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Guitars
Commentary and Links
GUITAR - Articles (read all these articles before you spend any more money on guitars)
Information: "Guitar Collections", in case you're wondering where all those expensive boutique and vintage guitars are going, they're being hoarded by collectors - not musicians. This wealthy crowd is responsible for driving up the prices as they sell the same gutiars back and forth to each other. Just because a dozen people are foolishly willing to waste thousands on guitars, that doesn't mean everybody else should be shut out of the market for quality guitars. They are also the bullies on the internet newsgroups as they flame and harrass anyone who dares critisize any of their investments. The most famous Japanese guitar collectors are Akira Tsumura and Mac Yasuda who have accumlated huge collections of extremely expensive guitars.
makes great custom Fender-style guitars. Serious $$$ and only. They are outrageously expensive, but they represent what the real cost a 50's and 60's Fender would be if they were made exactly the same way today. They are some of the best next to John Suhr Guitars.
Contact him at Tom Anderson
Aria Guitars, once considered to be imported junk from Japan, this company has improved their guitars and raised their prices - but are still less overpriced than USA made Gibsons. They now make boutique models such as the Sinsonido; their jazz guitars have been used by famous jazz guitarists Herb Ellis, Joe Pass, Ike Isaacs, Jim Mullen, Larry Coryell
Baker Guitars, former Fender and Gibson Custom Shop builder, after he started Baker Guitars, former Fender endorcee Robben Ford started to endorce Baker guitars instead, Baker Guitars
Benavente Guitars, Robert Benedetto himself is a famous jazz guitarist, March of 1999, Benedetto signed a Design & Consulting Agreement with Fender Musical Instruments Corporation to redesign Guild Guitar's popular Artist Award & Stuart models and to have Benedetto models made at the Fender Custom Shop. He makes guitars for John Pizzarelli
Beyond the Trees, Fred Carlson, played by Alex De Grassi and Todd Green including the amazing "Guitarangi da Gamba", "Sympitar", and "Nylon-String Double-Neck Guitar", must see and hear masterpeice guitars
2724 Cesar Chavez Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90033, (323)261-2011
Tomas and Manuel Candelas, these makers of classical, mariachi, and flamenco guitars have been featured in many magazines and tv programs. Audition them at Candelas,
Dana B. Goods is the exclusive USA distributor for Warwick basses, Framus guitars, Humfrees
D'Angelico Guitars, Japan, by Mr. Shino; the ones made by John D'Angelico were actually more popular for their looks than their sound; customers didn't actually play them because they were so expensive, nobody wanted to scratch and dent them thereby ruining their outrageously overinflated value; these were collected by wealthy collectors, not actual musicians, for investment purposes just like Faberge eggs; who knows what they actually sounded like, you'll never hear one recorded or on any stage because everyone is too afraid to hold $50,000+ guitars; all the original John D'Angelico guitars are safely locked away in private collections behind glass cases - these "instruments" will never be played and handled by actual people, much less by musicians who might actually want to play them; the only authorized D'Angelico replicas made in the USA are by Michael Lewis of Grass Valley, CA
Dean Guitars, good quality Korean made guitars, just replace the pickups with USA boutique pickups and you'll have a great players' guitar. They sell a few USA made guitars that are great.
makes the kind of guitars Django used to play, Maccaferri Guitars and Selmer Guitars, see also Michael Dunn Guitars, David J. Hodson guitars, and Maurice Dupont guitars
makes the kind of guitars Django used to play, Maccaferri Guitars and Selmer Guitars, see also Dell'Arte Instruments, David J. Hodson guitars, and Maurice Dupont guitars
makes the kind of guitars Django used to play, Maccaferri Guitars and Selmer Guitars, see also Dell'Arte Instruments and Michael Dunn Guitars, David J. Hodson guitars, luthier Paul Hostetter sells them
Eastman Guitars, China, these are high quality handmade guitars that look and sound great. in the future, President Qian Ni is going to known as the Chinese Fender/Gibson/Martin
Bernie Hefner is a notable custom guitar builder. He makes his great custom guitars for his own company now and has this client list. Bernie Hefner's EDENHAUS GUITARS, (310)691-2122
They have a cool website that lets you design guitars on screen. MusicMan was the company Leo Fender designed guitars for 10 years after he sold Fender Guitars to CBS. Leo Fender and John Carruthers designed evolved guitars, basses, and amps, most notably the Saber and Stingray. After Leo Fender sold MusicMan to Ernie Ball, Ernie Ball dropped all of Leo Fender's guitar designs; only the Stinray bass guitar remains the way Leo Fender designed it. John Carruthers started his own guitar shop in Venice, CA (see links above for info). Leo Fender went onto found G&L guitars. MusicMan guitar amps made while Leo Fender worked there were actually designed by ex-employees of the first Fender guitar company. EarnieBall sells licensed Music Man-style guitar and basses as OLP Guitars
Leo Fender started making guitars after examining a guitar made by Merle Travis and Paul Bigsby. Leo Fender used Bigsby's ideas to design his guitars. When Fender made the guitars, he was not a musician, he didn't know anything about tone or guitar building. He was trying to make something that could be easily mass produced in a production line. He used Ash and Alder woods because he could get good "cheap" supplies. The paints he used were for cars (of the 1950's), not instruments. Fender used RCA electronics' PA amps designs to derive designs for Fender amps. Leo Fender sold and left this company in the 1960's. After CBS bought Fender in 1964, Fender stopped making guitars himself in mid-1964. After CBS management took over in 1965, CBS's corporate cost cutting drove Fender guitars down in quality. Fender guitars made before the middle of 1965 are called Pre-CBS guitars. After years of turning out overpriced crappy guitars with lots of costcuts such as bathtub routes, plywood bodies with veneers (they look nice but aren't solid), cheap pickups, fake woodgrain "photo-flame" veneers, they've finally seen the errors of their costcutting ways and are turning out production guitars that deserve to be called Fenders.
Fender paint jobs and finishes have always been mediocre. When Leo Fender started making his first guitars, he didn't know anything about guitar finishes so he used car paints instead. These car paints weren't meant for wood finishes so they faded, chipped, and discolored. Years later, Fender fans believe that those cheap paint jobs were special and added to the tone of the guitar. So Fender today uses cheap paints that are thin, easily nicked and dented, discolor quickly, quickly "orange peel", crackle, get "finish checking", and fade. At least Fender stopped the bathtub routing in 1998; they now use a H/S/H routing and the reissues are routed just like the old ones. Other guitar brands' finishes, including many guitars imported from Asia, have much better finishes and do not chip, discolor, fade, "orange peel" and crack so quickly. Fender's white paint jobs fade to banana yellow very quickly. Vintage dealers sell this FLAW as being some kind of badge of authenticity. Fender even stickers some of their guitars as having "thin laquer finishes." But a shoddy finish is a shoddy finish no matter whose name is on the headstock. Fender's "Highway 1" guitars are the same as their "American Series" guitars with "a thin satin lacquer finish" without clear gloss laquer on top of them; that means these guitars get worn and scratched very easily. Every single "Highway 1" guitar I've seen gets shopworn with blemishes, dings, dents, and scratches within hours of being put on display; why they don't finish them with clear coats or the same paint jobs they use for their Mexican guitars is beyond all logic and reason.
Now they sell overpriced decent guitars; but they reserve their best parts for their more expensive "custom shop" guitars. Their guitars are so overpriced that Fender was trying offer rebates to customers - why don't they just lower their prices to reasonable levels in the first place? These guitars are made in an automated factory so labor is not a cost. Their Pre-CBS production line guitars used to be at the level of quality as a Fender Custom Shop Masterbuilt guitar is today. The new "American Series" guitars are so much better than the previous ones, that I think they're better than any Fenders made post-CBS up until now. Their more expensive Custom Shop guitars were always made the way Fenders were supposed to be made, but at 300% the price of their production line models. Many Fender affionados believe that any Fender guitar made outside of the Custom Shop is not a real Fender. Some of the the Fender Custom Shop guitars are actually by outsourced independent luthiers who build the guitars using Fender parts outside and far away from the production factory. There are only a few "authorized online Fender dealers", but they usually charge list price so they won't compete with other brick & mortar dealers. Fender has many "lines" and variations of the same guitars which have minor cosmetic differences and insignificant modifications. They sell many versions of the same guitars with minor cosmetic differences so that their many dealers which are in close proximity to each other won't compete against each other on price for the same guitars. Fender demands unreasonable upcharges for minor cosmetic differences for example: it costs the same to make a left or right sided headstock, but they will jack up the prices when they sell a left "reverse" headstock on a right handed guitar, and they will market the "reverse" headstock model as some kind of "special commemorative limited edition." Fender Japan sells guitar models that have "medium scale" necks and other models that are not sold outside of Japan. Fender pickups are designed by Rob and Bill Turner of EMG pickups. Fender has the worst customer service; practically nonexistant.
Warning: only USA-made Fender guitars are collectable and increase in value over time, all OEM'ed and imported Fender-badged guitars depreciate quickly and steeply. Fender Indonesia, China, India, etc., are considered to be junk in the resale market, regardless of how they sound and play. Fender Japan guitars sell used for around $500, regardless of what they sell for new. Fender hides the truth of their origins of their products, so assume anything they don't name as "American" is actually OEM'ed. Fender is hiding the truth that most of their amps, even their tube amps, are now made in Mexico. Imported guitars are good for modifying and taking out to shows. You can leave your expensive American guitars at home and take your imported guitar with modified pickups and hardware out to shows. If you drop, scratch, ding, dent, and bang up your imported guitar, you won't feel as bad if you had done the same damage to your expensive trophy guitars. The aftermarket parts market was created so players could modify imports into players.
Fender seems to have two "custom shops", one is a CNC line at their Corona factory and their "masterbuilt custom shop" guitars are outsoured. John English makes "Fender Custom Shop" guitars and his own branded guitars out of his garage miles away from the official Fender factory. Alan Hamel and Fred Stuart make "Fender Custom Shop" guitars and their own "Alan Hamel & Fred Stuart" branded guitars out of their garages miles away from the official Fender factory. See the link below for CNC Magazine's article on the Fender Custom Shop. There is no justification for their outrageous "Custom Shop" prices; their "waiting period" is a crock. Consider how the only things differentiating "Custom Shop" guitars from regular production line guitars are the options for different parts which cost the same to produce: take a regular production line guitar, substitute a reverse headstock and different colored pickguard and presto, that same guitar is now a "Custom Shop" guitar and costs double what a regular production line guitar costs! Their machines can make a made to order guitar in hours.
Side Notes: Fender named his P-Bass "Precision" because it had frets, so does that mean that a fretless P-Bass is no longer "P"? Fender ruins their most expensive guitar, their D'Aquisto Ultra, by using cheap imported pickups made in Korea by Kent Armstrong. It makes you wonder where and how many of the other "Fender pickups" are outsourced too?
Side Note 2: Nobody has explained to me why the single pickup "Esquire" has a pickup selector switch.
Side Note 3: For years Gretsch sued Fender to stop using the "Broadcaster" name for the "Telecaster." Now that Fender owns Gretsch, can the "Tele" finally use the name it originally had?
