The Most You'd Spend on a Guitar?

thegummy

Do you have an upper limit to what you'd spend on a guitar?

Assuming your financial situation stays as it is now (and, of course, that will vary widely across forum members).

There are expensive guitars I lust after but for actually buying guitars I don't think I could allow myself to go over £1500. I'm sure guitars still get significant improvements above that but it's already a good bit above what you can get many very good guitars for.

It does price me out of American Fender vintage models and even Les Paul Standards. I think if Gibson didn't offer cheaper models I'd possibly have stretched myself to one of those.

TINMAN82

It’s down to personal circumstances primarily. I think we still see better than just marginal gains at the £1500 - £3000 (new) price point.

While it’s possible to find great guitars under £1000, my own experience is they are more likely to be slightly rough around the edges or have little issues (fret job, cosmetics etc).

My most expensive guitar is my Martin Clapton 000-28 which I got for £3250. My holy grail is probably an R9 with a flamed dirty lemon finish...if I had the money I’d spend the £5k asking price for one but that’s currently way over budget.

Fifty9

Highest to date is the 2.5k on the r8 last year. Have a couple & hopefully one more at the 1750-2.2k mark.

Teyeplayer

So many guitars are now over the 1k mark it seems impossible not to find yourself in the 1.5k-2k bracket, I think that’s just the way the market is changing.

joetele

I've never paid more than £300 for a guitar. Mainly down to circumstance but also these are guitars I've fallen in love with. I know there are guitars I'd love for more, and much more. But there have also been some I've spent a significant amount of time with in the shop which cost at least 3 times as much as my guitars and haven't felt as good. The sonic difference has been negligible too. 

I think £1000 is probably the most I'd spend unless I started earning big money or won the lottery. A nice Jazzmaster, Tele or G&L would suit me. 

I think there are guitars in the £500 - £800 bracket that would be lifelong gigging guitars, with excellent build quality and pickups. 

stimpsonslostson

I think I'd be nervous playing a guitar I'd spent lots of money on. 
My most expensive guitar is a Partscaster I invested £400 into. 

Maybe when my kids are older I might have more disposable income (& they'll be less "boisterous") THEN I'd consider buying an expensive guitar- I'd love a vintage LP Jr. 

stickyfiddle

I've spent between 2k and 3k a handful of times, and I wouldn't go above that unless for something really really special. 

What I've learned from my buying habits over the last few years is actually that the guitars I already have and know inside out (all of which were sub-1.5k except the Martin) are actually really special instruments and I'm unlikely to find anything significantly "better" than what I already have in objective terms.

That said, buying guitars is really enjoyable and I don't intend to stop completely...

SNAKEBITE

The most I have ever paid was £900.

Previously the highest was £600.

I can't see myself buying anything else for a long time.

Matt_McG

I've never spent more than about £400, although I suppose, inflation adjusted, it'd be more. I paid £350+ in about 1989 for my first good guitar, which is a bit under 1K in today's money.

But, I am probably going to get something a bit more expensive later this summer, and while I don't think I'll top 2k by much, I don't imagine I'll spend much less than 1300-1400 quid.

That's partly a finance issue -- saving up for a house deposit, which in London is not easy -- but largely because I'm not sure i could justify to the rest of the family or to myself, spending much more than 2k.

Troglodyte

The most expensive was £1200 but that was with a couple of trade-ins so was around £350 of actual cash. Straight cash purchase I think the most was £800.

zepp76

thegummy said:

Do you have an upper limit to what you'd spend on a guitar?

Assuming your financial situation stays as it is now (and, of course, that will vary widely across forum members).

There are expensive guitars I lust after but for actually buying guitars I don't think I could allow myself to go over £1500. I'm sure guitars still get significant improvements above that but it's already a good bit above what you can get many very good guitars for.

It does price me out of American Fender vintage models and even Les Paul Standards. I think if Gibson didn't offer cheaper models I'd possibly have stretched myself to one of those.

You are certainly not priced out of Les Paul standards at £1500, I bought my '04 standard for £1200 (and is the most I've ever spent on a guitar) and it's fantastic, you could pick up a real nice example on that budget. 

kswilson89

I've bought expensive guitars in the past and they've never satisfied. Generally for a Fender tele or strat I'd say a max of £1500, and a max of £2000 for a Gibson Les Paul or ES-335.

pmbomb

I bought a new PRS CE24 for £1700, didn't get on with it and took an absolute bath on resale. That ain't gonna happen again so for new the answer is probably zero.

Used is different - depends how confident I was on the resale value compared to purchase price.

prlgmnr

My experience browsing around is that when I get to Ruokangas I think "bloody hell, that's a lot"

I spent 3k including shipping and import on an Oni 8 string but that was to get specs that otherwise aren't available anywhere (and even then was a saving of about 2k on ordering a brand new one).

Tenebrous

About four times as much as I would if I were sensible. I still want to find "the" blackguard tele for me, and if that's a more expensive guitar, then so be it. It might end up being some random old Squire with changed pick-ups - Who knows? Just gotta get out there.

munckee

Most I've ever spent to date was £800 on a guitar, my two main guitars are both c£600 I've been contemplating upgrading lately and have played a number of £1,000 + guitars and can't really see or feel any quality difference so having a rethink.

darthed1981

Probably about £1000

I tried a fellow forumites R8, and it's a lovely guitar, beautifully made, but I just don't find them exciting enough to drop that kind of money.

Other types of guitar tend not to be nearly as pricey anyhow.

xscaramanga

I have spent around £1700 a few times, and that feels like the upper limit to me. What's weird is that the first time I did this was in 2000, with money I got when my grandad died. As I recall, I gave £1695 for my first Les Paul in Soho Soundhouse. According to the Bank of England inflation calculator, that's £2800 at 2018 prices, but that just seems outrageous to me. There's no way I'd spend £2800 today. 

That said, one of the £1700s was an eBay auction where I got lucky (my max bid was £2100). But I was clearly feeling extremely flush at the time—wouldn't go for that now!

Roysterdoyster

£1999....that way I can convince myself it was nearly only a thousand quid. rule number 1 though is second hand only, for the reasons @pmbomb states above

Voxman

Most I've ever spent on a guitar was £850 for my 2002 PRS Cu24.  How much Id spend going forward is difficult to answer as it depends on what it was ....problem right now is I have too much gear and really need to sell some to create some space. 

TTBZ

£1000 for something brand new but realistically for me anything over £500 is an extravagance. What I've done in the past is spend £300-400 on something used which then leaves some money over for a decent new bridge pickup (don't use neck pickups much) and a pro setup. I prefer doing the cheap guitar with incremental upgrades as it lets me spread the cost without getting into debt on CC or finance.