Wondering if I'm on crack. Are guitars getting a bit pricey?

  • Thread starter Thread starter romanianreaper
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romanianreaper

romanianreaper

Well-known member
Ok, I'm trying to be open minded and not seem like just someone reminiscing about the "good ol' days" but are guitars getting a bit out of hand price wise?

I just got my latest Sweetwater catalog and was looking at the electric guitars, specifically the Les Paul Standard, a PRS Custom, and some others. The Les Paul is almost $3400, the PRS was over $5000, and others were getting up there. Am I missing something? They are still made out of wood and not parts of historic WWII aircraft and jerseys of dead NFL players right?

I understand inflation but it still is an f'ing tree and some electronics. I don't know if I'm just not remembering things correctly but just seems like inflation on guitars didn't used to jump that high. I got a Standard back around 2008 and it was around $2400 brand new. A jump of $1000 just seems surprising but maybe I'm just out of the loop.
 
on the plus side though cheap guitars are getting much better. prs se's are excellent for the money.
 
Guitar prices have gone way up over the last couple years. PRS and Suhr especially have gone through the roof for nicer models, and even the Suhr Pros are up to $2400 - $3500. PRS AP and Suhrs with nice tops have just flat out gone batshit crazy... and I say that as a fan of both brands.
 
Yes.

But some of the 'low end' guitars are wonderful. Better than they used to be IMHO.
 
Yeah, you guys are right about the lower end ones being great. PRS SE and I was thinking the Charvels that are made in Mexico are great values too. LTD guitar play and sound great as well.
 
sleewell2":f1etc70t said:
on the plus side though cheap guitars are getting much better. prs se's are excellent for the money.
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Those are getting pretty expensive too. The pricier ones are reaching over a thousand dollars. Weren't the original Santanas like 3-400 bucks?
 
Yup it's pretty out there... i'm sticking to used unless its some crazy one off rare magic unicorn type thing then maybe lol
 
The worst to me seems to be the highest level of popular metal brands like ESP, Jackson, Ibanez, Schecter etc.

I would have sworn even a few years ago absolute most you'd see for a non Custom Shop guitar was $4000 street price, and that's absolute highest.

But you can see ESP/Jackson sig models for like $6000+ now.
 
what I love is picking up an expensive guitar at a shop and it sucking compared to my $650 Epiphone and $1000 Solar. But yeah I've noticed a few brands go up in price after tariffs start coming into play. I bought my Peavey 6505+ new for $999 last year now they are $1299
 
This is where Chubtone is priced extremely fair for a completely Made in the USA Guitar. 1500 to start for a custom shop guitar?
GTFO.
 
Never thought id see the day that indo guitars would be knocking on 2k.

I remember my senior year in high school my grad gift was a brand new prs custom 22 10top and it was 2499.99 on the tag.

To get the rough equivalent model now its between 3600-4200.

A 1200-1500 dollar price hike over the span of 18 years.
 
Racerxrated":9pbj6yya said:
This is where Chubtone is priced extremely fair for a completely Made in the USA Guitar. 1500 to start for a custom shop guitar?
GTFO.
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That's funny you say that because I was thinking the same thing. Maybe the high prices of some of these companies will steer more people towards Curt and some other guys working their tails off to make great guitars.
 
It's been going on for a few years, grabbed my ESP KH-2 almost 20 years ago.....the used price is now what I paid for it new.

There are some great guitars out there for lower prices - Charvel spring to mind, if you can live with Assembled in Mexico.
 
personally I could care less where a guitar is made as long as the QC and components are good.
 
PRS just raised their prices on core models by ~150.00 or something. The MSRP on the guitars OP was looking at are high but you really shouldn’t be paying that. All the big retailers will give you some sort of discount. I bought a new Custom 24 from Musicians Friend a couple of months ago for that was listed at 4100.00, for 3000.00 plus tax.
 
Fitrocker33":2sle9s7l said:
Never thought id see the day that indo guitars would be knocking on 2k.

.
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whattt?? where? i know i don't pay attention to gear like i used to, but what guitars are you talking about?
I cap out at $500 for anything made in asia outside of japan. it would have to be some super bad ass fiddle for me to even consider spending THAT much.


I think the higher end ones are getting more costly for sure. That high end niche market has got to be getting smaller. It is also FAR more saturated than it was 15-20 years ago.

The mainstream (like gc stuff) that you can get for 2-300 is miles beyond what you could get in that range back in 1994 when i started playing. I think those $600-1000 guitars pack a shit ton more features and upgrades (brand name hardware, pups, etc) than they did even 15 years ago.
 
ClintN667":1jqkcgel said:
personally I could care less where a guitar is made as long as the QC and components are good.
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what if your guitar is being made by an 11 year old, making 10 cents a day? :lol: :LOL:
 
I wish I would’ve bought a PRS McCarty when they were first released but I was a po’ boy. Hard for me to justify spending $4300 on a new one now.

The good thing like others have said is that the lower end stuff is really great now. There really aren’t bad guitars anymore but on the flip side of that, The older I get I seem to only want the high end guitars I’ve always lusted over. I already have my “utility” guitars and nice amps. Just need those classic geetars now!
 
Rex Rocker":1bxxel8q said:
sleewell2":1bxxel8q said:
on the plus side though cheap guitars are getting much better. prs se's are excellent for the money.
Click to expand...
Those are getting pretty expensive too. The pricier ones are reaching over a thousand dollars. Weren't the original Santanas like 3-400 bucks?
Click to expand...


i recently got a 2018 se tremonti for like 525 shipped
 
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