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Do You Think That Some Guitars Are Way Over Priced?

When I was a kid, I had the luxury of practicing with a band in the basement of a local music store. Every instrument in that store was at my disposal. Discovering that the guitar I preferred to play, due to feel and sound, was an obscure brand name vs all the big name brand guitars available was a revelation. When shopping instruments, I always keep this in mind.

The 350 pound ESP was priceless because @OP loved it.
 
To me, it's all about tone and playability in any price range. I do have a collection of Ibanez, Gibsons and Fenders and a few designer guitars (James Tyler, Valley Arts, etc.) but bottom line is the sound that goes down on tape eventually. That's when any guitar, affordable or expensive, shines.
 
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First, I am sorry for your loss - that is way too young!

And yes, there is a rule of thumb that one should not make major decisions after a major loss, but in this case I think it does not apply.

You like the guitar, you didn't risk your mortgage, I say go for it!

I own several guitars, including a 68 Les Paul Standard which I purchased used in 1980, it is my main electric guitar, and a b-bender Tele(ish) I built from parts, and a Mexi Strat that I absolutely love, after I replaced all the hardware, the wood was good!

If I had the means I'd love to own a custom shop Les Paul, probably based on a gold top from the late 50s, but it wouldn't make me a better player (or would it?), it would, however, make me happy since I had a 68 gold top stolen decades ago.

Are they over-priced? I don't know, but I think I'll stick with my "if you can afford it, and it makes you happy then it is not over-priced" theory.

I've only spent a lot on one guitar, a Santa Cruz D/PW with Brazillian Rosewood sides and back. This thing sounds like a pre-war Martin D-28, and plays better than most of the pre-war Martins I've played. I love it. My wife had to twist my arm to get me to buy it - no lie. We were doing well, and she knew I really wanted something like this, so she encouraged me to buy it. I don't regret it at all (although I did for a few days, $3500 is a LOT of money!) I don't know that I'd spend that much again.

So no, after all that I don't think over-priced is an accurate description, expensive is. Is it twice as good as a guitar costing half as much? Probably not. Is it twice as valuable to you? Probably it is.
 
To me, it's all about tone and playability in any price range. I do have a collection of Ibanez, Gibsons and Fenders and a few designer guitars (James Tyler, Valley Arts, etc.) but bottom line is the sound that goes down on tape eventually. That's when any guitar, affordable or expensive, shines.
Yes that is very true. When i first started out, no matter what cheap guitar i ever bought due to lack of funds in them days, even if the guitar was hard to play cos you could limbo under the strings lol, the first thing i always used to do was go and buy a set of Di Marzio humbuckers for it. At that time, they where pretty much the best choice for guitarists that didn't have much money but boy, did they drastically change the sound of that guitar!
 
First, I am sorry for your loss - that is way too young!


So no, after all that I don't think over-priced is an accurate description, expensive is. Is it twice as good as a guitar costing half as much? Probably not. Is it twice as valuable to you? Probably it is.
Thanks for that!

When i say 'overpriced' i am looking at things like say that PRS that was stolen from my local shop.

10 grand for an electric guitar. It's wood, it has pickups, it has control knobs and so on. Why then is it priced at 10 grand. That is what i don't get.

When i think of overpriced guitars, i think of guitars like Peter Greens LP, the history of it, the iconic songs it played on, the iconic guitarists that owned it, so that kind of over pricing, i do understand but a brand new guitar that is similar to thousands of other brand new guitars but they put a 10 grand tag on it.
If people want to pay that, that's their choice.

I bought that Custom Shop LP because i had the chance to own one before i die and i took it.

I would never do it again though :)
 
Humbuckers on a Tele? Snap out of it man!
believe me - its a match made in heaven!

Here is an example, along with the Fender Thinline Tele, also with wide range humbuckers. Its like a combination of a strat and a les paul (of which I have both).
 
I mentioned earlier about my first guitars, this is just a story about one of them i thought i'd share lol

The Avon Les Paul copy. This was around 1976, i got it on the weekly in a Kays Catalogue for 50 quid.

At the time it was ok for me as i was still learning. So, i did the Di Marzio thing i mentioned and it did sound great.

This guitar was based on the black LP with cream bindings.

I was Jack the Lad! lol anyway, for some reason i still don't know why, i decided i wanted to change the body as when you looked in the electronics compartment, you could see it was made of cheap ply wood.

