Most Overrated/Overpriced Electric Guitars

  • Thread starter Thread starter flat1ine
  • Start date Start date

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
This Post Is Very Well Put.

rayc said:
Anything that adds a premium because of the brand name or guitarists assosiation is overpriced.
Altruistically every instrument should be individually priced based on the workmanship & a bunch of subjective stuff like tone, timbre, etc.
Many have experienced the name brand, artist aligned instrument in a store that is just a nasty plank with wires.
Many have experienced the ugly/ancient/out of the box/dumb stick that is really rather good or unique in a way that makes one smile.
It really is a buyers market - unfortunately a majority of buyers aren't savvy about that fact and are driven by look, brand or association.
I'm in the fortunate position of not being able to countenance a brand or artist associated guitar because I haven't, & don't expect to have, the money to do so. Instead I play things & take the very occassional chance on something cheap. I've ended up with a nice Epi, a superb Bruno, a brilliant Vantage, a good Emperador and an appalling AUS$80 delivered MIChina tele copy.
Then again - if someone buys a guitar they take with them a host of biases based on hero worship, appreciation, culture, Socio Economic Status, serendipity, hormones and the faint but every present hope that the machine will overcome those personal technique difficulties like the inablility to play Bm.
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and funny but very accurate:D IMO
sad but true people put more emphasis on the brand name how purdy it looks and which famous so and so is playing one above what I consider more importantly how well it plays and how well it is built.
In my own experience I have had the opportunity to buy several what would be considered cheap instruments but the playability and craftsmanship was simply put... AWESOME!
one that sticks out in my mind the most is my recent purchase of an Jay Turser flamed maple top semi hollow double cut arch top bass.
it came out of the box with a excellent setup super low action, good fretwork (clean and polished, no sharp ends) and the electronics are even top shelf and I paid $239.95 and honestly I would be hard pressed to find any other bass that plays any better in a price range ten times more.
 
A friend of mine owns a Jay Turser Mosrite clone and I know from experience it captures all the vibe/feel/sound of a 60s-era Mosrite Ventures model. I also had the opportunity to play one of the Jay Turser SG clones and while I would not say it's in the same league as a Gibson SG, it did sound better than the Epi SG clones.
 
flat1ine said:
Seeing as there are a fair amount of "Overrated" and "Underrated" polls up, I'd like to know what everyone thinks are the most overrated and overpriced electrics on the market today.

I think the prices on some of these fairly standard guitars is completely insane. For example:

$2,000 for a Gibson Les Paul Standard?
$1,700 for a Custom Telecaster?
$1,600 for a Les Paul Classic?
$1,000 for a Gibson SG?
$1,000 for a Strat?

These aren't One-of-a-Kind Collector's edition guitars, they're not autographed, and what burns me most is that they're not even built with the best materials - mostly we're talking mahogany and rosewood here - not AA or AAA Maple and Ebony.

Now I'm not saying these are bad guitars by any means, I'm just saying that the price to performance ratio seems to be extremely skewed.

Thoughts, comments, anything - fire away.


--edit--
[this poll very much shows my bias - i didn't put ESP, Schecter, Ibanez or plenty of other manufacturers on here, mostly because i believe they make very good quality instruments at affordable prices - that said, it's only my opinion.]
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Price and quality are not necessarily correlated. I happen to love the feel/sound/and look of a Fender Stratocaster. But really, I think it depends on the musical genre that you're interested in. The music I like generally has alot of Strats (And some telecasters) being used.

I don't think that $1000 is particularly overpriced for an American Strat. I think it's a fair price for an instrument of the quality.

Even $2000 for a really good electric guitar is still fairly reasonable for a high quality instrument. For some perspective, look at high quality trumpets, violins, and saxophones. Guitars are cheap.
 
I'm sure it's been said, but Gibson's QC is horrendous. The finishes on their guitars look like a blind man finished them. For <$2k to $3k for a guitar, I expect it to be flawless. They need to get off their high horse.

I agree with the people who say buy a mexican/jap Fender Strat/Tele ($300) and put american pickups in them (another $200) and have yourself a kicka$$ sounding/playing guitar for cheap.

PRS is getting a little high on pricing, but at least they put out a quality instrument. You can't beat their sound either.

At least Ibanez has the right idea: They might not sound great, but they are cheap and easy to play.
 
I have recently purchased a number of guitars, none more than two hundred and fifty dollars, that sound just as good and play just as nice as my gibsons and fenders.
No more high priced guitars for me.
 
I don't really understand all of the PRS bashing. I love mine, I play the shit out of it, and my other guitars (unfortunately) don't really compare (2 Schecter's and a Charvel 750xl). It might just be the revealing character of the amp I'm playing through, but even my singer could tell when I was/wasn't playing the PRS, and that's fuckin' saying something! Hah
 
I read something from a pretty good guitarist...and fairly famous one that you shouldnt have to pay more than $400 and the real key to picking one out is to pick it up and strum it...if it sounds good unplugged, you can allways alter the electronics if you have to.
 
The guitarist for my band has a Les Paul studio with zack Wyld active pickups , great sounding and playing guitar and looks good too but definately not work the close to $3000 he paid for it , especially since my $300 ESP with DIY active pickups sounds and plays better .....


But overall for me , Strats are just plain Garbage !!!


:D
 
Minion said:
The guitarist for my band has a Les Paul studio with zack Wyld active pickups , great sounding and playing guitar and looks good too but definately not work the close to $3000 he paid for it , especially since my $300 ESP with DIY active pickups sounds and plays better .....


But overall for me , Strats are just plain Garbage !!!


:D
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Strats are far from garbage.

And LOL on the zakk wyld pickups!!!! They are EMG's. The only thing I can think of that sounds worse than EMG pickups is a live cat getting shoved down a garbage disposal. <- even though that would sound pretty badass.
 
Wow guys, thanks for resurrecting a two-month-old thread with your insightful and timely contributions...
 
They were bored.
Heck, I was bored...now I've added to the mess.
 
gibson. hands down.

went to get a 335 once. bought a gretsch instead.

went to get an SG once... bought the epiphone model... how can gibson charge 1200 bucks for an SG?! there's nothing to it!

even if i could play like hendrix i wouldn't care that some doucher in the audience didn't think i was cool because it says, 'epiphone' on the head stalk instead of 'gibson'.

s
 
this thread started in 2004 and my Gibsons have all appreciated in value.... So has my Beck strat and my Gretschs, The Fenders, not so much, but yeah, Light is right, as he was in 2004, shut up and play
 
Big Kenny said:
this thread started in 2004 and my Gibsons have all appreciated in value.... So has my Beck strat and my Gretschs, The Fenders, not so much, but yeah, Light is right, as he was in 2004, shut up and play
Click to expand...

Unless you own a Gibson. In that case, put it in the case be for it gets scratched and wait for a sucker to come:cool: along,
 
I never realized just how much of a dick Light really was until I read this thread.
 
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