a rosewood fretboard and it was 900.
As a hobby guitar player I realized I only need 1 guitar. I play with a gx-100 with the 4cm with a boss katana 100 head and a line 6 vetta cabinet that has celestion g-12’s in it.
You helped influence this for me and I am very happy with my set up which has been a very big process, lots and lots of amps, pedals and guitars.
I will say another guitar that was great but wish it had the rosewood fretboard is the Ibanez genesis rg550 those are priced at a 1000.00 but less if you buy used but only have maple fretboards. They are really great tho.
About £5k is my limit. I paid that for a Super Heavy relic Strat. It was one of those where I saw it and had to have it. I part exchanged a Friedman S type against it. I prefer fewer of higher quality. But prices are going up and for some without justification. The Epiphone for example or non-custom Gibson.
I mean it doesn’t take too much to get a nice electric guitar these days. All of the low to mid range guitars are much higher quality than they used to be, and if they’re not to your immediate liking, they can be modded to your liking with the amount of amazing necks and pickups available today. All in all, YMMV. For instance, that K Line you’re playing is nearly 5k retail, it doesn’t do anything functionally different from a lower priced Strat. You were willing to pay for the craftsmanship, branding, and boutique ideal because it was within your mileage.
The only thing I would actually say is overpriced is quality amplification. I’m not even talking boutique handmade, a lot of these PCB mass manufactured are way too overpriced for the parts, even modeling is getting a little pricy if you want something above line 6 quality
If you buy a new IPhone you are buying something that costs billions to develop. Now compare to a Fender or Gibson. It is ANCIENT technology and should cost relative peanuts.
Ha - you feel old - I got my GCSE results in 1997 😮!
But yes, guitars are very expensive now; Squier strats (nice ones) will set you back the best part of £500!!
Taking Les Pauls as an example, I just picked up a 2020 Trad Pro V used for $1150 (the used market is always my preference). They're still going for around $2200 new, and the Classics are close to that as well. Whereas a Standard, that's essentially the same guitar (a few minor differences, but nothing drastic), is sitting around the $3000 mark. Ridiculous.
I paid £1400 for my Les Paul Standard Plus in 1990. That was a real stretch for me then. In today’s money I’d guess that would be over £5000 so current Gibson prices seem cheap relatively speaking. I think the real high end customer shop stuff is too much though. I couldn’t pay £10,000 for example no matter who built it! But if you earn salaries like top execs, premier league footballers etc. then £10,000 is nothing. My most recent guitar is a Fender Pro2 Strat which I got in a sale for £1400 and iwas happy to pay that and I’d gig it, whereas I never gig my Les Paul because I don’t want some drunk damaging it or some tossed stealing it - I couldn’t afford to replace it. I’m actually looking at getting the DGT SE as the price seems to have dropped a bit now. Still think £900 is a bit steep for Indonesian made but no one is making me oay it. Best value guitar I own is an Epiphone Les Paul Special. Cost £300 new and sounds great. Love the P90s on it. I’m not keen on the TV yellow colour but it plays well. In fact I’m playing it more than my Gibson at the moment. I guess you just have to decide for yourself whether a guitar is with the price to you. Oh, I got my GCE results in 1978 by the way and bought my first flat for £12,000 a few years later.
I'm glad you mentioned inflation of the top because apart from housing & groceries which are way above inflation and wages/income which is vulgarly below inflation, the vast majority of things are pretty much inline with inflation. It's just the three big things that aren't are the things that make living feel crippling. I know anecdotally I have a 1957 Gibson GA-8 I paid $1200(CAD) for. Saw a price guide for a 1960 GA-8 which was $90-ish (USD) which translates to about $1250 (CAD). The amp held it's value apparently.
On the how much luxury guitars cost. I recently got to play some expensive guitars including finally playing some core line PRS, Suhr, Fender/Gibson Custom Shop, and in the video I made about the PRS I sort of surmised "You need to pay over $5000 in order to have every aspect of the guitar build treated with absolute care. To be an artisan product." Not saying great guitars don't exist well below that, in fact the $2k-$5k range for me is the avoid zone. But the above $5k for me is where mass production ends & luthier begins. There's maybe a couple of builders & brands who can do it below that, but I fear they're too few & far between.