So, across the road from where i worked was a furniture carpenter. So i asked him if he could make me a body from solid wood and put everything from the Avon on to it. He agreed and said, i have to buy the wood for the body but he won't charge me for making the guitar as he had never done that before.

I picked the wood. A solid chunk of Teak. Teak?? Don't ask me why, i just don't know lol.

Anyway, he had it for a week and i went to pick it up. It did look the nuts, everything was in place and all measured so it was all where it should be.

BUT

When i got it home, i could not tune it. Play the chord E and the chord D was well out. Same with G and A. I just could not tune it.

I took it back to him and he did a bit of research. Now, what he found out was the nut to the 12th fret should be the same as the 12th fret to the bridge saddles.

This is what we found out that messed it all up. When he done the measuing up, he didn't do it that way, he measured from the end of the neck to the centre of the bridge and what he forgot to take into account was the slite difference between a curved LP copy top and a dead flat Teak body lol.

So he plugged the bridge holes and measure the right way and re set the bridge.

Fantastic, worked a treat. Only one big problem, the weight of that solid 2" thick lump of teak used to kill my shoulder lmao.
 
believe me - its a match made in heaven!

Here is an example, along with the Fender Thinline Tele, also with wide range humbuckers. Its like a combination of a strat and a les paul (of which I have both).


A lot of the appeal of a tele for me is that single coil sound but damn, those humbucker teles sounded amazing. Fantastic track too (I'm off to find out myself, but do you have an album out at all?)

I'll take another look at teles with humbuckers on although I'm a bassist so might not end up getting one. Speaking of which, let's talk about why you should be using a P bass instead of that jazz in the video... (Just kidding, I have both and they're both great.)
 
A lot of the appeal of a tele for me is that single coil sound but damn, those humbucker teles sounded amazing. Fantastic track too (I'm off to find out myself, but do you have an album out at all?)

I'll take another look at teles with humbuckers on although I'm a bassist so might not end up getting one. Speaking of which, let's talk about why you should be using a P bass instead of that jazz in the video... (Just kidding, I have both and they're both great.)
I do agree, a strat or tele have a unique twang or plucky type sound so if you want them sound,you leave it alone but if you really like the look and feel of a strat or tele but are more into the humbucker sound, then you can change the picups.

It's all about whatever floats your boat :)
 
A lot of the appeal of a tele for me is that single coil sound but damn, those humbucker teles sounded amazing. Fantastic track too (I'm off to find out myself, but do you have an album out at all?)

I'll take another look at teles with humbuckers on although I'm a bassist so might not end up getting one. Speaking of which, let's talk about why you should be using a P bass instead of that jazz in the video... (Just kidding, I have both and they're both great.)

I think they're so versatile it is so worth it. for some reason I've never really used my stratocaster in the studio that much. and thanks a lot, I've got a bunch of albums out actually, mostly in the instrumental post-rockish genre.

Spotify:

Please do tell me why I should get a P Bass! I have been so pleased with my jazz that I've never looked anywhere else to tell you the truth
 
believe me - its a match made in heaven!

Here is an example, along with the Fender Thinline Tele, also with wide range humbuckers. Its like a combination of a strat and a les paul (of which I have both).

I have a Billy Corgan signature Strat with three blade humbuckers instead of single coils, and that is also like a combination of a Strat and Les Paul. ;)
 
I think they're so versatile it is so worth it. for some reason I've never really used my stratocaster in the studio that much. and thanks a lot, I've got a bunch of albums out actually, mostly in the instrumental post-rockish genre.

Spotify:

Please do tell me why I should get a P Bass! I have been so pleased with my jazz that I've never looked anywhere else to tell you the truth

Thanks, I've been listening to your work this afternoon and I really like it.

So, P basses. I got back into playing bass around 10 years ago and joined a few forums. Everyone would say that a P bass is the best, just get one and be done with buying them. I disagreed. I thought they looked boring, sounded generic and were just a normal standard bass that wasn't anything special. I preferred jazz basses (that burpy sound from the bridge pickup is amazing) and anything that sounded a bit more unique, a bit more "me".

A few years ago I was trying out a bass and said to my friend "I think this sounds a bit like a P bass" so I grabbed the closest one off the shelf to try. I played it and loved it. For some reason, it just sounded right to me. I was prejudiced against them and couldn't believe it. I went back the following week and bought it (it's the white one in my photo above).

