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Comments
Granted such stories won't apply to all - Many won't feel any difference, subtle or otherwise, justifies the price difference
But you have 2/3 good stores in the SE area who will let you have a test drive - Be open minded about the actually spec at this stage regarding pick-ups and neck shapes as no one can tell you which will be most suitable to you
If you get into actual vintage stuff it's a different kettle, but good ones start at 4x CS money, so it's hardly a fair comparison.
It's also worth getting someone else to play your guitar and a shop one, as I always find my own gear sounds different when someone else plays it (not better or worse, but certainly different)
The problem is that last time I went into a store and demo a guitar (World Guitar), it was plugged into a Matchless....everything sounds glorious through that amp!
And yup, I left with that Les Paul I tried out.
And if I find one that I really fall in love with, and it's at a sensible price, then I'll buy it.
I guess that it’s the same with almost any kind of purchase – guitar, camera, fishing rod, kitchen knife. Performance vs. price is a logarithmic scale whereby you have to keep doubling the price to achieve say a 10% improvement in performance each time. Your jumping off point is going to be an individual decision based on how proficient you are with the item (i.e. can you appreciate the difference) and the depth of your pockets. Then there’s the added complication where you can appreciate the improvement of the next step, and you have access to the funds, but you can’t justify the expenditure because you have a family that insists on being fed. This is when it becomes very dangerous to start test driving CS instruments.
I didn’t buy it at that point but regretting ever since! It’s one of those guitars you catch yourself smiling when you hand it back.
But it’s also true that one should avoid playing guitars through amps he/she is unfamiliar with. Playing through a super expensive amp will give you a false impression if you are used to a blues junior etc (nothing wrong with that)
View my feedback at www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/comment/1201922
I’m very careful about using the word better with regard to something with a large subjective content so let’s just say it felt more right for me than anything else I played, with an added observation that after happily playing what is unquestionably a decent quality instrument regularly for 15 years or so it’s probably quite hard to see anything else as “right”...
Second point; the guitar will always sound different (and maybe better) if you hear someone else play it. The only legitimate comparison is for you to first play it yourself, then pass it to the instore maestro.