Ever played a $2000-$3000 guitar that is way better than a 8k-10k?

[drive-south]

I played a pre war Martin 00028 at Madolin Bros that was priced at $20,000. I didnt ask to play it. The salesman placed it in my hands and said check this out. It had that typical dry sound of a vintage guitar with lots of sustain. Very nice. But I would probably prefer a new one at 3k.

Guitars are priced at a point that someone thinks the market will bear.

[Tico]

Generally you get more when you pay more.
Generally.

There are exceptions, but exceptions to a rule don't make the rule not generally true.

So, spend more and the odds are you'll get more.
But yes, a few lucky folks, and a few unlucky ones, will experience the exceptions.

[mtdmind]

I once walked into an office of a customer which was full of high end guitars. The cheapest guitar there was a Martin D45. I asked the owner if I can try it. As I played it he said "Hey you can play. Try this .." And proceeded to hand me an Olson, a McPherson, and so on. It was guitar heaven...

[Shadowfox]

For me it is Furch. My custom Alpine/Coco is incredible. I was able to play a few froggys and SGGC and Collings plus done custom Taylor and Martin and they just don't compare imho.

[hotroad]

Santa Cruz Guitar Company, SCGC, made a beautiful outrageous looking guitar that I bought once. Sounded like it was made out of tree bark! No tone. No sustain. No volume. No nothing. I was so disappointed as I thought the tone would match its appearance. Not so.
That being said, SCGC makes some truly awesome guitars. But that was not one. I play out professionally often and usually use a Martin 17 series all hog that is perfect for playing live plugged in. Tone for years.

[WildBill82]

For my situation, I know I would probably have to spend 8 to 10 grand to get a better bluegrass cannon than my Clarence White; I'm convinced it's the best Indian Rosewood-backed dread (for bluegrass) that you can buy. You can get 60's D-28's & D-35's for less than 8 but that would be dependent on the guitar; in any event it would absolutely have to be something with Brazilian back & sides to sound bigger and better than the Clarence White.

I'd love to play one of the Brazilian Clarence Whites that were made by Collings in their early days, *that* is a guitar I'd pay ten grand for!

So to answer your question, I've got a $3K guitar that punches way above its weight in the bluegrass area, and sounds better than many of the 60's Martins in that price range.

[Don Lampson]

I only played a few extremely expensive guitars, but none I'd consider to be "dogs"?

I tend to view guitars as "adequate", and have played several well below the 2K price range, that I thought would make a perfectly acceptable life time instrument.....

Don

[colins]

“Way better”? No. More enjoyable, closer to what I wanted, better value for my particular needs, more suited to my particular style…these are the questions I would ask myself.

I have played $2,000 guitars that I thought were stellar (my first Martin!) and $20,000+ guitars that I also thought were stellar. The trick is not to pretend that the dollar factor is the overriding determinant, it is to work out what you want in a guitar and what you are comfortable paying for it. Are you a strummer or are you a fingerstylist? Has your ear been developing for forty years or forty minutes? How much will you pay for sustain and overtones? These factors can have a huge impact on what is best for you and what it will cost.

Also worth remembering that a couple of billion people on our planet can’t afford any guitar, so if we can pay $2,000.... or $20,000..... we can consider ourselves pretty darned lucky.

[buddyhu]

Haven’t played that many guitars priced at $8k and above (new). But the ones I’ve played sounded and felt better than most similar guitars priced at $2K-$3k (new).

I have played some guitars priced at $2K-3K used (e.g. Webber guitars) tha sounded and felt better than some of the guitars priced at $8K new...but that isn’t a fair comparison: the $8K guitars can be had for $4K-6K used.

[EllenGtrGrl]

Unfortunately, I haven't had the opportunity to play guitars in the +$8000 range. I haven't seen then very often (mainly at guitar shows), and since I don't have the cash to afford a guitar that costs that much I prefer not to play them (I typically only play guitars I have at least a cursory interest in buying). $2000, or in the case of some of the Gretsch Country Clubs I had in the past, $3000 is my limit - even then, I usually end up having to throw in other guitars as trading material.

