I have been having this conversation with guitar friends for years. I have an extensive background in manufacturing, they do not. They think the wood and other attributes simply cost alot more and the $1000 price tag is justified. I shake my head and tell them that $1200 you spent on that strat is almost all profit margin... for the factory, the marketing, and for the point of sale shop. That strat COST about $100 to produce the guitar. They think I'm nuts lol
Wood and cheapo steel, it’s way under a 100 to make, if anything the price comes from personal and machinery cost, which is just an excuse when people are making guitars for 70€
of course there is some profit margin, but the materials, factory overhead, USA employee salaries, marketing, and distribution, warranty services etc. are all part of the cost of building a guitar for those companies, so it is a little bit nuts to say that the instrument only cost $100 to make. The nature of free market competition easily debunks that theory, but you must compare apples to apples.
I know, right? My main axe is a Fender Classic Series 1960s Jazz Bass. I got a great deal on it, brand new. But it still cost me twice as much as a Rogue (Musician's Friend house brand) *6-string* bass with a basswood body and bubinga veneer, active electronics, and a better quality, more solid build than some "major" brand basses I've played.
If you put an expensive price on a guitar, everybody wants it but few people can afford it. If you put a cheap price on a guitar, everybody thinks it's junk and nobody buys it. The guitar business is brutal. A lot of guys buy name brand expensive guitars because they think it will make them play good. They don't want to be seen with anything less than $3,000 strung around their neck. The lesson of Eddie Van Halen making Beautiful Noise and a career out of an eighty-dollar home built piece of junk is lost on a lot of people.
Very fair assessment Philip. I make my own guitars, it's very satisfying to compose and perform on an instrument of ones own industry. Electric guitars are very simple to build.
My brother kept trying to talk me into buying a Gibson Les Paul, but I did a lot of research on Epiphones, even had a couple of friends that had Epiphones and was impressed with theirs and end up getting the Epiphone Les Paul Custom Pro and don't regret it at all!
If you ever want a better les paul the epiphone tribute plus is probably the best new les paul for the price. Gibson pickups and even better hardware than the custom.
Dude, I love my Harley Benton. Got the funky sunburst Jazzzmaster with the ugly as hell fake tortoise shell pickguard that I effin love to hate. Plays like a dream and sounds even better. $107 shipped from Thomann UK....?!?!
If you think guitars are hyped to excuse high $ you should check out high end hifi gear, a 7 watt tube amp can cost $15,000 ,a pair of ultra high end speakers can cost a half million or more .
Oh yeah! totally. Headphones and Mics, and studio valve pre amps. Gladly I never fell into that. I mean Jeez! there is so much expensive stuff you don't actually need. As for a studio mixing headphone I have a AKG 702 and a 712. No need for anything else, ever. Mics, can't care less about expensive ones. If you sound good it doesn't matter. Expensive valve pre amps? nah! I just go directly into the audio interface, amps will inevitably rise the noise floor.
Phillip, this was one of the most informative videos I've seen in a long time, and I'm sure it will shed a lot of light on the subject to those who haven't been around to see the evolution of these manufacturing processes and trends first hand. Thanks for all the research, time in producing and editing, and sharing it!
I build guitars with graphics overlays. My costs are around $65- 85 per wrap with matching headstock. The cost of labor goes up a bit, as well as the cost per finish. One has to hide the wrap edge...I add $200 - 250 for a wrap. I tell people all the time I can make it pretty, but it costs, or I can make it make it plain, but it will still play as good, and may possibly sound better. Thank you for the video.
Thank you. I was having a hard time believing a wrapped guitar only cost "pennies" more. $65-85 in raw costs is significant for something that only adds aesthetic value. But as I'll always say, it's your money. If $250 to wrap a guitar is worth it to you, then it's worth it.
Expenses vs cost is something I've never understood from Fender. I like Fender, who doesn't? But a flat slab of wood for the body, and a slab of wood for the neck. Typically routed out on top, then covered with plastic. "Oh, you want an American Vintage, or the new Elite? Sure, that'll be $2,000.00". "Now if you want one of our luthiers to scratch the crap out of it, that'll be at least 3 grand." "If you want John Cruz to scratch one, better make it 8 grand plus." Makes sense to me...
These points remind me of something I've heard in some commercials: "... now with better recipe ..." - meaning "We've found out how to produce the same shit in a much cheaper way ..." ;-)
@@SavageGreywolf I own a custom shop epiphone that plays MUCH worse then my Gibson. Probably going to Sand it down and oil and nitro blast it then set it up and then maybe it will play close. At least i'm hoping. My gibson is easily better...like easily.
This is why I'm very happy with my cheap $100-$300 guitars. :) Most I've spent on a guitar was when I built one for my sister's wedding gift. Even the ones I'm building now will end up being more expensive than what I bought from manufacturers. Then I see these guitars for close to $1000 and more that are also mass-produced, and it just makes me wonder what they're doing with all that money they make in profit. They are definitely buying the parts cheaper than I am, and their processes aren't that much more elaborate than mine or anyone else's, and definitely pumping out more guitars in a day than I can do in a year, so it really makes me wonder.
After watching videos of different companies building there guitars I was surprised with Gibson. The video I saw they were hacks. There necks didn't fit good and they had to chisel stuff out to fit right. There were two companies from Ca. I was really impressed with there process and there guitars are much cheaper than Gibson.And I think have a better product. I am a cnc machinist and programmer and have worked in Manufacturing for 35 years so I obsess with seeing the quality these companies put into there work. I actually set a limit nothing over 600.00 even though I do own a few expensive guitars I bought in the early 90's. The majority of my collection is in the 300. range and they play just as good as my expensive guitars.
ZoommaiR absolutely, no name brands for me and $300 would be the absolute cap....once you can really play, you start to see you sound the same in a high end lp vs a well set up copy
Their processes are likely different than yours. They have CNCs that do just about everything, including all their milling, and the radiusing and slotting of their fretboards. In fact, most that use a lot of these in factories, they lie a board in for the neck, it routes for the truss, and THEN, they glue the fretboard blank, the CNC cuts, slots and radiuses the whole thing in one go, doing in minutes what it takes most of us hobbyist builder days to do. That's a massive difference in cost. Time is money. But most of the cheaper companies put less time and especially man-hours into QC of their products. The frets are often not level or well dressed, the finish is usually less consistent, and overall smaller touches that places put in make a huge difference. Then with the bigger guys who charge more, often you are indeed paying for branding. But you're also paying for R&D, advertising, overhead, etc. Companies like Gibson and Fender have HUUUUGE legal teams that aren't cheap. So yeah, some of those cheaper guitars can be pretty good, but usually you have to do some fretwork to make them really pop and a lot of times their hardware is cheaper made than aftermarket stuff so it doesn't hold tune as long. Or their pickups are machine wound without any programming or method of introducing that 'random' element that makes 'scatter' winding so popular. The thing about most machine pickups is that the coils are wound too uniform and that causes phase cancellation which causes you to lose lows and highs. A good machine wound pickup introduces some randomness to the coils adds a significant cost to their manufacturing overheads and if you're getting hand wound, well, you're not getting it at the prices they are selling those cheapos for. So yes, some inexpensive guitars are really awesome, but there are reasons why some of the more expensive guitars are more expensive. Especially for boutique builders without massive volume to help control their costs or machinery to reduce their man hours.
All of this stuff was really interesting. A bit of an irony though that you're wearing a Fender CS shirt, a place that charges literally ridiculous prices for some of their product.
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes and yes... but my biggest beef is with the price of some pickups, I mean it's just a wire around a bobbin and all done mechanically.
But the company's know fanboys will pay more because of this: "but it's (enter famous guitarists name here) signature pickup so $150 per pickup is well worth it"
Krach Werke a few years ago my brother gave me a pair of chinese hotrails knockoffs. He said it was in a 5piece package on ebay and was so cheap that he could not leave it. Installed them in a cheap basswood strat kit and the result was better than the sound of a Standard Squier humbucker. Now I’m planning to move it in my more serious Strat.
I paid $1,199 for my brand new 1997 Gibson Les Paul Standard from Guitar Center back in 1998. It’s my baby and a fabulous guitar. Same model now goes for around $3k or more!? Crazy price increase.
If you take inflation into account the prices haven't changed that much. The LP standard was 2100 $ (slightly less than 300 1959 dollars) when it released and it's now 2400 $. Not a big price increase.
My Japan made EII Horizon III is probably the best made guitar I own. I own Gibson [pre 90's] and new Jackson USA and it is as good or better than all the rest. My Gibson has been with me for 31 years and it is a great guitar but the ESP was/is better when new. The Jackson needed tweaking out of the box, the EII had the set-up and strings it came with on it for 6 months before I changed them. I did drop the Floyd about 2mm with a hex wrench but that was it. I like it low. I ended up putting an FU block on the Jackson and ESP but that was personal preference. My Gibson pickups crapped out about 3 years into ownership as one of the coils broke and it became a single coil. I was a USA made guy all the way but my mind has changed over the years.
I know what you mean. I recently picked up a Samick Malibu (a Fender Stratocaster copy)made in either Korea or Indonesia and it sounded almost as good as a genuine Fender Strat that I played at Guitar Center. The one I bought was used in great shape and it was $90 (after some bargining) at a pawn shop. The genuine Fender new was $800.
i think it also begs the question do more expensive materials inherently sound better? just because steel is stronger than pot metal doesn't mean the pot metal isn't strong enough, or doesn't sound better. i think in the case of bridges this is entirely debatable. probably less debatable in the quality of copper used in magnetic pickup windings though.
thing to remember is a cnc machine(depending on what make,model etc)plus the fixture to hold the different components are going to be a half million dollars PER CNC MACHINE.(again depends on machines and fixtures as well as robotics loading) so its cheaper and faster to make the parts BUT but the cost to make it cheaper and faster was HUGE.also remember the cnc solid works software is 10s of thousands of dollars per license,the training to use this is expensive and the cost for a proficient cnc setup/operator is expensive as well.
Ah, you don't need a water jet to put some inlays into wood. There are perfectly capable CNC machines available today for a fraction of the price you quoted. 5 grand tops. You also do not need sophisticated 3D CAM software to make 2.5D inlay cutouts either. Once it is all setup you could train a monkey to load fixtures with parts too.
Yeah I know a few guys who have bought smaller CNC machines for relatively little money that are more than good enough for small projects like guitar bodies and necks. You really only need about 1.2m by 0.6m xy travel and no more than about 100-150mm vertical travel. Software to run them is also no longer a choice between a few expensive packages. You get loads of cheap options now. Modern technology is really revolutionising manufacturing of any machined components. The aftermarket bike parts industry is another example. Trick parts for dirt bikes are becoming way more varied and smaller companies are getting in on the action, sometimes producing very high quality and innovative bits. What a time to be alive!
Neil Pincus guitar bodies are pretty big. I don't think I could route one of those out on my machine. Then again I've never really measured a guitar body either. The work envelope of my machine is only 14 X 16 X 5 inches. To have made it any larger than that would have cost me considerably more. Maybe the next one I make? Frankly, using my machine I tend to run smaller jobs on it anyways. Here's my machine isolation routing a PCB i.imgur.com/EdzcO2m.jpg which is a fairly challenging task for CNC machines to accomplish. I milled that piece of plastic flat just so the board would sit in plane with my Y axis. The table is pretty aligned, but for milling copper cladding I needed it really close.
Just get a cheap guitar from Amazon, then just save up for some upgrades. I got a gear 4 music Indianapolis (its no longer sold), and all i did was change the standard humbuckers to SD invaders that i had one hell of a deal on (£30 for the two pickups), and then redid the electrics inside, and now its a thrash metal, rock monster, all this cost me was £50 for the guitar (my friend sold it to me), £30 for the humbuckers, and about £20 on the rest of the internals, and im going to get a new floyd rose floating trem system, and its worked out cheaper than most guitars with similar styles
Good video, although I slightly disagree on a few points: 1. The higher cost of neck-through is not so much about finding longer pieces of wood (in most cases, they are laminated anyway), but that the manufacturing process becomes more complex when you cannot separate the parts. 2. Even if you only have a thin veneer, highly figured wood is expensive because it's hard to come by. 3. The same goes for wood in general. Bubinga is 4-5 times the price of basswood. One-piece bodies are usually twice the price of laminated bodies. Light weight swamp Ash is way more expensive than the dense northern variety. Naturally, the manufacturers will use the nicest pieces of timber for their high end models, and then add a premium for the whole package.
I like how you said 'not so much' instead of just 'not' or 'isn't.' So many comments on the CZcams just shoot down every other idea other than theirs when it can fully well be both. That's silly.
I was thinking about maple fretboard this entire time. I know you can find it on many low end guitars, however rosewood is used alot more often and sometimes to get a maple fretboard you have to go with a much more expensive guitar.