CNC Magazine - Fender Custom Shop, Fender Custom Shop guitars are made by CNC machines just like their regular guitars, there is no justification for their outrageous "Custom Shop" prices; their "waiting period" is a crock considering how their machines can make a made to order guitar in hours
EMG Pickups, Rob Turner designs pickups for Fender, PRS, and Steinberger too. Bill Turner (who also is behind the LSR name and nut design on the Clapton guitar and the brother of EMG's Rob Turner) designed the Vintage Noiseless pickups
Greg Gagliano's G&L website another G&L fan site with pictures by Greg Gagliano, writer for 20TH CENTURY GUITAR magazine, he has info on the post-BBE changes and pickup origins
Merlin 5 Products, 2572 E Fender #B, Fullerton, CA 92831, (714)879-7508,
has provided the music industry's leading guitar builders with the finest hardware made. Fender, Jackson, Rickenbacker, G&L, Yamaha, and countless other small builders have benefited from his vast experience in the machining world. He has worked with the best, Grover Jackson, Gary Kahler, and Wayne Charvel just to name a few. Bill Gerien's company makes hardware and CNC products and tooling for G&L guitars.
the real Gibson guitars made by the same people who made the early ones in the same factory with the same equipment are now sold as "Heritage Guitars" (see link below for "Heritage Guitars"). Gibson Custom Guitars are their custom shop Gibson guitars, not the mass produced and imported ones. Former Gibson custom shop builder Gene Baker is selling guitars under his own name (see link above for "Gene Baker"). Former Gibson custom shop builder Roger Giffin is selling guitars under his own name (see link below for "Giffin Guitars"). Everybody complains about how overpriced Gibson guitars are and how they've declined in quality. Some people consider Tokai Love Rock guitars to be superior to Gibson USA guitars. Get a "Heritage Guitar" or "Gene Baker" or "Giffin Guitar" for the real thing. The #1 USA dealer is Centre City Music in San Diego, CA. Warning: only USA-made Gibson guitars are collectable and increase in value, all OEM'ed and imported Gibson/Epiphone-rebadged guitars depreciate quickly and steeply. Gibson stopped making Epiphone guitars in the USA in 1970.
former head of Gibson West Coast Custom Shop in Los Angeles for 5 years, co-owner of R&B Instrument Services at Guitar Center in Hollywood, owner of Giffin Guitars London in England for 25 years. He has lots of big-name clients.
went out of business a long time ago, this new company is owned by Fender Instruments. Old Gretsch guitars looked great, but never played well. Some Gretsch guitars have crappy versions of the Bigsby tremolo that don't allow for individual string intonation; they go out of tune badly as you play up the neck.
Their more expensive guitars are made by Terada-Gakki, Nagoya, Japan with pickups made by TV-Jones. Their lower priced guitars are made by Korean guitar maker Kimaxe who sells the same guitars under their own brand and "SamAsh Carlo Robelli" brand with pickups that'll remind you of the 1950's Gretsch pickups, but don't sound like them.
Kimaxe guitars sold as "Kimaxe" sell for a fraction of the Gretsch branded guitars; you can save yourself a lot of money by buying a Kimaxe Guitar and installing TV-Jones pickups and you'd have a "Gretsch" guitar. Their websites and advertisements sell the idea that these guitars are part of the Gretsch legacy, but the real Gretsch company died when Baldwin bought them in the 1960's. Baldwin ruined Gretsch in the same way CBS ruined Fender, and Gretsch's reputation never recovered. Too bad Gibson guitars didn't buy them out, but then again, Gibson bought Epiphone and is now just slapping the Epiphone name on the same Korean Samick-made guitars. Go find out what a similar Samick guitar costs, add the price of TV Jones pickups, and you'll see how much these guitars are actually worth. These are terribly overpriced and you can actually buy a used pre-Baldwin one for much less than a "new" one. The only redeeming factor to Gretsch guitars are some models' installment of pickups made by Tom Jones of TV Jones Guitars. Gretsch now has a new line of TV-Jones/Rich Modica USA-made guitars marketed as "Spectra Sonic" guitars; these are probably their only collectable guitars. Buy a used Gretsch, a TV Jones, or a Jim English guitar for higher quality and lower prices. TV Jones Pickups is an OEM supplier to many guitar manufacturers including Koll Guitar Company, Baker Guitars, GMP Guitars, Fender Custom Shop, Jim English Guitars, Birdman Guitars, CB Hill Guitars, and TTR Design Co.
makes the kind of guitars Django used to play, Maccaferri Guitars and Selmer Guitars, see also Dell'Arte Instruments, Michael Dunn Guitars, and Maurice Dupont guitars
Italia Guitars, guitars that look like those old (cheap when they were made) guitars complete with metalflake finishes. The advantage here is that they are modern guitars without the maintenance problems that you often see in their ancestors.
Ibanez Guitars, Japanese guitar company that makes expensive signature models for Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Pat Metheney, George Benson, John Scofield
Thomas Vincent Jonestsch pickups such as his Tele Model 2, has had good reviews in Guitar Player Magazine. Serious $$$ and only. A few session musicians use his guitars.
John Hornby Skewes, makes and distributes imported instruments including the brands: Encore, Vintage, Vintage Metal Axxe, Falcon, Manuel Rodriguez UK, Palma, Santos Martinez. These Asian imported guitars are perfect for modifying with upgraded aftermarket pickups and parts. Vintage Guitars are clones of Gibsons, PRS, Peavey, Jacksons, Fender, MusicMan guitars and basses.
he sells other luthiers' guitars too, his acoustics and electrics are very good, his Transperformance-Klein Guitar is the first self-tuning acoustic guitar
endorced by guitar legends Phil Keaggy and Earl Klugh, his custom double developed with Thom Bresh is a weird guitar that has a steel stringed guitar one one side and a nylon classical guitar on the other with custom case, also makes harp guitar
the best acoustic steel string guitars, the standard by which all other acoustic guitars are judged. Martin invented the "Dreadnought" guitar and all other guitar makers are imitators. Nobody at Martin can give me a straight answer as to whether or not their Martin-Sigma Korean made guitars are made exactly like their American guitars
Master Guitars, by George Gorodnitski, he makes some guitars that are played with a bow, MasterGuitars @ usa. com
McInturff Guitars, Terry C. McInturff Guitars are better than Paul Reed Smith guitars, are still handmade unlike PRS, and cost around the same prices as the top-of-the-line PRS
MTB, Michael Tobias Design, he left his first company Tobias Guitars in 1992 after Gibson buyout, this is his new company, builds 10 instruments per month, he's a designer for Grendel Basses, Brian Moore Guitars, Modulus, and Alvarez
OLP Guitars, officially licensed Music Man-style guitar and basses
ef="http://www.OptekMusic.com" >OptekMusic Guitars
guitars that teach you how to play the guitar, actually imported Samick guitars with their unique lighted fretboard, also called Fretlight Guitars, OptekMusic Guitars
Polynesian Guitars, handmade traditional Polynesian guitars made by a Polynesian, call for info, 13071 Euclid St, Garden Grove, CA 92843, (714)539-4552
great guitars made from the same factory by the same people for many decades. President John Hall is keeping the brand's standards high, and prices high too.
Bernie Rico Jr. Guitars, after spending over 20 years with B.C. Rich (BC Rich Guitars), Bernie Jr. has independantly started a fresh new line of guitars,
Carlo Robelli, Sam Ash's brand, Korean and China made, pretty good guitars, just swap out the pickups with USA pickups and you'll have a good "player" guitar you can take to live shows
Robin Guitars, use Rio Grande pickups, their Robin Ranger guitar is getting popular
these are not boutique guitars, these are mass produced guitars. Many other brands worldwide buy Samick guitars and re-badge them with their own names and raise the prices. Gibson-Epiphone guitars are actually Samick guitars. These guitars depreciate quickly and steeply. Many musicians buy these as "thowaway" guitars; they swap out the pickups with Seymour Duncans or some other aftermarket brand, and use these guitars for touring. Now they can have a Les Paul-looking guitar with better pickups. They can bang, drop, scratch and dent the guitar, and it won't bother the musicians because their price trophy vintage boutique guitars are safely stored at their homes. I've seen famous jazz musicians with Samick hollow body guitars; there's no way they're going to take their 1950's prize priceless one-of-a-kind guitar to a smokey jazz club. Also consider that if you're in a rock band playing rhythm guitar, you really can't differentiate between one brand's guitar with another when playing in a band, so you might as well use a Samick instead of some expensive boutique guitar. Samick's PRS-clone guitars are actually better than the Korean-PRS guitars because they have real tremolos, not stoptails. Swap out the pickups on these guitars and you'll have pretty good playing/touring guitars. Samick Guitars
Jack Sanders Guitar, luthier, instructor at Pomona College, CA at California Institute of the Arts, exceptional quality instruments, virtuoso musician
675 Vancouver Rd, S.E., Rio Rancho, NM 87124, (505)896-3441
Kim Leland Schwartz, acoustic sitar-guitar has a standard six-string neck with an additional 13 sympathetic strings and a sitar bridge to help her achieve the kind of nontempered phrasing associated with the north Indian instrument
UK guitars that became famous in the 1970's when used by UK punk rock bands, still based in a suburb of Manchester, affordable handmade instruments, endorsed by the likes of The Buzzcocks and Iggy Pop,
review
PRS guitars used to be handmade and reasonably priced, now they are entirely machine made and ridiculously overpriced, he has made many costcuts such as installing cheaper bridges (went from his famous tremolo to a cheap non adjustable stoptail - you can't properly adjust individual strings for intonation). Article: Intonating the PRS (Not Too Easy). They have great finishes - but you can't hear or play a finish. PRS inlays are outsourced to Pearlworks. For a lot less money you can buy a better guitar by Nik Huber, Carvin, Roger Giffin, Gene Baker Guitars, Bunker, Malden, Belman, Heritage, Gibson, Hammer, Jaros Guitars, Guild, Terry McInturff, David Thomas McNaught, Patrick Eggle Guitars, Gordon-Smith Guitars, Thorn, Dean USA, or Ed Roman. When PRS first came out, they were a great alternative to the Gibsons which had been lagging in quality. Now Gibsons have improved and the Gibson Les Paul Standard Double Cut guitar is better than the PRS guitars. Also consider that PRS have lousy resale values while Gibsons retain theirs. At the handmade price ranges PRS is asking, you can afford much better McInturff or Giffin guitars or for less money you can get a real Gibson. Pre-1995 old-factory PRS guitars were great, now they're merchandise for the wealthy. Most of the parts are outsourced. These overpriced guitars are the prime examples of guitars made for "hip lawyer wall decorations" with emphasis on finish and exclusive high prices instead of being instruments for working musicians. PRS customer service is nonexistant, unless you're a famous endorcee. PRS are for wealthy "Walter Mitty rock stars." PRS now sells imported rebadged OEM guitars from Korea at very high prices. The Korean made clones sold by Samick, Dillion, Phil Musical, and John Hornby Skewes actually have better hardware than PRS's "stoptailed" USA assembled guitars. Check out these comments on PRS guitars: Peter's comments: "PRS are for yuppie collectors who are buying them for wall decorations, the pipedreamers who'll buy them to pull out of the closet once a month to play with, and the newbie rich kids aren't going to know or even care about such things for the uses they're buying them for - ego-trophies. But the working musicians out there and collectors of higher-end guitars do care. These wall decorations are nothing more than mediocre and are practically useless for serious hard real-world working-musician playing. It's more of a fashion decoration than a real guitar." (there are more comments on PRS on that webpage). PRS Fans Strike Back to Set Me Straight
Stuart Custom Guitars, A&F Custom Guitar Services, Alan Hamel and Fred Stuart make "Fender Custom Shop" guitars and their own "Alan Hamel & Fred Stuart"/"A&F Guitar Services" branded guitars out of their garages miles away from the official Fender factory. As you may know, when Fred Stuart and Alan Hamel left the Fender Custom Shop, (in 2001) they formed A&F Custom Guitar Services. Along with their line of guitars, they also offered pickups. In 2003, A&F Custom Guitar Services ceased doing business. That same year, Fred Stuart began Stuart Custom Guitars. Stuart Custom Guitars Black Guard pickups have the same specs as the "old A&F 's". The only thing that is different from the A&F's, is that Fred's have more consistent output and tone.
