I’ve been wondering, would you rather get a student-grade/mid-range instrument eg. a Fender Player Strat when you can get the one Made in USA American Standard you dreamed about years ago for roughly the same price (used)?
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Edit: I think I ended up talking in circles below a bit. Short answer: Between those two options, yes to the used “pro” quality guitar, but only if it’s local and you are confident inspecting it.
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If you have a sentimental craving for a particular model, even a worthy substitute probably won’t scratch that emotional itch.
But personally, I’m over that. We live in a world embarrassingly rich with excellent affordable solid-body electric guitars. I’ve decided that apart from obvious functional defects, the main dealbreaker for me nowadays is frets that are too small. Props to folks who are willing to refret to taste, but I just don’t want the hassle.
But pay a premium for Fender over the Squier version or one of the zillions of decent clones? Not for me. Once a certain threshold is crossed, it’s basically all about setup (including fretwork) and pickups as far as I’m concerned, and I’d sooner get something with cheap pickups I can replace to taste (only if I feel I really need to) rather than pay a premium for a product manager’s choice of expensive pickups.
As to used versus new, for people who are comfortable doing their own setup, fretwork, and electronics swaps, used is mostly a no-brainer. But only for instruments you can inspect hands-on before buying them. I’m sure a big percentage of people who buy used over the internet don’t get screwed, but I don’t want to deal with potential hassles. If you live in an area with plentiful local used instruments on offer, that’s a great way to go as long as you are confident in your ability to evaluate hands-on.
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I’m of two minds here:
I bought my Caparison sight-unseen and it is a fantastic guitar.
Flip side? I did not need to buy a Caparison and, with modern CNC technology, almost any assembly line guitar will be fine, particularly with the tech skills I know you have.
Amps on the other hand? A good amp will often just cost money.
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I agree. I am always tempted to buy the “better” instrument, even if it is perceived to be only slightly better - and you probably should in this case since the price difference isn’t large, but these days I am all about how the guitar actually plays, and sounds. In echoing others, most everything is CNC’d anyway, it’s really the QA, finishing steps and electronics/hardware that are different, which can all be dealt with after-market.
Some of my nicest playing and sounding instruments happen to be the cheapest I own.
I’ve had a similar experience. Among my “pro” guitars, my humble Harley Benton 335 stands out because it plays like butter (after working on it for a few days).
Over time, I have become a sort of guitar survivalist and refuse to pay for anything that doesn’t require a router, refretting included.
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I have a couple but one of the most surprising is a set neck LP guitar body/neck partscaster made from who knows what, that I pieced together with stuff I had laying around. The body sat for 8 years of taking up space and I got sick of looking at it. It’s not light per se - 8lbs or so, but reacts almost like it is chambered, and is kind of a loud guitar. It does have early-mid 80’s un-potted Shaw era Gibson pickups I had laying around, which really surprised me also, because by how they spec (lower end of a 42awg “paf “ wind), I would assume they would be weak and bright - and they are bright, but they feel just as hot and loud as some of the high output pickups I have in most of my other instruments. For being unpotted they don’t seem to feedback or be uncontrollable in any way, which was also surprising, but I also noticed that the Shaws seemed to be really tightly assembled.
Anyway I like to think it is magic, but it’s probably mostly because of the care and work I put into it, the two days of fret work etc. and a random synergistic crap shoot that just happened to work out. I named it the draug or draugr
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Boy do I love partscasters. Perhaps it might not work all the time but the ones I’ve managed to turn into playable instruments bring me so much joy.
About project guitars, I’ve recently refretted a modest Schecter that had seen better days and it ended up becoming one of the most comfortable guitars I’ve ever played. I have the action at 1/16th inch at the 12th fret due to taste but confirmed it could go as low as 1/32nd inch with no buzzing if I wanted to.
Back to premium used instruments vs. new mid-range ones, you can find Godin guitars for about $500 that are 100% professional-level instruments with a great track record of QC. Some Godins I’ve played are under $1000 but look, feel and sound at levels that get veeeery close to my experience with custom shop models and elite brands like Suhr.
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At the same price, I would rather get a better used guitar than a new guitar that’s not as good. And I would rather get the guitar I really want then settle for one I’m not as excited about.
That said, I wouldn’t order a used guitar online unless I could easily return it. I tend to get used guitars via Guitar Center for that very reason as if there’s an issue I can easily return them to the store. Most guitars I’ve bought through GC were in great condition, but one had a broken pickup and another had a huge chunk missing out of the back of the guitar.
