At what Guitar price point do you begin to shake your head?

[foxo]

My own spending limit is £2500. You can get a new standard series Martin for that, a Gibson J45, or in my case I got a new J-50 for £1900 and a used Lowden for £2200 (now sold). I wouldn’t begrudge anyone else spending more but for me that’s all the guitar I can handle.

[SuperB23]

Over the $13-14k mark for me. I've played a lot of guitars in that 10-20k range and its tough to warrant going way past $15k for me..... That being said I've played a few that were over that, that I would have bought if I had the money.

[Br1ck]

I draw a personal line at whatever D 18 sounds good. That is my base point I won't go below. Now a Guild D 35 meets that sonic base line for less, but generally what a decent used D 18 goes for, let's say $2000 these days. Now for the rosewood lovers out there, it becomes whatever a good used dread costs. Pre Covid, I bought a Custom D 35 just north of that.

So what would you get for more? That is subjective and I'm not a good subject, because I'd take a mid sixties D 18, not all of them mind you, but the right guitar over a D 18 Authentic, a guitar I'd characterize as too resonant. Perhaps a D 18 GE might do the trick, so that puts me at what, $3500? A pittance by today's standards. I have no doubt I could live with a plainol' D 18.

The boutiques give a bit more of what I'm not looking for. If I were a fingerstyle player, I'd probably base a base line of $5000 and the sky's the limit on top.

My main guitars are a 70 Guild D 35, a Custom Martin D 35, and my 65 Epiphone Texan. I can walk out of any guitar shop feeling no remorse I can't buy this or that EXCEPT for the likes of a 39 J 35 or a forties D 18.

[Brick is Red]

I don’t have a visceral reaction one way or the other regarding price, if the guitar is what it is purported to be and not priced to mislead. Affordability is relative. I react a bit to guitars that are too ornate or gaudy for my taste. Again, irrespective of price tag.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by 619TF

That was exactly what the OP asked for though. What YOU deem appropriate for yourself and at what price point above that makes your head shake. No assessment of others required.

No not really what he asked for at all ......First,,, he never asked what price point do we deem appropriate for ourselves... He asked what price point above which do we "shake our head" and ask why would someone spend that much on a guitar . Which has nothing to do with what we deem appropriate for ourselves, and has everything to do with an assessment of what we deem appropriate or not for others .....


In Review
The thread was titled At what Guitar price point do you begin to shake your head? Which could in theory be about what price point do we shake our head telling ourselves no I'm not willing to pay that .....
BUT
Then the OP clarified and stated

…"as in “why would anyone spend that much money on a guitar”?

No disrespect meant to builders, buyers or owners but I sometimes look at guitars in the Classifieds and just SMDH.

I really believe that the value of anything is what people are willing to pay for it but anything over roughly $4,500 just gets me to wondering…

Do you have number?

Maybe I am mistaken but
"Why would anyone spend that much money on a guitar",,,,, seems to be worded (particularly with the bold words) as if to be a rhetorical type question and the head shaking seems to be an implied negative assessment about the others spending.....


Because

Without that implied assessment of others, there would be no head shaking about what someone would spend on a guitar. One could certainly ponder why someone would spend that much but there would no head shaking

I thought my answer was fairly clear that,,,, I am suggesting there isn't a
a price point above which would cause me to shake my head about the spending of others .

Now if someone wants to ask what price point above which do we think the is a declining ratio of dollars spent to improvement in sound. That is a different discussion than asking why people would spend that much

[LakewoodM32Fan]

Originally Posted by asilker

To get very specific, the numbers around Brazilian rosewood is what makes me wiggle. I like Brazilian. It just seems like such a wild price delta from EIR. Local shop once had a custom shop D40somethin from the 90's with Brazilian and an EIR D28 authentic right next to each other. Strong preference for the authentic.

The good ol' CITES effect

I have not had many opportunities to play BRW, and the rare times that I did, the instruments did not inspire to shell out 5 figures worth. The most notable of these guitars was a used Martin 000-28EC with BRW. I happened to have my SCGC OM Adi/EIR there and while I could tell there was a tonal difference, it wasn't such an overwhelming difference that I was tempted to trade in and pay the difference.

