what was the longest time you saved for a guitar?

[tippy5]

When I went from $7hr to $12.50 (in 1986) it took 6 months to save the $625 for a Gibson J55 1973. My first nice guitar.
20 years of playing cheap acoustics made for one appreciative Gibson owner. It wasn't a great guitar. I didn't know the back and sides were ply.
But it helped bridge another 10 year span for a better Gibson.

[stormin1155]

The only time I think I ever saved for a guitar is my very first one when I was 15. It cost $30. Since then I've owned at least 100 different guitars. When I had money I'd buy one, or I'd trade something for it. When I don't have extra money I don't buy any.

Saving.... hmmmm..... maybe you're on to something.

[jseth]

When I was 14 years old, a friend sat on my junker nylon string acoustic, and I wanted to get something decent... so I saved up for a couple years, wasted $35 on a cheapo Tijuana 12 string (imploded after about two months!), then kept saving and bought a Guild D-40 when I was 16, for $269.32 - this was in California in 1967...

Since then, I've always had the money or been able to lay my hands on it when I needed a new guitar... but I am not any sort of collector, so it was always just "one good guitar" and that was enough for me as a singer/songwriter.

Funny, I haven't made a lot of money from a lifetime of playing, singing and writing songs, but I have ALWAYS found the means to have great guitars and great equipment without any trouble at all!

[kkrell]

Took an extra job for one month, all proceeds exactly equalled the price of the guitar. My base expenses were already covered by my regular employment, so was able to save the entire additional amount, rather than trying to build up savings slowly over time.

[Shadowfox]

That would be this year.

I sold my MMV, and realized I had a decent seed money fund to buy a guitar previously out of my price range. I'm a pastor, and my wife was a Teacher's aide at the time. Mon, Th, F I subbed in a school district to pay for it.

I got it all paid off by last school year. Now I just gotta wait for it to come in now!

[Tico]

In the late 1960s when I was around 10 I mowed lawns for 75 cents.
I put a Yamaha on lay away and IIRC took nearly a year to pay if off.

At 19 I joined the military and started saving very heavily.
Since then I've never saved for, or financed, a guitar or a car; I just paid cash.
The only thing I've financed is my Bose PA, but only because I qualified for 0% interest.
I did have to finance my house though.
But in 4 months that'll be paid off.

Now I'm an old fart.
Though I've made many mistakes in life, the best thing I ever did was started saving/investing as a teenager.

[RP]

I use Synchrony Bank's layaway plan whose advantage is that you get the guitar upfront and do the layaway on the back end...

[k_russell]

I started a piggy bank in 2001 because I planned to buy myself a custom built, concert, classical guitar, for my 50th birthday (in 2004). I just tossed my pocket change in coffee can at the end of each day. When I filled the can, I put the money in the bank. In September of 2011 (yeah. a little past the 50 date)my guitar arrived from the builder. The piggy bank cover about 1/4 of the cost. The rest of the funds came from expenses that I had planned for, but never incurred.

I play that guitar every morning before I leave my house for work. Each day as I'm putting it away, I think "Wow, what a cool sounding guitar". I have played it at open mics, recitals, salons and a few concerts. Sometimes, I'm not happy with my performance, but the guitar always pulls it's weight. It's worth every penny.

Answer: About 10 years

Great idea for a post.