What's the most expensive guitar you've ever played?

aen · Post by **aen** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 2:12 am

Some bullshit $2k martin acoustic. It sounded like a dead cat.

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 2:20 am

i think once you get past a certain threshold it just doesn't make any difference. like, i've played newish martins worth, say, Â£700 and they were great. but how much better would a pre-war one be, really? i've played a 50s gold top, and i honestly couldn't tell you if it was decent or not. it felt, er, quite good, but what do i know? i'm shit at the guitar. a '69 gibson birdland, it was nice, but 4 grand nice? i dunno... i'm happy in the Â£500-1k range, all i play is aggressive rhythm shit anyway, it makes no odds to me apart from how the neck feels.

laterallateral · Post by **laterallateral** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 2:24 am

are we including guitars we've picked up without checking the price tag, played a little, realized the price and put back on the wall?

in that case, the most expensive guitar I can remember playing is a 196(something) Gretsch Tennessean selling for 4K.

Will · Post by **Will** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 2:27 am

The $6.3k Bourgeous was expensive, no doubt, but it was spectacularly well made. It was loud and very refined sounding - a bit like a Martin, but richer and a bit darker. A lot of money, but it boggles the mind to think about a human being building it mostly by hand. Given the work, quality of materials, etc I think it was genuinely worth $6k+. It probably wouldn't be worth $6k to me, but I think that's a fair price for the quality.

With vintage, you're mostly paying to have the "real deal". New guitars smoke old guitars in terms of build-quality.

Josh · Post by **Josh** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 2:40 am

aen wrote:Some bullshit $2k martin acoustic. It sounded like a dead cat.

DEAD CATS MAKE NO NOISE

plesiosaurus · Post by **plesiosaurus** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 2:40 am

stewart wrote:i think once you get past a certain threshold it just doesn't make any difference. like, i've played newish martins worth, say, Â£700 and they were great. but how much better would a pre-war one be, really?

He also had a 60's Martin worth like 10k and I have a $800 newish Martin, so I had a chance to compare all three of them.

I am pretty skeptical of vintage mojo hype, but the 60's sounded and felt way better than my newish one, and the pre-war Martin clearly sounded better than that. It wasn't a subtle comparison.

Do I think it was 31k worth of difference? No. But it was nicer.

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 2:47 am

ah right. i suppose once you're into that wage bracket you can pick and choose!

mickie08 · Post by **mickie08** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 2:49 am

original 58 les paul still with OG case, candy and matching amp. Who knows what it is worth

59 les paul 10K plus easily

Andy summers tribute tele lot of $ don't remember price right now. Probably around 5K

R Taylor acoustic guitar around 5K

Bacchus · Post by **Bacchus** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 3:03 am

I've just remembered that there was a guy at my school who had a lend of an early-seventies Les Paul from his uncle, until he had enough to get an Epiphone of his own.

That's the most expensive guitar I've played.

Will · Post by **Will** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 3:04 am

mickie08 wrote:original 58 les paul still with OG case, candy and matching amp. Who knows what it is worth

59 les paul 10K plus easily

ummm a real '59 LP standard is around $275-$350k depending on condition. A '58 wouldn't be much less. The specials and juniors are around $18-25k.

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 3:12 am

Having worked at GC I played some pretty nice guit fiddles.

Some $7000 classical guitar I forget what it was

A 1963 gretsch country gent that we were selling for $10k

A handful of vintage fenders, 1963 Jazzmaster, couple of old strats and teles, valued between $3000 and $5000

Honestly I don't see the point in paying more than $2000 for ANY guitar though......you can get just about anything vintage or new for under that whether it be electric/bass/acoustic. If something cost more it's either made out of dinosaur shit or is only valued for its rarity.

mickie08 · Post by **mickie08** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 3:14 am

the 58 with the amp and case candy was at a shop owned by the guitar player from Bob Seger's Silver Bullet band...LOL. I was there when a guy brought it in to sell it.

The 59 is owned by this crazy dude down her ein So Cal that I know. He also has a 60's rick 12 string, 60's gretsch, and a marshall major. He has some cools shit but he is crazier than hell.

SpaceFace · Post by **SpaceFace** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 3:40 am

There was a seriously old acoustic at this shop near my house one time that was listed at like 20 grand, I hit one string and immediately got yelled at. I dont know if that counts or not.

suede · Post by **suede** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 3:46 am

once at guitar center an american strat...don't remember how much, but the guiter felt nice...probably over 1k at the time...

Thom · Post by **Thom** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 7:56 am

An Andy Manson acoustic...somewhere around the Â£4k mark...
Lovely guitar, attention to detail brilliant, sounded wonderful, but 4k for an acoustic - not for me.

crofty · Post by **crofty** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 11:23 am

played my guitar teachers 70s les paul. fucking heaviest thing of my life
maybe the eric clapton signature strat i played is worth more? beautiful guitar. lovely actives. shorter scale too.
idk.

ultratwin · Post by **ultratwin** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 12:14 pm

The Moollon test studio probably has the most expensive guitars and amps I've ever been around, including Mr. Park's '58 LP Jr that I had a bit of fun messing about with(not pictured) thru an original Uni-vibe.

A room full of good ol' jank and prototypes:

Noirie. · Post by **Noirie.** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 1:00 pm

An old Les Paul standard. Was okay but the les progster is miles better imo.

mezzio13 · Post by **mezzio13** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 1:59 pm

stewart wrote:
robroe wrote:Fender Bass V = $ ???????

who the fuck knows what these things are worth. theres only a couple floating around. and HOG has 3 of them. the one that, me james ends robert and slone played was just laying around in the basement propped up on an amp randomly. it was barely playable
surely those things are 'collectors only' pieces? would you actually be able to do anything with it?

They are the same scale as a P Bass, only with just 15 frets. In an earlier post, I said eh wanted $3k for each of those. Bear in mind that three of those is 1.5% of all Bass V's ever made. In one spot.

aen · Post by **aen** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 2:02 pm

ultratwin wrote:The Moollon test studio probably has the most expensive guitars and amps I've ever been around, including Mr. Park's '58 LP Jr that I had a bit of fun messing about with(not pictured) thru an original Uni-vibe.

A room full of good ol' jank and prototypes:

Lol, thats like the size of the WHOLE dwarfcraft pedal/amp/guitar empire.