One expensive guitar or several inexpensive ones?

Sixstring

Sixstring

Legend!
As of late I have added two guitars to the one guitar I have had for well over 9 years! The Carvin CT624 in my avatar pic (that's a record for me). The previous one was a PRS CU24 2007 Experience that I had bought new in 2007 and owned for 6 years. Prior to that I was flipping a guitar every 3-6 months.

Trying to get a feel for how most here on the board like to build their stock of guitars! Are you of the camp where you would rather have just one great guitar that can do a few tones well or have several inexpensive ones to round out a selection of different tones and sacrifice quality in the process or a little of both?

EDIT : I have changed the title of this thread because the wording used is not really the best way to describe the comparison. It has been pointed out that an inexpensive guitar can be a great player so in the spirit of keeping the thread civil and on topic I have changed it!

Sorry for the inconvenience guys!
 
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At least one great one. More if possible!
You'll get a lot more satisfaction from a great guitar than you will from 5 mediocre ones.
Thanks
Pauly
Sixstring said:
As of late I have added two guitars to the one guitar I have had for well over 9 years! The Carvin CT624 in my avatar pic (that's a record for me). The previous one was a PRS CU24 2007 Experience that I had bought new in 2007 and owned for 6 years. Prior to that I was flipping a guitar every 3-6 months.

Trying to get a feel for how most here on the board like to build their stock of guitars! Are you of the camp where you would rather have just one great guitar that can do a few tones well or have several inexpensive ones to round out a selection of different tones and sacrifice quality in the process or a little of both?
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I have one I think is great (SG), 2 I think are very good (Carvin, Player strat), and one that's very good and on the verge of becoming unexpectedly great with some upgrades I've been doing (Squier CV tele). I'd love to have a great 335 style guitar but there's limited affordable options (lefty). I'm trying to improve my upgrade/mod skills so I can make my mid level guitars great over time on a budget. I've bought the odd cheapie tho that's not salvagable (ie an Agile LP that weighs a tonne!) - some guitars can never be great
no matter what's done to them - neck body needs to be right.

I've tried great guitars that just didn't seem right for me - so there there's that also.
 
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It’s good to have multiple guitars. I like variety, with singles, P90’s, Humbuckers. I have 3 USA guitars and the rest are cheap. Most of the cheap ones I own are much better than mediocre. Not as nice as the US guitars but pretty close. The PRS SE line is good for the money. I draw the line with China guitars. I won’t buy those but a lot of them play excellent, like my son’s Squire Jazzmaster. That thing is really good. If it plays nicely, any other issues can be improved. If I wasn’t married I’d have a lot more guitars lol.
 
sprint said:
I have one I think is great (SG), 2 I think are very good (Carvin, Player strat), and one that's very good and on the verge of becoming unexpectedly great with some upgrades I've been doing (Squier CV tele). I'd love to have a great 335 style guitar but there's limited affordable options (lefty). I'm trying to improve my upgrade/mod skills so I can make my mid level guitars great over time on a budget. I've bought the odd cheapie tho that's not salvagable (ie an Agile LP that weighs a tonne!) - some guitars can never be great
no matter what's done to them - neck body needs to be right.

I've tried great guitars that just didn't seem right for me - so there there's that also.
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I think sire makes a lefty. They are exceptionally great 335s.
 
It's awesome to have one guitar which feels like an extension of you. But it takes a lot of guitars to find that usually.
One guitar when your search is done, but many while you are still enjoying the search process!
 
Hey there

Previously I had a great guitar , expensive but the best guitar I ever had. It was an Ernie Ball MusicMan Majesty 7 string with piezo. I loved that guitar, but it was just this one good guitar. I sold it and bought back 4 guitars. A six string strat with floating whammy, An 8 string monster, an acoustic and a 6 string les paul model. These guitars are tuned for their needs and I grab them all every day to play some chops. Yes I miss the Majesty, wish she whas still in my collection, but the other guitars make up for the loss.