Fred Stuart, 2033 Blenheim St, Riverside, CA 92507, (909)788-7841
Alan Hamel, 1860 Chicago Ave, Suite G-1, Riverside, CA 92501, (909)222-2282
(formerly of Fender) is skilled world famous electric guitar luthier. Call John Suhr at (909)471-2334. Him and Bob Bradshaw have designed their own amps. Call Bob at (818)763-8898, FX:(818)763-8890 for info, or email Martin Golub
are no longer handmade by Bob Taylor, this is now one of the biggest guitar corporations. Pinless pre-pin-bridge Taylor guitars are much better than their factory made guitars. Of their current guitars, their classical guitars are their best values as they are better than classical guitars that cost thousands more. Taylor's nylon string guitars are their best. Tacoma Guitars are made the way Taylors used to be made. Larrivee Guitars are made the way Taylors are made today, but priced much lower. They're nice guitars, but I wouldn't pay boutique handmade prices for machine made production line guitars. These guitars are made in an automated factory by robots, there is no justification for them charging handmade-level prices for them. Taylors are overpriced. Their most famous endorcee Laurence Juber left Taylor guitars for Martin guitars who still makes guitars by hand and charges a lot less. If you really want a Taylor, buy a used one and let somebody else take the hit of initial depreciation. Since May lst, 1999, Taylor changed their dealer agreement to now PROHIBIT their authorized dealers from advertising (in any way or form) both NEW and USED Taylor guitars; they think they're keeping their prices up by keeping the public in the dark as to their resale value, but actually they are killing their own secondary market. Taylor's CNC manufacturing and exclusive high prices are making this brand the "Paul Reed Smith hip lawyer wall decoration" brand of acoustics. Tacoma and Larrivee are better values and are made the way Taylors used to be made. Martin guitars retain their values. You can buy CNC manufactured Canadian made Norman brand guitars at Sam Ash/Manny's Music for $200. It is presumptuous for Taylor to charge handmade prices for their guitars when they are made by machines. You would think that the cost savings in having a robot make the guitar would be be passed onto the customer, but they're not, they're charging at high price points based on perceived value. When their prices go into the Martin D-28 ranges, they're presumptuously assuming that their new guitars have the same value and collectability as a Martin signature model, or a 20-year-old Martin, or some handmade independent luthier guitar like a Roy McAlister; their demand to their dealers to not advertise used Taylors (keep used Taylor prices off the internet) shows otherwise. I've heard musicians refer to Taylors as "Yuppie guitars." Walden Guitars is making parody advertisements that have a similar look to Taylors' advertisements, but with the message that they make "guitars that are actually affordable."
TTR Nexus Guitars, Michael Spalt, True Tone Research Design, Totem Guitars, Garage Guitars, Spalt Basses
some of the weirdest, artsy looking guitars ever made, made from wood and resin, you've got to see and play them for yourself. He also makes regular solid body guitars from mahogany, cedar, rosewood, alder, and ash, he's from the "Silverlake" area of Los Angeles, famous for quirky thrift-shop aesthetics and high-concept artists
Valley Arts Guitar, was once a custom shop in Hollywood in the late 1970's and early 1980's. The company went bust, the name was then owned by Samick, now it's a brand named owned by Gibson Guitars. The original owners, Mike McGuire and Al Carness, are on hand - McGuire as operations manager of Gibson's Custom division and Carness as Valley Arts product specialist
Washburn, most are imported OEM'd Korean made guitars, their jazz guitars are great and are actually used by famous professionals; their USA made "signature series" are great; their Nuno Bettencourt guitar with Bill Lawrence pickups is one of the best guitars ever desgined and made
Various Boutique Luthiers (I'll add links as I find them): ACHIM PETER Gropius, Antonio De Torres, Antonio Marin Montero, ANTONIO Raya Pardo, ARCANGEL Fernandez, Barone, BERNHARD Kresse, BRIAN Cohen, CERVANTES, Colin Morison, DANIEL Friederich, DAVID Daily, David Rubio, David Whiteman, DOMINGO Esteso, Douglas Pringle, EDGAR Monch, Eric Sahlin, Ervin Somogyi, Fischer, Francisco Simplicio Hernandis, Frederich Holtier, Frederick Mueller, Fritz Ober, GERHARD SCHNABL, German Vazquez Rubio, Gilet, Gioachino Giussani, GIOACHINO GIUSSIANI, Gregory Byers, HEIDI PULFER, HERMANN Hauser I, HERMANN Hauser II, HERMANN Hauser III, Hernandez y Aguado, Horabe, IGNACIO Fleta, Jacobson, James North, Jean Rompre, JEFF Kemp, JEFFREY Elliott, Jeremy Locke, Jeronimo Pena Fernandez, Jim Redgate, JOHN Gilbert, John Peter Barthell, Jose Marin Plazuelo, JOSE Ramirez, Jose Romanillos, Kevin Aram, La Mancha, Les Stansell Myrtlewood, Louis Panormo, M. Tezanos Perez, MANUEL Contreras, MANUEL Contreras II, MANUEL Reyes, Manuel Velazquez, Marcelino Lopez, Mathias Dammann, Matthew Bolliger, MICHAEL BOGGEMAN, MICHAEL GEE, Michael Menkevich, Middleton, MIGUEL Rodriguez, MIKHAIL Robert, OBER BLOCHINGER, Otto Vowinkel, Paul Sheridan, PETER Barton, Rafael de Cordoba, RANDY Reynolds, Rene Baarslag, RICARDO SANCHIS, Richard Brune, RICHARD Howell, Robert Ruck, Ron Bushman, Sebastian Stenzel, Simon Ambridge, Stephen J. Hill, Stephen Kakos, Thames, Thomas Budke, THOMAS Humphrey, Thomas Prisloe, Tom Blackshear,
Augistino LoPrinzi, FABIO Ragghianti, DAKE Traphagen, Alastair McNeill, Kolya Panhuyzen, Douglas Ching
John Suhr, former Fender Custom Shop Master Builder, has his own custom pickup rewinding service. Authentic Pickup rewinding, Hot Rods, RWRP, hum canceling, hand wound and vacuum potted to exact vintage specs of any year or hotter if you'd like. "You haven't heard a good single coil until you've heard a hand wound single coil." Fender coils are preferable, humbuckers also. $20 plus shipping per coil. Leave message for John at (909)471-2334 if you are interested
designed to save day to day wear & tear and the unnecessary nicks, chips and scratches that devalue your guitar over time. This transparent durable protective skin will cling to the guitar surface like a magnet with NO ADHESIVES and PROTECT your investment in that guitar.
Fender in the 1950's and 1960's used to include with each new guitars a plastic cover that would fit on the back of the guitar to protect the finish from scratches. Fender also used to include covers for their Telecasters and Stratocasters to cover the bridges; CBS' costcutting cut those covers and Fender today does not include them with their new guitars, not even on their supposed "reissue" guitars; only their custom $hop guitars have them.
Maybe the best guitar in the world, best playing, best sounding, and the one that will have the most personal value to you is made by ... you. You can buy the parts, get an instruction book and put it together yourself or find a technician at any of the dealers listed on this page and they can assemble it for you. You can also consider buying an imported guitar that uses solid woods and swapping out the pickups, hardware, and tuners. The quality of many imported guitars, some of which use solid woods such as Ash and Alder, is quite good and you can buy a Yamaha or Korean made Samick guitar (in any of the dozens of rebaged incarnations) for much less than a neck or pickup by an aftermarket manufacturer. The entire parts aftermarket was created for musicians who modify import guitars. Beware that the marketing terms for pickups - "hot", "cool", "bluesy", "vintage" - are completely meaningless unless they refer to how they were made with what materials. Beware that many "American" parts are actually OEM'ed from Asia: Gotoh (Japan), Kent Armstrong (Korea), and others; you have to research the brands so you won't end up replacing the "cheap" imported pickups and hardware with more "cheap" pickups and hardware - from the same manufacturer. Many musicians leave their "trophy prize" guitars at home and use them only for recording and take their modified import guitars on the road for shows. Good places to find parts are guitar shows where usually every dealer sells parts left over from guitars they've modified. You can easily modify an imported guitar such as Sam Ash's "Carlo Robelli" guitars with better pickups. You can go to a dealer of "cheap" imports such as Highland Park Music and Pawn (listed above) or FirstCash.com and buy a Gibson, Fender, MusicMan, etc., clone guitar by Jay Turser and swap out the pickups and hardware with USA made parts and you'd have a pretty decent guitar.
Herc Fede Custom Shop, one maker of Fender's bowling ball strat bodies, professional multicolor swirl finishes, famous for Ibanez custom shop guitar finishes used by Steve Vai
Grandaddy Tunamatic for Acoustic Guitar, individual string adjustments for acoustic guitar, directly retrofits into a typical saddle slot on an acoustic guitar, give intonation flexability that you cannot get with fixed saddle
Hipshot Products, B-Benders, Trem-Setter, tremolo bridge, Baby Grand bridge, Trilogy Multiple Tuning Bridge, videos by Hellecaster guitar great Will Ray
Merlin 5 Products, 2572 E Fender #B, Fullerton, CA 92831, (714)879-7508,
has provided the music industry's leading guitar builders with the finest hardware made. Fender, Jackson, Rickenbacker, G&L, Yamaha, and countless other small builders have benefited from his vast experience in the machining world. He has worked with the best, Grover Jackson, Gary Kahler, and Wayne Charvel just to name a few. Bill Gerien's company makes hardware and CNC products and tooling for G&L guitars
Sustainiac Pickups, endless sustain at any volume, nice useful harmonics, really opens up your playing, because you spend less time trying to get the sound and more time on what you want to play
Timbre Technologies, 12823 Foothill Boulevard, Unit F, Sylmar, CA 91342, company founded by luthier Michael Tobias and SWR amplifier builder Steve Rabe that makes guitars "Instant Vintage"
Red Rhodes Velvet Hammer Pickups, Red Rhodes passed away in the mid 1990's so his pickups are rare and extremely sought after by musicians. You can call Rick Benson at Groove Tubes 818-361-4500 to see if he has any. Red Rhodes was a musician and inventor of the Velvet Hammer pickups and was an old friend and mentor to DeTemple Guitars. Red was doing 3 sessions a day for 5 or 6 years -- he was the No. 1 pedal steel guitarist, and made the very first Fender pedal steel guitar with Leo Fender himself in Leo's garage.
Patrick Ralph Wilkins, Van Nuys, CA, guitar painter for Tom Anderson Guitars, Sadowsky Guitars, Pensa-Suhr Guitar, Zion Guitars, Norm's Rare Guitars, Gibson West Guitars, Ibanez Guitars, Yamaha Guitars, 48th Street Music Guitars, PRS Guitars, and Tobias Guitars - you didn't think all those companies actually painted their own guitars, did you? haha! you didn't think that import companies actually had the capability to make "show" guitars or their "flagship models", did you? you don't get the guitar business!