I've used it at gigs "nice bass, lovely sound, really clear" was the response. I've used it on recordings and it sits in the mix perfectly. And that's the thing. A precision bass sits in a mix but also cuts through so the right tone can always be heard.

There are still places for other basses of course and a jazz would always be up there. What I've noticed is that a jazz will sound great on its own as the EQ has scooped mids, a sad face EQ and that tends to sound pleasant. A P bass has a little more in the mid-range which helps it cut through a mix but may not be as pleasant sounding (although it is to a lot of bass players).

Finally, remember that the sound of a band has grown around the sound of a P bass, as have mixes, so there's a lot of instruments being shaped around that bass tone, in my opinion anyway.

Now I rarely play my other basses, this one is the one that gets picked up.

Sorry if I make you buy a P bass. Mine is a Mexican Standard and is superb in every way. Perhaps a little less refined in build and a little heavier than a USA Fender but certainly not worth more than £1000 extra. Try one though, you may not like them and that's fine. Honest. :)
 
Thanks, I've been listening to your work this afternoon and I really like it.

So, P basses. I got back into playing bass around 10 years ago and joined a few forums. Everyone would say that a P bass is the best, just get one and be done with buying them. I disagreed. I thought they looked boring, sounded generic and were just a normal standard bass that wasn't anything special. I preferred jazz basses (that burpy sound from the bridge pickup is amazing) and anything that sounded a bit more unique, a bit more "me".

A few years ago I was trying out a bass and said to my friend "I think this sounds a bit like a P bass" so I grabbed the closest one off the shelf to try. I played it and loved it. For some reason, it just sounded right to me. I was prejudiced against them and couldn't believe it. I went back the following week and bought it (it's the white one in my photo above).

I've used it at gigs "nice bass, lovely sound, really clear" was the response. I've used it on recordings and it sits in the mix perfectly. And that's the thing. A precision bass sits in a mix but also cuts through so the right tone can always be heard.

There are still places for other basses of course and a jazz would always be up there. What I've noticed is that a jazz will sound great on its own as the EQ has scooped mids, a sad face EQ and that tends to sound pleasant. A P bass has a little more in the mid-range which helps it cut through a mix but may not be as pleasant sounding (although it is to a lot of bass players).

Finally, remember that the sound of a band has grown around the sound of a P bass, as have mixes, so there's a lot of instruments being shaped around that bass tone, in my opinion anyway.

Now I rarely play my other basses, this one is the one that gets picked up.

Sorry if I make you buy a P bass. Mine is a Mexican Standard and is superb in every way. Perhaps a little less refined in build and a little heavier than a USA Fender but certainly not worth more than £1000 extra. Try one though, you may not like them and that's fine. Honest. :)

well I just might need to try one then. I always like to play with a pick and really push the bass guitar with a lot of midrange saturation and eq in the mix to get it somewhat gnarly. so maybe its time the jazz got itself a sibling :)
 
Oh you have to get a mating pair for sure, that's how you end up with a couch-load of them.

A precision played with a pick has that classic rock tone. I love the sound of the saturation/distortion you have on the guitars in your video so have total faith that you'd do a bass justice. Speaking of distortion, have you tried Darkglass pedals for bass? I fell in love with the Vintage Microtubes but somehow managed to not buy one and get a cheaper Zander Sonos pedal instead.
 
Oh you have to get a mating pair for sure, that's how you end up with a couch-load of them.

A precision played with a pick has that classic rock tone. I love the sound of the saturation/distortion you have on the guitars in your video so have total faith that you'd do a bass justice. Speaking of distortion, have you tried Darkglass pedals for bass? I fell in love with the Vintage Microtubes but somehow managed to not buy one and get a cheaper Zander Sonos pedal instead.
I have never tried or even heard of those. might need to look into that when I get the urge to get down and dirty. but as a fellow bass-lover, getting it to sit just right with the drums can definitely make or break a mix, so always looking to improve. thanks for the tip!
 
Darkglass are based in Helsinki and have quite a range of bass distortion pedals. Really good stuff. Neural DSP also have a plugin that officially emulates the Vintage Microtubes and another of their pedals.

Glad to have been of help. I'm going to go rock out to your music whilst I work today :)
 
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