The Fractal makes up for the loss of tone pretty well ;)


Cheers 🍻
 
Andy Eagle said:
Just no.
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What do you think in general about the current guitars being manufactured in Indonesia? I haven't tried a Sire yet, but I've been fairly impressed with the Ibanez AZ I have, and the Schecter Nick Johnston I tried also seemed very well put together. If the fingerboard on it wasn't a little too wide for me, I probably would have bought one.
 
Andy Eagle said:
Just no.
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Any recommendations for a good / could be great mid level lefty 335 style SH. It would be the one guitar style I don't want to be brave with in terms of mod / upgrades which look scary to me (all that fishing through f-hole). I'm thinking the equvilent of a Fender Player Strat in terms of quality. Best I've come up with so far is Epi 335 but I would say it is not on par with a Player series guitar in term of quality, and I'm not sure about pups / electronics which I would not want to attempt changing out on this one for fear of damaging the more delicate body.
 
sprint said:
I have one I think is great (SG), 2 I think are very good (Carvin, Player strat), and one that's very good and on the verge of becoming unexpectedly great with some upgrades I've been doing (Squier CV tele). I'd love to have a great 335 style guitar but there's limited affordable options (lefty). I'm trying to improve my upgrade/mod skills so I can make my mid level guitars great over time on a budget. I've bought the odd cheapie tho that's not salvagable (ie an Agile LP that weighs a tonne!) - some guitars can never be great
no matter what's done to them - neck body needs to be right.

I've tried great guitars that just didn't seem right for me - so there there's that also.
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I have had this scenario as well! For me it was a Suhr, that Gold drip finnish I have posted up in another thread. As stunning as it was I could not bond with that guitar for some reason, nothing wrong with how it was constructed or sounded it just felt weird.

The two Carvins I own are really good guitars, play grate and well made. I elected to change out the electronics in both which was their shortcoming in fact the CT624 I have changed out everything except the locking tuners. The money I paid for them both was right so doing the mods made sense.

The Gretsch I just bought is a great player aside from the bridge thing that I'm getting used to cant say there is anything wrong with that guitar!
 
sprint said:
Any recommendations for a good / could be great mid level lefty 335 style SH. It would be the one guitar style I don't want to be brave with in terms of mod / upgrades which look scary to me (all that fishing through f-hole). I'm thinking the equvilent of a Fender Player Strat in terms of quality. Best I've come up with so far is Epi 335 but I would say it is not on par with a Player series guitar in term of quality, and I'm not sure about pups / electronics which I would not want to attempt changing out on this one for fear of damaging the more delicate body.
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Have you looked at the Ibanez Artcore? I think they have a lefty hollow body that looks pretty good.
EIDT: Aatstar!
 
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Sixstring said:
Have you looked at the Ibanez Artcore? I think they have a lefty hollow body that looks pretty good.
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yes, have my eye on that one also and I suspect it's a bit better quality than the epi - - have never had a chance to see one in person here - wish they had the grreen in LH. That darned epi is so alluring though as it is so close to a real 335 in aesthetc, just not sure about basic quality so fear it could never be "great" for me.
 
sprint said:
yes, have my eye on that one also and I suspect it's a bit better quality than the epi - - have never had a chance to see one in person here - wish they had the grreen in LH. That darned epi is so alluring though as it is so close to a real 335 in aesthetc, just not sure about basic quality so fear it could never be "great" for me.
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I had one back in the 80's not sure if it was the exact model but I do remember that it played great! I think they referred to them as the Artists series.
 
State of Epicicity said:
I'm pretty sure one 22 fret excellent HSS superstrat with a Floyd would do it for me.
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If you can drive a lefty, I have a good MiJ Jackson HSS going for sale with licensed FR - the FR stays in tune but I'm not sure about it's durability over time with intense playing. Could be great for someone - not for me as FR related effort is not worth it for the amount of whammy I like / need to do despite my love of EVH + 80s hard rock / metal. Even if someone gave me a $5k FR guitar it would mostly collect dust. If I were gigging musician, guess I'd have to tolerate having one as an essential of the toolbox.
 
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