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Post by scorpiodog on Aug 24, 2021 9:38:25 GMT
This has come up a couple of times in the last few days. I thought it would be an interesting point for discussion. For me, I believe you should buy the best guitars you can afford, but that doesn't necessarily mean the most expensive. However, in all honesty, I buy most of my guitars on little more than a whim. I'm particularly sensitive to the classified ads on this forum. I've bought about ten either from these or because I know someone on here. I've also sold one or two. I'm not a great guitar player, but I can bluff my way, especially to non players. However, I have a stable of wonderful guitars which I love. I wouldn't have half of them if I took the attitude of only owning guitars I can make the best of. As a result, I play more often and for longer than I might if I only owned mediocre (to my ears and fingers) guitars. And that means I improve. Of course, I'm lucky to have a pretty good job. I also have nobody to tell me I can't have anything I choose. You can decide whether that's lucky or not. Anyway, over to you. Or is this a tumbleweed post?
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doc
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Post by doc on Aug 24, 2021 9:59:33 GMT
I’m with you on this, Paul. It is especially important for beginners to play, at least, a decent guitar. Playing a poor instrument that is not very playable can be very demotivating and not too many people would stick at it. Having said that, I stuck at it and only had no better than firewood guitars for years. Buy the best that you can afford and enjoy your playing. The same goes for whisky.
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Post by Onechordtrick on Aug 24, 2021 10:02:11 GMT
As possibly the catalyst for this… I think I’m very similar to you scorpiodog, I’m in a fortunate position that I can buy on a whim without pushing my family into poverty. I know that a new guitar won’t make me play as well as my heroes but I’m more motivated to play on a nice instrument. But I think forestdweller put it most succinctly “ a guitar doesn't care how good you are, all it asks for is its played.” In fact I may steal that quotation
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leoroberts
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Post by leoroberts on Aug 24, 2021 10:37:50 GMT
100% agree, scorpiodog. Otherwise I'd still have my first 'catalogue' guitar. I *do* believe, though, that you should play all the guitars you have - none should just be trophies or ornaments.
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Post by delb0y on Aug 24, 2021 10:48:46 GMT
Sadly, I've never really bought the guitars I'd truly like, partly because of cost and partly because the ones I have bought have always seemed better than me and I've never felt justified in buying anything else. But I do agree with the premise, and were money no object I might swap the Tanglewood for a Gibson. That said, I have managed to snaffle a few bargains over the years and I do have a Strat, a Martin, and a Furch, so it's not too shabby a collection. But I must say the wide neck on my TW40 makes that a favourite.
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mandovark
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Post by mandovark on Aug 24, 2021 11:06:07 GMT
I've never really understood the logic of "only buy the guitars you can get the best out of". Whatever guitar I buy, a better player will be able to get more out of it than I can. If Martin Simpson and I were to play the same £50 plywood guitar from the Argos catalogue, no-one would mistake my playing for his. A better player is a better player, whatever the quality of the instrument they're playing.
For me, the better way to think about this is "buy the guitars that will get the best out of you". Buy the guitars that suit your playing style, that feel right in your hands, and that give you the range of sounds that you want - and, obviously, the ones that you can afford without mortgaging the house or selling one of the children.
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ocarolan
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Post by ocarolan on Aug 24, 2021 11:14:46 GMT
Great thread. Having started with less than great guitars for 15 years I have developed a vice-like left hand grip that I find difficult to ease up on. Probabaly why I find electric guitars weird. Not great with acoustics either, esp with high frets - i often tend to fret the note hard enough to raise the pitch enough to be noticeable. This sort of unplayable guitar seems now to have been superceded by often very decent and economical acoustics - recent beginners are so fortunate!
My first proper guitar (Guild D35),and my fifth overall, allowed me to play in ways that my previous ones had not - the playability was only one factor; the sensitivity to touch and the sustain made a huge difference, and for the first time I could make fingerstyle playing sound more like it should. The James Taylor thumb and finger strum kind of thing was transformed by this guitar. It made it much easier to know if I was doing things correctly - the limitations of my previous instruments were no longer a hindrance to my current playing and allowed further development.
So a big definite yes to going for the kind of instrument you can "grow into" - it certainly can bring your playing on to quite a marked degree. And, as I said before, the cost of a pretty decent playable and good sounding instrument is now more accessible than ever.
