In 20 years of owning/buying/selling/trying good guitars this is what I've learned

[zombywoof]

I have been at it for 55+ years. What I learned is that selling or trading off guitars have been some of the worst mistakes I have ever made.

[Adamski]

Originally Posted by zombywoof

I have been at it for 55+ years. What I learned is that selling or trading off guitars have been some of the worst mistakes I have ever made.

Never has a truer word been said. 80% I should have held on to and be selling today!

[Adamski]

Originally Posted by The Bard Rocks

Well, I've learned a few things from you.
1) You have disposable income.
2) You're not married. (Or, if you are, you have a heck of a partner.)
3) You really, really like guitars.

Seriously, I am well behind you in this search and hope I never catch up - but have little to complain about in your statements. My own ears are not sensitive enough to have made some of these statements myself. The one I'd take issue first about is the one about Brazilian, only I haven't played enough BR guitars to argue intelligently. (I have other reasons to not own a BR instrument, reasons that have nothing to do with sound.) It seems to me that this is more your tonal preference and that someone else may have quite a different preference, one neither better nor worse than yours.

1) yes...but not as much as I'd like. I have been quite lucky with my buying and selling over the years so most of what I have on the wall was bought with the proceeds.
2) I am...but she's very understanding. 20 years ago I snapped my Achilles tendon (running in the dad's race at my daughter's sports day) and whilst recuperating and being generally miserable my wife said "would it cheer you up if you bought that Sobell guitar you're looking at"...I didn't but it was certainly worth a try!
3) yeah...and violins... not so keen on banjos though!

[lowrider]

Originally Posted by Jim Owen

I’ve learned to buy a guitar I like and be happy with it. I like 000 18s and J 50s. I’ve played better guitars. But I sound like me when I’m playing mine.

Here, here! I have to agree, I like Martin guitars because I like the way I sound playing them. Other guitars sound great with others playing, but when I try them, they just don't sound like I want to sound.

[Wellington]

I'm deeply offended by this thread, rosewood in general is not as good has mahogany, therefore you are incorrect in everything you have said.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by Adamski

I aim to please.

(not blanket statements but universal truths!)

Great UK sarcasm .. Given we all know Pine is the best tonewood

[Adamski]

Originally Posted by Wellington

I'm deeply offended by this thread, rosewood in general is not as good has mahogany, therefore you are incorrect in everything you have said.

Mahogany is great for chairs...I'll give you that!

[tsmith28]

Great idea for a thread, and I found the OP's observations to be fascinating. I have played many guitars over the past 25 years, but mostly in the under $1000 range. In fact, the Martin Special 16 Style Rosewood dreadnought that I just bought is the first $1000+ acoustic I have owned. Not coincidentally, it's also the best (in terms of tone) by quite some margin.

Here are my lessons learned:

1) Upgrading to a new guitar that plays and/or sounds better is absolutely worth the effort & cost. It's shocking how much more inspiring a good acoustic guitar is than a mediocre one. My new Martin sounds do good that I just want to play for hours and have difficulty putting it down, while my relatively mediocre other guitars (which, mind you, were pretty exciting to me in the past) just bore me to tears now.

2) As much as I'd like to believe that two guitars with the same specs will sound the same, each guitar is unique. See my recent thread about this.

3) People love searching for good value, and if you read enough on the internet you might come to believe that a $200 Yamaha FG800 or a $500 Seagull S6 is comparable to a higher end instrument. While cheaper guitars certainly hold their own these days, the truth is that you generally get what you pay for. Neither of those guitars can compete with a decent all-solid wood guitar, even one that only costs $750-1000 like a Martin Road Series.

[MrDB]

I know my ears are not good enough any more to appreciate the difference in sound between a nice guitar and a really nice guitar.

My 000-42 is the finest guitar I've ever owned, and by far the most expensive. Could I tell the difference blindly between it and a 000-28? I doubt it.

My other guitars are all under $1k. I'm better off playing the ones I have and my GAS is in remission.

