My Guitar is too nice and expensive to play

[Looburst]

Yes, that's usually the hope although my experience has been it rarely happens, on this site anyway.

[printer2]

I'll make you a not so nice expensive guitar you can play all the time.

[caperrob]

Originally Posted by Haasome

This one is a head scratcher for me. I play my guitars. That's why I bought them.

What he said

My Martin GPCPA4 rosewood is the most I've ever spent on a guitar and last fall, the boys were having a jam session at a hunting cabin. I didn't take my Yamaha F-310, I took the Martin.

[Looburst]

There ya go, guitars are meant to be played and I have them ranging in a wide spectrum of prices, from thousands to just a few hundred but they all get playing time. That's why I bought them.

[Jim-W]

This thread reminds me of another experience. I fly RC planes as a hobby. The trend is to get bigger and better planes as you get more experienced. Of course hard landings promote this as well. There were several people that finally worked their way up to planes that were fairly large and significantly expensive - in the thousands. It took all the fun out of the hobby for them as they afraid to wreck the planes. They eventually sold the planes left the hobby.

Another experience I have is with toys and my kids. I was always sad to get rid of an old toy that looked brand new. It meant the kids never liked it and did not get satisfaction from it.

I am not saying do not take good care of your guitar. But I think guitars are made to be played without fear. One day I plan on getting a really nice guitar ( Taylor 814 or something close) and I will not hesitate to play it a lot. I hope it shows some wear after I am gone.

[Kh1967]

Originally Posted by blacknblues

I've seen some version of this many times in the classifieds. "I'm selling my guitar because I'm afraid I'll ding it" or "I don't play well enough to own a guitar as nice as this so I'm selling it"...am I the only one who finds this reasoning a bit ridiculous? Why did you buy it in the first place if you weren't going to play it? Isn't somebody eventually going to ding the nice guitars just as they would an inexpensive one? Do folks buy nice guitars and just stare at them like they are simply a work of art rather than and tool for making music?

I understand it. I have sold for this very reason. Life waxes and wanes. What seems like a good purchase at a certain point may change with time. Plus, some people are just more bothered than others by dings, scratches, etc.

For me, if a guitar is listed for sale that interests me, I simply have a conversation with the seller and talk through the reason for their sale. I am not going to judge based on a few sentences typed in a classified ad.

[Gasworker]

Look at me look at me I care so much about my guitar I can't play it it really is such a small % of members. I thinks it's mostly sales pitches or fan boy talk.

[Big*Al]

Problem solved.

[Mr. Paul]

By default I always assume the "reason for selling" stated in a classified is just a seller trying to present their guitar in the best possible light. After all, when have we ever seen "the tone just doesn't do it for me" ... pretty much never, though it is often a main reason one would sell a guitar.

[Big*Al]

Originally Posted by Mr. Paul

By default I always assume the "reason for selling" stated in a classified is just a seller trying to present their guitar in the best possible light. After all, when have we ever seen "the tone just doesn't do it for me" ... pretty much never, though it is often a main reason one would sell a guitar.

Yep. A couple of years ago, I had a beautiful Larrivee that had some overtones that sounded odd to me. It was driving me nuts, so I put it up on Craigslist. A buddy of mine always liked it and wanted it really bad. I didn't want to prejudice him . . . or rip him off, so I offered no explanation of why I was selling it. I just told him to borrow the guitar for a while and then decide whether or not he still wanted it. At that point, I would sell it to him at a bargain price. He took it home. He bought it. He still has it. He still loves it. And . . . when he plays it, it sounds really good. Tone must be in the hands or something.

As part of the deal, my buddy offered to trade me his Guild GAD50 that he apparently couldn't bond with. I still have it. I still love it. I think it sounds great.

Guitars are odd, eh?

[martingitdave]

Originally Posted by Big*Al

Yep. A couple of years ago, I had a beautiful Larrivee that had some overtones that sounded odd to me. It was driving me nuts, so I put it up on Craigslist. A buddy of mine always liked it and wanted it really bad. I didn't want to prejudice him . . . or rip him off, so I offered no explanation of why I was selling it. I just told him to borrow the guitar for a while and then decide whether or not he still wanted it. At that point, I would sell it to him at a bargain price. He took it home. He bought it. He still has it. He still loves it. And . . . when he plays it, it sounds really good. Tone must be in the hands or something.



As part of the deal, my buddy offered to trade me his Guild GAD50 that he apparently couldn't bond with. I still have it. I still love it. I think it sounds great.



Guitars are odd, eh?

Great story!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[rpnfan]

Recently I bought a guitar which might be seen as "too expensive" for my current level of guitar playing, but I am a music lover and returned to play guitar after a _very_ long time, and I am very confident I will stick with it.

I did not want to spent too little on a new guitar, because for me it is about the sound and the joy I get from playing the guitar. For music / sound quality it does not make sense in my opinion to limit the budget in the first place. First I think one has to find out which kind of sound quality you're after, then you'll find out which price tag is attached to that. In a second step I will see if that is in the budget already, can be achieved when saving some money or might always be out of budget. I guess the last case will seldom be true, because good guitars are luckily not soooo overly expensive. Even one of the highly rated luthiers guitars could be afforded by many people if they really want such an instrument and save the money for that -- of course maybe not buying other things which also might be "nice" too have.

