Why aren't all wealthy musicians using custom/boutique quiars

[ewalling]

Originally Posted by Mycroft

Maybe because what is "best" for different applications can vary. Loud sound reinforcement is not particularly adept at picking up subtles that may be very apparent in a guitar played in you lap in a quiet room. A guitar that sonicly fits in nicely in a band mix may sound a bit thin played alone at home.

And even a "rich" person may not be as blase as you and the thought of damaging a $15,000 instrument. Often because they well remember their days as a "not" rich person.

Fair enough, but the argument that wealthy musicians play cheap onstage and expensive at home, doesn't really add up. Suitability or rarity, yes, I can see that would play a part, but the likes of Eric Clapton not chancing a favorite guitar onstage simply because it cost him $15,000 seems something of a stretch.

[Bob Womack]

In my forty-plus years of working with professional musicians I've discovered that they are as diverse and varied as we are here.

Some are gearheads because they love the instrument.
Some like to own what they think is the best or the most expensive and want everyone to know.
Some have instruments that have a backstory or are dear to them and they don't care to risk on the road.
Some are fretboard wizards and want to show everyone that it isn't the instrument, it is the player.
Some are paid to play brands.
Some have many guitars and prefer to use the ones that they used to record the albums.

Bob

[MoonSpruce]

Originally Posted by RalphH

BLASPHEMY!!

If everything goes to plan, I will be posting a NGD post that will be quite blasphemic in nature in a few months' time... The so-called plan will only work if someone else doesn't buy the guitar...

[Mycroft]

Originally Posted by ewalling

Fair enough, but the argument that wealthy musicians play cheap onstage and expensive at home, doesn't really add up. Suitability or rarity, yes, I can see that would play a part, but the likes of Eric Clapton not chancing a favorite guitar onstage simply because it cost him $15,000 seems something of a stretch.

What is your definition of "cheap?" He ain't playing a MIM Squier, or a laminate Martin even if he is not playing Brownie or his 40s 000-42 onstage anymore. His Strat, while speced the same as the production Clapton models, likely comes out of the custom shop. He also plays a Brazilian Martin 000-42 EC.

[The Growler]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

In my forty-plus years of working with professional musicians I've discovered that they are as diverse and varied as we are here.

Some are gearheads because they love the instrument.
Some like to own what they think is the best or the most expensive and want everyone to know.
Some have instruments that have a backstory or are dear to them and they don't care to risk on the road.
Some are fretboard wizards and want to show everyone that it isn't the instrument, it is the player.
Some are paid to play brands.
Some have many guitars and prefer to use the ones that they used to record the albums.

Bob

This^^^^. Well said Bob.

Tons of different reasons.

[Ramesses]

Jackson Browne travels with a rack of expensive modified guitars, many over 80 years old.

[spectro28]

My high-end guitars are 3D works of art I can hold and play and have around me and that sound magical to me, and that connect with my fingertips and up my fingers to my wrists to my arms to my shoulders to my chest, where it all connects with the sound coming in through my ears to pave that “longest 18 inch distance” between my head and my heart.

My holding and connecting with these guitars is part of it all, but performing (for me, the too-occasional open mic, lately) is a different experience. Many others collect other kinds of Art to have around as their human expression of beauty and purpose; for me, that’s guitars, whether a single-luthier in his shop (thanks David Eichelbaum!!!) or a hybrid (thanks Eric Schoenberg and TJ Thompson and the team at Martin) or the industrial wizards at a small factory (thanks Collings!) — at their best, these instruments awaken me to revere the sublime.

As so many have mentioned, performance is about a different thing than this love of Art; it’s really a *different* art. So picking the robust tool with the pickup and resistance to feedback that’s not a one-off (or nearly so).

The boutique/single-luthier instruments are a special kind of art. The Collings-like guitars are craftsmanship-industry. Just wow!

I had a handyman in my house yesterday, and moved the Schoenberg and a Collings UT2 Ukulele out to another room, and he was commenting about how he doesn’t know anything about guitars and what’s expensive or not. My comment was that “there’s really very little difference between them.” And really, if I were to perform a song for him, any decent Martin/Gibson/Taylor/Eastman/Recording King would present > 95% of the experience of him hearing me perform it with my Eichelbaum OM.

These amazing guitars are for *me*, not the audience.