Wow, you just explained to me why 99% of guitars havr rip-off prices. I understand that you pay a luthier for his time if you order a custom guitar with all the bling bling you want, but...for the rest...just no. Thank you for this video ! :D
They’re not overpriced for what they are. They’re completely handmade and every component is built expressly for them. They may be a well-known brand, but what they’re doing is essentially full-custom-level work in a big building with a worldwide distribution network. To your larger point, you’re right-it IS just a guitar at the end of the day, and there are places where doing it all the old, slow way is needlessly expensive. They could automate some processes, change some things around, do more solid finishes (MUCH cheaper than transparent sunbursts, and you can use lower grade wood, which sounds the same but is cheaper to buy), pass the savings onto the customer, and most people would adore them for it. Further, 99% of players wouldn’t care one bit either way, as long as it plays well and sounds good. We even saw this happen in 2015 when Gibson made a late-model-year run of guitars with stripped down, traditionally appointed guitars at discount prices and customers snapped them all up. Whether that was just a cynical marketing attempt to boost year end sales figures or not, they certainly know what it takes to sell lots of guitars. They just haven’t done it that often for whatever reason.
They did declare bankruptcy, yes. It’s Chapter 11 (reorganization) and not Chapter 7 (liquidation), so they’ll likely be able to dig themselves out of the hole and continue on, though. They’re probably not done yet, but heads will likely roll at the top of the company and a new CEO will be put in by the creditors. Gibson is great at making guitars. The problems came when the CEO took the money made from making guitars and spent it on other things-like buying Onkyo (a maker of super-high-end stereo systems, a high-cost, low sales market)-instead of putting it back into Gibson and the other musical instrument brands that he already owned.
Good video! I don't understand why people still say "bolt on". Those are just wood screws, not bolts. On my handmade Tele, I used machined plugs and screws. It's unique and durable when I need to remove the neck.
Howdy from N. Phoenix! On the subject of pickups - I had an opportunity to replace an ancient active setup on a old guitar and for project I ordered a pair of FilterTron-style humbuckers for $18. I figured that the worst thing that could happen is I throw them away. The package arrived and I was very pleased with the units. The wiring was high quality 20 gauge stranded wire and the covers were cleanly installed. Upon checking them with my DMM, they measured out to the seller's impedance specs, so - in they went. BAM! What a great sound. No noise, beautiful tone from jazz to rock to metal, and both respond well to light and heavy picking / strumming opening up a much wider range of sonic possibilities than the original configuration which only went from quiet to loud depending on how hard you hit the strings.
Excellent video. Some thoughts on type of wood: There are woods that are significantly more expensive than others, say for example, cherry or hard rock maple vs basswood or pine. However as you state, that difference in cost is not enough to warrant the guitar jumping in price several hundred dollars. It does however, take considerably longer to tool ash than basswood, and it takes more bit changes and more expensive bits to tool ash. That cost does reflect in the end product. But the real question is: do those woods actually make the guitar "better"? Sound is a very subjective thing. Who is to say for certain that alder sounds "better" than basswood? Ash is several times heavier... so some musicians dislike it just because of the weight during performance. At the same time when we see Fender making new Stratocasters and Telecasters out of pine and charging $600+ for those instruments... it makes us realize that maybe the wood debate is largely an opinion discussion rather than based on reality. We've seen top-quality guitars made of a variety of materials, including 3D-printed plastics. I know from experience I can build an awesome-sounding guitar out of a 1x2 oak stick (video proof here on CZcams). This brings into strong question the value of guitar bodies other than aesthetics and feel. So in the end you're likely right: body material shouldn't be a huge factor in the price of a guitar, nor in the quality of sound. Still, it's unlikely we'll be seeing a Squier Bullet made from ash or maple any time soon. : )
Wood is completely irrelevant to an electric guitar's output - it adds nothing at all to the sound in any way. Electric guitars use magnetic fields and electronics to produce signals - wood is a non-conductor - how on earth would wood effect the electrical signals produced by magnetic fields?
Dunno as I'd agree there, simply because no pickup I've ever seen is totally non-microphonic. The vibration of body and neck affects not only string vibration bit mag pickup sensitivity as well. I've built many guitars-- including cigar box guitars-- and the sound between body woods and types is significant. What I challenge though (and in this we seem to agree) is the "this kind of wood is better than that kind of wood" argument. As with sound itself, that seems to be a purely subjective (and often biased) argument. A prime example is a simple test I did, by intent: I bought a Squier Bullet (Fender's cheapest guitar, $99 on sale at Guitar Center), and replaced the pickups with my own FlatCat™ and two third-market inexpensive-but-nice pickups. The result: hands down the best "Strat" I have ever played, and the body and neck didn't change. Sure sounded a lot better. That simple test proved that while yes, wood does affect the sound of the guitar... labeling that as "good" or "bad" seems more a matter of market-induced bias than reality. For example, if hardwood is the "best" wood for guitars-- why has Fender released its newest Teles made of cheap yellow pine and set their price at hundreds of dollars, equal to their alder and ash bodies? Obviously Fender doesn't buy into the hardwood vs softwood controversy... and neither should customers or luthiers. I can build a NICE guitar out of anything I have on hand... and do so regularly.
I agree Richard.I a few years ago was given an old Samick Strat.While refinishing it I realized it was plywood.I continued along and it is heavy but one of the best sounding strats I own.
Better is subjective. It is an age old debate, that will never be resolved. Manufacturers charge what they think you will pay, not the cost of manufacture of the item plus a reasonable mark up. We should also remember that we are also paying the retailer mark up. We do pay for the name on the headstock, that is a fact. Then there is the tradition part of the equation. People still want the old classics from Gibson, Fender and PRS. If you look at their range the best sellers are the originals: Tele, Strat, Les Paul and PRS Custom. Even makers like Schecter offer derivatives of these designs. They want the same materials alder, ash or mahogany plus maple. Although other woods may be used, it is not often the whole instrument that has different woods, merely the eye candy. Some would argue that although the woods do not differ much the quality of the wood does. They might also point out that Lower price guitars use multiple piece bodies instead of just two. That doesn't matter if it is painted, but does not look good on a trans finish. Actually the biggest cost to making a guitar is finishing. Just adding a nitro finish will add hundreds to cost, because it takes so long to do. Low price guitars don't use nitro. The point about pickups was interesting. Why do they cost so much? The components are not expensive. Unless they are all hand done to your secs, then they should be cheap. It is worth checking out videos of factory tours, it is very instructive as to how guitars are made.
Yo! I've got an early 90s one, plywood too. I've recently put some Fender Pups in it (CS Tex Spec in the bridge, 2 '79 X1s at mid and neck), and boy does it sound good!
What drives a lot of pricing is if a feature alters the production process Example: A wrap may only cost pennies and a short time to apply, BUT if adding that feature deters or slows the production process (especially if it involves a lesser number run) or creates a separate production stream to manage, it necessitates a seemingly inflated bump in the price to keep the profit margin in line with a standard feature instrument.
The reason that gibson's binding is way more expensive is because they bind over the fret like they used to do. Now you say that you can't hear that and there are lots of less expensive methods, but most of the people looking to buy a gibson are looking for their small trademarks like that, because pretty much everyone knows you can get a pretty good equivalent of a gibson with lots less money.
To some extent, if you are going to be playing a guitar a lot, after the sound, for me the next biggest factor is the playability. Is it a comfortable guitar to play? Does it feel good, does it stay in tune, does it have any performance issues? I have been very impressed at the sound quality of modern inexpensive mass produced guitars. They have come a long way. To me more and more it is the smaller things that seperate them from the big name brands. It may seem dumb to invest twice what a Chinese made tele costs in some new parts and a good set up, but in the end, you wind up with a guitar that is set up exactly to your liking and is still less expensive than a MIJ or MIM Fender.
This video should be titled " things that SHOULDN'T make guitars expensive anymore" because allot of what you said although true and shouldn't be expensive, still doesn't change the fact that many of these things ARE INDEED STILL making guitars more expensive. Manufacturers don't care how easy and cheap things are made they still tell you its expensive to make and still charge a premium. If they know you want it or need it, they will charge a premium. They will ALWAYS find a way to make things cheaper while keeping the same price point. Facts.
Watch your toes, I'm fixing to step on them. This dude is right on. Guitar companies are a business. They exist to make money, period. They will tell you all kinds of crap to make you take more money out of your pocket and put it in theirs. It is called business. If they can tell you that a green necked wooga wooga toenail pickguard is just the thing to make you the worlds greatest guitarist and they have the worlds only supply of green necked wooga woogas, they will be happy to take thousands of dollars from you to build you a green necked wooga wooga toenail pick guard. Use your head and don't buy into what you know in your gut is bull.
Just as a golfer who is a beginner, yet they buy the mega expensive clubs that are lighter more efficient yadda yadda. Lol! It really ends up being about the guitar player, some research in what you want for sound and best of all, going out and sampling these instruments before investing in them. Rock on!
Man I gotta hav me a coupla those wooga wooga's cuz I seen Jimi Hendrix an that made him big - or was that Robert Johnson? Hmmmm well, I seen em on sale at Musician's Fiend for only $825 a piece. Gotta get 'em quick cuz they said when they're gone, they're gone.
I worked for a major acoustic guitar co. in Austin... after and actually while I was there I figured out how guitar companies RRRRRRRIP off client left, right up, down and center.... ugh. I sold the guitar I had bought from them to an employee and screwed him over by charging him twice the amount I had paid. he could afford it and that's what companies think. drs dentists, retirees.... no real struggling artists.
Sam Moore A reputable company doesn't behave in that way. It doesn't make commercial sense. Yes, you can catch a few people that way but word soon gets around and the company's reputation is shot. In an industry where there is so much competition, lost reputation is very costly.
What is the purpose of a horse shoe factory? Think about it, don't answer too quickly. No you missed it. The purpose of a horse shoe factory is to make money. They will do whatever it takes to make money. What is the purpose of a buggy whip factory? Nope, wrong again.. The purpose of a buggy whip factory is to make money. They will do whatever it takes to make money. Now that you are getting the idea, what is the purpose of a guitar factory??? Yes, manufacturers will feed you whatever line of bull they have to that will get you to select their product over another. Don't believe it? Take a walk down any aisle in any store you see. You will see shelf after shelf of products all claiming to be the best horse shoe or best buggy whip or best guitar for one bull reason or another. The only true test is to try several brands of horse shoe or buggy whip or guitar and see which one YOU find best. Decide what is important to YOU. Sound? (Listen carefully horse shoes have different sounds) color? (Remember spray paint is cheap) wood? Remember veneers will NOT change the sound of your guitar. Put all the advertising garbage out of your mind, head down to your local guitar shop, try out several of each brand and model, then buy one YOU like the best. It doesn't matter what the salesman tells you, he is going to try to steer you to the overpriced one that gives HIM the most profit. It doesn't matter what Bubba down the street says it's only a matter of what YOU like best. Ignore all the hype from the magazines. They are in business to sell advertising and will give great reviews to whichever company buys the most ads. Its called being an informed consumer.
Great Information. I always want to know what I'm paying for and these types of videos help when I go to buy. I can often get a lower price by pointing out costs.
I love the section on brand name. I once needed to convert a pair of Ray-bans to prescription. The optometrist asked, "Do you want the Ray-Ban logo?" "How much?" I asked. "$60 per lens." You bet... Most "names" have earned their rep, but it's hard to know what's still relevant and what's not. Great video!
I love Fender Squier guitars! They are comfortable to play and they sound great and you can easily modify them and cheap. Makes no sense why someone would pay over 1000 bucks for an American Fender guitar.
Guitar Lava - Watch the Rob Chapman and the Anderton dude do a blindfold test of different Strats. The Squier sounded great, but you could definitely hear the difference in tone. Having played both Fender and Squier myself, the fender necks and frets definitely feel silkier and smoother. The classic vibe series are the best Squiers IMO.
Decades ago, agathis was considered an exotic tonewood. It was rare and expensive. Today, it's abundant and available, which makes it inexpensive. And back when Leo Fender made his first guitars, he chose woods not based on tone, but based on price. They were abundant and available woods which made them affordable.
Fender is an industry standard for a reason. Just about every pro musician on the planet owns and uses Fender products on a daily basis. You could spend thousands more for a custom-made hand-built guitar, but that doesn't necessarily make it "lightyears better". My favorite guitar in my modest collection isn't my Gibson Les Paul or my Fender Strat, it's my $600 Korean-made Dean Cadillac. It's flawless.
all the guitars i have are bolt-on-set-neck. its where you unbolt a bolt-on neck, clean the paint off and lightly sand it flat, then glue it, bolt it back on. instant improved sustain and strength, and you can even bevel the joint now without it breaking and either shorten or throw out the screws, even filler it in. i personally leave the screws and just round or angle the joint perfect.
The whole "tone wood" debate I always found amusing. Woodworking has been a hobby of mine fur many years. Maple, Ash, Alder are not expensive woods, and even if a manufacturer used something crazy like zebra wood you're only talking 2 or 3 board foot for a guitar body and even less for a neck.
The point of tone wood is when the player wants to play clean through a super nice amp. Once you start plugging in effects you can literally have a guitar made from a 2x4 and it won’t matter. The more effects you use the less quality matter and the more pickup quality comes into play.
Martin Krauser there is a small difference in tone between woods but not substantial enough to make a major difference between guitars of a different price to make certain guitars better or worse for the wood used
Unfortunately we have an Ash tree blight that is going on right now and is killing a lot of Ash trees. When the taller, thicker ones die, and they are replaced by younger trees it still takes many years for those small trees to get to the size of the larger ones that would be viable tone wood for guitars.