I tried guitars in different price ranges and not too suprisingly the sub 1000 Euro guitars did not really sound good in my ears. I found that starting about 2000 Euros the guitars got more interesting. I wanted to keep the price in that range and not get too much higher. I was looking for J-45 guitars which would have been in that range also, but did not find a J-45 which I really could bond too. Somehow I liked the sound, but on the other side I always found something missing and, sad but true, some of the instruments had really flaws in the setup / intonation or build (should not be the case in this price range IMO!).

I played guitars up to around 6000 Euro (incl. Santa Cruz, Martin special versions, Collings) and also some luthier built instruments in the range of up to 4500 Euros. I played a Furch / Stonebridge guitar for 2200 Euro that was really a decent good sounding guitar, but also could not really inspire me.

I also wanted to try a specific luthier built guitar which I had heard in an online video. That was normally out of my price range I wanted (close to 4000 Euro instead around 2000 Euros). But after playing this specific guitar there was no more question. Another a bit more expensive luthier built guitar (another builder) was also nice, but no comparison how much the specific one inspired me. Just playing a single note is already "wowing".

After one night I decided to buy the guitar, using some savings I had made for something else. Therefore I ordered the guitar online in the early morning to be sure to reserve it and once again made the relatively long trip to the store, just the next day. When I arrived I found another customer standing in the room, being sad the guitar was already reserved. Strangely the guitar was at offer for a few months. But I just knew that this was "my" guitar and could take it home with me.

I hardly can put down the guitar at all, because it is such a joy to hear it "sing" and play and practice with it. I see that some buy guitars as collectors, but IMO a guitar is made to be played normally.

Was the guitar expensive for me? Definetely? Was it too expensive? Surely not. The Furch for almost half the price would have been "too expensive", because it did not inspire me!

I did not had a guitar for many years and now owning a really nice guitar -- which is really precious too me -- I really was sad when I managed to hit it accidently with the back of the modifier and make a ding in it. How I hated that and still do. _But_ not playing the guitar is not an option. I take care of the guitar as good as possible, but still things like that can happen and in the end it's about the music for me! Price should not be hindering to enjoy an instrument.

I really like seeing Raul Midon to really use his surely not low-priced luthier built guitar (likely above 20,000 dollars) in the studio, stage or home or wherever he is!

Nice video opening his new guitar:



and also nice interview / playing here:




Oh, and I sometimes wonder when people do not want to spend for example above 2000 dollars, but own several guitars in that price range. Maybe in some (surely not all) cases a better solution could be to buy one really great guitar, instead of several "good" ones.

[Biddy44]

I don't personally understand the museum piece mindset, but I do apply a risk-reward analysis when I play out. I bring the Taylor when it can be kept reasonably safe (from dings, theft, whatever) and I'm looking for best quality sound. My Seagull goes with me when I can't. It sounds good enough for most purposes, and when I'm playing in the Texas summer sun I don't think twice about the effect on the guitar (except to check my tuning!).

[Pitar]

Originally Posted by Jim-W

This thread reminds me of another experience. I fly RC planes as a hobby. The trend is to get bigger and better planes as you get more experienced. Of course hard landings promote this as well. There were several people that finally worked their way up to planes that were fairly large and significantly expensive - in the thousands. It took all the fun out of the hobby for them as they afraid to wreck the planes. They eventually sold the planes left the hobby.

Another experience I have is with toys and my kids. I was always sad to get rid of an old toy that looked brand new. It meant the kids never liked it and did not get satisfaction from it.

I am not saying do not take good care of your guitar. But I think guitars are made to be played without fear. One day I plan on getting a really nice guitar ( Taylor 814 or something close) and I will not hesitate to play it a lot. I hope it shows some wear after I am gone.

I have a 1/4 scale biplane on the building board now. If I crash it, I'll make another. My hobby is building them. In south Florida (Sunrise - Markham Park) some years ago I built them and others flew them. I flew little trainers that I could wreck and have back in the air the next weekend. I got good at wrecking them, meaning, no big deal. This biplane is the largest I've attempted, aside from a 1/4 scale monoplane (F4U Corsair) some years back I built and never saw fly (donated it to Kermit Weeks' Aviation Theme Park & Museum).

If I somehow manage to put a ding in a guitar, which I honestly can't remember doing in many years transporting and playing guitars, I don't see myself anguishing over it.

I will say, though, a guitar pick in some player's hands is a weapon if you look at the severe pick scratching their guitars have suffered. There is no reason on this good green earth to play like that. That is abuse of the highest order.

[BluesKing777]

Originally Posted by blacknblues

I've seen some version of this many times in the classifieds. "I'm selling my guitar because I'm afraid I'll ding it" or "I don't play well enough to own a guitar as nice as this so I'm selling it"...am I the only one who finds this reasoning a bit ridiculous? Why did you buy it in the first place if you weren't going to play it? Isn't somebody eventually going to ding the nice guitars just as they would an inexpensive one? Do folks buy nice guitars and just stare at them like they are simply a work of art rather than and tool for making music?

Easy solution of your guitar is too nice to play?

Get an even nicer or more expensive one!

Or 2 more!

The first isn't as precious all of a sudden. True!


BluesKing777.