Most Overrated/Overpriced Electric Guitars

[Newbie-Doo]

...Jimmy Page Signature Les Paul anyone?

 

[ibanezrocks]

worse than the pricing on the jimmy page les paul, those charvel EVH guitars. Basswood simply isnt as expensive as mahogany, it only has one pickup, not the best floyd rose, no volume pot, square neck joint, theres just no difference from it and a 200 dollar guitar in how it looks, plays and sounds.

 

[TheRockDoc]

i remember in the late '80s going into dixie guitars, which was the premier guitar store in the atlanta area for vintage buffs. i was a teenager and knew virtually nothing about guitars, but the most expensive guitars they had (not counting the ones they kept hidden in their vault for when billy gibbons and slash stopped by with briefcases full of cash) were in the $3000 range. that was for a pre-cbs strat in a glass display case with a card that said it had been under some old lady's bed for decades. nowadays if you mention "pre-cbs" and "$3000" in the same sentence you'll get laughed out of town.

I used to live in Marietta, and I worked at Daddy's in Boston before that. I also have friends that worked at Mandolin Brothers. The answer to that question (not that you even asked one ) is that now the generation of people who grew up with guitar-oriented classic rock is now spending their money recapturing their youth- even if they don't play anymore. A close friend had a 64 strat he sold for about 5-6k and 3 years later I saw one for 14k. Just like the real estate boom...

 

[Point Blank]

Fender Fan

I have played nothing but Ibanez for years; recently I picked up an American Fender Strat and couldn't be happier with it for the value and price. I can't say the same for Gibson.

 

[my2cents]

I used to live in Marietta, and I worked at Daddy's in Boston before that. I also have friends that worked at Mandolin Brothers. The answer to that question (not that you even asked one ) is that now the generation of people who grew up with guitar-oriented classic rock is now spending their money recapturing their youth- even if they don't play anymore. A close friend had a 64 strat he sold for about 5-6k and 3 years later I saw one for 14k. Just like the real estate boom...

someone once mentioned to me that vintage guitars got so expensive so quickly because japanese collectors started paying huge money. seems believable. is there any truth in that theory?

 

[HI WHAT?]

played a few "high end guitars" and was bitterly dissapointed.i like the feel and weight of a les paul but could never afford one.played a 65 strat and thought i was going to blow a nut,action was incredible and neck felt like butter and then i plugged it in and it went plink plink.(sss).can't afford expensive guitars so i bought my son a(don't laugh) an austin. i swear to you that this is a very good guitar.solid ash body;all floyd rose and relatively good electrics.would rate it up with a good ibanez and way past an epi or a squire.first post thanks for listening

 

[MrWinky]

Why do people complain about prices of high end guitars? There plenty of choices for all of us.

I have been playing and collecting guitars for 35 years, and I can tell the difference between a fine high end instrument and a mass produced guitar.

 

[bdbdbuck]

The "Signature" models just slay me.... $3800 for a Les Paul?.... what tha..
ooooh...it's got a "camo" paint job!..... sign me up!

bd

 

[classicrockman7]

cheap and good is possible

Most of my favorite guitar players (with the exception of Jeff Tweedy) play guitars that cost under 1000$ and most of the time under 500$. For instance Beck's main axe is a Danelectro made Silvertone, whith a shortscale neck and one pickup..... cost? about 300$. Then there is Jack White who plays an airline guitar that cost about 500$ before he brought the demand back. He also plays a 150$ domino hollowbody guitar, and a 100$ kay hollowbody. And he gets sound that are nothing short of amazing. Then my final argument is Dan Arbauch from the black keys who records all of his albums on about a 1000 dollar setup. And thats including recorders mics and guitars. He uses silvertones, harmony's and kays.

THe bottom line here is that people that spend upwards of 2000$ for a guitar that says Gibson on it are less creative than those who spend 300$ on a silvertone.

