Looking for a $200.00 Guitar that plays and sounds like a $5,000.00 Guitar.

[guildfire]

Most guitars are not heard in a scientific, lab based testing facility. They are heard live or recorded. With both of these scenarios many variables exist that impact the tone of both a cheap or expensive guitar. Ambient and crowd noise, other instruments being played, effects employed, ability of the player, etc. In my experience in live jams, etc. the crowd cannot hear, nor do the really care that much, about "gee that guy is playing a cheap (or fancy) guitar" and its x% better (or worse). They just hear guitar music and hopefully are having fun while you play.

[TN.Frank]

So basically, in a nut shell, what's it boiling down to is personal preffrence in tonal qualities of an instrument more then anything else. Price isn't really a factor in how what you like sounds like. I've never had the luxury of playing anything remotely "high end" so I have no real idea of what it would sound or play like but that being said I have played my FG720S a bunch of times and I really love the way it sounds. So for me a $250 Yamaha is perfectly acceptable to my Ear.
This reminds me of a time when I was working at Caswell's Shooting Range in Mesa, AZ. We got in a CZ99(Sig copy) and we all got to take it out on the range to take it for a "test drive". I've never really owned a lot of high end pistols and the ones that I have owned were revolvers like the S&W M-27's but for semi autos it was mostly the less expensive stuff. Anyway, I thought the pistol was pretty decent and the trigger was fine by my standards but a lot of the guys with $2500 buck IPSC Race guns thought the trigger was pure crap. They were used to something better then I was so they didn't like it, I liked it because it was pretty much what I was use to.
It's all pretty much subjective I guess.

[Master Capello]

Well, in all fairness, in order to determine what is "better", we would need to agree on what characteristics make a guitar "better" than another. Sure, someone looking for balance among the spectrum would probably favor a Taylor over a Martin (for ex). As a matter of fact, I should have mentioned the Masterbilt, because it doesn't pretend to emulate a Martin. Lower end Martins and Blueridges only should have been included. My personal preference goes to the HD-28. If you're looking for a guitar with clarity, vibrant qualities and gutsy lows, the HD-28 (and maybe moreso the HD-28V) is "it". I used to own a Taylor 410CE and liked it quite a bit. However, TO ME, it lacks identity. It is, as all other Taylors, a pretty good sounding guitar. However, when I compare it to a HD-28, it sounds and lifeless. To me, the "dread sound" is embodied by the D-28 and its HD siblings. When I play a dread, I want to hear Americana. I want to be able to play cowboy songs, pop songs, Frisell's "Rain rain" and be able to do it knowing that I can play anything else with that dread sound that characterizes Americana is all about (even funnier, I'm not American but have been living in the states for 9 years). When I play my dread, I want to see the sunset, the plains; I want to see the grass in the wind, I want to see the chariots and cornfields. The HD-28 gives me that. Taylors and other guitars don't. So, yes, I guess you could say it is a matter of preferences, but then again that wouldn't be totally taking into account the history of the instrument. I guess you could say I'm a dread conservative. Taylors and other guitars do have their applications. But when it comes to Americana, there's no doubt in my mind what the "real" deal is.


P.S. I think Frisell used a Collings to record "Rain rain". Then again Frisell is a freak and I don't have a tenth of a thousandth of his talent. To tell the truth I am a very mediocre guitar player. Not to mention his wallet. Hell, I don't even own a D-28 or an HD-28. But when I pick one up and star playing it, I'm right where I wanna be.

[benzem]

[CrankyDutchman]

Sheesh, Maybe I'm missing something in this thread as I've seen little attention to how music in general and playing guitar in particular squares up in a person's life. For us non-professionals we need to put our hobby into a perspective that includes spouses, children, bills, jobs and other life realities. The point is to make a spare moment special in either creating music or listening to it being made. In that regard and in that context a rubberband strung cigar box can satisfy.

My grandkids don't read the name on the headstock nor differentiate tonal characterists of my Martin 12 string or 1/2 size Oscar Schmidt. We just enjoy the moment

[Belva]

CrankyDutchman, you summed it up very well. My Washburn cost $383.40 in 1978 dollars with a good case. It was a HS grad present & I could have any guitar I wanted. When you find the right guitar, you'll know it.