What price range denotes a "professional" quality guitar to you?

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by rstaight

There was recently a YouTube video of a guy who spent about $40 on a used Squier. Had a setup done and then went on a 130-show tour.

With today's electronics you could get a cheap electric...put a good setup on it...and sound amazing.

I have an '86 Fender/Squier Strat myself - the ones that maintained a market presence while the company regrouped after the CBS debacle - that cost me all of $199 (brand-new w/HSC) and served as one of my two main electrics (the other being an '82 MIJ Yamaha SSC-500, built to the expected Japanese Yamaha standard - also $199, also brand-new w/HSC) for 25 years...

I own two import Gretsch instruments built during the last decade - a Japanese-made '13 double-cut White Falcon " '62 Tribute" and a MIK '16 3-PU/cats'-eye 5622...

The Falcon is a work of art with strings, in every sense of the word: Gretsch was my hometown brand, I've played several hundred originals (no exaggeration) over the last 60 years, and I've yet to find anything from their Brooklyn heyday that matches it for fit/finish/playability - the realization of a 55-year dream for me, and well worth the four-figure price (comparable to a Gibson ES, and built to a higher standard)...

The Korean-built 5622 semi is my gigmeister: handles just about any style credibly, looks great doing it, and was made to a standard of QC matched by only the best vintage examples and exceeded by only a handful - for about one-fourth the price of the Falcon...

Got a Godin CW II deep hollowbody that I use for clean blues/rockabilly/jazz comping, and as my couch guitar - cost me just a bit over $600, and Tony Bennett's guitarist was using the identical instrument on tour for a number of years...

Most of the time they're running "raw" (no pedals) through one of four Bugera all-tube amps, ranging from 5 to 50 watts - none of which cost me more than $400 brand-new with warranty...

"Professional" is where you find it - a philosophy on the part of the maker, a mindset on the part of the user - and comes with no price constraints on either end...

[rokdog49]

Excuse me but I think a better poll might have been worded “gigging musician”.
Even at that it varies so much. It would seem elite musicians generally play very expensive guitars, but then there are exceptions to that as well.
I didn’t vote because it’s such a subjective thing.

[Sadie-f]

OP, the only thing that makes it a professional quality instrument in my mind is whether it's being played by a professional musician.

There are great players making great music on $1500 axes and $50,000 axes. I haven't seen much on stage below the level of a mid-range Taylor .. I'm sure others have seen different.

Originally Posted by mawmow

Maybe I am totally wrong…

I guess many professionals do not use a high end acoustic on stage.

I dunno as you're wrong, however I surely have counter examples. One of my favorite performers is a woman who's becoming known for her writing chops, is not especially well off and tours with two luthier built instruments, both were gifts, I think both from their builders.

[jaywalker]

The professional price range starts at whatever you have when you get paid to play music.

[PineMarten]

Originally Posted by Osage

At my repair shop I see a great deal of the local musicians instruments, both professional and otherwise. A thing that I've noticed is that the people who actually make their living playing guitar almost all have guitars that cost under $1000. Yamama, Ibanez, Takamine, Epiphone, Guild, lower end Martin/Gibson etc... These are non famous, in the trenches players. Bars, clubs, weddings, functions etc.... They need quality, reliability and a guitar that they can play outside at a drizzly rehearsal dinner and then throw it in the car and bring to a hot bar for two sets later that night.

At the same time, a lot of those local jobbing players (I've played bass with them often) have particular requirements that can mean the very cheapest instruments won't do it for them, like needing enough projection for an unamped pub session, or a decent pickup system for function work. So I don't see a lot of the <$500 bracket on my local scene, but $500-$1500 are well represented.

[jimmy bookout]

"It ain't the violin...it's the violinist"

What do 40 sheets of newspaper cost?

Such as:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Wc5NVyb89Y

[Osage]

Originally Posted by ewalling

I was referring to what they play in performance on TV, not what they might play at home. The guitars played by bands on shows such as The Tonight Show and SNL seems to have guitars in that 2-5K range. Whether these instruments were given to them or they paid for them themselves, who knows?

If you are playing on SNL or The Tonight Show you can absolutely get a free guitar, amp etc... from most major manufacturers. I know a number of people who have done this. You are obviously free do to whatever you want and some people prefer to play the old guitar that they like.

