Liko
Member
Re: The point of diminishing returns for guitar (Import vs MIA vs Custom Shop)
I typically start hitting the point of severely diminishing returns at around the $2000, which is usually at the upper end of production models and the low end of most "custom shop" lines. At this pricepoint, you are typically getting an instrument made of quality parts and materials, built with significant attention to detail by a well-paid luthier (American, Japanese, Korean; at this level they all have similar skill) who's judged on quality before quantity. The resulting instrument feels, plays and sounds like a true example of the luthier's art.
Now, understand that you don't necessarily have to spend $2000 for a good guitar, or even $1000. My $700 Taylor 114ce is prime evidence that the boys down in Tecate definitely know how to build a guitar. I have yet to spend more than a grand to own a guitar, though I've spent significant time with several excellent examples of both electrics and acoustics in this $1000-$2000 "butter zone" of quality versus cost, and can appreciate the superior QA and materials, and thus the reduced time having to search through the examples to find a specimen where it all came together. Conversely, you can spend serious money and end up with a piece of junk; apparently FMIC has let QA lapse on its MIA production guitars again, which is a shame, as it looked like they'd turned it around in the mid-2000s and were building some quality axes. I cordially dislike Gibson for much the same reason; their USA guitars just haven't made me sit up and take notice, compared to what you can get for a third of the cost from Epiphone.
Above the $2000 pricepoint, things continue to improve, mainly in the materials quality and the skill of the luthier, but you start getting into a level of detail where the specific individual trees that the guitar's wood came from, and the weather on the day the guitar was assembled and when it was finished, matters more to the final feel and sound than any direct action by the luthier while putting it together. You also start getting into a pricepoint where the guitar has to look like it cost what you paid for it, and that usually means bling; detailed, intricate MOP inlays, binding everywhere, custom-airbrushed artwork on the lower bout. These guitars frankly start looking like something you'd expect to find in an antique store as a wall-hanger. Not my thing, so I have a second disincentive to spend that much besides the pure cost.
I typically start hitting the point of severely diminishing returns at around the $2000, which is usually at the upper end of production models and the low end of most "custom shop" lines. At this pricepoint, you are typically getting an instrument made of quality parts and materials, built with significant attention to detail by a well-paid luthier (American, Japanese, Korean; at this level they all have similar skill) who's judged on quality before quantity. The resulting instrument feels, plays and sounds like a true example of the luthier's art.
Now, understand that you don't necessarily have to spend $2000 for a good guitar, or even $1000. My $700 Taylor 114ce is prime evidence that the boys down in Tecate definitely know how to build a guitar. I have yet to spend more than a grand to own a guitar, though I've spent significant time with several excellent examples of both electrics and acoustics in this $1000-$2000 "butter zone" of quality versus cost, and can appreciate the superior QA and materials, and thus the reduced time having to search through the examples to find a specimen where it all came together. Conversely, you can spend serious money and end up with a piece of junk; apparently FMIC has let QA lapse on its MIA production guitars again, which is a shame, as it looked like they'd turned it around in the mid-2000s and were building some quality axes. I cordially dislike Gibson for much the same reason; their USA guitars just haven't made me sit up and take notice, compared to what you can get for a third of the cost from Epiphone.
Above the $2000 pricepoint, things continue to improve, mainly in the materials quality and the skill of the luthier, but you start getting into a level of detail where the specific individual trees that the guitar's wood came from, and the weather on the day the guitar was assembled and when it was finished, matters more to the final feel and sound than any direct action by the luthier while putting it together. You also start getting into a pricepoint where the guitar has to look like it cost what you paid for it, and that usually means bling; detailed, intricate MOP inlays, binding everywhere, custom-airbrushed artwork on the lower bout. These guitars frankly start looking like something you'd expect to find in an antique store as a wall-hanger. Not my thing, so I have a second disincentive to spend that much besides the pure cost.
Are you playing two Custom Shop LPs now?