Well... the guitars overall quality for a $500-$600 guitar is insanely good but no matter how good the manufacturer spends way making it than you do buying...the only reason it might be worth $600 is if it was hand crafted
ehh kind of a necesarry evil to a degree. alot of companies are doing the worse theyve ever been in the last decade and so if you want your beloved company to stay in business , you kind of have to accept they gotta rip you off just to remain in business. i doubt many brands we love could exist without ripping off the consumer.
Great video, well said. I just started a year ago with guitars. Im big on value and performance and have spent many hours, shopping for quality guitars. What I found was many have dressing, nothing to do with performance. Many inexpensive have the same construction as the expensive but found plastic nuts on cheaper models. I have built an very nice collection of players by replacing nuts, having a bit of fret work done where needed and good setups performed. My total cost for a tele, strat, acoustic and a 335 copy is less than one of the premium guitars.
That is a great comment. Maybe we could do a video of one really expensive guitar verse a few lower price guitars to see which is preferred. Thank you for posting
I would watch that. I will argue that my Samick Greg Benette Avion 6(made in Korea) plays and sounds every bit as good as the Les Paul standard I have. In fact I prefer the Samick.
I am getting ready to spend probably 1 or 2 k on a new guitar. I have read and watched so many divergent opinions about manufacturers quality that I don't know what to believe anymore! "Gibson sucks nowadays!", "PRS used to be good, but not anymore!", etc., etc. Would you be willing to do video where you give us your no-holds-barred, stone-cold-honest opinion of all the major manufacturers (including Kiesel) as far as quality control and top 1-10 pecking order? Thanks, keep up the good work!
There are so many good reviewers and demos on CZcams that you could spend all your free time researching. But the thing to do is get the guitar in your hands and be sure it feels and sounds right for your style. There is no substitute. I think that's why even though Guitar Center might be a bit pricier, you generally get good advice and a chance to try it out. Plus they will deliver to your local store from any other location in the US. Your talking real money. Get the instrument that's going to satisfy.
My opinion on this (not in the industry, but I am a guitarist of 20ish years and I've repaired tons of guitars): the feel of the guitar is the most important factor. Pickups are what make 99% of the guitar's sound, and they can be replaced. All the hardware (tuners, bridge, knobs, pots, switches, nut) can be replaced. The only thing that can't replaced is how the guitar feels in your hands. Of course, you can level the frets, adjust the action and neck bow, and make almost any guitar out there play like butter, but you should like the general feel before you buy it. I'm a big proponent of cheap guitars. They're what I play, and they're probably what I'll always play. As long as they play good (and I can usually make enough adjustments for that to be the case), everything else can be fixed. However, if somebody wants to buy a 1k+ guitar, I won't fault them, because that money buys something important: quality control (which you mentioned). When you spend a grand or more on a guitar, you're a lot less likely to run into little problems like uneven frets, bad wiring, loose tuning pegs etc. I don't mind fixing that stuff, but I understand not everybody likes that aspect of guitar playing. Some people just want a guitar that plays well, every day, without having to worry about making adjustments and fixes. As far as brands go, don't buy a Gibson, at least not new. If any other company made the exact same guitar as Gibson, they'd charge 1/3 of the price, or probably even less. That's not an exaggeration. Buying a Gibson is a waste of money, period, full stop. PRS is fine, every one I've played has been great, I don't think that'd be a waste, although you could get a comparable guitar for less from a different brand. Kiesels/Carvins are awesome, highly recommend those. edit - Oh, last piece of advice: take your final budget and subtract $100 from it. Buy a guitar from the new budget, and spend the $100 on a guitar tech for a professional setup. The difference will blow your mind.
A clarification is needed regarding CNC cut inlay, and associated costs. If the inlay you desire is one that is offered by the company the cost is determined by the cost to run the CNC machine (electricity, pneumatics via large compressor), the depreciation of the machines, prorated cost of purchasing/financing the machines involved, prorated cost of all tooling purchased or made (cutting tools, cutter holders/arbors, as well as any fixturing to hold and/or locate the work piece, and any gaging used for measurements), plus the cost of wear on the tool (finite tool life, performance lost as tool wears, and cost of resharpening/recoating cutting tool), and last but certainly not least is the cost of personnel involved (not just the machinist and material handler, but all those people wearing nice shors in the offices... like me). One more cost is the cost of process development, testing, optimization, and documentation, including CAD models and drawings, and CAM programming of the CNC machines according to best practices. Which brings me to my final item to discuss, and that is if you want a custom or variation of standard design for your inlay all of the cost of programming, designing, which may or may not include fixturing, gaging, tooling,, prove out process, and any number of requisite alterations to finishing operations due to differences in geometry or material conposition of inlay. So to say that companies can produce inlay for pennies is just slightly misleading. Otherwise I thoroughly enjoyed this video and found very informative. Great contact content, great concept, great execution.
About airbrushing/photo finishing. I used to go to hobby shops and buy wet decal sheets, and use them for design accents. I always had people asking me if they were airbrushed on.
I will only buy used guitars! Preferably MIJ 1975 - 90. Kramer's, Charvel's, Ibanez, Yamaha, Fernandez, Greco, Fender Japan. Superb quality and reasonable price used! Don't waste big bucks on new gear!
Yeah, going for second hand guitars that are good quality but not insanely popular is a good way to go. The latest two guitars I've bought were Framus guitars. Cost $4000 each new, got them for about $1200 each in flawless condition. The amount of quality and craftsmanship is just insane for that price, and I would never be able to find anything like that new for the money. Sucks for the sellers though!
Anyone that watches this very informative video will now be better prepared when they are in the market for a guitar. After all the costs of doing business are factored in to manufacture, sell and profit from the guitar brought to market there is a price point were there is no more value added for dollar spent. At least they will feel secure in the knowledge that they received good value for the money they spent on the instrument and will now have a better understanding of why two seemingly identical guitars sell at large price differences. This is not just for guitars either. Keep up with these good videos Phillip.
Love you informational videos. Can you do one on the PRS 2017 SE changes please. Thanks for sharing your experience and reviews. I just ordered a 2017 PRS S2 Singlecut. I did research the SE models, but wanted a American made. Considering a SE as #2. The new changes seem worthy of an updated review by you.
One of the most needed video series would be Amp selection, and how to tweak them for the sound you want. I was once in a shop trying out a custom Tele with a marshall stack tube amp and it was tweaked perfectly..... I hit a groove that blew me away...and was getting positive comments by others in the store.... I should have pulled out the check book right then, and made notes of the settings. Was never able to get it back.. also it's difficult to get the right sound when practicing in situations where you can't turn up the volume... best small practice amps and how to tweak them.
i always assumed it was due to the "prestige" tax. gibson is more prestigious than say jackson guitars, so gibby hikes its price up to reflect that prestige. jackson is more prestigious than cort, thus allowing them to overprice in turn. it's not like the indonesian and korean factories only produce one brand. i've got reasonable cause for doubt that my epiphone v and my dean michael schenker signatures were made in the same korean factory. doesn't make them bad guitars (quite the contrary, they're a delight to play), but my epi cost me 400€ brand new. the schenker (new) sold for 1500 or around about. got her during a blowout sale for 700€ new. roughly same specs on both; made in korea, two humbuckers, no splits, master tone, two volumes, same scale, set-neck, string-through, gloss varnish, dot inlays.. it'd be faster to list the differences. pickups are hotter on the dean, the dean came with strap locks and a hardcase, and the epi is korina, not mahogany, so it might justify perhaps the 300€ difference, but no way does it justify the 1100€ difference in manufacturer's recommended pricing. not knocking on the dean (it is a good guitar, although fragile), but i'm just as comfortable on the epi for much less. tying in with the "prestige" tax, it could be the signature on the dean and on the dean-dmt schenker signature pickups. but i'm a player, not an economics major.
Eddy Guizonde good point, that definitely is weird, does the dean have better metalwork? i feel like good tuners and higher quality metals in the bridge and what not definitely makes the guitar more expensive, and then there could be prestige $ on that for being say stainless steel.
i don't really know. the dean's got stainless steel, the epi's got gold-plating. both sets of tuners (as far as i can tell) are grover kidney style 18:1. so, i'm really going for "prestige tax" over better quality. doesn't detract from the final comfort and overall feel, but that's too much of a price difference.
Supmike Ladderboy just remember that epi cuts costs on wiring. buy your epi and get it rewired asap. since 2006, i've never seen an epi properly wired first time around. be it an entry level or an 800+€ one. it's usually the pickup selector that gives out after about 20 hours of playtime. my luthier if i remember correctly called it "expedient wiring". as in "yeah, it'll pass the quality checks, but not by much". pickups and wood are fine, though. only modded my v this summer, and swapped out the pickups for super distortions to get a beefier old-school tone (and some coil-tap pots).
Ibanez makes some really nice instruments around that price, even the classic vibes are great. I still want a really nice name brand instrument though heh heh
I always buy second hand mij rgs or rgds, the only expensive guitsr that im gonna buy is my custom shop bc rich warlock, mohangany neckthru, mohangany wings maple cap, emgs, original floyd, ebony blank board, widow head stock, body neck amd headstock binding, finished in blood red, with black binding. Its been my dream guiyar since i saw mick thomson's warlock back when i was 13.
I bought an Ibanez RG 170. Yeah not top of the line, but for $45 it was a steal. Will upgrade Pick ups $30 from EBay and put new strings. Might replace tremolo $35. Bam!! you got an awesome guitar for under $150. Oh, and the neck is awesome. 24 frets.
After watching more of your videos I'll need to retract a statement or two. My comment was correct but you are a builder, and at least through your imports, have built more guitars than I have. You do stay busy and have a good knowledge base. Retail, especially with paid instructors is a brutal business (been there, won't go back to a retail space). Keep up the good work.
is it? add a American Bridge, Same tuners, same one piece neck, same Case, add the Veneer to the front of the head stock, And Add in the blade switch. Currently they are $2000 for CE and $3200 for Core, so if you add that in how much different are they? So the question is, is the CE $1200 less for a bolt on neck? Or is it $1200 less for the lower cost gig bag, import bridge, tuning keys, neck (remember what I said about the necks) thinner body, and so on? Paul is on record saying it is not a big savings to do bolt on necks.
Phillip McKnight I understand, I was just ignorant until now. I thought that the ce24 had as much attention to detail and quality parts as the other cores. And the only difference was the construction and the top carve. Did he do all those things just to bring down the price or to be consistent with the ce tradition...?
Sparkplug1034 I bought a 2016 Custom 24 Ten Top with 59/09 pick ups 6 months ago for $3400 and this week just bought a CE24 with 85/15's for $1900. CE has thinner maple cap with a thinner carve, the locking tuners are slightly different, the CU ten top wood has a more pronounced prettier wood pattern, the inlays in the CE are plastic resin? and CU is pearl or abalone? but look much better, the CU rosewood fretboard is a bit darker and shows more grain, CE has maple bolt on neck and the CU is set mahogany, the CU tremolo is all chrome and the CE has some components that have a satin finish. CU has 5 way blade vs. CE 3 way toggle with push/pull. CU has a warmer tone but they both play great as they both have the pattern thin neck profile. Is it worth the extra $1500 for the CU? I am not sure but I do like the tone better on the CU and it stays in tune a bit better so far than the CE but I have only had the CE for 3 days.
No, the original CEs had same specs as Set necks. He said that is one reason they discontinued them. They were not selling as well towards the end and did not cost much less to make. So when they brought it back they made the changes that would help the pricing. I think they did good job. I wish they were 1699 I think that is a strong price point but I understand why they did what they did.
You are 100% right, Crazy part how much some mark there guitars up for these features. My Korean BC Rich Warlock is a 2010/12ish I can't remember it has neck through, 100% satin black mahogany body and neck, ebony fretboard with diamond inlays, cream binding on the body neck and headstock, , EMG 81/60 pickups, gold whatever it is hardware and Grover tuners. The fit and finish is top notch it is beautiful a real head turner. There is no floyde Rose It is a hardtail and I did have to pay $100 for the really nice BC Rich matching hardcase but still all that for $700! (I lucked out and paid $600 because of a typo in the listing) Yet an standard non custom shop American fender strat or telecaster with basic features as a plain maple neck and fret board regular painted basswood/alder/ash? body is far more expensive and some I've seen the fit and finish is fair. So your definitely (over)paying for the name I'd say.... Don't know only fender I or have ever owned was an 80s factory custom? solid black,rosewood fret board no pick gaurd, dual humbuckers Japanese squire, that was pretty nice my cousin borrowed it for few years and really trashed it so it's apart half sanded down in a box.☹️
I got an American Standard Strat a few years ago for $800 CAD used. I had to ask the guy at the shop if it was the right price because it still had the plastic and sticker on the pick guard. Someone had made 3 payments on it and returned in almost new condition but they couldn't sell it as new because someone had already taken it home. I also got an sg faded for the same price, it was the previous years model and I watched it go from $1000, to $900, to $800 and couldn't say no since I'd been trying it out for 6 months and loved how it played. Bargain hunting is the way to go, the deals are out there if you take your time finding them.
