Five figures for a guitar...

[Hogie34]

Why do people care so much about what other people spend their hard earned money on?

The same people who complain about people spending high dollar amounts on guitars, are the same people who have never given to charities, won’t look at the homeless guy on the freeway off ramp, while he rolls up his window, has never spent any time in the soup kitchen feeding the homeless, won’t bring clothing and food to the sober living homes or halfway houses.
But the few folks I know who spend their money on things they want, have spent countless hours doing just that. It’s amazing to me how people who can’t afford things they want , bitch and moan about people who can. You’d actually be amazed at how many people who are well off financially, spend their time helping the community around them. So what if they want to enjoy some of the spoils of their success.

 

[judson]

My corvette........

View attachment 505360

......Cost less than any two of these guitars.....

View attachment 505359

...... yup.... I’m no Rockefeller,.. just a poorassafeller..... but the heart wants what it wants.... and a good job helps and a bit of luck.

I wouldn’t knock what people want to spend or guilt whip them into thinking they should feed starving folks.....

I’m a civil servant and do what I can for those in need..... but I’m not selling my house to do it.

those are two disgusting pictures.........you over indulging bastid !!!

 

[ARandall]

These sort of threads generally start low, then become a devolving competitive moralising.
Like this:

 

[Hogie34]

These sort of threads generally start low, then become a devolving competitive moralising.
Like this:

No competitive moralizing here. I roll my windows up BEFORE I get to the off ramp.

 

[Freddy G]

I get that people can spend their own money however they want, it just upsets me that they would choose to spend it on something that can only be of use to one person (or a series of owners over several years), meanwhile there are people starving in the first world

The only reason dealers can charge those kinds of prices is that there are people who will pay them

We should all start offering no more than the current MSRP of a new Standard on 1959 bursts, and when the dealers say "but it's a rare collector's item, they don't make them like this anymore", we can hit them back with "it's only rare because they didn't sell very many of them when they were new and Gibson wouldn't have started making them again if not for Clapton et al, and they don't make them like that anymore is because they've found better ways to make them"

You know, the awful truth

This is always the perspective of a certain ideology. Wealth is not a zero sum game.

 

[redcoats1976]

My corvette........

View attachment 505360

......Cost less than any two of these guitars.....

View attachment 505359

...... yup.... I’m no Rockefeller,.. just a poorassafeller..... but the heart wants what it wants.... and a good job helps and a bit of luck.

I wouldn’t knock what people want to spend or guilt whip them into thinking they should feed starving folks.....

I’m a civil servant and do what I can for those in need..... but I’m not selling my house to do it.

not jealous of the guitars,but i do love that vette.yeah,i tried out a 2006 vette with 55k on it that was pretty sweet,but i had to figure that my DL would be going away right after purchase.

 

[Lester]

Unfortunately, the people paying ridiculous prices for older guitars pull the whole used market up... same for old cars. That keeps the non-uber-rich from buying older guitars.

It's a crime, and there are victims.

 

[Lester]

It's insane what people are paying for guitars just because they are "old." When I see the bidding on 1970's era Ibanez bolt-on LP knockoffs with ceramic magnet Super 70 pickups getting up into the $1000-$1200 range, I have to laugh. These guitars have pancake bodies and plywood veneer tops with substantial air gaps between the body and the top. I had one of these guitars back in the late 70s and it fed back like crazy through a Peavey 60-watt combo. The finish on that guitar looked about as thick as a window pane.

It's their money and they can spend it any way they choose. For my money, though, I'd rather have a pair of new Epiphones with mahogany set necks and Alnico II Probuckers, or Agile ALS3200MCCs, with 5-piece thru-necks, genuine pearl inlays and real ebony fingerboards. And don't even get me started about what 1960's Gibson Melody Makers are going for on Reverb and ebay. My first electric guitar was a 60s Melody Maker, and it was a total piece of garbage, a waste of good mahogany and rosewood. There was no way to tune it, with those shitty Kluson keys and the stopbar bridge/tailpiece. But the worst thing about that guitar was the pickups. Weak, thin, even through a pretty good Danelectro tube amp, and you could barely hear the high E string at all.

I'd better sign off now or I'm gonna lose my breakfast.

I hear that. I had a Fender Mustang back in the mid70's. The tremolo / floating bridge left the guitar out of tune all the time. Cheap tuners. Terrible pickups. Cheap slide switches. People are paying over $2K for them.

Trust me... it is nowhere near what you could buy in an LP for the same money. But people keep pushing them up higher and higher.

 

[Phylodog]

Supply and demand are criminal?

 

[E.X]

I made the mistake of broaching a subject dangerously close to this one recently..

My more than correct deductions aside (and the aspirin yours [plural], not mine), i think that as always, over-generalising is wrong.

