Would the average owner of a cheap guitar even appreciate a high quality instrument?

[Chordchunker]

I think it takes some experience and a good technique to get the best out of a guitar. If you're a shy, limp-wristed, pulp-picking player would doesn't really know how to drive the top of a guitar, it is unlikely that you will sound much better on a good guitar than on a mediocre guitar.

 

I agree 100%. It`s not always the gear but the person playing it. The slack-jawed-limp-wristed-red-faced-beer-bellied-peckerwood that as said "Can`t Tell Their Asshole From A Gunshot Wound"(love it:lol:) will belittle fine quality guitars to hide their own incompetence.

[Stackabones]

I just wanted to post something and be a part of this.

[Chordchunker]

My local bluegrass shop (www.janetdavis.com) has a D-100. They let me play it. It`s an extremely fancy D45 (i think), and really is an awesome instrument made for the Liberace-Nudey Suit- Don`t Mess My Hair crowd. (it`s fun to generalize

[Grant Harding]

I prefer acoustics made for the no-nonsense, Chuck Norris, play it strong, professional, Nashville meets Tommy Emmanuel, bling is ghey, relic is good types.

[mikesr1963]

IMO you can cork sniff if you make a living playing guitar. Other wise, it's just talking trash and doesn't amount to a hill of beans.

[Hudman]

IMO you can cork sniff if you make a living playing guitar. Other wise, it's just talking trash and doesn't amount to a hill of beans.

 

No you can't.

 

No cork sniffing allowed.

 

Now you know.

[gitnoob]

A high-end guitar just popped up for sale over on AGF. One of the most respected builders. The build quality and tonal qualities are clearly amazing (the guy selling the git describes how he likes it much better than mere Goodalls).

 

He has a good demo of it here:

 

Frankly, I wouldn't know what to do with this git. The tone doesn't do a thing for my noobish noodling sensibilities. I'd rather play my $200 Silver Creek.

[Grant Harding]

IMO you can cork sniff if you make a living playing guitar. Other wise, it's just talking trash and doesn't amount to a hill of beans.

I dunno. There are a lot of really good guitarists that just choose to keep it just as a passion, especially when there are other more lucrative things to do 9-5. Doesn't make their opinion less valid than a touring pro, just a different context.

[roughtrade]

The slack-jawed-limp-wristed-red-faced-beer-bellied-peckerwood that as said "Can`t Tell Their Asshole From A Gunshot Wound"(love it:lol:) will belittle fine quality guitars to hide their own incompetence.

What about the people that fit that description, but are totally competent players?

[BROLEX]

I dunno. There are a lot of really good guitarists that just choose to keep it just as a passion, especially when there are other more lucrative things to do 9-5. Doesn't make their opinion less valid than a touring pro, just a different context.

zactly.

And I am going out on a limb here to say hobbyist musicians can be comparable, if not better, to their professional counterparts.

[Hudman]

 

I dunno. There are a lot of really good guitarists that just choose to keep it just as a passion, especially when there are other more lucrative things to do 9-5. Doesn't make their opinion less valid than a touring pro, just a different context.

 

 

Exactly. It can be tough to make a good living playing guitar.

[MattSkibaIsGOD]

I think it takes some experience and a good technique to get the best out of a guitar. If you're a shy, limp-wristed, pulp-picking player would doesn't really know how to drive the top of a guitar, it is unlikely that you will sound much better on a good guitar than on a mediocre guitar.

Agreed.

[RizinRico]

well the magical martin acoustics of the 40's were the cheap guitars that they offered at that time. loar's guitars and mando's didnt sell at all when he first made them. who can say what the next 50-60 years will bring to the current crop of instruments.

[Kap'n]

well the magical martin acoustics of the 40's were the cheap guitars that they offered at that time. loar's guitars and mando's didnt sell at all when he first made them. who can say what the next 50-60 years will bring to the current crop of instruments.

 

 

Uh, pre-war Martins and Lloyd Loar Gibsons were considered top of the line when they were made. Not the only make around, but certainly at the top of the heap.

 

My take is that most people don't even know what a real acoustic guitar sounds like. They've heard too much EmptyVee Unplugged crap and they think that an acoustic sounds like a crinkled up piece of celophane.

 

Given that, most non-serious guitarists would pick cheap-o non-responsive guitars, because "thats what they sound like."

[BROLEX]

well the magical martin acoustics of the 40's were the cheap guitars that they offered at that time. loar's guitars and mando's didnt sell at all when he first made them. who can say what the next 50-60 years will bring to the current crop of instruments.

 

 

I need proof to this. I would guess during the war era any luxury goods would be difficult to sell. However, If you are comparing the prices of 000/OM with dreadnaughts, then amplification technology has definitely revived the interest in the tonal superiority of the former. Unless we are comparing a D28 with a D18, comparing two completely different model is pretty much an apple vs. orange comparison.