Great video! Lots of good info here...as someone who used to work in the tonewood industry, I would like to add a few notes. In addition to the issue of straight even grain for neck through blanks, other imperfections are harder to avoid as well, making the cost for larger blanks of the same grade much more expensive. The classic example of this is the price difference between a medium sized acoustic soundboard and a larger top like a jumbo or dread. There are a lot of other reasons why tonewood is so expensive and some is more expensive than others, most of it doesn’t have to do with the source cost but is driven up by overhead and waste. Guitar manufacturers and luthiers are picky (for good reason) about the wood they use and as we deplete old growth trees, the huge (mostly) hardwood and spruce trees needed for guitars is getting harder to find in top grades. Anyway, there’s definitely a lot of wishy-washiness in the tonewood business in terms of cost vs price and meaningless terminology meant to upsell as well as other shadier stuff(a la Gibson), but there are also a lot of legitimate costs that a lot of folks don’t consider when they look at the cost of a plank of rift sawn twisty wood with runout and other imperfections or logs in the round which may be useless if they aren’t treated and sawn right, let alone if it’s full of imperfections.
Just a correction on the Jem77FP and relates to a common misconception. The 77FP always had fabric on the body and headstock for its entire production run. The same applies to 77FP2 from more recent years. The 77BFP (Blue Floral Pattern) from the early '90s was indeed a photo finish as is the case with the current 77PBFP from their Indonesian-made Premium series.
I can definitely/always hear the resonate qualities of different binding. Poured sounds slightly warmer than hand glued. The same goes for pickup rings, pick guard material, knobs and even the screws. All of that really, really...really matters. Really.
Wrooong. None of these are less expensive than normal guitars. The title is correct because they cost almost nothing extra to add on nowadays, which wasn't the case years ago
Actually, each of the points he mentioned don't make them less expensive to produce, as he pointed out each time. He was trying to point out that these options only increase the total manufacturing costs by just a few dollars on each guitar, which doesn't justify the hundreds of dollars difference in the price that the retailers charge.
@@yargnad each of the points he mentioned make those options less expensive to produce. the options are part of the guitar. if part of a guitar is less expensive to produce, then that makes the guitar as a whole less expensive for the manufacturer to produce. not sure what you are getting at, you kind of said "it doesn't make them less expensive to make, it makes them not cost as much to make" lol. i'd say "7 things that make guitars less expensive to produce" would be a better title. honestly it's not that important, its just you saying essentially the same thing twice in an overly-complicated way was kind of entertaining and thought i'd point it out :)
@@c82153 Due to the constantly shifting costs of the materials and the fact that these options only marginally increase the value by a few to several dollars, the options do not actually make the guitar cost any more than without the options. One day it may cost $250 in parts to make a guitar without the options mentioned and $260 with those options. The next month it may cost $260 for the guitar without the options, yet they will charge almost double at retail. The point is that manufacturing has gotten to the level where the high end add ons are no longer high end add ons, yet they charge extra as if manufacturing is not at that level yet.
I have found that the lower priced guitars can have great play ability,but where the corners are cut is the hardware and electronic package. I purchase Ibanez s series around the 800-900 price range and then put new pots and pickups(the tuners are pretty stable on this brand so I don't flip those) and you have a premium instrument for less than Ibanez sells it for.( and you get pick ups that are closer to your own tone preferences) Fender same deal,but I recommend replacing tuners with a locking type since part of a lower priced Strat's charm is a bit of tuning instability. Some of the 400 dollar squire Tele's play really great as well.
Is that the one from The Pike in Seattle? If it is that was one of my favs from there. Also I know you do a lot of Strat mods. What is your choice for switches and volume and tone pots?
Ha! I didn't know that "kilt lifter" was the name of a beer until I googled it, so you can imagine what was going through my mind when I read that. TMI!
If those assholes running Gibson lowered prices, brought back old models that people liked or were a little different and didn’t start a lawsuit because something barely matched something of theirs then maybe people would like and buy from them
Being rather new to the guitar buying scene im so thankful for friends who urged me to go with other brands with equal quality and hardware for much cheaper.
What does affect prices and was not discussed is quality control. In some factories when 3 products caught with the same problem in a row (or five in an hour or other rules might apply) the whole production line gets stopped until they make a root cause analysis and eliminate the cause of the issue. This rises the price and this is what we pay in premium brands. Others don’t stop because they say that production time is money and might sell items of more varying quality.
Great video....really informative for anyone shopping for an "up-grade" guitar. I am a huge fan of Chapman guitars and their process...Use the best quality materials and tested design for the build and use less expensive, but still good, pickups and finish to reduce additional branding cost. My ML 3 sounded great out o the box at $549....I replaced the single coil with a Seymour Duncan Hot Rail and the guitar became exponentially dynamic....So with cost of parts, labor, and guitar; I ended up with an instrument that literally trumps all of my top end (Tom Anderson Atom, Surh Custom, Collins 290) in terms of versatility and tone....still under $700.
Truth be told. I love how you talk about gears. Esp where you get explain the things that a lot of people think that made their gear expensive. There are a lot of excemptions. But overall, its how we humbly educate yourselves. Great Video. Keep it up and make us inspire more.
I own a vintage v100 lemon drop pgm, based on the peter green gary moore les paul. Cost me £330 brand new. Looks stunning, sounds superb. The pots work but not the best, the switch works well too. The sound though is superb and its a full maple body with maple veneer.
Gibson puts a premium on stuff because they are a corporation now, like Walmart. Gibson is nobodies baby, Fender is nobodies baby. PRS is Paul Smiths baby, Knaggs is Joe Knaggs baby, those guys keep their product honest.
Reverend uses korina wood, and it used to be this expensive wood. Apparently it is a very abundant wood, the only time it can be valuable is when you have a natural finish and you want a cosmetically pristine piece of korina. I do not work for Reverend, but I recently bought one and it has been a very inspirational guitar for me. It is the first guitar that I really have a hard time putting down. I used to own a 65 SG and it did not make me feel this way.
Such an under rated channel. You sir. Deserve more exposure. These types of educational videos are one of the things i love about CZcams. The hidden gems that get slowly discovered and inspire people in the right ways. :D
3:38 Tradition....you nailed it. So many musicians are set in the ways of tradition, rather than actual sound or playability. The truth of it is, guitars and amps these days pretty much all sound really good for a very low price. I was buying band equipment back in the late 90's, and the prices are pretty much the same these days, or even cheaper. And all of the instruments (even the cheap ones) seem to play 1,000x better than cheap guitars 20-30 years ago. Most of what you're paying for in an expensive guitar today is more attention do detail in the finishing aspect and better hardware, most of which don't change the actual playability all that much.
Depends on your definition of "way thicker," and what paper you're talking about, I guess. If we're talking about a sheet of 90gsm printer paper, that's about 0.12mm thick (most companies allow a 5-10% variance). If we go looking for some maple veneer, the thicknesses I'm seeing are about 1/42", or about 0.6mm, about 5 times thicker. On the other hand, construction paper is a bit thicker, give or take 0.2mm (a lot less controlled though). So now we're looking at 3 pieces of construction paper in thickness? It's not much that much thicker, really.
Willing? There's no rest for the willing. I have never successfully used a copier but have successfully destroyed a few that wouldn't co-operate with me. I know way more about A4 paper than which way (face up or face down) it goes into the fax scanner to send a fax. Call me crazy.
I swear, Steve Vai jem is the ugliest, horrific looking thing I've ever seen. I salute to whoever buys that monstrosity, you couldn't pay me enough to take that junk home. Green flower ?? inlays, pink pickups, absurd painting and handle as if it's a grocery bag. The whole thing just looks trashy. Great video btw, all your videos are on point!
I've own many instruments and sold them when I've upgraded and I do not miss them at all - EXCEPT my Ibanez Jem77FP like the one you have in the beginning of this video I really miss that one, the playability and the beauty of that instrument is superb.
If a CEO (cash extraction officer) took a 4% pay cut they would avoid receivership.However the inflated sense of entitlement does not allow this to happen..It's like shitting in your drinking water..Gibson, Fender and Harley all went downhill because of the "Burden of Bosspay" after selling out...people just cant afford three grand for a guitar "Just say No"...We've got kit build your owns for $100-$350...3D printing anyone...Bye Bye Gibbo..Extinction inevitable
Sorry ..My bad I should have put a "Warning may contain traces of humor" So all you saw there was a need to 'Correct" an error which was a JOKE..You Earthlings are an interesting lot..Cheers
Excellent points. It is amazing that most people just don't understand this or get it even when it is explained to them. They are just so blinded by branding that they can't see the forest for the trees.
You were right on about body binding (though the layers of material in some are more painstaking to make than others) On neck binding, you could have went a little (or a lot) further into it: Especially considering neck binding and whether it goes under the fret ends or has to be hand-fitted over the fret ends. Gibson used to do the latter concerning fretboard binding but have now gone to CNC binding under the frets though the prices didn't drop accordingly.
I have been having this conversation with guitar friends for years. I have an extensive background in manufacturing, they do not. They think the wood and other attributes simply cost alot more and the $1000 price tag is justified. I shake my head and tell them that $1200 you spent on that strat is almost all profit margin... for the factory, the marketing, and for the point of sale shop. That strat COST about $100 to produce the guitar. They think I'm nuts lol
James Barrick I am there with you! What do you think of the Harley Bentons?
Wood and cheapo steel, it’s way under a 100 to make, if anything the price comes from personal and machinery cost, which is just an excuse when people are making guitars for 70€
of course there is some profit margin, but the materials, factory overhead, USA employee salaries, marketing, and distribution, warranty services etc. are all part of the cost of building a guitar for those companies, so it is a little bit nuts to say that the instrument only cost $100 to make. The nature of free market competition easily debunks that theory, but you must compare apples to apples.
great point, you gotta keep that in mind.
Agreed that you are paying for the brand. I still want a Fender stratocaster though. My squier will have to do lol
modern CNC has turned manufacturing on its head. even bottom tier budget guitars are well made these days.
I bought a $50.00 guitar that is comparable to $2500 guitars I have. (It did need a fret job)
I know, right? My main axe is a Fender Classic Series 1960s Jazz Bass. I got a great deal on it, brand new. But it still cost me twice as much as a Rogue (Musician's Friend house brand) *6-string* bass with a basswood body and bubinga veneer, active electronics, and a better quality, more solid build than some "major" brand basses I've played.
Matthew McPeek never thought music and guns would have another crossover
I owned an Ibanez RG3120 that I bought for $400 and for tone it absolutely blew the doors off a $2400 Suhr I also owned.
@@danyeo Same, except it's a custom shop Strat that is getting trashed.
The title needs to be "7 Things That SHOULD Not Make Guitars Expensive Anymore".
How dare you!!!!
Money money money
Really learn something from your insights in the manufacturing process! Thank you!
You continue to be one of the most well informed, relevant Content creators on CZcams. Bravo
Yeh Boi ifeez u m8 suk it boi
JediGamer2006 are you having a stroke?
Liquor, don't expect to much when you read "gamer" in the name. it mean something like "i am a brainless idiot"
Absolutely right
If you put an expensive price on a guitar, everybody wants it but few people can afford it. If you put a cheap price on a guitar, everybody thinks it's junk and nobody buys it. The guitar business is brutal. A lot of guys buy name brand expensive guitars because they think it will make them play good. They don't want to be seen with anything less than $3,000 strung around their neck. The lesson of Eddie Van Halen making Beautiful Noise and a career out of an eighty-dollar home built piece of junk is lost on a lot of people.
Very fair assessment Philip.
I make my own guitars, it's very satisfying to compose and perform on an instrument of ones own industry.
Electric guitars are very simple to build.
wow the green on that prs is nice
My first thought immediately when it appeared on screen was "DO WANT!"
have you guys figured out the model yet it's so damn sexy
I love green guitars. That one is SWEET!
I have that PRS. It's beautiful
Krookiemonster the green on the PRS is for the insane amount of plmoney it'll probably cost to buy one
My brother kept trying to talk me into buying a Gibson Les Paul, but I did a lot of research on Epiphones, even had a couple of friends that had Epiphones and was impressed with theirs and end up getting the Epiphone Les Paul Custom Pro and don't regret it at all!
Imagine if you had better friends who had a Harley Benton or two, could have saved another $200 and come out on top even more
If you ever want a better les paul the epiphone tribute plus is probably the best new les paul for the price. Gibson pickups and even better hardware than the custom.
But yeah the custom is fantastic, too
Dude, I love my Harley Benton. Got the funky sunburst Jazzzmaster with the ugly as hell fake tortoise shell pickguard that I effin love to hate. Plays like a dream and sounds even better. $107 shipped from Thomann UK....?!?!
yarg nad Would you recommend a Harley Benton? They look good but it seems all cheaper guitars suck but it seems everyone loves those
Here you are giving out instant knowledge that it took me 40 years and a lot of trial, error and expense to acquire - well done!
yep...I thought the computer market was the most hyped, until I got into guitars....oh dear...
Sacco Belmonte We feel your pain
If you think guitars are hyped to excuse high $ you should check out high end hifi gear, a 7 watt tube amp can cost $15,000 ,a pair of ultra high end speakers can cost a half million or more .
Sacco Belmonte being a guy whose into headphones hi fi and guitars, yea guitar is a budget hobby comparatively
Oh yeah! totally. Headphones and Mics, and studio valve pre amps.
Gladly I never fell into that. I mean Jeez! there is so much expensive stuff you don't actually need.