My "American Professional II" telecaster was $1800 USD this year. I think it's a good quality instrument for the money. I regret buying the $2400 American Vintage II '57 Strat. It's not any better built.
I think if you go for the last model of a guitar for example as Fender have released the Player 2 range the older ones will be a good deal . PRS seem to offer some good deals sub £$500 and second hand PRS guitars are a great buy . Vintera Custom Shop and Murphy lab guitars are way overpriced, they’d all be found out in blindfold tests . I paid £100 for an Antoria Strat copy back in the 70s and it gave a real Strat a run for its money at half the cost as did the Ibanez range /lawsuit gear that was around then .
All I can say is I was buying cheaper quality guitars only to take a bath when selling them. I think the best way to go is buying used quality guitars that will at least hold their value , come close to it or possibly even increase a bit. My 2 cents not that anybody cares lol.
I care dude!
I recently got a DGT SE for what be seems about 465 pounds in your world. (600 USD) These days I consider $1kUS a cheap guitar. There are bargains to be found still.
Just got a slightly discounted PRS Studio for approx 3700,- of your pounds, amazing guitar but way more expensive than i thought i ever would pay for a guitar…
I bought a used one-off “semi-custom” Agile (MIK) after over a decade of looking at them and it’s an absolutely killer instrument for a stupidly cheap price. It has great pickups, roasted neck & board, stainless steel frets, etc. and it’s been my go-to even though I have significantly more expensive guitars in my collection. That being said, I top out around $2k for used Music Man’s and Gibson’s. I would not go past $3k unless it was for one of the handful of holy grail JP models that I’ve been after for years.
Most I've blown on a guitar was 5K USD (8k AUD) It was a NAMM Ormsby. I do regret that. I also regret buying the gibson custom shop limited edition Les Paul quilt at 6.5K AUD. (it was on sale, 30% off).
I've had some amazing purchases at sub 2K AUD prices. (I'm in Australia).
Our GST is set at ten percent. I don't know what your VAT is but I'm certain that it's way too much.
2nd hand is the way to go really. Unless you find something you just fall in love with.
I'm currently watching a guitar on Reverb that's listed at 22K AUD...If I win the lottery this week......
I consider an electric guitar to be functional artwork...What a tree can achieve given a couple of hundred years just sitting in a bunch of dirt can be astonishingly beautiful and completely original...
Until wages catch up with inflation all of the dream guitars will remain a dream for most... the Murphy Lab seems to stick out particularly as just obscene prices... BUT - the cheaper end of guitars has got a lot better, Squire guitars are unrecognisable from their 90's counterparts, PRS SE range seems to be insane value for money. Just as one end gets out of reach, guitars that are still very real instruments are in reach albeit under a different sub-brand. (Ephiphones for over 1300 however, is ridiculous!!)
No., beginner guitarists are spoilt for choice nowadays., growing up all I recall for a cheap electric guitar is a Squire or a Gio., now those are considered premium over the choices you could find in Temu or a Benton or something...but for collectors or the custom stuff then yes they charge so much now
I bought a Suhr S-type SSS for £3000. Way too much money but it plays/sounds wonderous and makes me happy. I can't do it proper justice, I'm a total dilettante. I guess a fool and his money are easily parted. It is perfect
A Fender Player Series is the most expensive guitar I own. It cost me around 600 EUR. But I am a hobbyist, I'm not a professional musician.
Smart man. Player series are fucking great. There's no reason to waste more money.
My most expensive guitars are two Parker Niteflys. One was $1200 and the other was $1600. I think they are worth it because I think Ken Parker made the most technologically genius guitars ever made. So many guitars are just Strat clones with no real innovation. Another reason they are worth the money is because they quit making them. I have also been buying necks and building Strat style guitars. I have a composite neck from KLOS, two aluminum necks from Hoxey, and a USCG roasted maple neck. Those guitars seem so much more cool than just a Fender Custom Shop Strat. If I want to go that route I would buy a Custom Shop Strat neck for $1200 and put it on a regular MIM Fender Strat body.