1 $4,000 street price guitar or 2 $2,000 street price guitars?

[nedray]

Buy the one(s) you like.

[mmasters]

If I could have 2 guitars for half the price instead of one I'd have 2, a D-18 and a D-28.

[Jabberwocky]

You can only play one guitar at any one time so make it the nicest you can afford.

I can't put a percentage on nicer but you can hear and feel it.

The guitars that I am drawn to are in the $4000 and above street price bracket.

Tell you what: 2 $2000 USED guitars are better than 1 $4000 NEW guitar.

[mds08]

I have one guitar, had a few $2000 range guitars. A Taylor 910 and a 2013 D18. Tried a new 2015 Martin D28 VTS and that was all it took. Yes there is a difference at least to my ears. Traded both in and that was it. Saved me money because I'm GAS free!

[crikey]

Originally Posted by Frozen Rat

Yup, sorry, you're right, my brain meant to write D-28.

A D-28 can still be had for < 2k as well.

[brencat]

Originally Posted by DukeX

For me 2 x $2k 'cause I don't have enough variety yet.

I understand this thinking ^ and I'd answer the OP that it depends on your playing experience level and whether you've had the privilege yet of owning a guitar that you feel can do it all. IMO, the all-arounder is a bit elusive, and I like variety.

[ChrisE]

I've gotten to where I think I can tell the difference between a $500 guitar and a $2,000 guitar. I don't think I can tell the difference between a $2,000 guitar and a $4,000 guitar.

I'd go for 2 $2,000 guitars. Or maybe a $2000 acoustic and a couple of $1,000 electrics.

[Steve DeRosa]

Exactly what I did in 2004 - sold an early-'47 A-Series/white-label/prewar-logo Gibson L-7 in excellent-plus condition, to finance a "his-&-hers" Rainsong JM1000/JM3000 jumbo 6- and 12-string set...

My wife and I used them for the next ten years running, with a couple CCM/P&W teams...

Can't get the JM1000 with the slimmer N1 neck any more, can't get the JM3000 for love or money in any form...

Got an all-acoustic Godin 5th Avenue holding down the archtop slot, until I can score a birth-year archtop to my liking...

No regrets...

[Zissou Intern]

If I am keeping my two current guitars, then I am buying a $4K guitar. It'll be a used Smeck style guitar by Gibson, Kopp, or Fairbanks or possibly a Collings DS1A.

[Goodallboy]

Originally Posted by grinningbanjo53

Say you had the option of owning 2 steet price guitars at $2,000 a piece, or one guitar at $3,500-$4,000?

I guess I'm trying to figure out if guitars in the $4,000 steet price range are really that much better than a $2,000 guitar?

They should be...

They could be...

They might not be....

Most often they are.....

[Gordon Currie]

Originally Posted by Tico

To me it seems more likely that a good guitar gets out of the way and lets you sound as good as you are, whereas a lesser guitar hinders you and makes you sound worse than you are.

This. I might even say a good guitar can make you sound better than you realize. It's happened a number of times to me.

It took many years to get to this point, but now I am always open to paying more if the guitar is that good; conversely I will NEVER underpay to pander to my budget.

[1Charlie]

There are some amazing deals (on this forum) on gently used small-shop guitars at around $2000-$2500. A couple of them would keep my happy, satisfied and creative for a long time.

[tippy5]

My vote goes for one 4K guitar. To me it isn't even close. I have bought 80 plus acoustics and the more you spend the way more you get. It might not be linear (100% better, or twice). But even if it is 20% better you will be thankful as long as you do the research here, from our sponsors and on the net.

I have a friend who brought over a couple Goodall's, I had 3 to add to the sampling. The higher priced ones were higher priced for a reason.

Now if your income could someday soon be compromised, or you really shouldn't spend that much, then get two and sell one in a pinch.

[Mandobart]

In musical instruments, cars (and other things) we encounter diminishing returns. Most of us can tell a difference in tone, quality or playability when going from a $100 guitar to a $500 guitar. As cost goes up, however, the incremental increase in tone, quality or playability gets less. Is a $2000 instrument consistently twice as good as a $1000 instrument? Does any given $4000 instrument sound, play, look or last twice as good/long as any given $2000 instrument? What if you spent $10,000 instead? Would that guitar objectively be 5 times better than every $2000 guitar you tried out?

My experience has been its definitely better to spend more to get the tone, quality or playability I want, but after a certain point I can't tell exactly what I'm getting for the extra $. And I have some custom handbuilt instruments from some one-man shops that outperform instruments from the "big names" costing 3 times as much.

[frankhond]

My Lowden S25C is around 4k and yes it's worth exactly that. So much so that I got rid of some 2k guitars because they were not getting played anymore.

But I have tried some other guitars in that range and above that weren't worth the money.

So the answer is that you need to get a 4k guitar that's perfect for YOU. Which is a feat in itself. My journey went through some 1k, 2k and 3k guitars. I guess 5k is next...