Guitars are supposed to come with matching caes, but dealers like Guitar Center sell the cases seperately from the guitar so the guitar price looks lower. Gibson, Fender, Martin, Taylor, and many others are supposed to come with cases. I don't care what some guitar show dealer told you, guitar cases are NOT collectable. Unless you have some special custom guitar that requires a special custom case or you spent a huge amount of money on a custom guitar and custom case, guitar cases don't increase in value as vintage guitars do. If you buy a Gibson guitar, get yourself an Epiphone case. If you buy a Fender guitar, get yourself a Fender Squier case. It seems to me that some Fender Squier hard plastic cases are actually bigger and better than Fender's USA tweed cases which eventually get tattered. Tweed and tolex cases look nice when they're new, but later they get ripped and ratty looking. Guitar cases receive the brunt of abuse when traveling and eventually they get mildew and smell bad. Gig bags are for transporting your guitars to gigs you can drive to, guitar cases are for transporting your guitars to gigs you have to fly to or travel long distances to. If you have lots of money, go ahead and get the case made the by manufacturer of the guitar. Tweed and tolex USA cases do look cool, but nobody really cares about "vintage" guitar cases when buying a "vintage" guitar.
Solid Sound, form fitting guitar cases for odd shaped guitars
SBK Cases are OEM'ed by other guitar manufacturers who put their logos on them and jack up the prices by 25%
Calton Cases, fireproof professional touring cases
Anvil Cases are expensive professional cases for professional touring musicians. These are the ultimate cases for international touring. But most professional touring musicians rent these cases when they rent their equipment for the tours. Nobody wants these bulky things clutting up their houses. Some are heavier than the equipment they're supposed to protect.
Power Attenuator: Kendrick Power Glide Attenuator, Gerald Weber said he "upgraded the Trainwreck Airbrake Mark II Power Attenuator to the Kendrick Power Glide Attenuator
Bad Cat Amps, Corona, CA, new amps by Mark Sampson, founder of Matchless, restarted by Joe Allrich, sales and marketing. Mark Sampson also runs a second amp company, see "Sonic Machine Factory", Norco, CA
Booker Amps, by Audio Brothers, the actual company that manufactured Vox amplifiers for Rose-Morris and more recently HIWATT for Biacrown
Boondoggle Amplifiers, James Cole makes combos with Leslie power amps, bypassable equalizer, JBL speakers, annd clear-grain pine cabinets that sound
like Fender blackface amps without reverb
D-Tar, the union of Seymour Duncan Pickups with noted luthier and acoustic amplification expert, Rick Turner
Howard Dumble Amps, 6242 Marmion Way, Highland Park, CA 90042, (323)258-7167, that's the last address I have for him, Email Howard Dumble. Howard Alexander Dumble charges the highest prices for guitar amps, he has made only 170-220 amps in total, these are hideously expensive, unforunately most seem to be hoarded by two very wealthy individuals in Japan and England, a rumor I've heard about his "secret blob" is that it is actually a dissected Ibanez Tube Screamer, but I can't confirm that. For speakers he doesn't use overpriced reissue brands - he uses PA speakers from EV so if you want those kinds of speakers get an EV PA speaker and save yourself thousands,
review,
review of Howard Dumble Amps
Fender Amps, worlds most popular amps by the world biggest amp company. Fender invented their Bassman amp which is the model that most other guitar amp manufacturers derived their designs from. They make dozens of similar models so that their many dealers in close proximity don't have to compete against each other on price, this is known as "confusion marketing". Fender tube amps sound great but have cheap flimsy plastic buttons, most of their imported solid state amps sound like junk except for their great sounding Mexican-Acoustasonic amps. Fender's discontinued Acoustasonic Pro was a great amp. Fender's USA made amps, especially their Custom Shop and Master Built amps, seem to be instantly collectable while their imported amps are not collectable. Fender bought competing brands Sunn Amps and SWR Amps and seems to be shelving them; Fender can't stand competition. I'm not sure what to make of their Mexican tube amps which look good, but may depreciate steeply. A few standout models are:
Fender's Cyber Twin, an amp that emulates other amps. Beware, the original CyberTwin combo and head units are good, but now they're making cheapened-down versions which aren't very good. I would wait until Fender makes 2 more generations of the Cybertwin before buying one. The built-in tuner is useless, external $30 ones by Korg are much better.
Andy Fuchs Audio Technology Designs, Dumble derived clones, he also modifies other amps to become Dumble clones, he "allows you to obtain high performance amplifiers at a fraction of the price of a so-called 'botique amplifier'. Whether it's audiophile or musical applications, if you own the chassis and transformers, your amplifier can be rebuilt to your needs."
Heritage Amplifiers, formerly known as Holland Amps; Previously, Lane Zastrow was a partner in the L&M Corporation with Mike Holland, which built Holland Amplifiers
Jamison Amps, Phil Jamison used to work for Bogner and Top Hat, was a Matchless employee who, among other things, worked on the construction of the prototype John Jorgenson model
Jeff Rowland Battery Power Suppliestakes the "clean power" concept to the ultimate extreme; check out their rechargable Battery Power Supplies. If you use these rack mountable Battery Power Supplies to power your gear, you will never have to worry about losing power again, no more embarrasments on stage, no more shocking short-outs, no more power line noise. This is the ultimate fool-proof device for power.
Marshall Amplification, UK, their tube amps sound great but have cheap flimsy plastic buttons, their solid state amps sound like junk, only get their handwired UK made gear, not their OEM'ed junk from China
Mathes Amplification, restore vintage tube amplifiers, custom built Tweed era Fender replicas
Matchless Amps, Los Angeles, CA, fanpage of now out of business company, the founders are building amps on their own, their employees now work for other companies: Mark Sampson (Bad Cat Amps), Phil Jamison (Jamison Amps), Rick Seccombe (Overbuilt-now Fender), Rick Perotta (Royer Labs)
Peavey Amplifiers, their USA-made Classic Series tube amps are good, their new boutique Wiggy amplifier is amazing; they make good guitar amps and great bass amps, I don't understand why they aren't doing more to promote their products and why their advertisements look so cheezy. They also distribute Trace Elliot Amps, UK
PriceLess Amp Restoration, specializing in restoring vintage Fender amps. Also sells parts, DIY restoration kits, and offers free plans on building your own tube matcher and preamp tube tester
Roland Amps, their famous JC120 is a great amp, but the rest of their modeling amps have crappy speakers and sound the same regardless of the settings - as if you really could get a Marshall Stack sound from a crappy 8" speaker. Their Cube and "Tube Logic" amps sound like crap.
Smokey Amps, I included this here to show you it was possible to drive a speaker stack with a tiny amplifier and to bring to your attention how afforable solid state electronics can be; the world's smallest and least expensive guitar amplifier, made in the USA. The box is a real recycled cigarette pack that has been reinforced from the inside or a translucent polycarbonate box
Standel, These great guitar amplifiers are back! their combo amps have 15" speakers, made famous by Chet Atkins, Jefferson Airplane, Jerry Garcia, and many others, the "standard" for slide guitars, call Frank Garlock at (800)748-5555 for info on where you can try one out for yourself.
VOX Amplifiers, only the UK-made tube ones are good, their rest sound like crap. Vox Showroom, Vox Special Page, buy JMI Amps instead of VOX Amps for the real UK made ones
Walter Woods Amps, I'm not sure about his address so call first trying these: 82054 Solano Ave, Indio, CA 92201, (760)347-7099, (619)347-7099, or at 78395 Sterling Lane, Palm Desert, CA 92211, (760)772-7952, or at Box 7534, Van Nuys, CA 91409, (619)347-7099, other companies are now making clone amps based on Woods' concepts of a small solid state bass amp, Carvin, Eden, Ampeg, Mesa Boogie, and others are now making "me-too" products
Kerry Wright, amp and cabinet recovering, custom cabinets, custom covers, Fullerton, CA, (714)403-8493
GUITAR AMPS: AMPLIFIER COVERING
The late Sam Hutton, former Fender Custom Shop amp designer, started his own business of custom amplifier covering. His son Don now continues his late father's work. Call him at (714)529-7531 and mention John Suhr (pronounced SIR) and me Andrew sent ya.
GUITAR AMP: Repair Shop Billy Zoom Music, 760 N Main St # L, Orange, CA 92868 (714)639-2200, Sonic Zoom,
AMP TUBES
ARS Electronics, 7110 DeCelis Place, POB 7323, Van Nuys, CA 91406 (818)997-6279
GUITAR AMP: Recording Sound Isolation Booths
Whisper Room, the best sound isolation rooms that allow you to play and record your amps and speakers at full blast without excessive sound leakage, also nice quiet rooms to practice in if you really want silence, these are used at music conventions such as NAMM, might be useful as meditation rooms
GUITAR: LOS ANGELES GUITAR DEALERS, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GUITAR DEALERS, REPAIR SHOPS
There are two easy ways to find a good dealer near to you. The first way is to go to Yahoo yellow pages, enter your zip code, and search for "music instruments" in the Local Listings-Yellow Pages query. The second way is to go the websites for the biggest manufacturers, namely Fender and Yamaha, and look for dealers in your area. Any dealer that carries Fender or Yamaha probably carries other brands' products too. Search the Fender website for dealers close to you that sell their "Custom Shop" guitars.
