Most Overrated/Overpriced Electric Guitars

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Most Overrated/Overpriced Electric Guitars?

  • Gibson

    Votes: 289 51.9%

  • Fender

    Votes: 93 16.7%

  • Gretsch

    Votes: 38 6.8%

  • Parker

    Votes: 38 6.8%

  • PRS

    Votes: 160 28.7%

  • G&L

    Votes: 17 3.1%

  • Epiphone

    Votes: 32 5.7%

  • Rickenbacker

    Votes: 49 8.8%
  • Total voters
    557
It must be idiot week at HR.... :rolleyes:

What is it lately with all these new "members" who join, post a few totally meaningless one-liners in quick succession on various threads...
...and then vanish from the forums...?
 
miroslav said:
It must be idiot week at HR.... :rolleyes:

What is it lately with all these new "members" who join, post a few totally meaningless one-liners in quick succession on various threads...
...and then vanish from the forums...?
Click to expand...

These guys are usually spammers who haven't quite figured out their trade-skills yet. I bet an IP search would put this guy in Pakistan, India or China.
 
I think we can at this time rule out that it wasn't Sillybee.
 
Thread seems a bit familiar,

I can't vote, I haven't played all the guitars listed.

But I do like my Epi Paul
 
I think their all over rated and over priced.....

a guy who knew how to play, and knew what to listen for, could pick up a cheap name/brand guitar, and sound just as good as a guy playing a $10,000 guitar...99.9% of the people "in the crowd" would never know the difference...

of course the higher up names are going to be more often "good ones"..but that`s not to say, their ain`t couple cheapie`s, that will roll right with um..
I got an old yamaha, that you can`t hardley tell the difference when compared to a typical martin D-18..
if a guy switched the names on um, I`d love to see people figure out which was the real slim shady..LOL
 
In Norway, the Gibson LP standard cost at least 3,500 dollars (calculated from norwegian kroner).

I haven't seen any PRS or Parker guitar in Norway, barely heard of PRS! But what I think is good with (at least) my Gibson Melody Maker JJ signature, it was controlled at every stop to Norway to see if everything was ok. I don't know much about the production of different guitars. But from what I've seen, the cheapest guitars often has some bad finishes etc. But Epiphone are pretty much like a Gibson to play on and the sound is even nicer on some Epi..

However. I tried some guitars from cheap Ibanez to expensive Ibanez, ESP the whole scale and from cheap epi's to expensive gibsons, and squiers and Fenders as well. Since it so expensive in Norway, you have to pay around 1000 Dollars.

Actaully, I have a fun story about this topic.
- Me and my friend was going to the local musicstore (wich is really expensive and really bad customer service) for checking a Epiphone LP standard. The price is about 1000 Dollars, that's okey. And he asks if he can try it and the salesman agree. My friend starts playing and the salesman said that if he would have a nice guitar he should buy a Tokai for 200 dollars more. And my friend answer that he won't spend more then 1000 Dollars. Then the salesman suggest he should buy a Duesenberg to over 3000 dollars and said that cheap guitars won't last and that's the best guitar he ever played on.. What happend?
 
AL P said:
I think their all over rated and over priced.....

a guy who knew how to play, and knew what to listen for, could pick up a cheap name/brand guitar, and sound just as good as a guy playing a $10,000 guitar...99.9% of the people "in the crowd" would never know the difference...

of course the higher up names are going to be more often "good ones"..but that`s not to say, their ain`t couple cheapie`s, that will roll right with um..
I got an old yamaha, that you can`t hardley tell the difference when compared to a typical martin D-18..
if a guy switched the names on um, I`d love to see people figure out which was the real slim shady..LOL
Click to expand...

Not knocking cheap guitars at all especially old yammi's but I'll take that challenge everytime. :)
 
I had a guy show up once with a Gibson Les Paul custom with emgs. I couldn't for the life of me understand, even after playing it, why it had the price tag it did... and I guess he got it at a steal for $2800. lol
 
LOL . . . I don't think this has anything specifically to do with the question, but . . .

I found out about 3 weeks ago that Future Shop here in Canada is selling USA-made, bonafide, for-real Fenders. Standards, Deluxes, Claptons, Strats, Teles, the works. I know I've come across threads where people in the U.S. have bought a piece of guitar gear at BestBuy or something, but to be able to walk into Future Shop and actually buy a $1,600 USA Clapton Strat while someone else picks up a DVD of Hangover II just doesn't seem like all is right in the universe ;).

Cripes . . . I won't even buy a USA guitar from the chain music stores, let alone BestBuy or Future Shop. It made me want to burn my Strats and Tele . . . if I didn't love 'em so much.

Think I'll go out to 711 and pick up a Fulltone Deja Vibe while I grab a Gatorade. Or maybe the guy at the Circle K has a Classic Plus for my Explorer he can install while I heat up a hoagie . . .
 