- Paying 20 and 30 times the money for an overly used guitar just because a dodgy fat online seller and his ilk tell you it's a "part of history", or "original Americana", or ""vintage"" is foolish given the kind and price of guitars manufactured today, but not condemnable in itself.
We all do dumb things; i only have issue with those incapable of admitting that much; if, to your knowledge, you went ahead and did something dumb just because you wanted to, and will admit as much to yourself and others? What do i care. I sure do dumb things myself, some every day. Just have too much respect for myself to mask them as something else, too much self-awareness and maturity to get offended if someone else calls me out on them.

- And because the OP focuses on the tangible, what about 4 figures, but for an exceptional new one? Right or wrong?
I can't afford a PRS Core McCarty 594. If i could, i'd order one right now, this very second, and say what you will. Is that dumb too? Because 'to afford' means you make enough to not mind wasting 4 figures for a hobby of all things. So if that's the case, yet again who cares?

As an aside and due to some of the commentary, feel free to ignore:
Never confuse one's "right" to perform an action with another's "right" to criticise it.
And never equate one's exercising one's "rights" with one's doing the smart thing

 

[Phylodog]

I can't even create enough concern to put that much thought into it lol. I can't make sense of wasting the time and/or energy worrying about what other people do. It's supposed to be a free country which includes doing whatever you wish with your disposable income be that a few hundred bucks or a few million. Good for them, I'm way too blessed to be bitter about how good someone else may have it.

There is a very real chance that I'll never own my dream guitar which isn't even that expensive, a new CS LP. If I never do I'll just add it to the list of things I worked toward but didn't quite make it like a Porsche 911 Turbo, 2000 acre hunting property in Montana and a private island near the equator. I've spent a considerable amount of time with someone worth FU money and I wouldn't trade places with him. He has awesome things and lives an amazing life but I don't envy him and wouldn't trade places if I could. He's a good man with a big heart but bears the weight of a ton of responsibility and it's a burden I want no part of.

 

[Lester]

I'll just add it to the list of things I worked toward but didn't quite make it like a Porsche 911 Turbo, 2000 acre hunting property in Montana and a private island near the equator.

Dude: I can see forgetting about that other stuff, but never give up on the private island near the equator. It's obtainable! You can do it!

 

[Phylodog]

I never give up, the fat lady ain't singin just yet.

 

[smk506]

The price of vintage guitars is not a crime, there are no victims. My word, you’d think old les Paul’s were a life saving drug or something.

As to the price situation, it’s supply and demand, period. More people want a 50’s burst than they ever even made, by a lot. A whole, whole lot.

Is the price of Ferraris and Picasso paintings a crime as well? I mean, the later will sell for 4x the price of your average old Gibson, but they sell higher quality prints of the same thing in the gift shop for like $120. What’s up with that?

 

[CB91710]

you’d think old les Paul’s were a life saving drug or something.

 

[smk506]

View attachment 505746

Maybe not the best analogy for the times, granted.

 

[BadPenguin]

So someone spends 5, 6 figures for a guitar. How does that effect you? Or me? Or anyone for that matter? They bought it, no one cares, move on with your life.

 

[Hogie34]

Screw vintage Les Pauls. I spend all my disposable income on hookers and blow. It’s my money , mind ya’ bidness bitches !

 

[lespaul1648]

Perspective.

Having any guitar at all would be considered a lofty luxury by much of the world's population.

A $140 for a used low end Epiphone could feed, shelter and educate a pre-teen child in Burma for a full year.

Can you please explain why feel the need to to try and cast guilt on people for spending a large amount of money on something they love? I have spent a thousands on my guitars and for real it is not anyone's damn business what or how much of my hard earned money I spend on anything. Let alone try cast guilt for doing so.

For 18 years I have been walking into a job that does not guarantee I will walk out of and yes...I get paid very well to do so. My family is well taken care and want for nothing. But I had my blood spilled at my job to make sure they are taken care of.

So if spending a few thousands on something that will help me to forget about life for a little while makes me wrong...then I will never be right. And if people think that they should give to charity in stead of spending money on a guitar...find a different forum. Stop hating on the people that can afford to spend a few dollars on something they love. Stop hating people.

 

[DBDM]

I have several 5 figure guitars. My most recent one was a gift from my wife. It is a Martin D-42 with Adirondack spruce top and the entire rest of the guitar made from 120 year old Mahogany. Sounds fantastic. I have 2 nice CS LPs. My best sounding LP is a USA shop standard that cost me $1600. I love my guitars, they give me enjoyment, and I earned every penny to buy them. I do not come from wealth. If I am living in it, wearing it, playing it, or driving it--I paid for it. I owe not one penny in debt. Anyone who is offended by that can kiss my ___.