A&F Guitar Services, A&F Custom Guitar Services, Alan Hamel and Fred Stuart make "Fender Custom Shop" guitars and their own "Alan Hamel & Fred Stuart" branded guitars out of their garages miles away from the official Fender factory
Fred Stuart, 2033 Blenheim St, Riverside, CA 92507, (909)788-7841
Alan Hamel, 1860 Chicago Ave, Suite G-1, Riverside, CA 92501, (909)222-2282
BuffaloBros Guitars, 4901 El Camino Real Carlsbad, CA 92008-3748, (760)434-4567, sells lots of acoustics, maybe biggest acoustics dealer in California, you've got to see their huge showroom; they have snobbish attitudes, if you don't have lots of money, they don't want to waste their time with you; in a way I don't blame them because they are a small operation who have to work long hours 6 days a week
California Vintage Guitar & Amp, 5244 Van Nuys Blvd, Sherman Oaks, CA (N/101 frwy), (818)789-8887 owned by former partners of Norman's Rare Guitars, these people are much friendlier than Norman's, they sell Eastman hollowbody jazz guitars made in China
Folk Music Center, 220 Yale Avenue Claremont, CA 91711, (909)624-2928, Charles and Dorothy Chase sell acoustic and ethnic instruments from around the world --wind, string, and percussion
Fret Art Gallery, 8351 Rochester Ave. #108, Rancho Cucamonga, CA, (909)241-1299
Fretted Frog, 1200 N Alvarado St, Los Angeles, CA 90026
Fret House Guitar Shop, 309 N Citrus Ave, Covina, CA 91723, (626)339-7020, sells lots of acoustic guitars
Grayson's Tune Town, 2415 Honolulu Ave, Montrose, CA 91020, (818)249-0993, Dennis Grayson sells high end, expensive guitars at list prices, nice people, large selection of arched top guitars by Gibson - Heritage - Yamaha - DeArmand - Epiphone - Guild; custom shop Guitars by Fender - Gibson - Guild
Gard's Music, 848 S Grand Ave, Glendora, CA 91740, (626)963-0263
Guitar Traditions, Venice, CA, Bill Asher sells lots of acoustics including his custom made guitars, you must call first!! Goodall, Guild, Kay, Larrivee, McCollum, McGrath, Martin, Maton, Taylor, Turner, Ramizez, Romerco, Asher, Bourgeois, and many boutiques and used electrics
Han's Music, 2865 W Olympic Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90006, (213) 427-1600, ugly exterior, nice interior, sells violins, cellos, pianos, and guitars by Martin, Fender, Yamaha, Ibanez, very friendly staff
Harbor Music, 1024 S. Pacific Coast Hwy., Redondo Beach, CA 90277, (310) 406-3090
Instrumental Music, check website for locations in Thousand Oaks, Ventura, Santa Barbara
Jammin' Jersey Music & Pro Audio, 8743 Tampa Ave, Northridge, CA 91324, (818) 993-9969, sells replacement speakers, p.a. & pro audio gear, amp parts, guitar parts, used pedals, large drum selection, everything they sell used - amps and guitars - has been heavily modified with replacement parts
Jim's Music Center, 14061 Newport Ave, Tustin, CA; 14120 Culver Dr, Suite J, Irvine, CA 92604, (949)552-4280
Johnny Thompson Music, 222 E Garvey Ave, Monterey Park, CA 91755, (626) 280-8783, Johnny Thompson is an expert at setting up guitars and basses, but has a tendancy to bait and switch
Marina Music Center, 4564 Centinela Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90066, sells lots of guitars and amps, effects, they make and repair fine Greek instruments such as the bouzoukis, baglamas, tzouras,ouds and saz
2916 Foothill Blvd, La Crescenta, CA 91214, (818)248-1290
330 W Katella Ave, Orange, CA 92867, (714)538-9315
Pete's Music & Guitar Shop, 1742 S Euclid St, Anaheim, CA 92802, (714) 778-2548, sells junky old beat up Japanese guitars that have been modified, lots of pointy guitars
Rockit Music, 1039 E Imperial Highway #F1, Brea, CA 92821, (714)674-0640
Sam Ash Music, see website for locations, their Hollywood location across the street from Guitar Center Hollywood has outrageously expensive guitars, Sam Ash Custom Guitars
San Diego Guitar, 974 Rancheros Drive, Suite C, San Marcos, CA 92069, (760)737-0207
Sheet Music Shoppe, 3688 S Bristol St, Santa Ana, CA 92704, (714) 641-8440, Metro Towne Square Center, 1 block N of South Coast Plaza, in Vons Shopping Center, behind Bank of America
Soest Guitar, 760-D N Main St, Orange, CA 92868, (714)538-0272
Studio City Music-Violin Shop, 11336 Ventura Blvd, Studio City, CA 91604, (818)762-1374, (323)877-2373, nice people, sells violins and lutes since 1953, staff is very talented, Hans Benning and Eric Benning are world famous violin makers,
review,
email
Stein On Vine, 848 N Vine, Hollywood, CA 90038, (323)467-7341
Steve Zook Guitars, 15542 Alden Lane, Huntington Beach, CA 92647, (714)894-1183
Studio Instrument Rentals, Hollywood, CA; New York, NY; Nashville, TN; San Francisco, CA; Seattle, WA; Miami, FL; SIR Studios rents guitars and amps for touring, Studio Instrument Rentals NY, rehearsal and production rooms, trucking and storage, staging, audio, video, lighting
Styles Music, 777 E Foothill Blvd, Pomona, CA 91767, (909) 621-0549, sells lots of Samick, Korean, and imported Asian clone guitars - replace the pickups with USA ones you'd have a great guitar
Sound About Music, 15326 Oxnard St, Van Nuys, CA 91411, (818)908-8893 former West LA employee Raul Elizondo has a music that caters to Spanish-language musicians
Squid Music, 10742 Beach Blvd, Stanton, CA 90680, (714) 826-4000, used instruments
this is an internet-order store with a showroom. They have phony bait-and-switch "sales" and very high prices. Unless you're rich enough to afford a very expensive custom shop guitar, don't waste your time here because you can find a lot better prices anywhere else. Don't bother going to their "sales."
World Music, 23566 Lyons Ave, Newhall, CA, 91321, (661)288-2616, Lori Martinez's small business sells those small, tiny, Smokey Amps that are hard to find, World Music
World Music, 1826 Erringer Road, Simi Valley, CA 93065, (805)526-9351
World of Strings, 1738 East 7th Street, Long Beach, CA 90813, (562) 599-3913
traditional, low tech store that has a mechanical cash register, no computers, and no airconditioning, what they do have is an huge selection of acoustic guitars by Martin, Taylor, and Kathy Wingert, lots of stringed instruments including double bass, violins, mandolins, and electric guitars and basses, expensive boutique amps by Top Hat, Evans, and others, Jon Peterson is a world famous violin maker, Kathy Wingert is a world famous guitar maker, C.B.Hill is a famous archtop jazz guitar maker, a must visit place, World of Strings
West Covina Pawn, 823 S Glendora Ave, West Covina, CA 91790, (626) 337-3933
low prices on new good quality Korean guitars
World of Music, 5065 Hollywood Blvd #104, Los Angeles, CA 90027, (323)912-1175
Jorma Kaukonen Fur Peace Ranch sells Jorma Kaukonen JA Riviera Deluxe Epiphone Signature Guitar inspected by Jorma Kaukonen himself, and guitar accessories
George Gruhn Guitars, Nashville, TN, one of the first used guitar dealers, writer for magazines, designed guitars for Guild and Tacoma, but he sells every guitar as being "rare"
Guitar Solo, San Francisco, CA, classical, acoustic
Guitars International, Cleveland, Ohio, one of the world's largest dealers in fine new individually handcrafted (nonproduction) classical and flamenco guitars
Guitar Slam, San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, CA, (818) 990-1935
Sam Ash Music, see website for locations, their Hollywood location across the street from Guitar Center Hollywood has outrageously expensive guitars, Sam Ash Custom Guitars, NY
"THE TOP 10 REASONS THAT USED GEAR IS BETTER THAN NEW GEAR" by Nate
10. Used gear has more character
9. Groupies like used gear better
8. Gear used for pictures = famous gear!
7. You won't get stressed out when you lend your gear to friends
6. Used gear has a story to tell
5. Customer tested!
4. Use the money you save to buy more used gear!
3. Used gear isn't like life - you always know you what you're going to get
2. If you don't like it, you can auction it off online
and the number one reason that used gear is better than new gear...
1. Three words: price price price!
Miscellaneous
Links to Music Related Websites
Materialism causes Depression! Affluenza is bad for you. The guitar magazines are very demoralizing and depressing because they constantly feature and praise extremely overpriced expensive gear that very few people can afford. Even if you were rich, paying thousands for gear is hard to justify. Guitar magazines exist in an "unreal" world where $2,000 gear is sold as "entry level" and guitars around $1,000 are "bargains." Materialism leads to anger and makes people feel like "losers", insecure, inadequate, self-hating, and damages self-esteem. Turn your back on materialism and realize that you can buy high quality gear avoiding the "name" brands and buying off-brands. Cancel your subscriptions to guitar magazines and let them know that you are sick of them catering to yuppie collectors who buy overpriced gear as hip wall decorations. Buy only USED equipment and let someone else take the "hit" of initial depeciation - besides, 2nd hand speakers sound better than new ones because they've already been broken in. Let the magazines sell their "bigger and more expensive is better" philosophy to a shrinking readership. You can buy an imported Yamaha or Korean made guitar, swap out the pickups with USA made Seymour Duncans, and have a great sounding guitar. Ibanez guitars are actually the most playable import guitars with the "fastest" fretboards, best tremolos, quality construction, and quality hardware. You can buy high quality custom made in the USA gear by Carvin. Fender/Gibson/Rickebacker/Marshall are targeting the boutique markets with outrageous prices, so screw them. Guitars: Musical Merchandise? Why Is Everyone So Cranky? by C. Leslie Charles Why Is Everyone So Short-Tempered? by Karen S. Peterson
Museum of Making Music
5790 Armada Drive, Carlsbad, CA 92008, (760) 438-5996
NAMM's museum of musical instruments. review
Once you've heard the real effect pedals, you'll realize that the digital modeling amps and programs don't match the originals. The most essential pedal that every guitarist ought to use is the Roland noise gate. Most pedals are made out of cheap plastic parts, assembled in China and are ridiculously overpriced. The clock radios that go for $20 at Target/Kmart/Wal Mart have more expensive parts, are more labor intensive, and better built than most $150+ effects pedals. The manufacturers price these accessories the same way they price guitars, perceived value, not a certain percentage above cost. I'm sure all the guitar effect manufacturers could sell their pedals for under $30 and still make profits. I'm surprised that more Korean companies aren't dominating the market with clone products. Unfortnately once Asian manufacturers realized that customers will buy on perceived value, they too overcharge as high as the market can bear. Some boutique pedals stand out because they are made by single builders, have metal boxes, are hand made, and priced for exclusivity. BMW is the General Motors of Europe, but in the USA it's a luxury upscale brand; effects pedals are cheap to make in Taiwan, Korean, Thailand, and Mexico but are sold in the USA as exotic upscale accessories. I like the "Zoom GM200 Modeling Guitar Multi-Effects Processor", but it is so cheaply constructed and so ridiculously overpriced with ridiculous cosmetics (fake metal case, really cheap parts), I can't recommend it for serious touring. Buy used pedals and let somebody else take the hit of initial depreciation. Perhaps the Apple iPad guitar amp modellers will replace pedals. Here are a few notable ones:
Roland Boss NS-2, Roland's noise gate is probably one of the most essential pedals ever made. It effectively eliminates noise and hum of the input signal while preserving the original sound’s tonality. Natural attack and envelope remain unaffected by suppression of the noise components
Visual Sound, their Jekyll & Hyde Ultimate Overdrive pedal is used by the NY band "The Strokes", they also make power adapters which take up less space than other makes
Zvex, handmade pedals, beware of conterfiet ones, favored by UK guitarists Danielle Dax and David Knight-Arkkon (see bands page to find out who they are), more popular in the UK than in USA
After years of testing, my favorite effects pedals were Korg's Toneworks Hyperperformance Products: Hyper Distortion Pedal 104ds, Dynamic Echo Pedal 301dl, all of which were ridiculously overpriced and are discontinued.
Jeff Rowland Design Group Productstakes the "clean power" concept to the ultimate extreme; check out their rechargable Battery Power Supplies. If you use these rack mountable Battery Power Supplies to power your gear, you will never have to worry about losing power again, no more embarrasments on stage, no more shocking short-outs, no more power line noise. This is the ultimate fool-proof device for power.
MUSIC INTERFACE TECHNOLGIES, Leonard Sanchez's company at the last NAMM convention demonstrated their new Ripcord guitar and bass cables which are audiophile quality. He also sells GAS Terminator amp to speaker cables. Use these for serious studio recording. Unfortunately, their advertising for these products is full of pseudo-science.
Planet-Waves Cables, Circuit Breaker cables are interesting, but how hard is it to turn your amp to "standby" mode ?
INSTRUMENTS: PRE-COLUMBIAN OF NORTH AMERICA
percussion & woodwind maker, Guillermo Martinez (714)631-7851. He even has his own CD of native American music available
DRUMS: Clear Plastic
These are clear acrylic Crystalite drums, that is clear plastic drums, reminiscent of the Pearl set used by Led Zepplin, Pearl Crystalites or Ludwig Vistalites. They sound incredibly good.