As for a studio mixing headphone I have a AKG 702 and a 712. No need for anything else, ever.
Mics, can't care less about expensive ones. If you sound good it doesn't matter.
Expensive valve pre amps? nah! I just go directly into the audio interface, amps will inevitably rise the noise floor.
Sacco Belmonte Haven't you heard? Apple will soon start making guitars.
Phillip, this was one of the most informative videos I've seen in a long time, and I'm sure it will shed a lot of light on the subject to those who haven't been around to see the evolution of these manufacturing processes and trends first hand. Thanks for all the research, time in producing and editing, and sharing it!
Very well spoken and informative !
Can you do a video like this for acoustic guitars? To me there's different factors that come into play for acoustic then a Electric.
I build guitars with graphics overlays. My costs are around $65- 85 per wrap with matching headstock. The cost of labor goes up a bit, as well as the cost per finish. One has to hide the wrap edge...I add $200 - 250 for a wrap. I tell people all the time I can make it pretty, but it costs, or I can make it make it plain, but it will still play as good, and may possibly sound better. Thank you for the video.
Thank you. I was having a hard time believing a wrapped guitar only cost "pennies" more. $65-85 in raw costs is significant for something that only adds aesthetic value. But as I'll always say, it's your money. If $250 to wrap a guitar is worth it to you, then it's worth it.
Expenses vs cost is something I've never understood from Fender. I like Fender, who doesn't? But a flat slab of wood for the body, and a slab of wood for the neck. Typically routed out on top, then covered with plastic. "Oh, you want an American Vintage, or the new Elite? Sure, that'll be $2,000.00". "Now if you want one of our luthiers to scratch the crap out of it, that'll be at least 3 grand." "If you want John Cruz to scratch one, better make it 8 grand plus." Makes sense to me...
These points remind me of something I've heard in some commercials: "... now with better recipe ..." - meaning "We've found out how to produce the same shit in a much cheaper way ..." ;-)
#1....when it doesn't say "Gibson" on the headstock
Or fender
OR GRETCH
WITH AN S
raise your hand if you own an Epiphone that plays better than a Gibson o/
@@SavageGreywolf I own a custom shop epiphone that plays MUCH worse then my Gibson. Probably going to Sand it down and oil and nitro blast it then set it up and then maybe it will play close. At least i'm hoping. My gibson is easily better...like easily.
This is why I'm very happy with my cheap $100-$300 guitars. :) Most I've spent on a guitar was when I built one for my sister's wedding gift. Even the ones I'm building now will end up being more expensive than what I bought from manufacturers. Then I see these guitars for close to $1000 and more that are also mass-produced, and it just makes me wonder what they're doing with all that money they make in profit. They are definitely buying the parts cheaper than I am, and their processes aren't that much more elaborate than mine or anyone else's, and definitely pumping out more guitars in a day than I can do in a year, so it really makes me wonder.
After watching videos of different companies building there guitars I was surprised with Gibson. The video I saw they were hacks. There necks didn't fit good and they had to chisel stuff out to fit right. There were two companies from Ca. I was really impressed with there process and there guitars are much cheaper than Gibson.And I think have a better product. I am a cnc machinist and programmer and have worked in Manufacturing for 35 years so I obsess with seeing the quality these companies put into there work. I actually set a limit nothing over 600.00 even though I do own a few expensive guitars I bought in the early 90's. The majority of my collection is in the 300. range and they play just as good as my expensive guitars.
ZoommaiR absolutely, no name brands for me and $300 would be the absolute cap....once you can really play, you start to see you sound the same in a high end lp vs a well set up copy
their* their* their* their* their* ....sorry I had to.
Actually, one of their "there"s was right.
Their processes are likely different than yours. They have CNCs that do just about everything, including all their milling, and the radiusing and slotting of their fretboards. In fact, most that use a lot of these in factories, they lie a board in for the neck, it routes for the truss, and THEN, they glue the fretboard blank, the CNC cuts, slots and radiuses the whole thing in one go, doing in minutes what it takes most of us hobbyist builder days to do. That's a massive difference in cost. Time is money. But most of the cheaper companies put less time and especially man-hours into QC of their products. The frets are often not level or well dressed, the finish is usually less consistent, and overall smaller touches that places put in make a huge difference. Then with the bigger guys who charge more, often you are indeed paying for branding. But you're also paying for R&D, advertising, overhead, etc. Companies like Gibson and Fender have HUUUUGE legal teams that aren't cheap. So yeah, some of those cheaper guitars can be pretty good, but usually you have to do some fretwork to make them really pop and a lot of times their hardware is cheaper made than aftermarket stuff so it doesn't hold tune as long. Or their pickups are machine wound without any programming or method of introducing that 'random' element that makes 'scatter' winding so popular. The thing about most machine pickups is that the coils are wound too uniform and that causes phase cancellation which causes you to lose lows and highs. A good machine wound pickup introduces some randomness to the coils adds a significant cost to their manufacturing overheads and if you're getting hand wound, well, you're not getting it at the prices they are selling those cheapos for. So yes, some inexpensive guitars are really awesome, but there are reasons why some of the more expensive guitars are more expensive. Especially for boutique builders without massive volume to help control their costs or machinery to reduce their man hours.
Great video, lots to think about for the consumer.
If a guitar shop would treat me as a consumer, and no as a customer, I would walk right out of the door and never set foot in that store again.
All of this stuff was really interesting. A bit of an irony though that you're wearing a Fender CS shirt, a place that charges literally ridiculous prices for some of their product.
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes and yes... but my biggest beef is with the price of some pickups, I mean it's just a wire around a bobbin and all done mechanically.
But the company's know fanboys will pay more because of this:
"but it's (enter famous guitarists name here) signature pickup so $150 per pickup is well worth it"
Krach Werke a few years ago my brother gave me a pair of chinese hotrails knockoffs. He said it was in a 5piece package on ebay and was so cheap that he could not leave it. Installed them in a cheap basswood strat kit and the result was better than the sound of a Standard Squier humbucker. Now I’m planning to move it in my more serious Strat.
As an amateur learning at home how to repair guitars... I use a cnc laser cutter and engraver to prepare for and cut inlays.
I paid $1,199 for my brand new 1997 Gibson Les Paul Standard from Guitar Center back in 1998. It’s my baby and a fabulous guitar. Same model now goes for around $3k or more!? Crazy price increase.
If you take inflation into account the prices haven't changed that much.
The LP standard was 2100 $ (slightly less than 300 1959 dollars) when it released and it's now 2400 $. Not a big price increase.
Thanks for having that little music bumper at the beginning pushed to the max gain level so it woke up the neighbors. Very thoughtful. Very clever.
Explains why Asian guitars are such high quality these days - low cost for labor and materials aren't too expensive anyway.
My Japan made EII Horizon III is probably the best made guitar I own. I own Gibson [pre 90's] and new Jackson USA and it is as good or better than all the rest. My Gibson has been with me for 31 years and it is a great guitar but the ESP was/is better when new. The Jackson needed tweaking out of the box, the EII had the set-up and strings it came with on it for 6 months before I changed them. I did drop the Floyd about 2mm with a hex wrench but that was it. I like it low. I ended up putting an FU block on the Jackson and ESP but that was personal preference. My Gibson pickups crapped out about 3 years into ownership as one of the coils broke and it became a single coil. I was a USA made guy all the way but my mind has changed over the years.
I know what you mean. I recently picked up a Samick Malibu (a Fender Stratocaster copy)made in either Korea or Indonesia and it sounded almost as good as a genuine Fender Strat that I played at Guitar Center. The one I bought was used in great shape and it was $90 (after some bargining) at a pawn shop. The genuine Fender new was $800.
i think it also begs the question do more expensive materials inherently sound better? just because steel is stronger than pot metal doesn't mean the pot metal isn't strong enough, or doesn't sound better. i think in the case of bridges this is entirely debatable. probably less debatable in the quality of copper used in magnetic pickup windings though.
thing to remember is a cnc machine(depending on what make,model etc)plus the fixture to hold the different components are going to be a half million dollars PER CNC MACHINE.(again depends on machines and fixtures as well as robotics loading)
so its cheaper and faster to make the parts BUT but the cost to make it cheaper and faster was HUGE.also remember the cnc solid works software is 10s of thousands of dollars per license,the training to use this is expensive and the cost for a proficient cnc setup/operator is expensive as well.
trillriff-axegrinder All valid points. If you produce enough units the machines pay for themselves though.
yes,but you have a long arduous period of profitless-ness and unless your the big 2 your not going to recoup your initial investment.
Ah, you don't need a water jet to put some inlays into wood. There are perfectly capable CNC machines available today for a fraction of the price you quoted. 5 grand tops. You also do not need sophisticated 3D CAM software to make 2.5D inlay cutouts either. Once it is all setup you could train a monkey to load fixtures with parts too.
Yeah I know a few guys who have bought smaller CNC machines for relatively little money that are more than good enough for small projects like guitar bodies and necks. You really only need about 1.2m by 0.6m xy travel and no more than about 100-150mm vertical travel. Software to run them is also no longer a choice between a few expensive packages. You get loads of cheap options now. Modern technology is really revolutionising manufacturing of any machined components. The aftermarket bike parts industry is another example. Trick parts for dirt bikes are becoming way more varied and smaller companies are getting in on the action, sometimes producing very high quality and innovative bits. What a time to be alive!
Neil Pincus
guitar bodies are pretty big. I don't think I could route one of those out on my machine. Then again I've never really measured a guitar body either. The work envelope of my machine is only 14 X 16 X 5 inches. To have made it any larger than that would have cost me considerably more. Maybe the next one I make? Frankly, using my machine I tend to run smaller jobs on it anyways. Here's my machine isolation routing a PCB i.imgur.com/EdzcO2m.jpg which is a fairly challenging task for CNC machines to accomplish. I milled that piece of plastic flat just so the board would sit in plane with my Y axis. The table is pretty aligned, but for milling copper cladding I needed it really close.
I have learned that nothing makes a guitar expensive
Just get a cheap guitar from Amazon, then just save up for some upgrades. I got a gear 4 music Indianapolis (its no longer sold), and all i did was change the standard humbuckers to SD invaders that i had one hell of a deal on (£30 for the two pickups), and then redid the electrics inside, and now its a thrash metal, rock monster, all this cost me was £50 for the guitar (my friend sold it to me), £30 for the humbuckers, and about £20 on the rest of the internals, and im going to get a new floyd rose floating trem system, and its worked out cheaper than most guitars with similar styles
all together, materials, Craftsmanship, details and quality control should make difference in the price tag.
Good video, although I slightly disagree on a few points: 1. The higher cost of neck-through is not so much about finding longer pieces of wood (in most cases, they are laminated anyway), but that the manufacturing process becomes more complex when you cannot separate the parts. 2. Even if you only have a thin veneer, highly figured wood is expensive because it's hard to come by. 3. The same goes for wood in general. Bubinga is 4-5 times the price of basswood. One-piece bodies are usually twice the price of laminated bodies. Light weight swamp Ash is way more expensive than the dense northern variety. Naturally, the manufacturers will use the nicest pieces of timber for their high end models, and then add a premium for the whole package.
I like how you said 'not so much' instead of just 'not' or 'isn't.'
So many comments on the CZcams just shoot down every other idea other than theirs when it can fully well be both. That's silly.
I really admire Phillip for his truthfulness about the guitar industry
I was thinking about maple fretboard this entire time. I know you can find it on many low end guitars, however rosewood is used alot more often and sometimes to get a maple fretboard you have to go with a much more expensive guitar.
Wow, you just explained to me why 99% of guitars havr rip-off prices. I understand that you pay a luthier for his time if you order a custom guitar with all the bling bling you want, but...for the rest...just no.
Thank you for this video ! :D
When you buy a guitar you're paying for more than just the parts of the guitar. So no, it's not a rip off.
RealHomeRecording.com Gibson lps most definitely are overpriced.
They’re not overpriced for what they are. They’re completely handmade and every component is built expressly for them. They may be a well-known brand, but what they’re doing is essentially full-custom-level work in a big building with a worldwide distribution network.
To your larger point, you’re right-it IS just a guitar at the end of the day, and there are places where doing it all the old, slow way is needlessly expensive. They could automate some processes, change some things around, do more solid finishes (MUCH cheaper than transparent sunbursts, and you can use lower grade wood, which sounds the same but is cheaper to buy), pass the savings onto the customer, and most people would adore them for it. Further, 99% of players wouldn’t care one bit either way, as long as it plays well and sounds good.
We even saw this happen in 2015 when Gibson made a late-model-year run of guitars with stripped down, traditionally appointed guitars at discount prices and customers snapped them all up. Whether that was just a cynical marketing attempt to boost year end sales figures or not, they certainly know what it takes to sell lots of guitars. They just haven’t done it that often for whatever reason.
has gibson gone bust
They did declare bankruptcy, yes.
It’s Chapter 11 (reorganization) and not Chapter 7 (liquidation), so they’ll likely be able to dig themselves out of the hole and continue on, though. They’re probably not done yet, but heads will likely roll at the top of the company and a new CEO will be put in by the creditors.