It wasn't until recently that I had an "a-ha" moment with BRW, a beat to death 1967 D-35 that finally showed me what a good implementation was of BRW. But it was going for nearly 5K and when I say beat to death, I mean it. There was about a 1" crack that went from soundhole to tail block where the top split and was repaired. Still didn't sit quite flush. But now I'm interested in finding a good implementation of BRW on something that doesn't look like it fell out of a moving car and was fixed.

[TBman]

I get a more of a "I wish I had that to spend" feeling more than a SMH feeling with certain guitars (Olson, Ryan, etc). Its only when the guitar is a "one of" and the bling is over the top to match the price do I do a SMH.

[merlin666]

Most of my guitars had about 5k list price when they were new about 7 to 15 years ago. To go higher the guitar needs to have something exceptional about it. I can think of the handful of Ovation slothead prototypes that were built in the early 70s and coveted by the likes of Paul McCartney, Cat Stevens, Glen Campbell, Nancy Wilson, and other heavyweights of the time. Those are still exceptional guitars with celebrity status and once in a while one of them pops up for sale around 15k. That's about as high as I think is reasonable. I don't know what could justify a new guitar price over about 7k, except maybe if demand for a specific luthier's work vastly exceeds his ability to build.

[Wadcutter]

Originally Posted by Gdjjr

I wouldn't pay above 1500 for any guitar. Period. Even if I won the lottery.
That's not to say I don't understand the pricing- I do, but I ain't gonna pay it.

Roger copy that.

[jimmy bookout]

I don't have a top limit, greatness is just that and I am glad that the folks that make those guitars exist. You can't affix value to a luxury good.
Nor do I concern myself with OTHER people's spending habits.
I know what I can afford and wish I could afford the "top".
If I could, you'd have to give me my own sub-forum for all the NGD's I'd have!!!

PS. The most expensive guitar I own was $4k. Most of my guitars were in the $1K - $2.5K range.

[TheGITM]

You can see in my sig line the Guild D55 and Martin 000-28EC (yes, it's extra $ just to have the EC sig...)

That's about the limit. I can stomach up to around $4k before I start to question whether what I am getting is worth the extra money. That said, there are some guitars that I might pay more for just for the bling factor. There are some beautifully detailed guitars that lean more into the artistic side of craftsmanship than the actual quality of sound/tone/playability. I sometime feel the pull to own a really beautiful guitar, not just one that sounds/plays well.

I might one day go above $4k, but that day is not today.

[tbeltrans]

Today, my wife and I brought her 2002 Sienna LE and my 2000 Echo in to the Toyota dealer for their scheduled maintenance. When we do that, I walk around the new car show room while waiting for our vehicles to be ready.

I was amazed at the prices of these new cars and wondered how anybody can possibly afford them. I have never owned a new car, nor have I ever borrowed money to buy a car. Clearly, other people do and each person who does has his or her own good reasons for doing so.

This past weekend, I went looking for a Fender Telecaster and found the one I wanted at GC for $1650 with the veteran's discount. I could afford that. I would guess that at least some of the people I saw filling out loan paperwork at the Toyota dealership probably wouldn't give a thought to buying a Fender Telecaster and might be surprised that I would be willing to spend that much on such a thing.

It is all a matter of financial priorities and probably also how averse we are to carrying debt. We are all different, each with his or her own priorities and the best we can do is respect that and get along as a result.

Tony

[Mrbirdog]

I guess I would say my limit whether it is in a store or a custom build is when I ask them for their lowest price and they answer ......then my response is "I'm sorry could you repeat that please" lol

[AgentKooper]

For me, a Martin standard series guitar is worth the price for the quality level. So around $2,500 is about my limit. I wouldn’t shake my head at anyone paying more than that, but I don’t aspire to that.

[bufflehead]

While I don't have a "shake my head" point, I've never been convinced to spend more than $1,500 on a guitar. That's the point where I feel I can get a good bang from my bucks. The "bang my head" point?