Trigger Head, made of a sort of permeable mesh so you can wail on them and they're virtually silent, for drum triggers, this is what Roland must be using
FingerWeights, finger weights that are supposed to help you, who knows if they work? Andrew Geller with Fingerweight Corporation emailed "If you take into account the sizing issue and weight variations, you would need 2 sets of Flyers in each weight category for each finger size. Conceptually the products are similar. Operationally they are worlds apart." the Filipina woman who demonstrates this product at the NAMM shows is amazingly beautiful and charming; she gave me an "extra" one
David Royer teamed up with Rick Perrotta, former President and co-founder of the prestigious Matchless Guitar Amplifier Company, and together with studio owner Rafael Villafane and musician/marketing director John Jennings, formed Royer Labs, a California based company dedicated to the development and production of high quality microphones and transducer elements
David Segimoto, 1270 Lincoln Ave #1000, Pasadena, CA 91103 (626)794-0052, he can fix anything Japanese and electronic
GPS Electronics, George Tomasich, 16549 Leffingwell Rd, Whittier, CA 90603, (562)902-0579, pro-audio repair and service, factory authorized service center for most major brands such as SWR and Groove Tubes
Music Pad Pro, tablet-shaped PC with a fast screen. You can download and display music on it, you can even turn pages with a footswitch. It's got a touchscreen and a storage capacity of 10,000 pages of music.
founded in 1967 to celebrate and promote the music of the Spanish classical guitar in Orange County, California, and surrounding communities. They hold 9 recitals a year at Chapman University in Orange, on the third Saturday of each month (except December) between September and June.
I.Q. learns the sonic spectrum of a take, track or song mono or stereo then constructs a complex filter that matches the spectrum of the new material to that of the original reference material.
Antares Auto-Tune
Most of the pop stars that get on MTV, MTV's TRL, and all the media attention are no-talent acts hired for their looks and dancing ability, not musical talent. So when these "acts" are not lip syncing and have to do a live show, they use this device. The Antares Auto-Tune does realtime auto pitch correction to make sure that whatever comes out of the mouths of the phoney pop stars into the microphones comes out in tune. It's impossible for even the best talented singers to breathe, dance widly, gyrate on stage, and sing on key. The MTV eye candy pop stars simply would not have careers at all if it was not for this machine.
Most of the pop stars that get on MTV, MTV's TRL, and all the media attention are no-talent acts hired for their looks and dancing ability, not musical talent. So when these "acts" are not lip syncing and have to do a live show, they use this device. The Melodyne Auto-Tune does realtime auto pitch correction to make sure that whatever comes out of the mouths of the phoney pop stars into the microphones comes out in tune. It's impossible for even the best talented singers to breathe, dance widly, gyrate on stage, and sing on key. The MTV eye candy pop stars simply would not have careers at all if it was not for this machine.
SynchroArts VocALign Project & TITAN
Most of the pop stars that get on MTV, MTV's TRL, and all the media attention are no-talent acts hired for their looks and dancing ability, not musical talent. So when these "acts" are not lip syncing and have to do a live show, they use this device. VocALign Project is an editing tool which will automatically synchronise two audio signals at the touch of a button. VocALign massively speeds up audio synchronisation tasks and increases the quality of results. It's impossible for even the best talented singers to breathe, dance widly, gyrate on stage, and sing on key. The MTV eye candy pop stars simply would not have careers at all if it was not for these programs.
GFX Engine, enables guitarists to practice and perform on their PC,
in real-time, using a standard sound card. Plug your guitar into your sound card’ s line-input, construct a chain of Wavebyte GFX Plug-ins from the GFX Engine’s effect-chain editor, press power, and you’re Jamming.
Audio Phonics Guitar Tuner, free computer based tuner that some say is better than the most expensive tuners, there are dozens of websites that have it online for free download
NOTE: The comments on this webpage are my opinions which some people disagree with. Some people have invested a lot of money in their instruments and would like to see their instruments increase in value as have collectable "vintage" guitars. When I post information that does not complement their perceived valuations of their investments, some people become upset. For those of you who are willing to think and listen for yourselves, disregarding the false materialistic values of valuing instruments as status symbols, enjoy. For whatever reasons you spend your money on instruments; as ego-trophies, as collectable investments, or as actual instruments you will play, enjoy.
WARNING: New boutique guitars and amps are unreasonably overpriced. An item is worth only what you can get for it when you sell it; that's the item's real world resale value, not the item's MSRP or retail price. Guitar dealers have been scamming customers for years by charging extra for the case or gigbag which most manufacturers include with each new instrument; any discount you negotiate is lost when you buy the case. Used "vintage" guitars and amps are unreasonably overpriced. The majority of vintage and boutique guitars and amps are owned by speculating collectors who hoard them for bragging rights or for profit, not "connoiseur" players. Buy only used equipment 1-2 years old. Boycott new overpriced anythings. That is the only way to send a message to manufacturers to price new equipment at reasonable levels. Most "brands" are just marketing companies ("virtual" corporations) that OEM and outsource everything from subcontractors- parts, factory assembly, and marketing. All the assembly factories I've seen had minimum wage illegal alien workers. Most parts are made by robots in automated factories. CNC means "computerized numeric control" and many machines are made by Thermwood. Technology is supposed to be making better products at lower costs, but the corporations are too greedy and charge boutique prices for factory automated outsourced products; they never pass their savings on labor onto the consumer. No wonder why sales on overpriced guitars are down. There is no justification for production line guitars to be so overpriced.
Marketing terms: Perceived value; potential customers make purchase decisions considering a product's perceived price. That is, how much a customer thinks that a product will cost them. These perceptions may or may not accurately reflect reality. Creaming means selling product range at a higher than average price in order to improve perceived value, known as "upmarketing" a product, whereby it becomes the accepted purchase of the more affluent members of society. Creaming or skimming is selling a product at a high price, sacrificing high sales in order to earn high profits. Upmarket products tend to ride the storms of economic depression better than cut-price products. Upward Stretching means introducing a new product into a product line at the higher priced end of the market. Confusion Marketing is a controversial strategy of deliberately confusing the customer. Examples are alleged to be found in the telecommunications market, where pricing plans can be so complicated that it becomes impossible to make direct comparisons between competing offers; Fender does this with their redundant models that have minor cosmetic differences so that their many dealers which are in close proximity to each other don't have to compete on price.
Guitar Shows are just becomming real wastes of time. The scheduled bands never show up, the scheduled celebrity musicians never show up, the parking fees for these swap meets are rip offs, and they try to sell t-shirts to commemorate their swap meets at $20 ?? Who wants to commemorate a swap meet? The dealers could at least put new strings on the guitars. They're just bunch of "trunk gypsies" and fat old men who are hussling beat up used guitars and amps at outrageous prices. Even though the guitars are sold as "mint", the more expensive guitars have swapped out pickups because it is more profitable to sell vintage guitars and pickups seperately, and many are outright fakes/forgeries/frauds. It's amazing how many 1965 Fender Strats there are at guitar shows; never any 1957-1964, never any 1966-2002, nope, just 1965 Strats in various states of wear as if Fender only made guitars that one year, it's so amazing it's unbelievable. Also at guitar shows there are parts dealers selling replacement decals that are exact replicas of the original vintage decals. Those really beat up guitars have broken neck trussrods and are made up of parts from different years and different manufacturers. By the time you see it, all the good parts have been taken. Buy only used equipment 1-2 years old from a brick 'n mortar dealer. Any instrument older than a couple of years is likely to have been modified. I've seen hundreds of Fenders and Gibsons advertised as "mint/vintage" and many had swapped in counterfeit pickups.
Mars Music Bankrupt. Mars Music closed all their stores in Southern California a few years ago. I directly blame the big name brand manufacturers for overpricing their products to outrageously unreasonable price points, pricing themselves out of the market. Fender tried to sell guitars made by robots in automated factories for $900+; Gibson tried to sell production line guitars for $2000+, Taylor tried to sell acoustics for $1500+, the stuff that was affordable was shoddy imported junk, so of course nobody bought them and the stores suffered. I'm sick of unbridled greedy manufacturers destroying their own markets. The manufacturers live in a DOT-COM fantasy world thinking that if they slapped a DOT-COM to their names and used a "vintage" marketing ploy to sell their overpriced guitars, they'd be billionaires overnight. The manufacturers treat their customers like ATM cash machines they could keep asking for more and more money each year. Mars Music stores in Southern California were great and their Lawndale store hosted an open blues jam every Tuesday night. Unfortunately they couldn't sell guitars at the overpriced prices the manufacturers were demanding. My sincere sympathies to the people at Mars Music.
Fender Museums:The Fullerton Museum in Fullerton, CA is having a special exhibition "A Shower of Brilliance: Leo Fender and his Electric Guitars" that Fender afficianados would enjoy (date on website is wrong, call first to verify). There are guitars there for you to play too, Fullerton Museum Fender Exhibit. The Fender Museum in Corona, CA is now open. The Fullerton Museum exhibit is the better one, but both exhibits are disapointments. You can see a much better free exhibit of vintage guitars at Guitar Center Hollywood's Vintage Guitar Room.
1951 Fender Nocaster demonstrates how "vintage" guitars can be faked. When the older collectors pass away, the next generations of musicians will probably not venerate used guitars. Old used beat up guitars will have antique value, not instrument value. Guitars today are made at a much higher quality than guitars made 50 years ago.
Rock stars don't actually own the guitars and amps you see them use on tour, in their videos, and in photos. Rock stars want to save their money for their drugs, trophy girlfriends, fur coats, and absurdly stupid luxury items. Rock stars rent their equipment at places such as Styles Music, Alta Loma Music, Andy Brauer Studio Rentals, L.A.FX Studio Rentals, Lon Cohen Rentals, Third Encore, UltraSound Amps NYC, and Studio Instrument Rentals Hollywood. Rock stars may keep a few trophy guitars in their homes and use those for home recording. Rock stars keep their trophy gear at home when they leave to record and perform. You can rent the exact same equipment your favorite rock stars used to record and tour with. At those equipment rentals places you can find equipment with long histories of usage by many famous rock bands and you'll find out the same equipment was used by many different musicians playing vastly different genres. So if you're going on tour and want a 60's guitar and amp, rent them, and you won't panic when they get dropped and banged around or even stolen because your prize trophy gear is safe at your house. Don't forget, rock stars don't actually own those amps in their videos and hardly any of the guitars - they're all rented.
