What does 'high-end' mean to you?

[lowrider]

I voted for $5000. It seems strange that a Martin Standard Series, an instument that players strive for, isn't ''high end'', but Martin has so many more expensive guitars that seem to start over $5000, and that all the boutique guitars cost a lot more, I say $5000 is where ''high end'' starts.

However I don't think you get much orefor your money when you buy more than a Martin Standard Series. For my playing, I don't want or need anything more than that.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by jmagill

…For now, what is the cost threshhold for you to consider a guitar 'high-end'?

Hi jmagill
Price does not indicate 'high end' to me. Quality of the build, resonance, sustain, responsiveness, projection, balance etc do.

[Steve DeRosa]

^^^^^ What he said ^^^^^

I've owned/still own/probably will own too many affordable high-quality instruments to lock into a figure, but just for reference I voted $3000+ ...

Had you asked me the same question 3-4 years ago, I would have voted $2000+ ...

[Silurian]

If it arrives in a cardboard box it's not high end.

If it arrives in a case in a cardboard box it's high end.

[foxo]

Originally Posted by Silurian

If it arrives in a cardboard box it's not high end.

If it arrives in a case in a cardboard box it's high end.

Hah, I like that. Nothing beats that feeling of opening a guitar hard case for the first time and ogling your beautiful new guitar.

I usually smell the soundhole before playing. I hate to say I once had a Lowden with a smelly soundhole - that was a mild disappoint.

[Methos1979]

It's been a bit of a moving target for me. I usually buy used if at all possible which adds another twist into the factoring. But in the end I decided to just consider new guitars and since the highest-end guitar I've ever owned was a Froggy Bottom which would cost $10k if I bought one new, I voted for above $10k. 'High-end' to me denotes a 'luxury' item that you pay a premium price for. These days I'm a 'working-man gigging guitar' sort of guy so I'm generally buying guitars in the $2-3k range (used) which I consider to be my sweet spot for a quality gigging guitar.

[hubcapsc]

Originally Posted by ljguitar

Hi jmagill
Price does not indicate 'high end' to me. Quality of the build, resonance, sustain, responsiveness, projection, balance etc do.

I think my Kopp is "high end" with its fancy wood, attention to detail, carved
lining and famous burst... it "only" cost $5000. I was looking at some pictures
of a $20,000 Dudenbostel, I bet it is pretty "high end"...

I too think that more than cost goes into a "high end" guitar...

-Mike

[rllink]

This is a good question because when I hear or use the term "high end", a price point doesn't come to mind. When I got invited to join the Bluegrass jam I saw Gibsons, Martins, and Taylors there, no Sigmas, Rogues, or Jasmines. I have no idea what they paid for their guitars. When I went home I told my wife everyone was playing high end guitars.

[sinistral]

Just watching the poll entries rack up over the last few hours, one thing jumps out at me—just how differently people interpret the term “high-end.” There’s a great passage in Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being about a “dictionary of misunderstood words,” in which the same word means something completely different to different characters in the book—this poll demonstrates that “high-end” is exactly like that.

[xaxinojo]

The materialistic view of happiness of our age starkly revealed in our understanding of the word luxury.
-Alain de Botton

[iim7V7IM7]

Jim, like your Warren Buffet quote, I do not view "high-end" in terms of what a guitar costs but "what you get". I typically what was it made from, who made it and how it was made.

• What are the quality of the materials used, are they well seasoned, dried and quartersawn etc.? Where they selected by someone skilled in the art?
  
• Was it built to dimension or were the properties of the materials used taken into account during selection and how were they adjusted during construction?
  
• Was it built by an experienced individual artisan or a team of crafts people? A small team of experienced crafts people or apprentice can still be "high-end".

What I DO NOT include in my evaluation is whether I like the way it plays, sounds, perfection in miters or execution or its overall aesthetics. These tend to be player specific and subjective. I have played expensive "high-end" guitars that meet all of the above that I would never buy because I do not like the way that they sound or play. They are still "high-end", just not for me. "High-end" does not mean that I like the guitar, it refers to the materials of construction, the maker and process of its creation.

My $.02

Originally Posted by jmagill

The term 'high-end' gets thrown around a lot on this forum, but what one may consider 'high-end' may be laughably not to another.

Then there is the constant conflation here of cost with value. Warren Buffet has famously said, "Cost is what you pay, value is what you get." Many here use 'high-end' to refer to a guitar's cost, others use it to describe how good an instrument it is; its value. Others use 'high-end' to refer to either or both, when cost and value are decidedly not the same. But we'll leave that for another poll.

For now, what is the cost threshhold for you to consider a guitar 'high-end'?

[Tnfiddler]

As most on here know, I'm a big fan of Bourgeois guitars. Dana has guitars ranging from around $3k to $20k and my Vintage D falls on the lower end of that range. That being said, other than fancy woods, appointments, etc., I can't imagine one of those $20k guitars sounding better than mine. However, I will say that when it comes to the Martin guitars that I've played, a '37 D28 Authentic Aged is hands down, the best sounding Martin I've ever played and I've sampled a lot of Martin guitars, from cheap ones to expensive ones. So I think it all depends on what you're looking for in a guitar and what you expect for what you pay. Are there fantastic guitars out there for $1000? Sure there are! But I've never seen a $1000 Martin that will hang with an Authentic! High-end can be all over the place, but I voted above $4000.

[musicman1951]

It's certainly related to the amount of income you have allotted for guitars, but a Martin D-35 runs just about $4,000 with sales tax for me. That's a popular and lovely guitar, but it's a standard model. I wouldn't consider it high end.

If you consider that guitars run from $200 to about $35,000 (if we eliminate the extreme ends ($49 specials and pre-war Martins) it would be difficult to consider anything under $20K high end. But I suspect that most of us are between $500 and $10,000. Where does that leave high end? Over $5K would be the halfway mark, but if you struggled to spend $500 (or would rather spend $9K on a fishing boat) I would think $2K might feel like high end.

It's a slippery concept that probably has no universal answer.

[foxo]

A question for those who don’t see the Martin D-18 as high end due to its ubiquity - would you conversely view a (real, not reissued) 1937 D-18 as high end due to its scarcity and price tag of $50k plus? Does scarcity come into it? Maybe I am a cynic but I would hazard a guess modern quality control on the newer standard series Martins is less variable than in the olden days.

[mawmow]

Originally Posted by Jim Comeaux

That’s simple! It means I can’t afford it!

It used to be my limitation too for many years,
but my situation fortunately went much better.

I voted above 4000$ (USD), because I would not pay higher.
In fact, I did buy a used one.