You would be surprised to find out how many times the "pros" end up using a cheap guitar in the studio to get the sound they are looking for. At the moment I have a collection of guitrars at my disposal. For example: I have an Ernie Ball Axis, A Fender Tele, and a Gibson ES335. Out of the high end stuff I have I usually grab my Epiphone ES335 copy. I just like the way it feels and I can make it sound like it is much more than it really is. Effects and amps are a musician's friend.
 
For me its Parker guitars. They sound really great but i always feel like i am playing with a fisher price guitar. Give me a les paul every time.
 
If I could afford it, I would pay Fender up to $2000 to build me a custom guitar with the humbuckers, tuners, and other hardware that I want, and the Tele body "cut" like I want. In my opinion, no modern guitar is worth more than a couple thousand dollars and it would have to be pretty damn special to get that. No "tribute" or "autographed" guitars. Buying one of those and spending more money just for THAT is just lame.

I put together a guitar for my son for Christmas several years ago. I used a licensed Strat neck on a purple Tele body. I put the best caps and controls in it that I could find, and cut it out with my Dremal so I could add '57 Gibson humbuckers in a white pearloid pick-guard, and added shielding to ever crevice on the body. It's one of the best sounding guitars that I have ever heard. You can crank the volume up as far as you want and that thing doesn't feed back. Hit the strings though and you can blow the wall down with it. I should have built two. I only put around $700 into the project. But of course, I didn't have to charge myself to build it. :)
 
Light said:
Professional violin players will pay in excess of $100,000 for their instruments. And that is just the guys in the orchestra. The soloists are spending well over $1,000,000.

When professional guitar players complain about the cost of a good guitar, they sound like whiny asses. Guitars are, with only a very few exceptions, cheap. You DO get what you pay for. Now shut up and play.

And yes, saying things like this is EXACTLY why I chose to stay anonymous on this forum.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
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+1
and the fact that PRS even has one vote in this Poll is ridiculous.
Spend 2500 on any other big brand and you'll spend at least that or more in upkeep over the next 10 years.
Buy a PRS and if yu treat it right you'll only buy strings and polish. Those things are built like brick **** houses.
 
My guitars weren't mentioned. I an Ovation man all the way. I have two Ovation acoustics and one Ovation solidbody electric, UKII. I am one of those people who will keep a guitar forever. The last guitar I bought was in 1987, a Model 1763 Ovation Classic which cost $750.00 at the time. The UKII I bought used for $300.00 in 1986 and my Anniversary I paid $600.00 for in 1979. They were and still are great guitars. I would love to have a Gretsch White Falcon, but I can't and won't pay $3000.00 to $12,000.00, depending on the model, for one. The Gretsch, depending on the model can certainly be overpriced but not I think overrated. Now if someone wants to give me one, GREAT!! By the way, I'm not going to hold my breath.
 
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My opinion is that a guitar becomes over priced/ over rated when the price to playability ratio gets higher than the price to playability of cheaper instruments.

In other words the $4k les paul custom someone brought to record with one time didn't feel or play better than my $800 ltd ec1000 (both had the same EMG sets of pickups inside). The wood was probably nicer. The finish on mine is nicer (IMO of course, but I do like the flame top my guitar has over his solid white paul).

The only difference I noted was a ever so slightly thicker neck on the paul and a thicker body. There was not a $3k difference in quality though, apparently there was in the name though. haha
 
Guitargodgt said:
My opinion is that a guitar becomes over priced/ over rated when the price to playability ratio gets higher than the price to playability of cheaper instruments.
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You have to take into account that there will always be an applicable law of diminishing returns, though. The higher up the quality scale you go, the less you get per extra pound/dollar paid, as demand for items higher up the scale lessens. Therefore, for all brands, the price to playability ratio will always drop as price increases.

That's not to say that ratio of quality to price is never silly, though, especially when it comes to brands who can charge premium prices based on the strength of their brand as opposed to the quality of their wares.
 
jonny deep said:
You have to take into account that there will always be an applicable law of diminishing returns, though. The higher up the quality scale you go, the less you get per extra pound/dollar paid, as demand for items higher up the scale lessens. Therefore, for all brands, the price to playability ratio will always drop as price increases.

That's not to say that ratio of quality to price is never silly, though, especially when it comes to brands who can charge premium prices based on the strength of their brand as opposed to the quality of their wares.
Click to expand...

But I'm saying a $4k gibson les paul custom is overpriced. But I wouldn't say the same about something custom made for example. Because those guitars usually have neat things like birdsey maple (example) or actual ebony finger boards that actually make them worth more cash (in my opinion). they are always made to order (frets, neck radius, nut width etc...) Gibson seems expensive because it has the word Gibson on the headstock and not because the instruments are actually superior in any way to other instruments.

As always YMMV of course, but that's how I feel after playing one.

It's kind of funny though because I don't feel the same about Fender instruments. No idea why, but there always seems to be a noticable difference between a strat that runs close to $2k and one that runs 8-1200.
 
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