My style is weird, so i like the weird guitars. Like i have a friend that has a denelectro reissue, a gibson sg classic, a dot, and a silvertone two pickup. My favorite one is by far the silvertone. Its almost 50 years old and is about to fall apart but the sound is amazing. The least favorite is , surprise the SG, i struggle more with that guitar than any other guitar i have ever played.

 

[Henri Devill]

Most of my favorite guitar players (with the exception of Jeff Tweedy) play guitars that cost under 1000$ and most of the time under 500$. For instance Beck's main axe is a Danelectro made Silvertone, whith a shortscale neck and one pickup..... cost? about 300$. Then there is Jack White who plays an airline guitar that cost about 500$ before he brought the demand back. He also plays a 150$ domino hollowbody guitar, and a 100$ kay hollowbody. And he gets sound that are nothing short of amazing. Then my final argument is Dan Arbauch from the black keys who records all of his albums on about a 1000 dollar setup. And thats including recorders mics and guitars. He uses silvertones, harmony's and kays.

THe bottom line here is that people that spend upwards of 2000$ for a guitar that says Gibson on it are less creative than those who spend 300$ on a silvertone.

My style is weird, so i like the weird guitars. Like i have a friend that has a denelectro reissue, a gibson sg classic, a dot, and a silvertone two pickup. My favorite one is by far the silvertone. Its almost 50 years old and is about to fall apart but the sound is amazing. The least favorite is , surprise the SG, i struggle more with that guitar than any other guitar i have ever played.

All fine and well except...THe bottom line here is that people that spend upwards of 2000$ for a guitar that says Gibson on it are less creative than those who spend 300$ on a silvertone.

Thats is just wrong..I have freind back home{Boston} who is a excellent avant guitar player and he uses fairly expensive Gibsons ect.

 

[nkjanssen]

THe bottom line here is that people that spend upwards of 2000$ for a guitar that says Gibson on it are less creative than those who spend 300$ on a silvertone.

That's one of the dumbest things I've ever seen posted here.

And I've seen a lot.

 

[DonGraham]

THe bottom line here is that people that spend upwards of 2000$ for a guitar that says Gibson on it are less creative than those who spend 300$ on a silvertone.
.

I think you have your head buried pretty deep their dude!!!

 

[olfunk]

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

fair point, but how the FUCK are most people on this earth supposed to cough up what most guitars cost, let alone a hundred thousand. for example, i was supposed to be getting my first electric guitar that's actually mine for this christmas (around £250), but instead we got a new computer (not an expensive one either) and im gonna be saving up for it for a while. and we're still fairly well off.

 

[bileshake]

I walked into a local shop and I guess them knowing I'm the dark rock kinda guy they steered me towards this newest beast. Custom24 PRS black, I sat down and played it. Worked allkindsa harmonics checkin the inntonation it played rather well. I did however apply a minimal amount of pressure to the neck (from a playin position) and the pitch went wha-a-a-o-w. Bad wood selection indeed, what a disappointment.
Everything was in it's place the way it should be. The finish was black (ok) and it had the birdinlays on the fretboard... the price was $2799.

Black for $2799 no thanks, for that kinda money I want something I can't paint in my garage.
Weak wood selection,what would that neck do if you had change the string tension to a heavier gauge? For that kinda change what are you payin for? The brand name? yep.
I decided I would stay away from those guitars. PRS is a good company but I think quality might have gotten away from them. The demand is higher for them now and the have to keep up to demand.
I seen a early 90's PRS c24 sparkle for $1800. I think I'll go check that one out. I bet it's three times the guitar.

 

[grindpaul]

i bought a gibson sg standard for around $1100

the next cheaper gibson was a special for around $750

the difference between the two is worth every penny, at least to my ear

 

[jaykeMURD]

I think they're all overpriced, marked-up pieces of POO!!!

I'd prefer one of my cheapo-frankensteined electrics. Of course, I take these 100 dollar elecs and spend 200-500 dollars rebuilding them and customizing them. I love making an instrument my own.

 

[therage!]