[jaymarsch]

Here’s what I’ve learned over the past 20 years of buying, selling and playing many, many guitars:
- I have sensitive ears and very personal taste in tone. I am not as interested in how someone else assesses and defines a guitar’s tone and playability as much as what my ears and hands are telling me.
- I have my own confirmation bias and when it comes to guitars, I can comfortably live with that.
- I have played guitars by many luthiers and enjoy playing their instruments and listening to how they arrive at the range of tone that they each shoot for. Isn’t always what I’m after but still fascinated by it.
- Every guitar that I have ever owned, no matter what builder, price point or woods, played and sounded better as I improved as a player and musician.
- No matter the builder, the price point or the woods, there are both duds and grails to be found if you search long and hard enough.
- I experience as much pleasure and enjoyment from listening to a fine player with a Traugott, Manzer, Somogyi, etc. as I do listening to a fine street musician wailing on an old beat up no name chipboard laminate guitar.
- I didn’t need a lot of disposable income to eventually commission my two custom guitars. Just patience and the discipline to sock a bit of money away each week. (Yes, I’m of THAT generation. :-) )
Best,
Jayne

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by jaymarsch

Here’s what I’ve learned over the past 20 years of buying, selling and playing many, many guitars:
- I have sensitive ears and very personal taste in tone. I am not as interested in how someone else assesses and defines a guitar’s tone and playability as much as what my ears and hands are telling me.
- I have my own confirmation bias and when it comes to guitars and I can comfortably live with that.
- I have played guitars by many luthiers and enjoy playing their instruments and listening to how they arrive at the range of tone that they each shoot for. Isn’t always what I’m after but still fascinated by it.
- Every guitar that I have ever owned, no matter what builder, price point or woods, played and sounded better as I improved as a player and musician.
- No matter the builder, the price point or the woods, there are both duds and grails to be found if you search long and hard enough.
- I experience as much pleasure and enjoyment from listening to a fine player with a Traugott, Manzer, Somogyi, etc. as I do listening to a fine street musician wailing on an old beat up no name chipboard laminate guitar.
- I didn’t need a lot of disposable income to eventually commission my two custom guitars. Just patience and the discipline to sock a bit of money away each week. (Yes, I’m of THAT generation. :-) )
Best,
Jayne

That's probably the best single statement that I've read here on AGF. Love it!

[J Patrick]

…..I have learned, that like everything else in life, change is a natural and essential occurrence…..what guitar I hope to acquire is usually a moving target and is not so much based on what I’ve learned from my experience….it is usually more about what I hope to learn and add to my experience…..

….as far as absolute conclusions about guitars go….I haven’t really reached any….I have a very broad appreciation for guitars and try to find out out how any guitar might respond it’s best to my playing….there is almost always something there to discover surprise and delight….

[LakewoodM32Fan]

My add to this post, is that I personally try to stay away from the use of the word "best" in describing a guitar. It's such a highly personal judgment.

I've been fortunate enough to play 3 Ryans and maybe 8+ Goodalls. None of them inspired me to take them home, they all had one common characteristic. They had "too much" tone for my taste, in terms of additional overtones to the note or chord I was playing. I don't prefer a dry tone either (two Collings Julian Lage OM1s I played in the past fall under this category). Yet you will find no shortage of people who think Ryans, Goodalls or the Collings JL1 to be exceptional, if not best for them, guitars. Heck, Matt Chulka over at Eddie's Guitars has played millions of dollars worth of guitars in the shop and on stream, and when he went to buy his personal guitar, he spec'd out a Ryan (he has others I'm sure but this was spotlighted in their YT channel). So clearly what he's looking for in his guitars is different than what I'm looking for.

Otherwise I have no issue with anything the OP wrote...as long as they're his universal truths. Because they certainly aren't mine.

EDIT: I lied, I have one more add: find out what humidity your guitars sound best to you in. Through trial and error I have discovered that mine all sound best at between 40-45RH (I generally rotate keeping one guitar out of its case and I have hygrometers in the room where I play/keep my guitars). Everyone knows the adage of "40-59 RH keeps your guitar safe" which is important information for the life of your instrument. But I find that even within that range, there's a sub-range in which my guitars sound best to my ears. And I now own both humidifiers and dehumidifiers to keep my room (and my cases) as close to that range as possible. I also take a hygrometer with me now when I'm going on auditioning trips. Because any opinion I may form on a guitar in a shop may vary wildly when I take that guitar home, if the shop's RH is vastly different to my own at home.

[lar]

What I've learned: if you have a guitar that sounds great with dead, corroded strings, then you don't have to change strings as often.

[tadol]

I think saying the best guitars in the world are made from braz rw is a clear overstatement - it definitely has a very identifiable tone, but there are a lot of mahogany and maple guitars that have a much more preferable tone for many styles of music and playing, and I’ve played a couple pernambuco guitars that would make you think differently about “best” - but that is largely the builder -

I do agree about spending too much time changing strings - but I’ve found the SCGC strings last a lot longer than a few weeks, and reduce that problem -