What's the most expensive guitar you gig with?

BGG

Si_ said:

I havent gigged for a while but I always take the guitar I'm most comfortable with on the morning of the gig, be it £3000 or £300, I don't really think about the price.

Me too mate, used to gig a three grand Suhr, never bothered me, I never leave my guitars out of my sight.

midlifecrisis

i always take a spare guitar not so much for string breakage, i have an irrational fear of plugging in a guitar and it not working, could be a simple thing like a broken connection inside the jack socket, or a failed switch on a les paul ( i have had this , luckily not at a gig), i dont own what most people call expensive guitars, my dearest one is a les paul studio, nicely bashed about so im not precious about keeping it unmarked.

Flanging_Fred

Last Gig, I took a Gibson R8 which cost a lot.  Next gig (Halloween) I'm gonna use a £40 Westone Thunder Jet, 'cos it's REALLY black.  I'm finding that I'm choosing guitars based on what they look like more than anything.

Bidley

I gig my Bartram mandolin (insured for £1.5k) and my Sabre acoustic (insured for £5k). Sure, my eyes are glued to them at all times, but they're literally made to be played to people.

Beexter

My most expensive guitar is my MusicMan Axis Super Sport with piezo bridge - I bought in brand new in the US in 2003 (when I was on honeymoon!). At the time, I priced up the same spec in the UK and it would have cost me £2,300 over here but it cost about a third of that over there. Don't gig as much nowadays but it was always one of two guitars I took to gigs. 

trolley

I used to use a Gibson MII as my main guitar & a MusicMan JP-7 for the peizo & drop-D stuff. If I'd bought it new in the UK it would have cost ~£2k7. But it did encourage me to take out insurance

Now I have a MM JP-6 as well - but that hasn't been gigged yet

ESBlonde

You heard the joke about the musician who puts £15,000 of gear in a £1,500 car to drive 100 miles to do a £50 gig?

Teetonetal

My LP, which cost me £1200 back in 2000

John_P

trolley said:

I used to use a Gibson MII as my main guitar & a MusicMan JP-7 for the peizo & drop-D stuff. If I'd bought it new in the UK it would have cost ~£2k7. But it did encourage me to take out insurance

Now I have a MM JP-6 as well - but that hasn't been gigged yet

Probably not a cool choice but I really like the look of the MIII's   I should have got one back in the day.  Do you still play it?

hotpickups

Single les Paul nowadays but as others have mentioned too I keep an eye on it like a hawk and very aware of my surroundings to avoid any knocks etc. Plus I don't move around that much when playing

nocasternoproblem

Gibson BB King Lucille for some selected gigs, Fender CS Nocaster for others...USA Strat for most.

Gassage

Apparently I'm playing Nov 4th at the Overbury Music Night. As will @rsvmark

I shall take the Strat. So c. £12-15k.

lustycourtier

Why own it if you aren't going to gig it? 

ICBM

lustycourtier said:

Why own it if you aren't going to gig it? 

That was the logic which made me sell my '61 Gibson J-45.

The stupidity of that decision still annoys me twenty years later...

DavusPG

Interesting replies. Since I started this thread I've actually traded the Trini and never ended up gigging it - not because I was worried, but simply because other guitars were a better fit for the music & me....which seems to be the consensus here.

rsvmark

Gassage said:

Apparently I'm playing Nov 4th at the Overbury Music Night. As will @rsvmark

I shall take the Strat. So c. £12-15k.

Am I? 

Deijavoo

Whatever I fancy playing, cost is not even nearly on the agenda. 

John_P

Deijavoo said:

Whatever I fancy playing, cost is not even nearly on the agenda. 

This.    

Just choose the guitars that suit the gig and you feel like playing.   If you can afford to buy it then you can afford to enjoy it.   

Jalapeno

For rawk/covers I usually take my Tom Anderson Hollow Body Drop Top (Cost me £1.5k, replacement would be £3k-£3.5k) , and a LP (normally my £3k Morgan) as string break spare.

The jazz ones - the Sadowsky Jim Hall cost me less than an ES175 (£2.2k with an exchange rate of $2.5=£1)), now costs considerably more (£4k).  And LeVoi Maccaferri style (about £2.7k) for the Django stuff.  Don't take a spare for the Sadowsky as the strings are thick (12s, wound 3rd) and don't get bent or what have you (only change them once a year - if that often).  For the Django stuff I take a Breedlove OM/MMe I got for a couple of hundred quid in case I break a string. The Breedlove is a great little guitar.

hassleham

In the past i've played gigs with a guitar that cost £800 new, but only on special occasions. My regular gigging guitars are an Ibanez blazer which cost me £90 (fantastic guitar for the money as long as the frets aren't worn like mine were when it arrived), and a squier project worth about £50 but with Bulldog pickups in it.

Personally I can't justify the heartache of having my nicer guitars damaged at a gig, even though they are insured. The only two expensive guitars I own are a custom build and a rare ESP so replacing them would be near impossible.

Reading peoples comments here, my guitars are nowhere near the price level of some of yours! There is not a chance in hell that I would play a gig with a guitar worth £2k or more haha.