I have a number of friends and clients who are endorsed by guitar companies and they basically all say that if you can play it on national TV, they'll give it to you for free. I have a friend who played acoustic guitar at the Grammys a couple years ago as a sideman to a famous performer. They were rehearsing in LA and a Taylor rep came by with two very expensive guitars and told him if he played one of them at the show, he could keep them both. He played it, kept one and sold the other.

[Br1ck]

I'd rephrase that a bit and say my $2000 vote is for used and add deserving to the mix. When I asked a store manager what gigging musicians were buying, he said used $1200 to $2K max. Anyone playing and deserving the word professional should have a worthy instrument.

[joeld]

>Sam Shackleton
I love that little video for some reason. I've watched it a bunch of times. Give my best to Sam for me if you see him. Cheers!

[foxo]

Originally Posted by joeld

>Sam Shackleton
I love that little video for some reason. I've watched it a bunch of times. Give my best to Sam for me if you see him. Cheers!

I’ve not seen him in person for a while but I will do!

[ewalling]

Originally Posted by Osage

If you are playing on SNL or The Tonight Show you can absolutely get a free guitar, amp etc... from most major manufacturers. I know a number of people who have done this. You are obviously free do to whatever you want and some people prefer to play the old guitar that they like.

I have a number of friends and clients who are endorsed by guitar companies and they basically all say that if you can play it on national TV, they'll give it to you for free. I have a friend who played acoustic guitar at the Grammys a couple years ago as a sideman to a famous performer. They were rehearsing in LA and a Taylor rep came by with two very expensive guitars and told him if he played one of them at the show, he could keep them both. He played it, kept one and sold the other.

Fair enough, I believe you, but it doesn't matter much in terms of the point I was trying to make. Whether the musicians bought these instruments themselves or whether they were freebees, there does seem to be a recognizable price range for the gear that is used professionally to entertain audiences on US TV shows. There are exceptions, of course, when someone pulls out an Olson or something, but in general, I see a lot of Martins, Gibsons, Taylors and Japanese Taks.

[Joe Beamish]

Originally Posted by JayBee1404

Bert Jansch’s Yamahas were ‘professional’ enough for him (I know because, in a conversation I had with him, he told me he was totally happy with them and neither needed, nor wanted, anything else).

If it was good enough for Bert…

Those were very, very nice Yamahas. Possibly custom-made for him? Not cheap. He also played with some custom-made guitars, but mainly in the 70s.

[Goat Mick]

I have played a lot of gigs and made quite a bit of money with guitars in the $500 range. An old Alvarez, Mexi-Martin 000X1AE, Ibenez acoustic and they all performed flawlessly. Now I play Gibsons and Martins in the $2-$3k price range. Not because they're that much better for the job, but because I like them. Springsteen and Garth Brooks both play relatively inexpensive Takamines on stage and they sound great. Recently I saw shows by Hayes Carll, Brett Cobb and Ward Davis and all were playing really nice Gibsons (Hayes played his old J-45) and all of them quacked like a herd of ducks. I still loved the shows and won't hesitate to go see them again. Those guys all have great guitars but didn't care at all that the UST pickups they were using quacked. Made me wonder why I've spent so much money on pickups and preamps chasing tone.

[zuzu]

It depends. A solo artist when the venue has purposefully set out to capture their true unplugged sound with top flight PA, mics, and sound tech? A
'pro level" instrument should probably be the choice, the one you, as a 'pro", believe will show your efforts in the best light.

But...once you plug the thing in $500 will do as well as $5000, if your pickup system is up to snuff and the sound tech knows what he is doing.

Recording wise, I have found cheaper guitars that carry less projection and harmonic complexity much easier to sit well in a band mix than guitars that sound great in person. This does not apply to sparse instrumentation where the guitar is a dominate or the predominate sound.

[colins]

Originally Posted by J Patrick

…I’ve seen Joe Craven play his shoelace….he got paid for it…he is in fact a pro…so I’m going with 37 cents…

It was obviously a “pro-level” shoe lace! I think I paid way more than 37 cents last time I bought some, so maybe my shoe laces are high-end.

But seriously, I agree with others that say there is no price point. Professional musicians can be impressive with just about anything. Having said that, I would also say that I’ve had times where I’ve listened to great guitarists and thought “you are being let down by your gear”. Musicality and virtuosity can easily hide shortcomings in other areas.