The truth is that the "tone" of your guitar and amp is in your fingers and your music. Unless you are playing solo guitar without any effects and the guitar is a solo lead instrument (not just rhythm), guitars tend to sound the same. Many guitar fans want to emulate their rock star idols by buying the same equipment their idols endorced. But unless you read interviews of people who were actually there when those rock stars made their famous recordings, you won't know what equipment was actually used. For example: fans of Jimi Hendrix buy Fender Stratocasters and Marshall amps, but Hendrix actually made his most famous recordings with Gibson and Hofner and Epiphone and Gretsch guitars into Silvertone and Burns and Fender amps, for live performancs Hendrix used solid state "fuzz" pedals into "clean" Marshall amps; fans of Jimmy Page buy Gibson Les Paul guitars and Marshall amps, but he made his most famous recordings with Fender Telecaster and Danelectro guitars into small "practice" Fender Champ amps; B.B. King made some of his most famous recordings with Fender Telecasters; Mark Knopfler recorded with guitars by Pensa; Stevie Ray Vaughn's "main" recording guitar was a Hamiltone built by James Hamilton with EMG pickups, and he also used Gibson guitars with a Silvertone amp and a Fender Vibroverb amp with an Ibanez TS-9 pedal, the amps he recorded with are considerably less expensive than the Dumble amp and beat up guitars he toured with and used in videos and photos; the guitarist for U2 uses a wide variety of guitars such as Gibson, Rickenbaker, Fender, etc., but no matter what he uses he still sounds like him and nobody can differentiate which guitar was used on his recordings, not even him; Slash, was the famous "Gibson" guitarist for Guns 'N Roses, but his guitar was actually a replica guitar built by an independent luthier who didn't even work for Gibson; Kurt Cobain appeared on stage with a Marshall amp that wasn't even plugged in, the cabinets were empty so he could more easily shove his guitar neck through the cloth when he "trashed" his equipment at the end of his concerts, he actually used an Ibanez TS-9 and SansAmp into the PA; some rock stars have used such a wide variety of guitars and amps that even they can't remember what they've used. Some people pretend to be connoisseurs of amp "tone" and speak revently of "tube tone", without realizing that their idols used solid state effects pedals like the Ibanez TS-9 and their amps "clean." It's amusing to see people spend lots of money collecting equipment to emulate their idols, but all the while they've had no idea what equipment their idols actually used. Some people want to emulate their idols like tribute bands do and they try to adopt their identities from their posessions; they say things like "I'm not a Fender-man, I'm more of a Gibson-man", all the while they're completely mistaken about what their idols actually used.
When playing live, after the guitar goes through the amp and the amp goes through the microphones, then the PA, and the PA blasts the room at unreasonably loud volumes, you really can't hear the difference between one brand's guitar, pickup combination, amp, from another. When recording, after the guitar goes through the amp and the amp goes through the microphones, through the mixing board, through dozens of effects boxes, through compression, you really can't hear the difference between one guitar, brand, pickup combination, amp, from another. Many of the guitars on hit records today were recorded on Pro-Tools and run through dozens of effects using either the "Line6 Amp Farm" or "AmpliTube" simulators. Even when the guitar and amp are recorded dry, they are usually "doubled" with multiple tracks to "thicken" the sound. The least expensive high quality USA guitars and amps are by Carvin. The lowest you can spend on quality imported guitars and amps is Yamaha. The best prices are always for 1-2 year old used gear, dealer demos, clearance items, and dealer blowouts.
GUITARS
Boutique Guitars, Independent Luthiers, High End Guitars
In the early 50's all guitars made by Fender, Gibson, Epiphone, etc., were built to very high standards with high-grade components, alnico magnets, strong tuners, glossy nitro cellulose laquer finishes, and made to last. Back then, making guitars individually by hand was the only way to make them. What was considered to be "consumer/professional grade" back then would be considered to be "expensive boutique" today. Today most guitars are OEM'd from factories in Korea, China, Taiwan, Mexico, Indonesia, India, and wherever else the labor and cost of materials is cheapest. Mass produced guitars sometimes look nice with woodgrain tops, but they are made from thin veneers laminated on top of cheap plywood, particle board, and composite woods. Most "expensive boutique" guitars are made from solid aged tone-woods. Today's "consumer grade" guitars can sound ok, but if you want the sound and tone of the guitars made in the 50's and 60's, you'll have to spend more money on "expensive boutique" guitars. Plus when you buy an "expensive boutique" guitar, you can sometimes meet the actual person that hand-made your guitar and get the satisfaction that you're buying something made in the USA by someone who really cares about music and his craft instead of some re-badged product which comes from a 3rd world country where an impoverished pre-teen working for no-pay in unsafe conditions for very long hours uses the absolute cheapest materials and alternates the headstock brand-badges depending on the time of day. Examples would be Fender's alternate badging of their guitars as being "Squier", "Fender", or "Yorkville/Traynor", and the world's largest guitar maker Samick badging their guitars as for "Epiphone/Gibson", "Washburn", "Hamer", "Slammer", "Kima", "Danelectro", "Archer", "Ibanez", "Rogue", "Hohner", "Slammer", "Memphis", "Montana", "Grand", "Dean", "Johnson", "Commodore", "Hondo", "Cruise", "Kramer", "Karera", "Sterling", "Lyon", "Mitchell", "Music Drive", "Santa Rosa", "Jay Turser", "DeArmond", "Abilene", "Shredder", "Sigma", "Sebring", "Eagle", "Rokker", "Joshua", "Mr. Potato", "Ltd", "MD", and dozens of other marketed brands. Sam Ash Music stores has their own "Carlo Robelli" brand and Guitar Center has their "Mitchell" brand of imported Korean made guitars. The OEM'd brands have minor cosmetic differences, but those rebadged guitars are made from the same parts and sound the same, lacking in tone and character. Another thing to consider is that OEM'd and imported guitars get drastically devalued as soon as they are sold while hand-made boutique guitars increase in value over time. A common sentiment among guitar dealers is that "what you're paying for are the pickups, the import guitars loose about 1/3 their value as soon as you [buy them and] walk out the [store] doors with them." The aftermarket pickups and parts market was created so that musicians can modify imported guitars with USA made parts. I predict Asian made guitars to eventually increase in quality to match and surpass USA made guitars now that they are using increasingly sophisticted CNC manufacturing and are seriously competing on price whereas the USA makers are increasing their prices and marketing their products on "percieved value." The "kids" today are into music where their rock idols use $200 Asian made guitars, expensive guitars (to them) are for "old people." The USA makers' insatiable greed is alienating their next generations of buyers.
Something else to consider in deciding "what it is you are paying for" are the demo guitars used by Don Lace Pickups and Roland Instruments at guitar stores and guitar shows - they use the absolute cheapest imported guitars and replace only the pickups to demonstrate their products. Notwithstanding any kind of hardware, body woods, fretwork, finish, maybe those guitars prove that the pickups are the only relevant parts.
The bad aspect of "expensive boutique" guitars is that they are usually absurdly expensively overpriced. Some of the reasons for that are: the builders are guys working out of their garages handmaking each one by one - taking a month to make each one - they need to make a living; they're electrical engineers and not businessmen and naive about how much they can charge and run a business (they know nothing of marketing and distribution); they use expensive parts and can't get discounts on prices because they sell so few of them; they see that other "expensive boutique" companies charge high prices and figure they can sell their products for around the same prices because they've received good magazine reviews; and some are just plain greedy. Be aware that many boutique builders outsource many components; the name on the headstock is the designer: the body is cut and finished by somebody else, the pickups are by somebody else, the hardware is by somebody else, and it's assembled by assistants. Paul Reed Smith and Bob Taylor haven't actually built a guitar in decades. PRS' overpriced guitars are the prime examples of guitars made for "hip lawyer wall decorations" (with emphasis on glossy finish and exclusive high price) instead of being instruments for working man musicians. You can understand why a handmade guitar might be expensive, but when a company is selling imported guitars made entirely by automated machines and charging insanely high prices, they're selling you "image" and "brand name" not guitars. The "price" is the "product."
You buy the guitar to make music, you choose a particular guitar for it's sound and playability, but the finishes and inlays are the most expensive costs in guitar building. Guitar builder Ed Roman said "I think another even bigger reason that the bolt in neck models are perceived to be not as good as the set neck models is because there are many more cost adding options on most of the set neck models. Many uninformed people think that the more something costs the better it has to be. True in some cases but In this case that is absolutely not true. ... With the consumerist false notion that high price equals high quality that companies like Gibson have been shoving down consumers throats for years. It's no wonder people perceive the set neck models are better. Nothing could be farther from the truth. ... Don't pay handmade prices for production guitars"
Find out which guitar company uses which pickups. If a company OEM's their pickups, then you might as well buy an imported guitar like a Samick, Fender Mexican, or Yamaha and replace the pickups with the same ones the boutique brand uses and save yourself lots of money. They get away with selling OEM'ed pickups and parts by saying they designed the parts which were made under their close supervision, but they just outsourced a subcontractor and stamped their logos on OEM'ed pickups. Many guitar companies like Fender, Steinberger, PRS, etc., actually OEM pickups from Seymour Duncan and EMG Pickups. G&L Guitars, now owned by BBE, actually OEM's some pickups from Japan and Korea while advertising their products as being "handmade in the USA."
Many "expensive boutique" guitars are overpriced more than the "vintage" guitars they're supposed to be copying. "Show" guitars are made for the annual NAMM conventions where manufacturers show off their products to dealers and guitar magazines. These guitars usually have exotic flamed or spalted woods, glossy finishes, and outrageous pricetags. "Show" guitars are for collectors who buy them as investments; these guitars will never be played or heard on any stage or recording. You have to decide if you're buying them as instruments or collector investments or ego trophies. Gimmicks such as "limited models", "short runs" or "special collectors series" usually have dubious justifications for huge price increases over "regular" models. Only Carvin sells new "boutique" guitars for reasonable prices, much less than the competition, much less than used "vintage" originals, and often win "best of" competitions in guitar magazines against guitars that cost thousands more.
Vintage guitars have gained an almost mythical reputation from various magazine writers throughout the years. I agree that the original "vintage" guitars were made with great workmanship and are of high quality. But I cannot say whether "vintage" guitars are better than new ones. Many "vintage" guitars are heavy, have thick necks, imprecise intonation, have worn out tuners that go out of tune after heavy playing (guitar hardware actually improved over the decades, older isn't better), and have low output pickups. The reason why the first guitar amps were overdesigned with too much gain was to compensate for the pickups' low output. Modern tremolos by Kahler, Schaller, and Floyd Rose, as big and ugly as they are, are far superior in keeping the guitar in tune, in precise intonation, and in ability to stay in tune after vigorous playing than vintage tremolos and tailpeices. Modern locking tuners by Schaller are far superior than vintage keys. The equipment used to make guitars today are much more precise, the luthiers are much more experienced (sometimes the same people who made the original vintage guitars are still making them today), and the guitars are much more consistent. If you find a "vintage" guitar that's over 30 years old that's still in good condition, maybe it's not a very good playing or sounding guitar. Great guitars get played and played guitars get worn, dinged, scratched, dented, and refretted because they're so good they've been played alot throughout the years. Also consider that over time, guitar pickups lose their magnetism and start to "fade." A 30 year old guitar will not sound the same as that guitar did 30 years ago. If you see a "vintage" guitar that's in too good of a condition to be in for it's age, consider that maybe it isn't a good one or that it's a fraud. Read this commentary on fake vintage guitars. If you liked Django's Maccaferri Guitars and Selmer Guitars, Maurice Dupont, Dell'Arte Instruments, David J. Hodson, and Michael Dunn make reissues that sound and play better than the originals. Beware that because dealers can make more money selling "vintage" guitars and pickups seperately, they often do and install new pickups in the "vintage" guitar and sell the original ones seperately.