 

Loar? I've always thought his instruments have very low production numbers; I am merely speculating here, but the demography that actually would want to play banjos and mandolins probably couldnt afford them at all.

[kwakatak]

That is utterly hideous.

Yes, but only because it's a lefty.

[Kap'n]

In 1922, the first year of the Lloyd Loar Master Model L-5, the list price was $275.

 

That's $3,503.34 in 2008 dollars.

 

http://www.westegg.com/inflation/infl.cgi

 

Median income was somewhere south of $15,000.

 

http://www.visualizingeconomics.com/2008/05/04/average-income-in-the-united-states-1913-2006/

 

That L-5 was about a weeks gross pay for the average schmoe in a typical single income family.

 

Relatively cheap, depending on who you are.

 

Sorry, no access to a Martin price list.

[riffmeister]

I brought an acquaintance to a guitar store which had many high quality instruments. We ran across Goodalls, Huss & Daltons, Larrivees, Collings, etc. I thought he would love these instruments once he had a chance to hear them. His only guitar is a low priced Ibanez. It's the only one he has owned for over 10 years. To my chagrin, he wasn't impressed with most of the guitars. He said they sounded too much like pianos. In fact the higher priced we went, the less enamored he was with them. He truly didn't like the sound. He did like their appearance, though. Any thoughts on why?

He should consider himself lucky!!

[BROLEX]

In 1922, the first year of the Lloyd Loar Master Model L-5, the list price was $275. That's $3,503.34 in 2008 dollars. http://www.westegg.com/inflation/infl.cgi Median income was somewhere south of $15,000. (adjusted to 2006 dollars) http://www.visualizingeconomics.com/2008/05/04/average-income-in-the-united-states-1913-2006/ That L-5 was about a weeks gross pay for the average schmoe in a typical single income family. Relatively cheap, depending on who you are. Sorry, no access to a Martin price list.

 

 

$3500/$15000 = ~ 4 months of gross household income.

 

I wouldnt want my partner and myself having save >4 months to buy an instrument.

 

relatively speaking, depending on the person, a nice luthier-made guitar can be bought with a month's pay of a single person today.

[jamesp]

I wouldnt want my partner and myself having save >4 months to buy an instrument.

 

 

Then again, having a violinist or pianist for a partner has a way of trivializing the cost of guitars.

[BROLEX]

Then again, having a violinist or pianist for a partner has a way of trivializing the cost of guitars.

yes, but do you know any moderately-enthused guitarist that owns only one guitar?

[Kap'n]

$3500/$15000 = ~ 4 months of gross household income. I wouldnt want my partner and myself having save >4 months to buy an instrument. relatively speaking, depending on the person, a nice luthier-made guitar can be bought with a month's pay of a single person today.

 

 

I did that math....then fixed it. Actual non-adjusted average income was around $15,000. Of course, basic necessities of life were a lot more expensive on a percentage of income.

 

When Gibson introduced the Super-400 at the height of the depression at $400 list (hence the price) it was considered inconceivable that anybody who wasn't a major star would buy one. As such, they're really rare.

[jamesp]

yes, but do you know any moderately-enthused guitarist that owns only one guitar?

Actually, if we're not counting beaters, I know more than a couple. But that's an interesting sideline. The professinal violinists that I know can only afford one really nice fiddle. While the "moderately-enthused" violinists seem more likely to have two or three moderately nice ones.

[BROLEX]

I did that math....then fixed it. Actual non-adjusted average income was around $15,000. Of course, basic necessities of life were a lot more expensive on a percentage of income. When Gibson introduced the Super-400 at the height of the depression at $400 list (hence the price) it was considered inconceivable that anybody who wasn't a major star would buy one. As such, they're really rare.

 

 

yes, you are not mistaken. but you have to compare the present price of $3500 for a lloyd loar instrument, not the 1922 price of $275.

[Pascal]

I agree 100%. It`s not always the gear but the person playing it. The slack-jawed-limp-wristed-red-faced-beer-bellied-peckerwood that as said "Can`t Tell Their Asshole From A Gunshot Wound"(love it:lol:) will belittle fine quality guitars to hide their own incompetence.

 

 

 

No real offense intended on my side, only some light-hearted teasing: I was self-taught, so I've pretty much done all the beginners' mistake you could think of. Probably still do many. It took me about 20 years of playing before I realized that I did not really know how to hold an acoustic guitar, or how to get the best out of a pick. I used to be the guy I described. To some extent I am probably still that guy if you ask me to check out and compare classical guitars without a pick. Or Dobros. Or...

 

We all gotta start somewhere, don't we?