Gibson is great at making guitars. The problems came when the CEO took the money made from making guitars and spent it on other things-like buying Onkyo (a maker of super-high-end stereo systems, a high-cost, low sales market)-instead of putting it back into Gibson and the other musical instrument brands that he already owned.
Good video! I don't understand why people still say "bolt on". Those are just wood screws, not bolts. On my handmade Tele, I used machined plugs and screws. It's unique and durable when I need to remove the neck.
As a tight arse consumer, this guys videos always make me feel justified
Nothing like seeing a guitar at 25 percent value in my local trade shop
Howdy from N. Phoenix!
On the subject of pickups - I had an opportunity to replace an ancient active setup on a old guitar and for project I ordered a pair of FilterTron-style humbuckers for $18. I figured that the worst thing that could happen is I throw them away.
The package arrived and I was very pleased with the units. The wiring was high quality 20 gauge stranded wire and the covers were cleanly installed. Upon checking them with my DMM, they measured out to the seller's impedance specs, so - in they went.
BAM! What a great sound. No noise, beautiful tone from jazz to rock to metal, and both respond well to light and heavy picking / strumming opening up a much wider range of sonic possibilities than the original configuration which only went from quiet to loud depending on how hard you hit the strings.
Excellent video. Some thoughts on type of wood:
There are woods that are significantly more expensive than others, say for example, cherry or hard rock maple vs basswood or pine. However as you state, that difference in cost is not enough to warrant the guitar jumping in price several hundred dollars.
It does however, take considerably longer to tool ash than basswood, and it takes more bit changes and more expensive bits to tool ash. That cost does reflect in the end product.
But the real question is: do those woods actually make the guitar "better"? Sound is a very subjective thing. Who is to say for certain that alder sounds "better" than basswood? Ash is several times heavier... so some musicians dislike it just because of the weight during performance. At the same time when we see Fender making new Stratocasters and Telecasters out of pine and charging $600+ for those instruments... it makes us realize that maybe the wood debate is largely an opinion discussion rather than based on reality. We've seen top-quality guitars made of a variety of materials, including 3D-printed plastics. I know from experience I can build an awesome-sounding guitar out of a 1x2 oak stick (video proof here on CZcams). This brings into strong question the value of guitar bodies other than aesthetics and feel.
So in the end you're likely right: body material shouldn't be a huge factor in the price of a guitar, nor in the quality of sound. Still, it's unlikely we'll be seeing a Squier Bullet made from ash or maple any time soon. : )
Wood is completely irrelevant to an electric guitar's output - it adds nothing at all to the sound in any way. Electric guitars use magnetic fields and electronics to produce signals - wood is a non-conductor - how on earth would wood effect the electrical signals produced by magnetic fields?
Dunno as I'd agree there, simply because no pickup I've ever seen is totally non-microphonic. The vibration of body and neck affects not only string vibration bit mag pickup sensitivity as well.
I've built many guitars-- including cigar box guitars-- and the sound between body woods and types is significant. What I challenge though (and in this we seem to agree) is the "this kind of wood is better than that kind of wood" argument. As with sound itself, that seems to be a purely subjective (and often biased) argument.
A prime example is a simple test I did, by intent: I bought a Squier Bullet (Fender's cheapest guitar, $99 on sale at Guitar Center), and replaced the pickups with my own FlatCat™ and two third-market inexpensive-but-nice pickups. The result: hands down the best "Strat" I have ever played, and the body and neck didn't change. Sure sounded a lot better.
That simple test proved that while yes, wood does affect the sound of the guitar... labeling that as "good" or "bad" seems more a matter of market-induced bias than reality. For example, if hardwood is the "best" wood for guitars-- why has Fender released its newest Teles made of cheap yellow pine and set their price at hundreds of dollars, equal to their alder and ash bodies?
Obviously Fender doesn't buy into the hardwood vs softwood controversy... and neither should customers or luthiers. I can build a NICE guitar out of anything I have on hand... and do so regularly.
I agree Richard.I a few years ago was given an old Samick Strat.While refinishing it I realized it was plywood.I continued along and it is heavy but one of the best sounding strats I own.
Better is subjective. It is an age old debate, that will never be resolved. Manufacturers charge what they think you will pay, not the cost of manufacture of the item plus a reasonable mark up. We should also remember that we are also paying the retailer mark up. We do pay for the name on the headstock, that is a fact. Then there is the tradition part of the equation. People still want the old classics from Gibson, Fender and PRS. If you look at their range the best sellers are the originals: Tele, Strat, Les Paul and PRS Custom. Even makers like Schecter offer derivatives of these designs. They want the same materials alder, ash or mahogany plus maple. Although other woods may be used, it is not often the whole instrument that has different woods, merely the eye candy. Some would argue that although the woods do not differ much the quality of the wood does. They might also point out that Lower price guitars use multiple piece bodies instead of just two. That doesn't matter if it is painted, but does not look good on a trans finish. Actually the biggest cost to making a guitar is finishing. Just adding a nitro finish will add hundreds to cost, because it takes so long to do. Low price guitars don't use nitro. The point about pickups was interesting. Why do they cost so much? The components are not expensive. Unless they are all hand done to your secs, then they should be cheap. It is worth checking out videos of factory tours, it is very instructive as to how guitars are made.
Yo! I've got an early 90s one, plywood too. I've recently put some Fender Pups in it (CS Tex Spec in the bridge, 2 '79 X1s at mid and neck), and boy does it sound good!
What drives a lot of pricing is if a feature alters the production process
Example: A wrap may only cost pennies and a short time to apply, BUT if adding that feature deters or slows the production process (especially if it involves a lesser number run) or creates a separate production stream to manage, it necessitates a seemingly inflated bump in the price to keep the profit margin in line with a standard feature instrument.
The reason that gibson's binding is way more expensive is because they bind over the fret like they used to do. Now you say that you can't hear that and there are lots of less expensive methods, but most of the people looking to buy a gibson are looking for their small trademarks like that, because pretty much everyone knows you can get a pretty good equivalent of a gibson with lots less money.
To some extent, if you are going to be playing a guitar a lot, after the sound, for me the next biggest factor is the playability. Is it a comfortable guitar to play? Does it feel good, does it stay in tune, does it have any performance issues? I have been very impressed at the sound quality of modern inexpensive mass produced guitars. They have come a long way. To me more and more it is the smaller things that seperate them from the big name brands. It may seem dumb to invest twice what a Chinese made tele costs in some new parts and a good set up, but in the end, you wind up with a guitar that is set up exactly to your liking and is still less expensive than a MIJ or MIM Fender.
This video should be titled " things that SHOULDN'T make guitars expensive anymore" because allot of what you said although true and shouldn't be expensive, still doesn't change the fact that many of these things ARE INDEED STILL making guitars more expensive. Manufacturers don't care how easy and cheap things are made they still tell you its expensive to make and still charge a premium. If they know you want it or need it, they will charge a premium. They will ALWAYS find a way to make things cheaper while keeping the same price point. Facts.
Watch your toes, I'm fixing to step on them. This dude is right on. Guitar companies are a business. They exist to make money, period. They will tell you all kinds of crap to make you take more money out of your pocket and put it in theirs. It is called business. If they can tell you that a green necked wooga wooga toenail pickguard is just the thing to make you the worlds greatest guitarist and they have the worlds only supply of green necked wooga woogas, they will be happy to take thousands of dollars from you to build you a green necked wooga wooga toenail pick guard. Use your head and don't buy into what you know in your gut is bull.
Just as a golfer who is a beginner, yet they buy the mega expensive clubs that are lighter more efficient yadda yadda. Lol! It really ends up being about the guitar player, some research in what you want for sound and best of all, going out and sampling these instruments before investing in them. Rock on!
Man I gotta hav me a coupla those wooga wooga's cuz I seen Jimi Hendrix an that made him big - or was that Robert Johnson? Hmmmm well, I seen em on sale at Musician's Fiend for only $825 a piece. Gotta get 'em quick cuz they said when they're gone, they're gone.
I worked for a major acoustic guitar co. in Austin... after and actually while I was there I figured out how guitar companies RRRRRRRIP off client left, right up, down and center.... ugh. I sold the guitar I had bought from them to an employee and screwed him over by charging him twice the amount I had paid. he could afford it and that's what companies think. drs dentists, retirees.... no real struggling artists.
Sam Moore A reputable company doesn't behave in that way. It doesn't make commercial sense. Yes, you can catch a few people that way but word soon gets around and the company's reputation is shot. In an industry where there is so much competition, lost reputation is very costly.
What is the purpose of a horse shoe factory? Think about it, don't answer too quickly. No you missed it. The purpose of a horse shoe factory is to make money. They will do whatever it takes to make money. What is the purpose of a buggy whip factory? Nope, wrong again.. The purpose of a buggy whip factory is to make money. They will do whatever it takes to make money. Now that you are getting the idea, what is the purpose of a guitar factory??? Yes, manufacturers will feed you whatever line of bull they have to that will get you to select their product over another. Don't believe it? Take a walk down any aisle in any store you see. You will see shelf after shelf of products all claiming to be the best horse shoe or best buggy whip or best guitar for one bull reason or another. The only true test is to try several brands of horse shoe or buggy whip or guitar and see which one YOU find best. Decide what is important to YOU. Sound? (Listen carefully horse shoes have different sounds) color? (Remember spray paint is cheap) wood? Remember veneers will NOT change the sound of your guitar. Put all the advertising garbage out of your mind, head down to your local guitar shop, try out several of each brand and model, then buy one YOU like the best. It doesn't matter what the salesman tells you, he is going to try to steer you to the overpriced one that gives HIM the most profit. It doesn't matter what Bubba down the street says it's only a matter of what YOU like best. Ignore all the hype from the magazines. They are in business to sell advertising and will give great reviews to whichever company buys the most ads. Its called being an informed consumer.
Great Information. I always want to know what I'm paying for and these types of videos help when I go to buy. I can often get a lower price by pointing out costs.
love these kinds of videos where we get an insight into the guitar industry. also i would give my left leg for that jem lol
You already lost it in a volcano
He had never heard about "High ground" before
Do you like sand?
Anakin Skywalker Sand
i have one and i didn't have to give my left leg for it lol, mine is white but it has that same design.
I love the section on brand name.
I once needed to convert a pair of Ray-bans to prescription. The optometrist asked, "Do you want the Ray-Ban logo?"
"How much?" I asked.
"$60 per lens." You bet...
Most "names" have earned their rep, but it's hard to know what's still relevant and what's not.
Great video!
Jeff Healey's ears should tell us the story. He used Fender Squier guitars.
I love Fender Squier guitars! They are comfortable to play and they sound great and you can easily modify them and cheap. Makes no sense why someone would pay over 1000 bucks for an American Fender guitar.
Guitar Lava - Watch the Rob Chapman and the Anderton dude do a blindfold test of different Strats. The Squier sounded great, but you could definitely hear the difference in tone. Having played both Fender and Squier myself, the fender necks and frets definitely feel silkier and smoother. The classic vibe series are the best Squiers IMO.
He loved Jackson guitars!
Decades ago, agathis was considered an exotic tonewood. It was rare and expensive. Today, it's abundant and available, which makes it inexpensive. And back when Leo Fender made his first guitars, he chose woods not based on tone, but based on price. They were abundant and available woods which made them affordable.
Fender is an industry standard for a reason. Just about every pro musician on the planet owns and uses Fender products on a daily basis. You could spend thousands more for a custom-made hand-built guitar, but that doesn't necessarily make it "lightyears better".
My favorite guitar in my modest collection isn't my Gibson Les Paul or my Fender Strat, it's my $600 Korean-made Dean Cadillac. It's flawless.
all the guitars i have are bolt-on-set-neck. its where you unbolt a bolt-on neck, clean the paint off and lightly sand it flat, then glue it, bolt it back on. instant improved sustain and strength, and you can even bevel the joint now without it breaking and either shorten or throw out the screws, even filler it in. i personally leave the screws and just round or angle the joint perfect.
The whole "tone wood" debate I always found amusing. Woodworking has been a hobby of mine fur many years. Maple, Ash, Alder are not expensive woods, and even if a manufacturer used something crazy like zebra wood you're only talking 2 or 3 board foot for a guitar body and even less for a neck.
The point of tone wood is when the player wants to play clean through a super nice amp.
Once you start plugging in effects you can literally have a guitar made from a 2x4 and it won’t matter. The more effects you use the less quality matter and the more pickup quality comes into play.
@@fieldworthyairsoft1436 The point of tonewood is selling guitars at a premium. It also doesn't matter if you play clean through a monitor speaker.
Martin Krauser there is a small difference in tone between woods but not substantial enough to make a major difference between guitars of a different price to make certain guitars better or worse for the wood used
Unfortunately we have an Ash tree blight that is going on right now and is killing a lot of Ash trees. When the taller, thicker ones die, and they are replaced by younger trees it still takes many years for those small trees to get to the size of the larger ones that would be viable tone wood for guitars.
I like the way you get straight to the points and keep them coming.
...So as usual the customer is getting ripped off
yup add Fender, PRS, EBMM, Gibson, and ESP to the list for super expensive MIA guitars.
