NWB - Community Blog

I have a very old, very special Les Paul - it is my investment. For practising I bought a cheap copy had about £100 worth of doctoring and it plays almost as well as the original - just doesn't have the history or status of the old man


I also have a Squier Strat that plays like a dream - paid £99 for it

Don

No intention of selling it - but did have it valued for insurance purposes and got a very genuine and unexpected offer which surprised me.

Maybe one day I may sell it or pass it on to my kids when I turn the toes up. Or I may have it buried with me lol

My first electric was a Hondo II.

I bought it from Booths in Bolton for £68 on a lay away and paid for it with my baby sitting money
it took me about 6 months, i was still at school at the time but when i got it i thought it was great, and looking back it played ok.

Now i play a Les Laul custom, i tried a load out before i picked this one, i have to say its amazing and i am a true believer in you get what you pay for. I dont look at it as an investment but i dont think i would loose much if i had to sell. Hopefully i never will i love it and have not played another one that comes close to how it feels and sounds.

Cheers, Graham.

I believe that there is definately a massive difference between the sound and feel of a quality instrument. Whether its a guitar, a piano or equipment like an amplifier or even something as small as a guitar lead.
The best instruments are almost 'alive' in their characteristics, (no, i'm not crackers). Pick up a cheap electric semi acoustic, Korean Epiphone or a Vintage, plug it in and then try against an original 335 or a Custom Shop 335. The difference will blow your mind, the Gibson will have the weight for a start, the guitar will be much louder on the same amp setting as the cheaper guitar, not only because the pickups are of a higher quality but the woods will be more resonant, they will have been selected from the best wood stock available, stored, naturally dried and not kiln dried, absolutely no MDF! The arch tops on real Gibsons and Gretches are thinner than cheaper copies, this makes them resonate and add to the sustain.
I'm into National Resonator's. I've had goes on the cheap vintage versions, they are just heavy, chromed, toneless instruments. Pick up a real one, you don't even have to play it to hear a difference, you can just talk at it or tap it gently and notes will resonate and sustain. Basically on something designed and well made you have a massive range of tones, timbres and dynamics. You can knock the shit out of it, hardly touch it or anything in between and still get a pleasing sound from it. With an El'cheapo you knock the shit out of, probably out of frustration rather than getting carried away.
Its like everything in life, you get what you pay for.

I've had a Vintage (Musicman Stingray copy) that I give £60 for. Used it a jam night. One of the regular muso's went out and paid a grand for a real Stingray and bought a proper dog. He ended up using my cheap Vintage copy, 'cos he said it played better and sounded better than his real one.

Went into PMT in Manchester last year and tried a Special Edition Musicman Stingray. All black with gold hardware. Fucking gorgeous. £1500 new. Tried it through a top range Trace Elliot stack. Biggest pile of shite I've ever had my hands on. Absolutely awful. Zero playability, zero tone, and not worth a wank. Wouldn't have give him a tenner for it.

I'm not saying all Stingrays are like that, but I suppose there's good and bad in every manufacturer.

I'm currently using a "put together" bass. Body from Warmoth, Goodfellow neck picked up off Ebay for £70. Bartolini pick ups and pre amp, and all gold hardware from Warwick in Germany. Absolutely stunning and blows any Fender, Musicman or Warwick that I've ever played, right out of the water. It's probably worth nothing to anyone else, but it's priceless to me.

Done a few like that now. Bought a cheap copy off Ebay, changed the pick ups or hardware and a slight fettle, and you've got another Uncle Robert!

I really do believe Fenders are overrated and over priced. Warwicks deserve their ratings, but I still think they're over priced as are Musicman.

But then, each to their own eh? Horses for courses!!

lot of emperors new clothes with instruments in my opinion.

One of the nicest to play guitars I have is one of the cheapest - a budget range Jackson; and when you whack it through a stack, it doesn't sound half bad either!

Also bought a Tokai Les Paul on impulse a few years back in Liverpool - picked it up, played it and thought "I'm having that"!. Got asked a few weeks later all the usual "is it japanese or JUST a korean one...?" etc - I said I don't care if it was made in Barnsley - it feels f***ing great!!!

It's alright all this vintage lark but take telecasters as an example, they were designed to be a mass produced, budget guitar. swamp ash was cheap - now it's the f***ing holy grail!!!

"# Posted by Jez (Route 69 Guitarist (one o... - 07/02/2012, 23:50 (GMT)
lot of emperors new clothes with instruments in my opinion."

