One expensive guitar or several inexpensive ones?

Two great ones, always have a backup ;).

After owning a bunch of high end guitars in the last 5-10 years, I feel confident in assessing if a guitar is good to great. Most current guitars I have tried hit “good” consistently.

I have two top notch guitars, a bunch of great guitars and two good guitars as far as electrics go. I could consolidate the great guitars into another A1, but I have that area covered.
 
One great one, for sure. I do have an upper limit though, and I feel strongly about this for myself- I don't ever want to own a guitar that is too perfect, pristine, and expensive. Constantly worrying about scratches or dings stresses me out, and frankly, ruins the joy of owning something beautiful. I guess I could sell my batch of current stuff and buy a PRS Dragon or something like that, but I'd be miserable the moment that I bump it and scratch it or something like that. So my sweet spot is a great playing guitar that looks cool, but I don't worry about making it mine with some age and wear. Keep the stuff you love, that fits you, and sell the stuff you just like.
 
There’s value in playing one guitar all the time. You get intimately familiar with it and, if using with one amplification system, you can really dial in your desired sound.

I always have a great #1 and #2 guitar, but it doesn’t stay the same ones beyond a couple of years or so. So, over the years I’ve acquired a lot of #1-2 worthy guitars, and do occasionally revert to a former favorite that becomes the new King and Queen of the land.

I‘d say either way would work as long as: 1. Your one great guitar does everything you want and doesn’t impede your creativity, or, 2. Your collection of guitars doesn’t become a distraction from being able to play any of them as well as you’d like.
 
Gotta have a Les Paul and a Strat in standard, then a Les Paul and a Super Strat in Drop D....... :)

Thinking about an SG for C#.....;)

Oh, and they're all pretty damn good ones.
 
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Andy Eagle said:
Just no.
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My take....I know Kyle from Sire, fairly well. He is really exceptional at what he does. He make his own pickups that rival a lot of name brand versions. Larry Carton was on a mutual session and to be honest I thought it played better than his original 68 - and he actually agreed! BTW ask Marcus Miller....for the money they are ever bit as good (and better) than even the highest custom shop models from brand G. An open mind helps in situations like this...
 
I've never been a collector or wanted to be, and I only had one good guitar for about a decade.

Now, I have two great guitars, one okay guitar I should get around to selling, a borrowed okay guitar I need to give back, and two mediocre guitars that I haven't played in years but aren't worth selling.

The two great ones get 99% of my playing time.

I also have a "not junk" acoustic to tick the box, and it's enough for how seldom I play acoustic.
 
Brucegregori said:
My take....I know Kyle from Sire, fairly well. He is really exceptional at what he does. He make his own pickups that rival a lot of name brand versions. Larry Carton was on a mutual session and to be honest I thought it played better than his original 68 - and he actually agreed! BTW ask Marcus Miller....for the money they are ever bit as good (and better) than even the highest custom shop models from brand G. An open mind helps in situations like this...
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That's the marketing but it is absolutely not the facts.
 
Purplestrats said:
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.
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There are some very good guitars coming out of Indo these days but they still need a budget to be any good . The best I have seen have been at the more expensive end of Ibanez Premium, PRS,se and Strandberg. They still let a few more bad one through than US and Japan mass produced instruments though.
 
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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Japan Tokia, Edwards, Japan Eppiphone. Ibanez, Eastman, there are quite a few worth a look .
 
Several inexpensive ones, without a doubt.

Last Fall I was considering buying an expensive guitar, like up to $5K, but for various reasons it didn’t work out and I bought several guitars around the $1000-$1300 range and couldn’t be happier!

I went the first 25 years playing guitar trying to make one guitar sound like a bunch of different guitars and ultimately never nailing anything in particular, I was always left wanting more or something else. Now I’ve got a guitar for each style/tone I want to get and it’s AWESOME.
 
Andy Eagle said:
That's the marketing but it is absolutely not the facts.
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Sire got stung by the Covid BS and was an unfortunate timing issue. However, they came through it without putting out crap and have only gotten better. They chose to make people wait at what was probably a major expense. They’re a great company and hopefully will be able to grow.
 
Andy Eagle said:
Japan Tokia, Edwards, Japan Eppiphone. Ibanez, Eastman, there are quite a few worth a look .
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Those guitars are mostly damn expensive for what you get. Here in the US is maybe different than other countries. A Japanese Ibanez is ridiculous with all sorts of quasi exotic woods that don’t appeal to me at all.
 
State of Epicicity said:
Which ones required the most amount of work to get them the way you wanted?
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That's difficult because most of them I only bought because they were exceptional examples to start with . But standard for me is a full rebuild ,fret dress, rewire and often pickup swap. Sometimes an SS refret. It's pretty rare that I decide to go and buy a guitar, I get to hear about stuff available and see if I like it . I finished the list of guitars I wanted to own 25 years ago, in fact I often think I would have loved a particular instrument in my 20's but I can way surpass it with what I have now so I pass.
 
GitGuy513 said:
Those guitars are mostly damn expensive for what you get. Here in the US is maybe different than other countries. A Japanese Ibanez is ridiculous with all sorts of quasi exotic woods that don’t appeal to me at all.
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If you like Sire a bit of veneered MDF dipped in plastic is more likely.
 
Definitely both.

For years, I had my trusty black Ibanez RG-550. It was my main guitar for over a decade and I used it for many gigs. I had an old Yamaha RGX-612 as a backup in case I broke a string, but that never happened. So years ago I would have answered one really good guitar.

Now - I have more Ibanez guitars, a really nice Tele, Strats, and 6-string and 12-string acoustics.

I feel like I now have every possible guitar necessary for playing (and recording) just about any genre of music that I like. (But still wouldn't mind a Les Paul Junior with a P90...) 😉
 
“Great” =/= expensive. I just got a lesson in that. I had the poorly installed factory nut shimmed on my cheap Korean LTD EC-400VF, and now that guitar has so much balls and authority to it that it’s probably my first choice for recording chunky rhythms.
 
Also one great guitar could be inexpensive but the cost isn't a consideration as long as everything is up to scratch. There are plenty of world class mid price guitars and boutique garbage I wouldn't keep if you gave them to me.
 
sprint said:
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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Much appreciated, but I can't: I'm right handed, and I'm house hunting, saving my pennies. But thanks!
 
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