Well as a customer you always have the choice to not buy something
Well... the guitars overall quality for a $500-$600 guitar is insanely good but no matter how good the manufacturer spends way making it than you do buying...the only reason it might be worth $600 is if it was hand crafted
ehh kind of a necesarry evil to a degree. alot of companies are doing the worse theyve ever been in the last decade and so if you want your beloved company to stay in business , you kind of have to accept they gotta rip you off just to remain in business. i doubt many brands we love could exist without ripping off the consumer.
So obvious it makes your nose bleed.
Great video, well said. I just started a year ago with guitars. Im big on value and performance and have spent many hours, shopping for quality guitars. What I found was many have dressing, nothing to do with performance. Many inexpensive have the same construction as the expensive but found plastic nuts on cheaper models. I have built an very nice collection of players by replacing nuts, having a bit of fret work done where needed and good setups performed. My total cost for a tele, strat, acoustic and a 335 copy is less than one of the premium guitars.
That is a great comment. Maybe we could do a video of one really expensive guitar verse a few lower price guitars to see which is preferred. Thank you for posting
I would watch that. I will argue that my Samick Greg Benette Avion 6(made in Korea) plays and sounds every bit as good as the Les Paul standard I have. In fact I prefer the Samick.
I am getting ready to spend probably 1 or 2 k on a new guitar. I have read and watched so many divergent opinions about manufacturers quality that I don't know what to believe anymore!
"Gibson sucks nowadays!", "PRS used to be good, but not anymore!", etc., etc.
Would you be willing to do video where you give us your no-holds-barred, stone-cold-honest opinion of all the major manufacturers (including Kiesel) as far as quality control and top 1-10 pecking order?
Thanks, keep up the good work!
There are so many good reviewers and demos on CZcams that you could spend all your free time researching. But the thing to do is get the guitar in your hands and be sure it feels and sounds right for your style. There is no substitute. I think that's why even though Guitar Center might be a bit pricier, you generally get good advice and a chance to try it out. Plus they will deliver to your local store from any other location in the US.
Your talking real money. Get the instrument that's going to satisfy.
My opinion on this (not in the industry, but I am a guitarist of 20ish years and I've repaired tons of guitars): the feel of the guitar is the most important factor. Pickups are what make 99% of the guitar's sound, and they can be replaced. All the hardware (tuners, bridge, knobs, pots, switches, nut) can be replaced. The only thing that can't replaced is how the guitar feels in your hands. Of course, you can level the frets, adjust the action and neck bow, and make almost any guitar out there play like butter, but you should like the general feel before you buy it.
I'm a big proponent of cheap guitars. They're what I play, and they're probably what I'll always play. As long as they play good (and I can usually make enough adjustments for that to be the case), everything else can be fixed.
However, if somebody wants to buy a 1k+ guitar, I won't fault them, because that money buys something important: quality control (which you mentioned). When you spend a grand or more on a guitar, you're a lot less likely to run into little problems like uneven frets, bad wiring, loose tuning pegs etc. I don't mind fixing that stuff, but I understand not everybody likes that aspect of guitar playing. Some people just want a guitar that plays well, every day, without having to worry about making adjustments and fixes.
As far as brands go, don't buy a Gibson, at least not new. If any other company made the exact same guitar as Gibson, they'd charge 1/3 of the price, or probably even less. That's not an exaggeration. Buying a Gibson is a waste of money, period, full stop. PRS is fine, every one I've played has been great, I don't think that'd be a waste, although you could get a comparable guitar for less from a different brand. Kiesels/Carvins are awesome, highly recommend those.
edit - Oh, last piece of advice: take your final budget and subtract $100 from it. Buy a guitar from the new budget, and spend the $100 on a guitar tech for a professional setup. The difference will blow your mind.
A clarification is needed regarding CNC cut inlay, and associated costs. If the inlay you desire is one that is offered by the company the cost is determined by the cost to run the CNC machine (electricity, pneumatics via large compressor), the depreciation of the machines, prorated cost of purchasing/financing the machines involved, prorated cost of all tooling purchased or made (cutting tools, cutter holders/arbors, as well as any fixturing to hold and/or locate the work piece, and any gaging used for measurements), plus the cost of wear on the tool (finite tool life, performance lost as tool wears, and cost of resharpening/recoating cutting tool), and last but certainly not least is the cost of personnel involved (not just the machinist and material handler, but all those people wearing nice shors in the offices... like me). One more cost is the cost of process development, testing, optimization, and documentation, including CAD models and drawings, and CAM programming of the CNC machines according to best practices.
Which brings me to my final item to discuss, and that is if you want a custom or variation of standard design for your inlay all of the cost of programming, designing, which may or may not include fixturing, gaging, tooling,, prove out process, and any number of requisite alterations to finishing operations due to differences in geometry or material conposition of inlay.
So to say that companies can produce inlay for pennies is just slightly misleading.
Otherwise I thoroughly enjoyed this video and found very informative. Great contact content, great concept, great execution.
Dude I love you no homo.
Thanks for the informative inputs. I bought a US made guitar because of where it was made & the brand name. Now I know more on my next buy...😊
About airbrushing/photo finishing. I used to go to hobby shops and buy wet decal sheets, and use them for design accents. I always had people asking me if they were airbrushed on.
I will only buy used guitars! Preferably MIJ 1975 - 90. Kramer's, Charvel's, Ibanez, Yamaha, Fernandez, Greco, Fender Japan. Superb quality and reasonable price used! Don't waste big bucks on new gear!
Robert Jermantowicz I'll sell you a nice 89 Fernandes te80bt
Word
Youre cherrypicking the very best... that takes knowledge. Also, prices are starting to go up
Shhhh ;)
Yeah, going for second hand guitars that are good quality but not insanely popular is a good way to go.
The latest two guitars I've bought were Framus guitars. Cost $4000 each new, got them for about $1200 each in flawless condition. The amount of quality and craftsmanship is just insane for that price, and I would never be able to find anything like that new for the money.
Sucks for the sellers though!
Anyone that watches this very informative video will now be better prepared when they are in the market for a guitar. After all the costs of doing business are factored in to manufacture, sell and profit from the guitar brought to market there is a price point were there is no more value added for dollar spent. At least they will feel secure in the knowledge that they received good value for the money they spent on the instrument and will now have a better understanding of why two seemingly identical guitars sell at large price differences. This is not just for guitars either. Keep up with these good videos Phillip.
Love you informational videos. Can you do one on the PRS 2017 SE changes please. Thanks for sharing your experience and reviews. I just ordered a 2017 PRS S2 Singlecut. I did research the SE models, but wanted a American made. Considering a SE as #2. The new changes seem worthy of an updated review by you.
The s2 Singlecut is a cool guitar. They sound full and rich. Thank you for the idea the new SE could be fun to take a look at.
One of the most needed video series would be Amp selection, and how to tweak them for the sound you want. I was once in a shop trying out a custom Tele with a marshall stack tube amp and it was tweaked perfectly..... I hit a groove that blew me away...and was getting positive comments by others in the store.... I should have pulled out the check book right then, and made notes of the settings. Was never able to get it back.. also it's difficult to get the right sound when practicing in situations where you can't turn up the volume... best small practice amps and how to tweak them.
Another excellent video, always wondered if the added costs really meant anything.
i always assumed it was due to the "prestige" tax. gibson is more prestigious than say jackson guitars, so gibby hikes its price up to reflect that prestige. jackson is more prestigious than cort, thus allowing them to overprice in turn. it's not like the indonesian and korean factories only produce one brand. i've got reasonable cause for doubt that my epiphone v and my dean michael schenker signatures were made in the same korean factory. doesn't make them bad guitars (quite the contrary, they're a delight to play), but my epi cost me 400€ brand new. the schenker (new) sold for 1500 or around about. got her during a blowout sale for 700€ new. roughly same specs on both; made in korea, two humbuckers, no splits, master tone, two volumes, same scale, set-neck, string-through, gloss varnish, dot inlays.. it'd be faster to list the differences. pickups are hotter on the dean, the dean came with strap locks and a hardcase, and the epi is korina, not mahogany, so it might justify perhaps the 300€ difference, but no way does it justify the 1100€ difference in manufacturer's recommended pricing. not knocking on the dean (it is a good guitar, although fragile), but i'm just as comfortable on the epi for much less.
tying in with the "prestige" tax, it could be the signature on the dean and on the dean-dmt schenker signature pickups. but i'm a player, not an economics major.
Eddy Guizonde good point, that definitely is weird, does the dean have better metalwork? i feel like good tuners and higher quality metals in the bridge and what not definitely makes the guitar more expensive, and then there could be prestige $ on that for being say stainless steel.
i don't really know. the dean's got stainless steel, the epi's got gold-plating. both sets of tuners (as far as i can tell) are grover kidney style 18:1. so, i'm really going for "prestige tax" over better quality. doesn't detract from the final comfort and overall feel, but that's too much of a price difference.
Yea, that is really something else then. I guess I'll have to go for the epi next time I'm skeptical.
Supmike Ladderboy just remember that epi cuts costs on wiring. buy your epi and get it rewired asap. since 2006, i've never seen an epi properly wired first time around. be it an entry level or an 800+€ one. it's usually the pickup selector that gives out after about 20 hours of playtime. my luthier if i remember correctly called it "expedient wiring". as in "yeah, it'll pass the quality checks, but not by much". pickups and wood are fine, though. only modded my v this summer, and swapped out the pickups for super distortions to get a beefier old-school tone (and some coil-tap pots).
Didn't know about that set versus bolt on cost comparison. Interesting. Thank you Phillip.
I always buy guitars around the $300 range, and I'm pretty sure I won't be buying a guitar that's over a $1000
Ibanez makes some really nice instruments around that price, even the classic vibes are great. I still want a really nice name brand instrument though heh heh
I always buy second hand mij rgs or rgds, the only expensive guitsr that im gonna buy is my custom shop bc rich warlock, mohangany neckthru, mohangany wings maple cap, emgs, original floyd, ebony blank board, widow head stock, body neck amd headstock binding, finished in blood red, with black binding. Its been my dream guiyar since i saw mick thomson's warlock back when i was 13.
Grayson Adams ibanez is a name brand.and really nice.
but allways buy a car in the 1000s or above range
I bought an Ibanez RG 170. Yeah not top of the line, but for $45 it was a steal. Will upgrade Pick ups $30 from EBay and put new strings. Might replace tremolo $35. Bam!! you got an awesome guitar for under $150. Oh, and the neck is awesome. 24 frets.
After watching more of your videos I'll need to retract a statement or two.
My comment was correct but you are a builder, and at least through your
imports, have built more guitars than I have.
You do stay busy and have a good knowledge base. Retail, especially with
paid instructors is a brutal business (been there, won't go back to a retail
space).
Keep up the good work.
#4. why is the prs CE24 only $2k and the set neck core models are so much more?
is it? add a American Bridge, Same tuners, same one piece neck, same Case, add the Veneer to the front of the head stock, And Add in the blade switch. Currently they are $2000 for CE and $3200 for Core, so if you add that in how much different are they? So the question is, is the CE $1200 less for a bolt on neck? Or is it $1200 less for the lower cost gig bag, import bridge, tuning keys, neck (remember what I said about the necks) thinner body, and so on? Paul is on record saying it is not a big savings to do bolt on necks.
Phillip McKnight I understand, I was just ignorant until now. I thought that the ce24 had as much attention to detail and quality parts as the other cores. And the only difference was the construction and the top carve.
Did he do all those things just to bring down the price or to be consistent with the ce tradition...?
Phillip McKnight (for the record- original comment was genuine question, not being defensive or anything)
Sparkplug1034 I bought a 2016 Custom 24 Ten Top with 59/09 pick ups 6 months ago for $3400 and this week just bought a CE24 with 85/15's for $1900. CE has thinner maple cap with a thinner carve, the locking tuners are slightly different, the CU ten top wood has a more pronounced prettier wood pattern, the inlays in the CE are plastic resin? and CU is pearl or abalone? but look much better, the CU rosewood fretboard is a bit darker and shows more grain, CE has maple bolt on neck and the CU is set mahogany, the CU tremolo is all chrome and the CE has some components that have a satin finish. CU has 5 way blade vs. CE 3 way toggle with push/pull. CU has a warmer tone but they both play great as they both have the pattern thin neck profile. Is it worth the extra $1500 for the CU? I am not sure but I do like the tone better on the CU and it stays in tune a bit better so far than the CE but I have only had the CE for 3 days.
No, the original CEs had same specs as Set necks. He said that is one reason they discontinued them. They were not selling as well towards the end and did not cost much less to make. So when they brought it back they made the changes that would help the pricing. I think they did good job. I wish they were 1699 I think that is a strong price point but I understand why they did what they did.
You are 100% right, Crazy part how much some mark there guitars up for these features. My Korean BC Rich Warlock is a 2010/12ish I can't remember it has neck through, 100% satin black mahogany body and neck, ebony fretboard with diamond inlays, cream binding on the body neck and headstock, , EMG 81/60 pickups, gold whatever it is hardware and Grover tuners. The fit and finish is top notch it is beautiful a real head turner. There is no floyde Rose It is a hardtail and I did have to pay $100 for the really nice BC Rich matching hardcase but still all that for $700! (I lucked out and paid $600 because of a typo in the listing) Yet an standard non custom shop American fender strat or telecaster with basic features as a plain maple neck and fret board regular painted basswood/alder/ash? body is far more expensive and some I've seen the fit and finish is fair. So your definitely (over)paying for the name I'd say.... Don't know only fender I or have ever owned was an 80s factory custom? solid black,rosewood fret board no pick gaurd, dual humbuckers Japanese squire, that was pretty nice my cousin borrowed it for few years and really trashed it so it's apart half sanded down in a box.☹️
Maple veneer has been found to actually be photos....on $5k guitars. This is why I build my own...
