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  #16  
Old 12-29-2016, 09:48 AM
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SFCRetired SFCRetired is offline
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I'm not going to mention any brand but I have played some guitars that I would not take home with me. Some guitars that we consider high end and some that some people claims play above their weight class.

Let's just say we all have different tastes and like different sounds and we even like how our guitars are set up individually.
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  #17  
Old 12-29-2016, 10:19 AM
SugarmillMan SugarmillMan is offline
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I used to have a used DP/W that I picked up at a good price from one of the forum sponsors. It had upgrades to bracing and glues but never seemed to quite live up my expectations of the high quality brand. Maybe I just expected too much.
I had it tweaked by a highly skilled technician and he agreed. It was never going to be more than a satisfactory specimen. I guess those plain Janes come in every wrapper.
Maybe I will try another guitar from this maker soon since I have traded this one away.

Last edited by SugarmillMan; 12-29-2016 at 10:34 AM.
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  #18  
Old 12-29-2016, 10:27 AM
Steve DeRosa Steve DeRosa is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SugarmillMan View Post
I used to have a used DP/W that I picked up at a good price from one of the forum sponsors. It had upgrades to bracing and glues but never seemed to quite live up my expectations of the high quality brand.
I had it tweaked by a highly skilled technician and he agreed. It was just a never going to be more than a satisfactory specimen. I guess those plain Janes come in every wrapper. Maybe I will try another guitar from this maker soon.
A number of years ago I had the opportunity to work out on an uber-high-end boutique guitar, whose maker elicits near-deification among cognoscenti of such instruments...

A/B'd it against the Irish-made Avalon A-201 (also a cedar/EIR 16" small-jumbo) that I wound up taking home with me that day - I played while my wife listened, then vice versa...

Was the big-buck box better than my well-under-$2000 Avalon...?

To our hands/ears, not $12K+ worth...
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  #19  
Old 12-29-2016, 10:29 AM
rokdog49 rokdog49 is offline
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Cognoscenti ??

Don't they build violins or something in Italy?
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  #20  
Old 12-29-2016, 10:31 AM
Oldguy64 Oldguy64 is offline
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The question itself is very subjective.
Certain brands are very good, in the right hands.
In my hands those same guitars sound just like guitars that I don't buy.

By the same token, a lot of some brands sound bad in the store, but somebody gives them a chance. You run into that same guitar a year later and it's wearing better strings and it sounds amazing.

There are guitars that most of us now avoid because we've never played one that blew our skirt up. But you've heard that same guitar in someone else's hands sound like it was made at God's own luthier's bench.

As always, one man's meat is another man's poison.
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  #21  
Old 12-29-2016, 10:32 AM
Rosewood99 Rosewood99 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Oldguy64 View Post
The question itself is very subjective.
Certain brands are very good, in the right hands.
In my hands those same guitars sound just like guitars that I don't buy.

By the same token, a lot of some brands sound bad in the store, but somebody gives them a chance. You run into that same guitar a year later and it's wearing better strings and it sounds amazing.

There are guitars that most of us now avoid because we've never played one that blew our skirt up. But you've heard that same guitar in someone else's hands sound like it was made at God's own luthier's bench.

As always, one man's meat is another man's poison.
Very well said.
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  #22  
Old 12-29-2016, 10:38 AM
ohYew812 ohYew812 is offline
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Those Zager EZ play guitars
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  #23  
Old 12-29-2016, 10:41 AM
Truckjohn Truckjohn is offline
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For me - it's most Gibson USA made Dreadnoughts made between about 1980 and 2011 or 2012...

They were fairly expensive and generally very heavily built. The word was the corporate business owners were quite concerned about warranty return and brand image over musicality.

Now... You may have a different opinion of these if you play with quite heavy strings with a very heavy hand - such as playing out live unamplified in noisy bars, church, or bluegrass jams. 10 or 15 years of this sort of play seems to loosen them up enough that they sound pretty decent with normal medium strings.

The second "underwhelming" performer to me was the Ovations with the thick plastic dipped soundboards. Generally made between about 1987 and when the plant closed the 1st time. The exception is the 1994 Custom Collectors Edition - which was well made with a nice thin finish and it really sounded nice and loud. The early ones were great. Loud and responsive. Ironically - the ones with really thick finishes generally sound a lot better when the finishes craze really bad... But the factory figured that out and made them a lot more flexible so they wouldn't crack.

3rd... 1970's Martin dreads for all the reasons everybody already knows.
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  #24  
Old 12-29-2016, 10:45 AM
steelvibe steelvibe is offline
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Haven't we all heard guitars from both ends of the spectrum? Anyone who has played guitars for any length of time have found that are some are far too expensive for the sound they offer, while finding others that have bang for the buck factor, sometimes in spades?

Play what you like and buy what you like- cost shouldn't be a factor. Period.
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  #25  
Old 12-29-2016, 10:49 AM
Nyghthawk Nyghthawk is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by steelvibe View Post
Play what you like and buy what you like- cost shouldn't be a factor. Period.
You must have lots of discretionary cash. Many of us buy the best we can afford. Period.
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  #26  
Old 12-29-2016, 10:56 AM
Denny B Denny B is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rokdog49 View Post
Cognoscenti ??

Don't they build violins or something in Italy?

I think they're actually the minor league team for the Illuminati in Italy...
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  #27  
Old 12-29-2016, 10:58 AM
ewalling ewalling is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SFCRetired View Post
Let's just say we all have different tastes and like different sounds and we even like how our guitars are set up individually.
Boring!
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  #28  
Old 12-29-2016, 10:59 AM
baimo baimo is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bobbie McMahon View Post
False logic, specifically a Propositional fallacy.

Affirming a disjunct – concluding that one disjunct of a logical disjunction must be false because the other disjunct is true; A or B; A, therefore not B.
-wiki
I understand. Far out man! Oh and the answer is any guitar I presently don't own.
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  #29  
Old 12-29-2016, 11:05 AM
steelvibe steelvibe is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Nyghthawk View Post
You must have lots of discretionary cash. Many of us buy the best we can afford. Period.
How can you make such a grand assumption from my statement? I research what I buy for a great length of time before making the purchase. The most expensive guitar I've ever bought took me over 2 years to save up the cash for. Of course credit is always an option, but I've never used it on a single guitar I've ever purchased.

Please explain.
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  #30  
Old 12-29-2016, 11:07 AM
DHillshafer DHillshafer is offline
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Show me a guitar that plays below its cost and I'll show you a guitarist that needs to practice.
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