This but with caveats. Specifically Electric solid body guitars aren't always the sum of the parts. I've played good and bad guitars from all price ranges. I know from experience that there are Mexican made strats and teles out there that can hang soundwise and playablilty wise with Andersons because I've played a good number of them (Including several Andersons over here and in the US). I currently own 11 electrics (one is a £275 Yamaha 5 string bass) and across the board they are all good instruments. Chosen for their sound and playability, not (with 2 exceptions) price or headstock name. The cheapest is a Samick "tele" model that my son currently has. It plays excellently and sounds great. £175 from Sound Control in Preston several years ago. I have a US Strat that the only Fender remaining in it are the neck, tuners and body. £600 used (but with modifications) and the most I have EVER spent on a guitar is my Gibson Explorer because I have always wanted one and for no other reason. Is it THAT much better than any of my Washburns? No. It's not 3 times better a guitar even though it cost 3 times more. It's an exceptional instrument, but if I hadn't wanted that particular model and BRAND NAME (yes I freely admit I bought it because of the name on the headstock) etc I wouldn't have bought it.

I sometimes suspect that people are protective of their expensive purchases because of what they are (branding)not because of how they play/sound. For instance the best (by a significant margin) Les Paul I have ever played was an Edwards Les Paul Custom a friend brought back from Japan with him.

Hollow/Semi-hollow and acoustic guitars are an entirely different arena. Construction and "tone" woods and pickup choice and chambering become very significant factors with these and therefore the price can reflect that. It is more fluke (which can happen) than design that makes some individual instruments play/sound as good as their more expensive counterparts in these arenas. For instance I am yet to hear an acoustic guitar I like the sound of apart from the make Santa Cruz, and they are an exceptional instrument. For the semi-hollow thing please refer to my comments on the budget Gretsch range compared to the Pro series in Ben Murrays sale thread.

I don't understand investment guitars. Guitars were made to be played.

I can understand them. I just don't factor it in when I'm buying because I don't buy with the intention of reselling.

Ok I do understand. But like you I have never and will never buy a guitar with the though of how much will it be worth in 20-30 years. I bought all my guitars for there playability not so I can occasionally take it out of it's case to look at it and say will be worth £3000 in 15 years time then put but it back in it's case for another 15 years, they are made to be played.

I have a fair old collection - with some very nice names on the headstocks......

The most expensive of which was £500, out of 6 Gibsons thats pretty good.

All of my guitars were bought for a purpose, be it a prticular sound or just because I wanted that shape (see Mick's explorer story above ^), they were also all bought with some form of defect, most of my Les Pauls were bought with the headstock off (only one has never broken and one had already been repaired) this gives me the opportunity to rebuild and do any other work as I go (fret dress, refret, swap out hardware etc.).

As a result all my guitars become personal to me, fulfilling an exact role that I have for them.

I have a couple that would have been worth a bit if they were in better condition or hadn't been refinished, but I don't really care - guitars are there to be played and loved at the same time, not for going in a glass case on the wall!

Rambling I know, but hey I love my guitars and wouldn't part with them for the world.

I also have 3 Weston Clippers - one that I bought when I was 16 and the other 2 recently, just so nice to play and part of my journey through playing for the last 21 years.

I'm not saying that an instrument is good just because its a got a high price tag. Even standard stuff is pretty expensive these days, I have no idea how much a USA standard Strat is these days but I imagine very near £1000. I saved and bought a standard Strat in 1996 and it was about £500 then. Wasn't a good guitar but i'm sure they have improved now. If try anything from the custom shop of Fender, Gibson, PRS, Martin, Santa Cruz, Collings etc etc you will see, hear and feel a vast difference to the guitars of theirs or any other makers run of the mill factory stuff. When it comes to expensively priced mass produced gear I would think that a good instrument will be few and far between.

I think I'm being misunderstood by my comment on investment.

I bought the Les Paul many years ago for a then, expensive £400 from a mate.

I bought it to play and I play it at every gig we perform and have done for many years (over 40)

I would never consider selling it because it wasn't bought to sell but if my kids inherit it, it's theres to do whatever so maybe I used the wrong word.

I rarely practise with it though, as I am a bit over protective with it.

Don

It's all very subjective because a lot of the sound you produce comes either from those dangly things at the end of your arms, or a combination of the gear plus the player. For that reason I can have strat through a mashall and never sound anything like Paul Kossoff, Gary Moore, Clapton etc.

But for me the better quality the gear the better it is. The pickups are more responsive & give better tone, the fretboard feels better. The more expensive end of the guitars I own are the ones that get used. Now part of that is down to the way I play. I use a lot of legato & tapping and give the bar a fair workout each gig, so different things work better for me.