I highly doubt that, not from any reputable brand, maybe AliExpress. Do you have a source for that?
I got an American Standard Strat a few years ago for $800 CAD used. I had to ask the guy at the shop if it was the right price because it still had the plastic and sticker on the pick guard. Someone had made 3 payments on it and returned in almost new condition but they couldn't sell it as new because someone had already taken it home. I also got an sg faded for the same price, it was the previous years model and I watched it go from $1000, to $900, to $800 and couldn't say no since I'd been trying it out for 6 months and loved how it played. Bargain hunting is the way to go, the deals are out there if you take your time finding them.
I love that green 7 string PRS! How much would one like that cost?
They run 400 to 600 used PRS SE 7 string
Great video! Lots of good info here...as someone who used to work in the tonewood industry, I would like to add a few notes. In addition to the issue of straight even grain for neck through blanks, other imperfections are harder to avoid as well, making the cost for larger blanks of the same grade much more expensive. The classic example of this is the price difference between a medium sized acoustic soundboard and a larger top like a jumbo or dread. There are a lot of other reasons why tonewood is so expensive and some is more expensive than others, most of it doesn’t have to do with the source cost but is driven up by overhead and waste. Guitar manufacturers and luthiers are picky (for good reason) about the wood they use and as we deplete old growth trees, the huge (mostly) hardwood and spruce trees needed for guitars is getting harder to find in top grades. Anyway, there’s definitely a lot of wishy-washiness in the tonewood business in terms of cost vs price and meaningless terminology meant to upsell as well as other shadier stuff(a la Gibson), but there are also a lot of legitimate costs that a lot of folks don’t consider when they look at the cost of a plank of rift sawn twisty wood with runout and other imperfections or logs in the round which may be useless if they aren’t treated and sawn right, let alone if it’s full of imperfections.
Yet another great video. You just solidified what I had conclude. Its all about profit. Shame that we are so money hungry these days.
Isn’t the point of being in business, is to make money?
Just a correction on the Jem77FP and relates to a common misconception. The 77FP always had fabric on the body and headstock for its entire production run. The same applies to 77FP2 from more recent years. The 77BFP (Blue Floral Pattern) from the early '90s was indeed a photo finish as is the case with the current 77PBFP from their Indonesian-made Premium series.
A Squier bass costs $300, and sounds 99% the same as a genuine $800-$1200 Fender bass
Fender is scam company :D same with USA- Mexico bass models, only difference is the price tag
Muranaman indeed young man... spend a hundred bucks on pickup and pots and you've got the same animal.. and you love it a wee bit more
buy Fender Japan and swap the pickups, pots, etc
my (second hand) telecatser squier "classic vibes" beats ANY high priced telecatser.
As an owner of a vintage modified jazz, I agree 1000%
Thanks for an honest, no nonsense presentation.
living easy
living free
DrSaw justified
I can definitely/always hear the resonate qualities of different binding. Poured sounds slightly warmer than hand glued. The same goes for pickup rings, pick guard material, knobs and even the screws. All of that really, really...really matters. Really.
No it doesn't.
I agree, tone is subjective any way..... fingers,amp, pedals, pickups, strings.... Poured binding not so much.
Perhaps a better title: "7 things that make guitars less expensive to produce."
Lol true tho
Wrooong. None of these are less expensive than normal guitars. The title is correct because they cost almost nothing extra to add on nowadays, which wasn't the case years ago
Actually, each of the points he mentioned don't make them less expensive to produce, as he pointed out each time. He was trying to point out that these options only increase the total manufacturing costs by just a few dollars on each guitar, which doesn't justify the hundreds of dollars difference in the price that the retailers charge.
@@yargnad each of the points he mentioned make those options less expensive to produce. the options are part of the guitar. if part of a guitar is less expensive to produce, then that makes the guitar as a whole less expensive for the manufacturer to produce. not sure what you are getting at, you kind of said "it doesn't make them less expensive to make, it makes them not cost as much to make" lol.
i'd say "7 things that make guitars less expensive to produce" would be a better title. honestly it's not that important, its just you saying essentially the same thing twice in an overly-complicated way was kind of entertaining and thought i'd point it out :)
@@c82153 Due to the constantly shifting costs of the materials and the fact that these options only marginally increase the value by a few to several dollars, the options do not actually make the guitar cost any more than without the options. One day it may cost $250 in parts to make a guitar without the options mentioned and $260 with those options. The next month it may cost $260 for the guitar without the options, yet they will charge almost double at retail. The point is that manufacturing has gotten to the level where the high end add ons are no longer high end add ons, yet they charge extra as if manufacturing is not at that level yet.
I have found that the lower priced guitars can have great play ability,but where the corners are cut is the hardware and electronic package. I purchase Ibanez s series around the 800-900 price range and then put new pots and pickups(the tuners are pretty stable on this brand so I don't flip those) and you have a premium instrument for less than Ibanez sells it for.( and you get pick ups that are closer to your own tone preferences) Fender same deal,but I recommend replacing tuners with a locking type since part of a lower priced Strat's charm is a bit of tuning instability. Some of the 400 dollar squire Tele's play really great as well.
Phil. you should do an episode about your favorite craft beers and call it know your beer.
yeah, I bet you never heard THAT before.
The Rockin' Donkey I'm having a kilt lifter right now. I think you have a great idea
Is that the one from The Pike in Seattle? If it is that was one of my favs from there. Also I know you do a lot of Strat mods. What is your choice for switches and volume and tone pots?
Ha! I didn't know that "kilt lifter" was the name of a beer until I googled it, so you can imagine what was going through my mind when I read that. TMI!
Don't forget the signature models the runs up in price because it's a artist behind the product as well! Great subject anyhow👌🏼
Gibson guitars are a ripoff. You’re paying $4000 more, just for the “Gibson” logo at the top. Glad they’re going bankrupt.
Amen.
If those assholes running Gibson lowered prices, brought back old models that people liked or were a little different and didn’t start a lawsuit because something barely matched something of theirs then maybe people would like and buy from them
They're the Harley Davidson of guitars! Old, heavy, and built like shit, but can get you laid, if you don't mind c-section scars.
@@woah4848 You mean what Epiphone does ?
Being rather new to the guitar buying scene im so thankful for friends who urged me to go with other brands with equal quality and hardware for much cheaper.
What does affect prices and was not discussed is quality control. In some factories when 3 products caught with the same problem in a row (or five in an hour or other rules might apply) the whole production line gets stopped until they make a root cause analysis and eliminate the cause of the issue. This rises the price and this is what we pay in premium brands. Others don’t stop because they say that production time is money and might sell items of more varying quality.
#Exposed
Great video....really informative for anyone shopping for an "up-grade" guitar. I am a huge fan of Chapman guitars and their process...Use the best quality materials and tested design for the build and use less expensive, but still good, pickups and finish to reduce additional branding cost. My ML 3 sounded great out o the box at $549....I replaced the single coil with a Seymour Duncan Hot Rail and the guitar became exponentially dynamic....So with cost of parts, labor, and guitar; I ended up with an instrument that literally trumps all of my top end (Tom Anderson Atom, Surh Custom, Collins 290) in terms of versatility and tone....still under $700.
so Phil with these plausible facts what is a reasonable price to pay for a half decent guitar ?
Blair Stan Sinclair I know this is a really old comment, but 3-600 dollars is what I would say, just play before you buy
Truth be told. I love how you talk about gears. Esp where you get explain the things that a lot of people think that made their gear expensive. There are a lot of excemptions. But overall, its how we humbly educate yourselves. Great Video. Keep it up and make us inspire more.
I putted please comment! Are you happy now? :D
Yes, Thank you. lol
Phillip McKnight all of the Jem florals have fabric , regardless of the year . So does the Floral 2
I own a vintage v100 lemon drop pgm, based on the peter green gary moore les paul. Cost me £330 brand new. Looks stunning, sounds superb. The pots work but not the best, the switch works well too.
The sound though is superb and its a full maple body with maple veneer.
Gibson puts a premium on stuff because they are a corporation now, like Walmart. Gibson is nobodies baby, Fender is nobodies baby. PRS is Paul Smiths baby, Knaggs is Joe Knaggs baby, those guys keep their product honest.
Reverend uses korina wood, and it used to be this expensive wood. Apparently it is a very abundant wood, the only time it can be valuable is when you have a natural finish and you want a cosmetically pristine piece of korina. I do not work for Reverend, but I recently bought one and it has been a very inspirational guitar for me. It is the first guitar that I really have a hard time putting down. I used to own a 65 SG and it did not make me feel this way.
rotffl😂
In other words, les pauls are
very over priced!
Such an under rated channel. You sir. Deserve more exposure. These types of educational videos are one of the things i love about CZcams. The hidden gems that get slowly discovered and inspire people in the right ways. :D
So the implicit editorial here boils down to greedy manufacturers and gullible consumers.
Stephen Feldman the manufacturers spend more in the long run than the consumers do
3:38 Tradition....you nailed it. So many musicians are set in the ways of tradition, rather than actual sound or playability. The truth of it is, guitars and amps these days pretty much all sound really good for a very low price. I was buying band equipment back in the late 90's, and the prices are pretty much the same these days, or even cheaper. And all of the instruments (even the cheap ones) seem to play 1,000x better than cheap guitars 20-30 years ago. Most of what you're paying for in an expensive guitar today is more attention do detail in the finishing aspect and better hardware, most of which don't change the actual playability all that much.
A veneer is way thicker than a piece of paper
Depends on your definition of "way thicker," and what paper you're talking about, I guess. If we're talking about a sheet of 90gsm printer paper, that's about 0.12mm thick (most companies allow a 5-10% variance). If we go looking for some maple veneer, the thicknesses I'm seeing are about 1/42", or about 0.6mm, about 5 times thicker. On the other hand, construction paper is a bit thicker, give or take 0.2mm (a lot less controlled though). So now we're looking at 3 pieces of construction paper in thickness?
It's not much that much thicker, really.
I'm talking about a regular piece of paper that every human being uses in a copier
the vast majority of human beings don't use copiers. Are you referring to A4 paper?
I'm willing to say that the vast majority of people do use copiers, and that the vast majority of people don't know what a4 paper is
Willing? There's no rest for the willing. I have never successfully used a copier but have successfully destroyed a few that wouldn't co-operate with me. I know way more about A4 paper than which way (face up or face down) it goes into the fax scanner to send a fax. Call me crazy.
The EVH standard is one of best bangs for buck. I have one...Great guitar! I got mine for $500. They are now $650.
I swear, Steve Vai jem is the ugliest, horrific looking thing I've ever seen. I salute to whoever buys that monstrosity, you couldn't pay me enough to take that junk home.
Green flower ?? inlays, pink pickups, absurd painting and handle as if it's a grocery bag. The whole thing just looks trashy.
Great video btw, all your videos are on point!
D K couldn’t agree more but everyone likes different things
Agreed
It's camouflaged so your wife doesn't notice when you're playing guitar on the sofa.
*some of the Jem models are ugly*
Others look just fine. And they are VERY nice and are incredibly wonderful to play.
@@nc6714 I guess, I just don't get the handle.. what's up with that?
I like more old school guitars, but to each their own I guess
Thanks for breaking this down. This was some much appreciated real talk!!
let me save you some time:
you're getting ripped off.
I've own many instruments and sold them when I've upgraded and I do not miss them at all - EXCEPT my Ibanez Jem77FP like the one you have in the beginning of this video I really miss that one, the playability and the beauty of that instrument is superb.
If everything is getting cheaper, why are guitars still expensive?
Asking for real.
Business.
If a CEO (cash extraction officer) took a 4% pay cut they would avoid receivership.However the inflated sense of entitlement does not allow this to happen..It's like shitting in your drinking water..Gibson, Fender and Harley all went downhill because of the "Burden of Bosspay" after selling out...people just cant afford three grand for a guitar "Just say No"...We've got kit build your owns for $100-$350...3D printing anyone...Bye Bye Gibbo..Extinction inevitable
@@okboomahfromblackrod2939 CEO is Chief Executive Officer
Sorry ..My bad I should have put a "Warning may contain traces of humor" So all you saw there was a need to 'Correct" an error which was a JOKE..You Earthlings are an interesting lot..Cheers
@@okboomahfromblackrod2939 It didn't sound like a joke but I see what you are getting at.
Excellent points. It is amazing that most people just don't understand this or get it even when it is explained to them. They are just so blinded by branding that they can't see the forest for the trees.
I think Chapman Guitars is a model for quality guitars at a reasonable price.
nope fenders are far better
You were right on about body binding (though the layers of material in some are more painstaking to make than others) On neck binding, you could have went a little (or a lot) further into it: Especially considering neck binding and whether it goes under the fret ends or has to be hand-fitted over the fret ends.
Gibson used to do the latter concerning fretboard binding but have now gone to CNC binding under the frets though the prices didn't drop accordingly.