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

[Slothead56]

…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?

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by Slothead56

…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?

For me personally, almost everything I own and play hovers around the $300 mark, but all were "some assembly required".

[tbeltrans]

When I was a kid, there seemed to be a weird attitude about guitars as not being "real" instruments in the same way that orchestra instruments are. The guitar was not to be taken seriously.

Nobody thought anything of a violin costing very large sums of money, so expensive that a world class violinist couldn't afford his or her own instrument but instead was loaned one by a rich benefactor.

A guitar, on the other hand, was something worth little more than a few dollars to be casually strummed at fun occasions.

Attitudes and general perception have a lot to do with what people consider an item "should" cost.

The guitar devaluing as not a serious instrument really works in our favor. We can purchase an instrument built by a revered world class builder for far, far less than a violin or other orchestra instrument that is for "real" musicians.

So where one here might "shake his or her head" at paying more than, say, $5k for a guitar, it is expected that a violin will routinely cost 10 times that. Paying $20k for a fine guitar still seems a bargain when compared to a violin of equivalent quality. Being able to afford that $20k is a separate issue.

Of course, there are less expensive violins, but the attitude still seems to hang around even today.

Tony

[llew]

That number will differ for everyone. Not sure I can get beyond some of the price points I used to but I'm not really looking for anything at this point. Tried most all I really wanted to and if anything will be selling rather than buying any more guitars?

[Shortfinger]

$26,350. That's my limit.

[hubcapsc]

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

I have a "I don't got that much money" price point.

And there's the "it costs that much because of collectors" price point.

-Mike

[BrunoBlack]

$12K so far. I’ve been able to find everything I want at that level.

[Tnfiddler]

As a fiddle player, for years, I certainly don’t get the ridiculous prices for violins/fiddles, when you can get custom-built instruments for less than $10k that’ll rival ANY violin out there! The double-blind tests have proven it, so $10k is my point.

[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.

[jheath]

I have a bunch of guitars currently, more than I've had at any point. My "sweet spot" is up to a few thousand, but it's not a hard stop. There's a lot of really nice, all solid wood, well appointed instruments out there that appeal to me in that price range. I just picked up a Martin 000 Custom around that price. I MAY be on the build list for a Pre-War but a pretty basic one at around their starting price. My Iris OG was 2k and is built beautifully with great details and sounds amazing.

I've never picked up a new or newer guitar that was high 4 figures / low 5 figures and thought it sounded any better than most of the ones I own for 2-3k. That said, I've been more tempted by expensive vintage guitars.

[rmp]

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

probably somewhere north of 5k

[brencat]

I don’t have a dollar limit per se, so much as a “relative value” price point. And when I run across an instrument that makes an impression on me, that brand/model tend to set the benchmark for future purchases. Kind of like “Guitar X is an example of the performance I can expect at this price point.”

Putting a real life example to illustrate my point… why would I spend 9k on a Pre*War Guitar Co Adi/BRW OM when my Merrill OM-18 largely outperforms it in terms of bass response, playability, and vintage voicing at half the cost ?

[TennesseeWalker]

When ever the price point for that particular guitar leaves my perceived budget for what I would pay for it.

Not sure I'd ever ask someone how much is too much for their budget as everyone has different financial resources.

[raysachs]

With electrics, it’s about $2000, but my two electrics currently cost me less than $1000 between them, maybe a little over when you take the amp into account. With acoustics, I’ve spent up to $3500. I may never spend more, but my “maybe someday” guitar would be about $5000 (a Pre-War 000 with either mahogany or EIR - slightly either side of $5000). I don’t know if that particular someday will ever come around, but I haven’t ruled it out as an absurdity, so I guess I haven’t shaken my head with any vigor at it.

That’s the highest range I’ve ever even contemplated, though, so I guess anything much above that is MY head shaking territory. I suppose if I had massive resources and/or was a much better player, it would take more to get me to shake my head. But I don’t and I’m not, so that’s as high as I can imagine ever spending. And realistically, the two Martins I have about $5500 invested in combined are far more than I need or my playing justifies. They’re freaking incredible instruments and I don’t even scratch the surface of getting the best out of them, but I do enjoy them and they never fail to inspire me to play, so I’m not giving either away while I my fingers still move. I consider myself insanely fortunate to own them, so it’s very possible I’ll never buy anything “better”. But when I first started playing again about five years ago, I’d have shaken my head HARD at spending this much, so I know myself well enough to never say never…

-Ray

[rllink]

Originally Posted by tbeltrans

When I was a kid, there seemed to be a weird attitude about guitars as not being "real" instruments in the same way that orchestra instruments are. The guitar was not to be taken seriously.

Nobody thought anything of a violin costing very large sums of money, so expensive that a world class violinist couldn't afford his or her own instrument but instead was loaned one by a rich benefactor.

A guitar, on the other hand, was something worth little more than a few dollars to be casually strummed at fun occasions.

Attitudes and general perception have a lot to do with what people consider an item "should" cost.

The guitar devaluing as not a serious instrument really works in our favor. We can purchase an instrument built by a revered world class builder for far, far less than a violin or other orchestra instrument that is for "real" musicians.

So where one here might "shake his or her head" at paying more than, say, $5k for a guitar, it is expected that a violin will routinely cost 10 times that. Paying $20k for a fine guitar still seems a bargain when compared to a violin of equivalent quality. Being able to afford that $20k is a separate issue.

Of course, there are less expensive violins, but the attitude still seems to hang around even today.

Tony

I never thought that about guitars but it is a common thread with the ukulele crowd, guitars are taken seriously and ukuleles aren't.

I don't shake my head in wonderment that there are more expensive guitars. I mean it is like that with everything, the sky's the limit if one is willing.