I've also got a JS1, plays like a dream and the sound is great, but the begger doesn't keep in tune half as well as my rubber ibanez.

But there are some which are "emperors new clothes" as you say. Gibsons don't do it for me at all, the action, constant re-tuning make it a pain. Parker Flys to me sound the same as the £100 budget jap models and don;t play any better. I've got a strat copy & a les paul copy from a company called power beat in yorkshire that made cheap copies for £60. They play like guitars ten times the price.

Think we can all agree its a bit luck of the draw with any guitar, hence you should really play any instrument before buying......so much depends on so many different things being perfect.

My philosophy is a bit hypocritical ...... have always said if it sounds good i will use it......but yet i covet certain things "Billy Sheehan Attitude limiteds", Wal Pro's, Alembics and Goodfellows.

Heres the case in point .... PMT, or sound control as it was, had a Fender Jazz "Mark King" Limited edition several years back with Blue LEDs on the neck ... lovely looking active Fender Jazz for circa £1900.00...... It sounded crap, like the strings were 75 years old.... a truly more horrible and disappointing sounding 'boutique' bass you couldnt wish to hear. At that time i had a Tobias Toby Pro 2 which i had picked up 2nd hand for £150.00 and it stripped the pants off the Fender Mark King and violated it!!, soundwise at least .... however i did like them LEDs but wasnt tempted to buy.

I keep returning to Yamaha Basses cos they are about the most robust thing out there, had a yammy attitude special, which was about as unbreakable a bass as you can get.....If you ran over it in a transit van you would be visiting a garage first, and having to retune the E back up by a semitone on the bass when you got back.

@LA80 Mark - Next time you're anywhere near Rochdale, give us a shout, I have a 5 string Bernie Goodfellow bass that you can have a knock about on if you wish. Got it off Ebay for £600 second hand about 2 years ago. Awesome bass!! Also, I'm desperate to get my hands on a Yamaha BBN5 or BBG5 if you ever come across one.

I have a collection of around 7 guitars, 4 Burn's and 3 Tokai's, my semi acoustic Burn's Baldwin dates to around 1965/66 and is in very good condition, hopefully by the time I am 60 in about 24yrs it may make a few quid. It was bought for £300 in 1993.

My other Burn's is a Marvin that dates to around 1979/80, outweighs a Les Paul so can be uncomfortable to play for long periods, there has been one on ebay for months now, started off at £1800 and is now down to £1200, again, in a few yrs time it may make a bit of profit and go towards the retirement fund. The other 2 Burn's are newer models that wont increase in value.

The Tokai's however will in time increase in value, these are the guitars I use for all occasions, 2 are 1980 first edition models and the other is a later 1984 model. Two Strats and one Precision bass, wouldn't swap them for anything, tune once a the beguinning of the night and forget about them.

With everything I buy I always look at the selling on potential and if there are any wages to be made from selling them on. I once bought a 1997 Wine Red Gibson Les Paul Standard of a guy for £500.00, I sold it the day after for £750.00 as I don't personally like Les Pauls and wouldn't get the benefit from it.

Lee :)

i've only ever had a few instruments in nearly 40 years, first off was a Grantson precision bass copy in 1973 , then i got a Harmony H22 which was old when i got it , then a CMI rick copy but the one with the through neck , then a hondo 2 precision, then an Aria slb pro 2 bass, and finally My USA built jazz , i still have the aria kept it as it was a 40th birthday gift must rewire it ! i've always wanted a gibson thunderbird but quite like the epiphone thunderbird pro 4 i'm not bothered if its an original or copy, as has been said if it sounds good and plays o.k jobs a guddun.

@ 4 most wanted ...... A 5 string eh??? Theres the rub mate ... i have a big problem with 5 string basses cos ive only got little wanking spanners and the necks are a bit big for my little pinkies......

However we shall have to set summat up ... ill let you have a bash on my Yamaha BB714BS - the sheehan recent issue - Its the most powerful passive bass signal you will have ever heard i guarantee it!

Rochdale n Bury ...... not a million miles apart!

"Its the most powerful passive bass signal you will have ever heard i guarantee it!"

It's bloody invasive. Like someone put bass strings on a howitzer.

@LA80 Mark - No worries there mate. The neck is as slim as a 4 string so the string spacing is slightly narrower. But you can go all the way down to bottom B which is low end terrorism if it's not controlled properly! And yeah, would love to hear your Yamaha. Heard only good things about 'em.

@Guy - Apologies for the blog jack by the way!