I’m a big fan of buying guitars in the $500 price range.
Why? Because to me, that’s where the law of diminishing returns kicks in. Up to $500 or so, it’s easy to see the quality improvements in guitars. A $500 guitar is almost always vastly superior to a $100 guitar.
After that threshold, however, the differences start to get smaller and smaller. A $2,000 guitar is virtually never four times better than a $500 guitar, for example.
And as a rule, I like to get the most out of my money. So for me, focusing on the nexus of price and quality makes sense.
But that’s not the only way to approach buying a guitar (and it may not even be the way I approach things in the future). There is a market for expensive guitars — lots of people own them.
But why?
What makes an expensive guitar “worth” the money? Why would anyone willingly pay thousands of dollars for a guitar when a very close approximation of it is available for hundreds?
The truth is there are as many reasons as there are guitarists, but today I want to highlight five of the most common ones.
Country of origin
Some people equate quality with country of origin. Other people want to buy American to support their fellow citizens or keep their money in their local economy.
Still others may feel that factories in other countries don’t treat or pay their employees well enough. A few even have political views that influence their purchasing decisions.
I’m not here to say whether any of these reasons are right or wrong — only that they exist. Whatever the reason, some buyers make it a priority to buy American-made, and those goods almost always cost much more than international alternatives.
Level of quality control
When it comes to quality, buying a guitar is a bit like playing the lottery.
There are insanely good cheap guitars, and there are expensive duds. But the more money you fork over for an instrument, the better your odds are of getting a good one.
In other words, if you lined up 10 inexpensive ($150) guitars and played them all, you’d likely find six instruments that need a lot of work, three pretty good ones, and one great one.
If you repeated the process with 10 expensive ($1,000+) guitars, you’d likely find six pretty good instruments, three great ones, and one that needed work.
The reason? Quality control is expensive, and reducing QC is an easy way to bring down the price of a guitar. The result is more bad instruments slip through at lower price points.
Since now we live in the internet age where most of us are buying guitars sight unseen, it could be worth your while to pay a little more to tip the odds in your favor.
Level of hand time spent
Similar to the above, the more money a guitar costs, the more time an actual person likely spent on it.
Guitar manufacturing at scale uses CNC machines; this is true for every manufacturer in the world. But CNC machines can only get you close — they do not spit out a finished product. A person must do the fine detail work required to finish a guitar.
Except people are expensive.
So whereas a cheap Epiphone might get an hour of hands-on time in the factory, its Gibson cousin might receive ten hours of a tech’s time (I’m guessing on the actual amounts, but you get the idea).
You can expect, then, that an expensive guitar should have a better fret job. The finish should be of a higher caliber. The overall setup and playability should be better out of the box. And for some buyers, this is worth the investment.
Quality of components and materials
More expensive instruments generally have better components and materials.
This includes everything from the tuners to the frets, pickups, pots and switches, bridge, and even the output jack. It also generally means you’re getting nicer woods that have been handled (e.g., more focus on the drying process) and finished better, leading to fewer issues (like fret sprout) over time.
Most really cheap guitars use cheap components and materials that end up hampering the player’s abilities, sounding terrible, and breaking or wearing out over time.
The further up in price you get, however, the nicer components and wood you are likely to see. And these can add up to a big difference in your playing experience. The guitar will just feel, play, and sound better.
If modding is your thing or you like playing cheap gear a la Jack White, a $100 guitar could be the way to go. But if you want quality components, it will cost you.
Brand value
This last reason has more to do with human psychology than the actual guitar, but it’s true nonetheless: a Fender or Gibson will retain its value more than a Squier or Epiphone.
Why? Because people (including you and me) are irrational.
I don’t get it either, but the name on the headstock matters. Even Gibsons with their famously shoddy quality issues still command top dollar for both new and used sales. (And of course, beyond all rationality, I still want one!)
So if you are at all concerned with resell value, spending money on an expensive guitar is probably the way to go. It’s hard to imagine making your money back on a $150 guitar. And in the end, there are worse places to park your cash than in a Les Paul.
Beyond right and wrong
At the end of the day, purchasing a guitar is, I hate to say it, an emotional decision. As rational as we all try to be with our spending, a guitar is more than just a tool to make music with. It becomes a part of our soul.
Ultimately, the reason some guitars are so expensive is because we are willing to pay for them. We just want what we want. And all the argumentation in the world won’t change that.