Keith
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brianr2
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Post by brianr2 on Aug 24, 2021 13:17:13 GMT
The best guitar is the one that makes you want to play. Get the best you can afford and, as mandovark so rightly says, it will get the best out of you. If we all limited ourselves to instruments appropriate to our skill level, two terrible things would happen: 1) we should most likely get stuck at that skill level; and 2) domestic partners everywhere would have all an incontrovertible reason to stop GAS overnight. Life is short, if a guitar makes you happy then it has achieved a wonderful thing and should be grabbed with both hands. The benefits of, say, holidays and nights out are ephemeral. A guitar just keeps on giving. And never forget that guitars have feelings and will get sad and lonely if they are kept on their own. Brian
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ocarolan
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Post by ocarolan on Aug 24, 2021 13:21:02 GMT
..... And never forget that guitars have feelings and will get sad and lonely if they are kept on their own. Brian This is so true! And some will even sulk for a while if you try playing them after too long a period of ignoring them. keith
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Post by fatfingerjohn on Aug 24, 2021 13:30:44 GMT
Interesting comments on a great thread. I struggled for years with a couple of poor guitars and although my transformation has not been earth shattering, the better the guitar the better I seem to sound and that gives me encouragement. I don't (yet) have the problem of under-utilised guitars as I have 3 6-ers in different tunings plus my 12-er. The secret, if you can manage it, is to have all of them pretty immediately accessible. If you only have one near you, that's the one you'll play most.
Everyone will have to work within their own budget. But I can still convince myself, if not always 'others', that to spend £1,000 say on a lovely guitar which I will play for say 7 hours a week for at least 10 years, works out at about 27p per hour and if anyone can find better value than that for a pastime/indulgence then I'd like to know what it is. And, after 10 years if you've looked after it, the guitar will be worth at least half of what you paid and should never stop working as well or better than when you got it. So go to your limit (and beyond if you dare!).
FFJ
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douglas
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Post by douglas on Aug 24, 2021 13:39:44 GMT
"buy the guitars that will get the best out of you". Agreed - so generally a guitar that is above your current station. The more you pick it up and play the better both you and the guitar get. A point to note though I think - budget guitars now are so, so much better than budget ones when I was a skint kid (60s) - seems to me there are quite respectable and playable guitars around secondhand for say £150. Not forgetting it takes years of playing to really hear the difference and develop the playing-hand technique to get the best sound out anyway. Then there's picks - I find from one pick type to another the change in sound can be really dramatic, then there's strings... My view would be buy the best you can afford but play several first. Play it as much as possible, trial different string makers and gauges and work on playing hand technique so your sound develops. The guitar will pay you back in bucket-loads.
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brianr2
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Post by brianr2 on Aug 24, 2021 13:45:06 GMT
Everyone will have to work within their own budget. But I can still convince myself, if not always 'others', that to spend £1,000 say on a lovely guitar which I will play for say 7 hours a week for at least 10 years, works out at about 27p per hour and if anyone can find better value than that for a pastime/indulgence then I'd like to know what it is. And, after 10 years if you've looked after it, the guitar will be worth at least half of what you paid and should never stop working as well or better than when you got it. So go to your limit (and beyond if you dare!). FFJ Spot on John. I have used a similar, irrefutable business case justification, both to myself and “others”. Brian
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Post by Matt Milton on Aug 24, 2021 14:16:24 GMT
I did once ask the guy in Ivor Mairants, after I'd been wasting his time for far too long trying out guitars I can't afford, what kind of customer tends to buy the guitars over two grand and he said it's rarely professional musicians - they don't earn enough money.
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Post by Vinny on Aug 24, 2021 14:44:05 GMT
Very good thread, and lots of positive posts - to be expected here, but true nonetheless. If it encourages you to play, buy to your heart's (and wallet's) content. I was once browsing guitars, when my wife asked, "How many guitars can you play at a time?", at which the shop owner quipped, "How many pairs of shoes can you wear at a time?"
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brianr2
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Post by brianr2 on Aug 24, 2021 14:53:47 GMT
Very good thread, and lots of positive posts - to be expected here, but true nonetheless. If it encourages you to play, buy to your heart's (and wallet's) content. I was once browsing guitars, when my wife asked, "How many guitars can you play at a time?", at which the shop owner quipped, "How many pairs of shoes can you wear at a time?" I hope the shop owner had a decent burial. Brian
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