To build a guitar with the build quality of any of those you mentioned, you could not do it for less. But of course, you couldn't match their build quality, unless of course you have built a couple hundred guitars (or more). And it will take you at least ten to really hone in on the sound you are looking for.

Trust me, I know. I've been there.

And just a quick look at the cost of a Les Paul:

Mahogany is REALLY expensive and getting more so all the time. This is particularly true for wood of a sufficient quality to be used in a guitar.

Figured maple is really expensive too.

Between materials; overhead for the factory, tools and maintenance; and labor costs, I would suspect that a Nashville made Les Paul costs Gibson approximately $500-700 to make. Now, they need to make a profit for their share holders, so it goes out the door for a MINNIMUM of $1000, but probably more like $1300. Standard markup in any retail business is 100%, but if you are getting it for $2000, you are paying quite a bit less than that. Of course, most businesses give discounts on MSRP (ours is usually about 30%), but a $700 profit on a $1300 cost is not very good, when you consider the salespersons commission is on the full sale price (say 10-15%, so $200-300), and then you have non-sales staff to pay, plus rent on the retail space, maintenance, and of course utilities and the like. And somewhere in all of this the store owner needs to find a profit.

Add to all of this the fact that the Les Paul is a hugely popular guitar, meaning that Gibson has little problem selling all they make, which means the shareholders are yelling at the company to charge more for them, because shareholders like big dividend checks.

Now, those numbers are completely made up, but not at all unlikely numbers. There is a lot of very labor intensive work on a guitar like a Les Paul. They do not use much in the way of CNC at the Gibson factory (or they did not last time I checked, which is probably too bad, as it might help their QC); they are still shooting nitrocellulose lacquer (because it SOUNDS better), which is very time consuming (my finish process with nitro takes a minimum of one month, which is probably longer than it takes Gibson, but they are still needing to store the drying guitars for at least two weeks,, and drying guitars take up a HUGE amount of space, which they are paying rent on – one of the reasons I am so glad we own our building, but that has it’s own problems); and those carved tops take a lot of hand sanding, particularly during finishing.

Is their profit margin big? Sure, but the market tells them it can be. It is not, however, unreasonable. I would certainly take that kind of profit margin, if I could. I can't, but that is because my name is not Gibson.

You pay for the name, but you also get what you pay for. That name Gibson means a hell of a lot when it comes time to sell the damn thing, and the high resale value is a big part of what you are paying for with a Gibson.

I know this thread is old but...

Taking into account what your saying it's starting to look to me that "maybe" one of the most incredible values on the planet for fine guitars may be Carvin? I have never owned one but looking at their California series guitars wouldn't one of them be selling for $2,000 plus in a music store?

 

[Henry Mars]

I don't getPRS they are nice but cost a lot and dont sound a lot better for the cost. Most of the time I play Gretsch and Gibson because they have the sound I like, but sound and play ability are subjective things. I did play a Music Man guitar that I kind of liked for fusion but it too was priced too high for a plank.

Most solid body guitars are seriously over priced in my opinion. I would like to se e a breakdown of materials, parts and labor cost that goes into building one even a old vintage fender or gibson. My guess it that even the most expensive mass produced "custom" models can be manufactured for less than $500.00.
I own a few solid body guitars and can't understand what makes them so expensive.

 

[big country]

what is the price difference on the cost to build a nice pickup hmm
small ass wire around a magnet price difference of 20 to a hundred bucks
its gotta be the difference between pennies when it comes to a good
stat pick up and a bad strat pick up. think about it
if you have ever made some thing you know thier are three factors in cost
1)materials
2)the tools
3)the time it takes to make
even for the greatist materials it could not cost that much more than the cheap
stuff
as for necks )I have seen necks with tighter grains on cheaper guitars than the big buck ones
It probly takes the same tool to make crappy stuff and good stuff
now time could be the factor but not allways
sometimes handmade blows ass and some times you can apreciate it.

 

[mustang]

I've owned both vintage and current production Rickenbackers and the two are two different animals even the reissue models. The price keeps going higher. I wonder who buys them?