One expensive guitar or several inexpensive ones?

Purplestrats said:
You keep proving my point for me without realizing you are doing so.
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No ,I am saying that the data you would accept in order to call something a fact is not collected in this industry . All we have is people working within it producing there own data for there own use but because we don't have anywhere to publish does not mean we don't understand the scientific method. You are just calling my data my opinion .
 
One great one, and a cheap one that you don't mind chopping up. I have a Yamaha Pacifica that I love to experiment on, I drill it, chop it, try all sorts of things on it, this process has taught me a lot.
 
Why not 3-5 great guitars? Great doesn’t have to be expensive! I like different “tools” for different “jobs”. You know… humbuckers, single coils, Emg’s, seven strings, acoustic… for me they have different applications. 👍
 
I had a great guitar, and a project guitar. I got my project guitar to sound better than my great guitar after tons of mods, and then started modding my great guitar as well. Now they are both great guitars and project guitars!
 
IMO, the most important thing is to have a guitar that's comfortable for <you>. More expensive often is not better. I'd prefer two moderately priced guitars that work for <me>, rather than one expensive guitar or several cheaper ones.
 
Interestingly, of the six lefty guitars in front of me here (Agile LP, MIJ Jackson DK2, Squier CV Tele, Fender MiM Strat, Gibson SG Standard, Carvin DC127), only the cheapest 3 have lefty electronics (pots increasing CCW).
 
Purplestrats said:
If people said favorite instead of greatest we wouldn't be having a discussion. "Great" isn't exactly an objective measure anyway, so I could see why people would use the terms interchangeably. The title of this thread should have been "Several cheap or one expensive guitar."
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Sorry you have a point! Title changed!
 
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For me the title still doesn't work (sorry Sixstring lol!) - it's more more like "cheap guitar or expensive > discuss!" because, for me anyway, I want to build a collection of guitars the best covers the sounds I want - so I could narrow it down to a minimum 3 in my case: Strat, Tele, Humbucker as I'd consider each a specialty tool that does it's thing best as opposed to one "flexible" guitar that maybe covers all that ground but not "ideally". For all of those 3, more expensive is going to be better if I'm shopping properly for value (ie no signature models ...). Within those 3 I feel like I could get away with less expensive on the simpler guitars (ie: maybe more $ should have gone to my strat given the trem instead of the to my SG).

Man, I wasted a bunch of money :disappointed:
 
I own quite a few cheaper guitars that I've worked on to improve(electronics, pickups, minor nut and fretwork)
Most wind up playing as good and sounding better than off the rack higher end guitars. I won't spend money on AAA++ tops and that nonsense, because they eventually get nicked up. I have 3 PRS SEs and 2 S2s. Yamahas from the late 80's( a Weddington Classic, PAC 921 and 912J.
I also have 3 Hohner Gibson copies MIK from the early 90's, a 56 LP Custom gold top copy, a 59 LP Custom copy and a natural ES335 copy. All have new electronics and higher end pickups.(BKPs, Arcanes). 3 partscaster Tele's and 4 partscaster Strats. I've owned real ones and flipped them, I like mine better.
Between knowing how to do my own work(that's the fun) and doing setups, I get nothing but compliments on how any of my many of my 6 string orphans play and sound.
 
sprint said:
For me the title still doesn't work (sorry Sixstring lol!) - it's more more like "cheap guitar or expensive > discuss!" because, for me anyway, I want to build a collection of guitars the best covers the sounds I want - so I could narrow it down to a minimum 3 in my case: Strat, Tele, Humbucker as I'd consider each a specialty tool that does it's thing best as opposed to one "flexible" guitar that maybe covers all that ground but not "ideally". For all of those 3, more expensive is going to be better if I'm shopping properly for value (ie no signature models ...). Within those 3 I feel like I could get away with less expensive on the simpler guitars (ie: maybe more $ should have gone to my strat given the trem instead of the to my SG).

Man, I wasted a bunch of money :disappointed:
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It's all good! Purplestrats had a point and I agreed with it so no harm no foul. I mean the alternative title could have read "One great guitar or several crappy ones"! ;)

When you boil it down it still is relevant because you can start with an inexpensive guitar that plays good but lacks some refinements, spend money modding it and have a solid player! Or spend the extra money up front and hopefully get the same result!

I was kind of trying to get my Carvin to be a swiss army guitar with switching options and it works to a certain point. I know it won't sound like a Gretsch or a Tele so the Gretsch came first! The Tele thing is going to be a build that I will tackle and post up when the time comes.
 
I have a few great guitars, by my definition:
2009 Gretsch Black Falcon, which I sold off a few inexpensive guitars to fund.
1983 335 ES dot ... bought it brand new.
1999 Fender Telecaster B bender / Nashville
My other guitars are
Special run CME Jazzmaster MIM
PRS SE 277 baritone made in Indonesia.
I have a nice mix of both. I had avoided the lower end Fenders, though I love the color.
Just bought an FM9T, and learning how to play my guitars through it.
 
The first reason to pick up and buy a guitar is that you 'fall in love' with it to be sure you'll play it. After the usual quality aspects it must bond with your hands and fingers (neck and frets) and ring fine acoustically. Then comes the price, eventually change the PU.
You'll never be happy with a guitar you don't totally bond with right the first day. Expensive is not a criteria but I must admit I only have 2 guitars I paid less than 400 Euros, + the mods for almost the same amount. All the others are over 900/1000 €, the most expensive was 1800€ in 2005. So I may conclude that under 800€ it's difficult to have something correct that perfectly suits me.
 
I like to collect them so have 5 expensive ones, I am not a pro so I guess I could do equally well with cheap equivalents and minor adjustments in presets but this is my hobby.

If I had to choose I guess I would have only my Charvel 750 XL, my favourite guitar hands down.
 
Buy whatever you like and can afford. I've owned cheap and now I own a boutique guitar. Never ever EVER would I have imagine buying a guitar over 2k. It all comes down to what you want. Price tag doesn't always translate to "the best."

I had an ibanez RG 3ex1 with emgs that sounded good and played great, for me. Others might laugh or say they suck.

If playing guitar is something you plan on doing for many years what does it matter if it's cheap or expensive if you have the money. Buy what will inspire you or even helps with your end goal. So many different ways of looking at it.

Do you want a bunch of inexpensive guitars to get a variety of tones that you may or may not want to modify or one hopefully for you holy grail? Either way buying a bunch of guitars adds up. Good luck? Lol
 
I'm not saying you can't find a cheap guitar that plays and sound amazing but the odds are extremely against it. Random use of the wood that is normally the first problem does yeald some lucky combinations but then the paint process has to not kill it.
Cheap guitars are almost always painted with thick 2K for two main reasons;
1 it doesn't require the body to be as finish sanded because of the thickness you can put on quickly, and covers a multitude.
2 Dryes to a buffable hardness in 24h or less. The thickness also allows the body to be aggressively flat sanded with no danger of going through.
This process alone it one of the main reasons that almost no budget instruments are truly capable of greatness. Yes there will always be exceptions to this process but any modern budget instrument with a smooth shiny "perfect" finish will be almost certainly done this way.
Go look at the thickness of the clear coat on a Sire (about 2mm).
 
Andy Eagle said:
Only if they are joking or stupid which I assume is your point.
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I honestly don't know if this is a joke.

A lot of people like them, yes. I do. But, there are a lot of people who say they're not special, that they're not worth anything, that they're just blackface amps with a tube screamer built in or a whole bunch of other junk.

Have y'all really never seen this?
 
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