You’re Overpaying for LIES: The UGLY Truth About Expensive Electric Guitars

Comments · 123

• BO

  @borisrandall666 · 1 month ago

  We overpay for lies with EVERYTHING we buy. Food, clothes, gas, cars, guitars, services like internet, utilities. All of it is sold to us packaged in lies and it's over priced.

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• DO

  @dobiqwolf · 1 month ago

  Philip McKnkight mentioned a while ago the strategy large guitar manufacturers are now using, raising the price of their flagship made in USA models (not custom shop) to make the budget model more appealing as the later one is where the money is now because of volume.<br>Gibson did this with their revamped Epiphone catalogue with higher prices than traditional Epiphone guitars (from $500 to over $1K) and increased prices of Gibson LP standard and ES type guitars.<br>So yes, USA made guitars have inflated price on purpose which is not an automatic representation of better craftsmanship.

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• YW

  @Ywyruvrgrv · 1 month ago

  Why is the law of diminishing returns a mystery to people , and the realities of economics also a mystery? It’s been that way for centuries 😂😂😂

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• CR

  @crazy8sdrums · 1 month ago (edited)

  I live in a very humid area and I want my guitars to have polyurethane on them, because poly rejects humidity far better than nitro does. &nbsp;I see polyurethane as a positive and nitro as an outdated technology. &nbsp;I also see the synthetic and/or composites used to fabricate fretboards as a positive for consistency and stability. &nbsp;They will retain their shape much more closely over time and in less than ideal environments.<br><br>I have been a musician for almost 40 years now, and worked in music stores for a few years too. &nbsp;The instrument industry is so full of marketing gimmicks and dishonest mythology. &nbsp;The music industry as a whole is profoundly dishonest and filled with evil....and caters to the many, many, many young people that are looking to sell their soul to the devil in exchange for temporary fame and fortune.<br><br>An example of dishonest mythology: The &apos;Patent Applied For&apos; humbucker pickup, PAF. &nbsp;Gibson made them for Les Paul and Les Paul &apos;SG&apos; and a few other models, starting in the late 1950s through early &apos;60s. &nbsp;They were made to keep the cost down and very sloppily. &nbsp;Very little consistency in how they were wound. &nbsp;They weren&apos;t even counting the number of winds and they were not even careful to wind them evenly. &nbsp;They basically just let the machine spin until the bobbin was full. &nbsp;Their electronic measurement varies greatly and they all sound different from one another. &nbsp;All are microphonic too, as they were not wax potted. &nbsp;One could be paying as much as $20,000 for a matched pair of original PAF pickups from the 50s....<br><br>You can go to Amazon or Ebay or Temu or Aliexpress and you can find new, Chinese made humbucker pickups, wound to imitate the specs of a 50s PAF pickup...for under $50 a pair. &nbsp;They are going to sound pretty similar to the original PAFs. &nbsp;In a blind listening test, nobody will know the difference....(I have seen these tests...nobody knows the difference)<br><br>So, what are people buying when the spend that $20,000 on a pair of pickups? &nbsp;The mythology and nostalgia. &nbsp;A feeling. &nbsp;They will put them into a guitar and put that guitar into a case and stuff it in a vault somewhere, never to be played except when showing it off to their friends or on a Youtube video.

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• GY

  @GySgt_USMC_Ret. · 1 month ago (edited)

  Purchased a high-end guitar that was made and PLEKd in my hometown, setup for extra $ at the retailer, still arrived with string buzz (strings were not stretched for stability). Returned for correction and requested a PLEK Pro. Awaiting response. Cheers.

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• ED

  @edbogus · 1 month ago

  Enjoyed this information! &nbsp;Very informative and helpful 😊👍

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• MV

  @mvbyoutube · 1 month ago

  My Squier bullet strat with a good setup (frets levelled and all) plays great. I put Epiphone humbuckers in it and it&apos;s a rock/metal machine!

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• FL

  @FloydFp · 1 hour ago

  I&apos;ve bought 3 new guitars from Sweetwater and while I love their no hassle return policy, I think their 55-point inspection misses the mark. &nbsp;I purchased a PRS S2 from them with a setup and I was hearing static noises whenever I brushed up against the screws on the pickup switch back panel. &nbsp;It was probably an electrical short on the switch. &nbsp;I would think they would have been able to catch this before shipping. &nbsp;I returned it and got a Yamaha Revstar Pro instead and that arrived with fret sprout. &nbsp;I was able to get it fixed through a local luthier that Sweetwater paid for but it is disappointing that I had problems with 2 guitars in a row. &nbsp;I still think Sweetwater is a great place to buy guitars from but if I buy a new guitar from them, I will take it straight to my local luthier for the setup rather than having them do it.

• SC

  @Scrinbot · 1 month ago (edited)

  Still playing a 2003 Telecaster MiM. Sounds amazing and plays like butter

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• PS

  @psrando · 1 month ago

  I have a MIM Strat and a MIC Tele (yes, it&apos;s a Fender...not a Squier) &nbsp;love them both. &nbsp;My Les Paul and J45, both made in the USA, are great as well.

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• TO

  @tonys2189 · 1 month ago

  I bought an American professional 2 Fender made in California... And it&apos;s the biggest piece of sh*t that I&apos;ve ever had in my hands. I bought it second hand at a reasonable price (Basically what I was willing to pay) with the strings gauge it was sold and the trem springs forced at it&apos;s maximum it played alright .. but when I wanted to put it back to it&apos;s default state (09 gauge and an actual moving tremolo/ I realised t quality control in California was zero. The old owner did what he could to save the instructions but he gave up and sold it to me, and I was stupid enough to thi g Fender had a great quality control and good materials so I could fix any possible issue... It&apos;s inadmissible to pay 1500 dollars for a brand new one.

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• GU

  @GuitarCodex · 1 month ago (edited)

  Gibson guitar evoke strong, passionate opinions from musicians, generally praised for their rich tone and unmatched &quot;cool factor&quot; while facing regular criticism over high prices and inconsistent build quality.

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