Best guitar for around £1500 - £2000

bingefeller

If I have £1500 - £2000 to spend on a new guitar, what brand gives the best value for money at those price points?  Must be brand new.

skullfunkerry

What sort of music do you play? There are absolutely loads of guitars around that price point...

prlgmnr

It is my genuine opinion that at this point you don't get value for money in the new guitar market.

5 years or less ago you'd get a shiny new Music Man or Vigier for that, now it gets you a LTD that isn't actually finished properly or a "prestige" Ibanez that slices your fingers open.

Actually Duesenberg maybe offer value/quality for that price range, if you can deal with the mystery surrounding their fantastical journey around the world prior to getting to you.

SimonC

The best value for money would probably be 2 x £750 guitars.

Stevepage

NOS 2015 Les Paul with Robotuners

RaymondLin

Best for value at £1500-2000?

Then £2000 on a bolt on from any brand is not value for money strictly speaking. If you want value for money….the segment is probably around £500-800 mark like PRS SE, or Fender Vintera. Get a couple of those and you will be laughing.

TTBZ

PRS? I'd be looking at an S2 McCarty 594 if I had that kind of money to blow on a single guitar. Either that or try to find a nice example of a Les Paul Classic.

duotone

Not sure about best but if it was my choice I would go for one of the PRS USA CE models (£2000)
https://www.prsguitars.com/index.php/electrics/model/ce_24_2019

or a PRS S2 McCarty 594 (£1800)
https://www.prsguitars.com/index.php/electrics/model/s2_mccarty_594
https://www.prsguitars.com/index.php/electrics/model/s2_mccarty_594_singlecut
https://www.prsguitars.com/index.php/electrics/model/s2_mccarty_594_thinline

Musicwolf

'Value for Money' seems to be the wrong approach.  Secondhand would logically get you most bang for your buck (unless it's 'collectable'), but you specify new.  Is this because it is to be a special gift?

If this is a guitar that you intend to keep (I've never understood 'flipping' thing) then the 'best value' will be the instrument that you are going to play the most over the next X years.

grayn

An Elite HSS strat.

grungebob

I bought one of the above for £799. Designed in the UK and built in Korea then set up in the UK. 

Alder body, Madagascar ebony fretboard Kent Armstrong pickups, treble bleed and coil taps plus a very nice PRS type gig bag. 

Absolutely a first rate guitar and well worth the money, haven’t touched another guitar since. 

tony99

grungebob said:

I bought one of the above for £799. Designed in the UK and built in Korea then set up in the UK. 

Alder body, Madagascar ebony fretboard Kent Armstrong pickups, treble bleed and coil taps plus a very nice PRS type gig bag. 

Absolutely a first rate guitar and well worth the money, haven’t touched another guitar since. 

what is it?

danny_777

bingefeller said:

If I have £1500 - £2000 to spend on a new guitar, what brand gives the best value for money at those price points?  Must be brand new.

New is inherently poor value for money. £700-1000 of that will be for the privilege of having owned it before someone else has.

If you actually want to buy a good guitar, not just a new one for the sake of it, then just buy a mint used guitar, and get it polished/set up etc if you need to, and you'll get a £3-4.5k guitar for that budget. It will look identical, just won't have a warranty from the shop.

imalrightjack

Why brand new?

chrisj1602

I think Eastman offer good value for money. I love my T59v, it’s as good as any Gibson I have had, including Custom Shop.  Some may not pay £1,500 because they are made in China, but I don’t even think about that, it’s just a fantastic instrument.

Rich210

What about G&L? My latest guitar was a minty doheny v12 secondhand. I paid £1200 for it, which is probably a bit more than it's market value but I was looking at them for a while and couldn't believe my luck with one being second hand. I'm really happy with it - the finishing is great, it's a really resonant piece of wood which is joy to play acoustically. The only issue with it was the nut width which is player preference anyway and I had it swapped out. The MFD humbuckers on it are really unique and sound fantastic through a responsive amp like a tweed. 

I've seen Andertons are offering some decent reductions on G&L's in general, they're not that fashionable (I've not seen many people discuss them in these parts anyway), but build quality is superb I've not found a blemish anywhere!

Philly_Q

There's no definitive best value guitar to fit a particular price range.

Better to decide on the type of guitar and any particular specs you want, then go looking for that and see what it costs.  If it's a Strat, there might be something very close in the Mexican range, perhaps something exactly right in the USA range - but for twice the price.  Then it's a personal choice whether or not it's "value for money".

JerkMoans

What madness is this?

I thought received wisdom round here was to score A Harley Benton and a set of truly kick-ass pickups to jam in it.

grungebob

@tony99 ;

its one of these 

https://www.lucemguitars.co.uk/instruments/silver-series/

kentuckyklira

At least here on the continent some haggling will still get you a new Vigier Excalibur for that money.

Modellista

Pretty simple to search GuitarGuitar and look at the price range you're asking about.  Standout options look like PRS CE24s, solid or hollow, a few Japanese Gretsches, and an ex-demo Les Paul Standard.

You could probably spend less and get more value - the Am Pro Tele in Olympic White / Mint Green looks lovely and you could do pretty much everything you'd ever need with just that.

"Value" and "new" don't often go together well.