And, like Frylock, I probably wouldn’t pay more for a Fender or Gibson over a Squier or Epiphone. I like finding great value guitars. My main guitar is a Schecter Hellraiser Extreme C1-M - an awesome guitar that I got used for $400.
I’m building more of them just to use up parts I have. I have absolutely no purpose for more guitars, yet here I am.
POST THE NGD omfg the people deserve to know
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I mean, honestly, a Player II Strat seems pretty “pro” to me, spec-wise, though I’ll admit I haven’t gotten to play one in the flesh. I know the old Mexican Standard Strats felt pretty good though when I last played a bunch in the mid-2010s, I just haven’t really spent much time in guitar stores since.
Play them both and buy the one that feels or sounds the best. Strats are just a platform for hot-rodding anyway.
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I really like the Fender Player instruments as I think they are “legit” enough to satisfy my pretentious self without breaking the band.
On another note, the one brand that I think broke the market is Sire. Small things like smooth edges do not necessarily add a lot to the production cost but makes the instrument feel like a million bucks.
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I just bought Caparison last month… its one of the best built guitars I’ve ever played, and I’ve had Suhr, Jackson USA, Charvel USA , ESP JAPAN, IBanez Japan…
All worth the $$$. You’re paying for a master-built instrument when you commit to this $.
Even High-end production guitars… the skill level, materials and methods are just on another level.
Your statement about “any guitar being fine” with CNC technology. is just so wrong. I’m not saying that you can’t get a good guitar at a lower price, but there are many variables to consider.
Buy the best guitar you can afford, each and every time, and that goes for all gear across the board.
i bought a fender player strat a few years back. the truss rod broke after one modest turn… it happens, but that was a first for me. I’ve had many MIM Charvels (owned by Fender) the QC isn’t consistent.
I’ve played many Fender Player Strat since then… they look nice… they need a good setup, by a tech who knows their stuff. My nephew bought one… the nut wasn’t cut right and the high e string is fretting out…
So … you take risk when you go cheaper… you get what you pay for.
I’ve owned many guitars, from a 1999 Fujigen RG to several different Korean-made Schecters and the Caparison, and , as much as I love it, my Caparison is just a luxury. The fit and finish is a bit better, but the Schecters were perfectly serviceable and didn’t sound or play much worse.
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whatever… i’ve owned dozens of MIM, Korean and China builit guitars… some of them were gems… most had some issues with build quality.
For the $ Charvels are great mod platform, but again, MIM QC is spotty.
My Japan built guitars are light years ahead of the ^^^ above. fretwork, wood quality, , build quality… just made to a higher standard… always played better, sounded better…
Anyone own, or have experience with, an Ibanez RG550 Genesis? Very reasonably priced for a Japanese guitar at $1,149.00.
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I’d personally never by a std instrument from fender ever again, I think the value in their signature instruments is where it’s at.
Though anything from the 90s and earlier from Fender Japan is killer too, not sure about the new production stuff.
I’ve a jap thing going on right now, Yamaha LL56 Custom, OMG, I want one!
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I can’t speak for any current production Genesis series, but I own a RG550 from… maybe mid2010s, I think, that I imported used from Japan for stupidly little money (it might have been less than $500 shipped, I don’t remember). I bought it mostly because it was Road Flare Red and everyone needs a truly stupid over the top guitar, but it was an unexpectedly nice guitar on top of that and while I changed them out because I was looking for something else, the stock V1/V2 pickups were very chunky.
I mean, definitionally, if it’s a signature artist instrument, there are all the other costs of production, plus the licensing fee or whatever paid to the artist as part of the deal, so on a strict value-for-dollar basis that almost never can be true.
I think the exception would be if the particular set of specs for a given artist happened to align with modifications you were planning on making yourself, then you could start to argue it makes economic sense - like, if you happened to really like a particular set of pickups and they came pre-installed in an artist’s signature Strat, then depending on the rest of the specs and cost differential you could say maybe it’s a little cheaper, net, to buy the artist strat and get the pickups you want pre-installed… but otherwise, I think you’d almost always come out ahead just buying a good American strat in a color you like, and making whatever tweaks you want over time.
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removed due to jealousy…
In my experience, not only regarding guitars but in life in general, a high price has never been a guarantee of anything besides bragging rights. Is top quality stuff usually more expensive? Sure! Is a $10.000 guitar measurably 10 times better than a $1000 one? Not even close. Diminishing returns.
(I’m slowly turning into a “there’s food at home” mom 
).
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