I'd love to try out, and if I was wowed by it, buy a McPherson. They look kind of cool to me, and it would be great to own a guitar made in Wisconsin (I'm a lifelong resident of the state) - especially since I've given up on finding and buying any of the 300 or so acoustic guitars, that my grandpa (Sigward Rugowski - he was a luthier) made, due to so little information existing about them (he died in 1971, and I foolishly gave the guitar grandpa made for me to my uncle, when I was a teenager). The thing is, there seems to be no such thing as a "cheap McPherson" - even the lower end used ones start at about $1700, and the typical new price is in the $2500 range for the carbon fiber models, and over $5000 for the wood bodied ones. McPhersons also aren't very common, so the chances of trying one before you buy it, are limited around here (and I would be extremely hesitant about coughing up a big chunk of change to buy a McPherson online, without having ever played the model I was buying). Oh, well.

Oh yeah, great sound is in part a perceptive thing - one person's great sounding guitar, can sound bad to another person. A case in point - I know people who love Takamines. They always tell me that they are great sounding, and playing guitars. Me? I've never played a Takamine that I liked the sound of. They all sound kind of dead to me (sort of like a cardboard box, with rubber bands for strings).

[David Rance]

The most I've ever paid for a guitar was £4K for an Antonio Marin Montero classical instrument. Which I still have.

I don't think I would feel comfortable paying $8-10K (£6.1K - £7.6K) for an acoustic guitar. The Law of Diminishing Returns, for me anyway, as regards guitar quality, starts at about £3K. (These days it actually starts at £1K in terms of getting a 'very fine' instrument). Most I've ever paid for an acoustic in my entire life was £2.9K. And I've had so much fun over the years! The acoustic I play most cost me £900.

Between £1K and £3K? Icing on the cake. Between £3K and your $8-10K figure? Gold Plating - which I wouldn't even be good enough to notice. Others might be but not me.

So, in my case, there would be better uses for the money.

Martin OM28 Reimagined
Yamaha FG5
Regal RC51
Antonio Marin Montero 2010
Ramirez 125 anos
Ibanez AFC95

[j3ffr0]

I got deals on both of my H&D guitars for well under 3k although they are 3-4k guitars. I like them way better than the only brand I've played who makes 8k guitars (played a few of theirs). I haven't played a lot of the super top end guitars, but I've played a lot up to the 5k price point. Huss and Dalton more than hold their own against anything in that category and imagine they at least hold their own against the 8-10k guitars too.

[Bob Womack]

I was invited to a guitar gathering a whole back and took along a couple of my manufactured guitars in the $2000-3000 range. My guitars had been set up by a really first-class luthier and played wonderfully. When I arrived at the gathering I discovered that all the other attendees had brought small shop luthier custom builds, many in the $7-12k range, many by famous luthiers. Now, these guys at the gathering were extremely welcoming and invited me to play their very nice guitars and it was a wonderful experience. I wouldn't want to speak ill of those guitars but let's just say I left the gathering feeling that I wasn't missing a thing by not owning one of those higher-end guitars.

Bob

[UncleJesse]

Originally Posted by drive-south

I played a pre war Martin 00028 at Madolin Bros that was priced at $20,000. I didnt ask to play it. The salesman placed it in my hands and said check this out. It had that typical dry sound of a vintage guitar with lots of sustain. Very nice. But I would probably prefer a new one at 3k.

Guitars are priced at a point that someone thinks the market will bear.

I think it can be a preference thing. I have found so far that I prefer the modern sound over the super dry vintage sound. It can sound blasphemous but I just like what I like. I haven't been able to bond with a vintage-sounding guitar yet. I did play a 50's D28 I thought was superb but the mahogany vintage guitars haven't really been something that has drawn me in.

[SkipII]

We can debate what "better" means but for the sake of discussion I'll just start with a general sense of rich, balanced tone, a "live" feel to it rather than dull.

That said,. the greater correlation with price is brand recognition/popularity. A case in point -- and certainly one of many -- is Olson Guitars. He was a small scale luthier who mostly sold to musicians in his area. I don't know the price but it could not have been much.Then Phil Keaggy and James Taylor started playing them exclusively and the current pricrs are $20K and more. They are fine instruments and likely have improved over the years, but those improvements hardly parallel the boost in price.

While master practices or strict factory processes can produce an instrument of consistent quality, I think any guitar is a DNA lottery -- exactly how the wood perform once put together is a work of nature as much as human skill.

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