Fender, Gibson Custom Shop, and Bernie Hefner's Edenhaus Guitars are available in "distressed relic" finishes. Their "relic" guitars look like used worn guitars and are great sounding and "liberating" to play. They copied the techniques of the counterfiet "vintage" guitar makers. Because boutique guitars are so expensive, many owners feel uncomfortable handling them because they fear any accidental bumps and scratches will ruin their value. Many people feel intimidated to handle some of the more outrageously overpriced boutique guitars. Since "relic" guitars are already beat-up looking, their owners feel more comfortable playing and handling them. I've long suspected that some "relic" guitars might actually be custom shop guitars that are "shopworn merchandise", "distressed merchandise", and "seconds merchandise" which have been un-"refurbished" - beat up more to disguise the flaws. I noticed that some of the "relic" Fenders had the old style Fender Custom Shop logos on them, meaning, that those guitars were actually "shopworn merchandise" that hasn't been sold. Fender's "closet classic relic" guitars just look like "seconds merchandise" which are guitars with bad finishes. Gibson's Tom Murphy demonstrates how he makes Gibson guitars to be "aged to perfection."The Complete Telecaster demonstrates how to "age" a guitar using show polish and other methods, making a fake vintage guitar is easy. Harry Pellegrin's creation of the Rory Gallagher Signature Model demonstrates how to make a severly reliced guitar from aftermarket parts. Fender Custom Shop Manager Mike Eldred demonstrates some techniques for relicing a guitar body. RS Guitarworks is a dealer that makes fake vintage guitars.
Notable relic guitar builders include Bill Nash, Bernie Hefner, Mark Jenny, and the orginal "relic" maker, Vince Cunetto, a ghostbuilder for Fender in the 1990's, is now making relic guitars under his own brand. Robert H. Sickler 's The Building of Historic Replica Guitars and Amplifiers demonstrates how "vintage" guitars can be faked.
Custom shops are actually outsourced. The truth about "custom shops" is that they are actually independent luthiers who build the guitars outside of the factory. Those independent luthiers sometimes outsource to other independent luthiers who specialize in parts, finishes, and inlays. Most manufacturers don't have special sections in the factories where the "custom shop" builders go.
Those special NAMM show and guitar magazine review guitars are made far away from the production lines out of luthiers' shops. Gibson's "custom shops" were "located" in the shops of luthiers who actually built guitars out of their garages. Ibanez's "custom shop" is actually Performance Guitar shop in Hollywood, CA. John Suhr used to work as a Fender "custom shop" builder out of his house far from the the factory. Roger Giffin used to work as a Gibson "custom shop" builder out of his house thousands of miles away from the the factory. Vince Cunetto was a Fender "custom shop" builder who made the first relic guitars. Gene Baker was a "custom shop" builder for both Fender and Gibson, when he started his own companies Baker Guitars/Fine Tuned Instruments; former Fender endorcee Robben Ford now endorces Baker guitars instead of Fender. John English makes "Fender Custom Shop" guitars and his own branded guitars out of his garage miles away from the official Fender factory. Alan Hamel and Fred Stuart make "Fender Custom Shop" guitars and their own "Alan Hamel & Fred Stuart" branded guitars out of their garages miles away from the official Fender factory. See the link below for CNC Magazine's article on the Fender Custom Shop. Larry Robinson does "custom shop" inlays for Martin Guitars and others. One of the reasons why "custom shops" have such long waiting periods is because the guitars have to be shipped back and forth between independent luthiers for each stage of assembly.
Fender seems to have two "custom shops": one is a CNC line at their Corona factory for their "time machines" custom shop guitars and custom guitars assembled to customer specs from parts of the production line, and their other "custom shop" is an outsoured network of indepedent luthiers for their "masterbuilt custom shop" guitars. In this article CNC Magazine - Fender Custom Shop, John Grunder, the Fender Custom Shop’s head of sales says "Basically ... we make two types of guitars – player guitars and art guitars. There are a lot of people who buy guitars because they want to put them on the wall. They want something really unique, and they're not necessarily going to take it out and play it in a club. And then we do a lot of guitars for players who just want a really unique or personalized guitar that they can take out and play." So you see, those overpriced "art" guitars are just wall decorations. Fender outsources their "masterbuilt" guitars to independent luthiers and also runs a seperate in-house CNC factory line for "custom shop" guitars that differ slightly from their production line models; their price differentials for basically production line guitars with minor cosmetic changes are outrageous. Eventually "custom shop" builders start selling guitars under their own names when their names become more well known. Read Ed Roman's rant on Ghostbuilders for he is a ghostbuilder for Gibson.
At one time there used to be a real difference in sound between a guitar with single coil pickups, humbucking picksups, and blade pickups. Back then guitar amps were actually PA amps, nobody turned the gain up too high because they wanted to avoid distortion and feedback, and guitars were in the rhythm section. But the technology for each type of pickup has improved so that most new pickups today, even the "vintage reissue" models, are quieter than earlier ones and today if you really wanted to get rid of the noise, you can use a Roland noise gate pedal.
Gareth Weeks' commentary said in his commentary "Technology and the Electric Guitar" "... Rob Turner from pickup manufacturer EMG states that the idea of the Parker Fly is definitely a good one, but the only way people will buy such instruments is if Jimi Hendrix comes back to life and plays one! This implies that regardless of quality, consumers are only really interested in emulating their heroes even though that may involve using inferior products. Les Paul has stated also that the guitar industry is "stuck in the past" which highlights the fact that mainly due to consumer pressure, new ideas are seldom accepted with people preferring to use guitars which are associated with a musical figurehead. This also serves to indicate that although modern guitars, utilising new techniques and materials may be better quality and more versatile, guitarists want to emulate their heroes and use exactly the same 'brushes, paint and canvas'. ... the consumer has generally remained conservative in its approach. To conclude, it is apparent that there have been many attempts to combine technology with the electric guitar, many resulting in superior products than their earlier counterparts. However, despite this, the consumer is more interested in more old fashioned products utilising traditional materials and features."
As interesting as guitars look, there are still design flaws in the most popular models that have never been fixed. On most guitars there is still inadequate access to higher frets. Ibanez guitars have great access to the higher frets, but most of the famous guitar designs don't have easy access. I guess the cutaway shape is just cosmetic or for people with very long fingers. Also, the jacks on all electric guitars ought to be guitar strap jacks or endjacks or endpin Jacks. Tacoma Guitars, Martin Guitars, and a few others already do this. When the jack is on the front of the guitar, your wire sticks out of the guitar top and is easily accidently knocked out. When the jack is on the bottom of the guitar, the guitar is uncomfortable to play sitting down with the cable sticking into your leg. All electric guitars ought to have strap jacks.
These are my opinions as to what should be. Fretboards: All steel string guitars should be made to the same specifications as the two most famous fretboard standards, either the Martin D-28 guitar or the Gibson standard. For nylon string guitars, Taylor Guitars' specifications for their nylon string guitars' necks should be the standard. These specifications should be the standards for guitars for scale, length, and width. These are the only neck specifications that feel comfortable to me. I am not commenting on neck radius, shape, or number of frets. Some companies have shorter scale necks with narrow fretboards that are just fine for those with smaller hands and fingers, but they are uncomfortable to play on for those who have average size hands. Uncomfortable guitars don't get played. Go to these manufacturers' websites for their specifications.
Something never mentioned in guitar magazines is that one of the reasons why imported instruments cost so much more than they're priced in their native countries is because USA manufacturers have lobbied (bribed) politicians to impose tariffs and "import duties" on foreign instruments. The same is true in foreign countries as the biggest brands have protectionist tariffs against USA manufacturers. If you think about it, you'll realize ... the money you give to a USA company goes to lobbyists who bribe politicians to make tariffs to raise the prices on imported guitars so that USA companies can charge more for USA products.
Another thing to consider is that the imported guitars are improving. Asian imports used to be considered to be junk. Now that Asian guitar factories are using the same CNC machines as USA factories, those OEM'ed Asian made guitars are becomming identical to USA made guitars. Jay Turser/Karera describes Japanese guitar makers in detail. Smarvo Electronics China is a builder for many rebranded amps. Fender-Japan guitars actually have better finishes than Fender USA guitars. Now Yamaha, Fender Japan, Ibanez, Tokai, Aria, and Gretsch are making good guitars - their more expensive flagship models are at the same level of quality as USA-made guitars, though ridiculously overpriced. Some people consider Tokai's to be superior to Gibson USA guitars. Many Japanese brands are now made outside of Japan; Yamaha makes some models in Taiwan. Now there are prominent independent Asian luthiers who are making boutique guitars too. Guitars by Takahiro Shimo, Yasuhiko Iwanade (Tone Arts), Kumano, Jersey Girl, Toru Nittono, Horabe, VanZandt Guitar, D'Angelico, ESP Japan, and Yukihide of Japan are amazing. Korean guitars seem to be improving from junk to good-beginner guitars, but are still not collectable, yet.
Jay Turser/Karera, Dillion, Silvertone, J.B. Player, and
Johnson guitars are clones of 60's Gibsons, Rickenbackers, Fenders, Mosrite, and Music Man guitars; if you swap out the pickups with USA-made pickups, you'd have a pretty good sounding and playable guitar. Fender-China is making guitars with impressive finishes; Fender-Chinas' guitars' hardware has definitely improved. Eastman guitars are made in China; they are high-end handmade acoustic hollowbody jazz guitars that sound and look great. Now imported Asian factory made guitars are at the same level of serious-professional quality as the best USA boutique guitars. Brian Moore guitars made in China are selling for boutique prices. Walden Guitars made in China are gaining in popularity. Samick guitars is launching a higher end line this year. Since USA made guitars are probitively expensive in Europe and England, Korean made guitars are popular with professional musicians and are not looked down upon as cheap imitations as they are here in the USA. The "show guitars" demonstrated by import companies are actually made in the USA by outsourced boutique luthiers for the shows.
Andrew's Commentary on Amps
DIGITAL MODELLING: Guitar amps may actually be technologically obsolete. Guitar amps were created when traveling musicians had to amplify their own instruments to be heard over the drums and horns of the big bands of the time. The first guitar amps were actually PA amps with nessesary high gain controls for low output microphones. Today many guitarists use "digital amp modeling" devices which emulate famous guitar amps. Many recordings today are recorded using Pro-Tools software. Using Pro-Tools, guitars are recorded using either the "Line6 Amp Farm" or "AmpliTube" simulators. Those Pro-Tools simulators sound very good and authentic for direct recording and might actually be better than the real amps because they give you all the sound and tone without any of the noise, hissing, and crackling of a tube amp. Remember, most recorded music is highly compressed and mixed for radio airplay. "Digitally modeled" amps are perfect for direct recording.
Touring guitarists don't want to lug around expensive cumbersome equipment. Tube amps, especially old tube amps, are sometimes unreliable as as they degrade as the tubes burn out and they sometimes pick up radio signals. Guitarists can plug into an amp box simulator and then directly into the PA system. There are a few new "digital amp modeling" devices by Roland, Tech 21 SansAmp, Line 6, Johnson Amps, Peavy, Rocktron, Hughes & Kettner, Crate, Yamaha, Zoom, Digitech, Korg, ART, Lexicon, Voodoo Lab, etc., which are supposed to "digitally model" any guitar and amp setup possible and they succeed to some extent for direct line recording but when played through PAs they fail and sound like synthesizers because there is no way for a PA speaker system to actually sound like an actual guitar amp, but they are drastically improving. The best simulator box I've heard is by Roger Linn Design, though it has a crappy interface. Fender's Mexican-made Cyber-Twin might be the best "modeling amp" and might wipe out the competition. Maybe someday they will sound more authentic as their technologies improve and when they have some kind of calibration with the PA output. Maybe in the future when all the tube supplies have been exhausted, simulators will be the only kinds of preamps and amps available. AmpliTube Live Turns OS X into Standalone Virtual Guitar Amp so you can just plug your guitar into your computer and have it sound like any guitar amp and cabinet combo ever made; laptop computers cost less than boutique amps.
But if your music requires a lead guitar, a processed "digitally modeled" vintage amp direct to a PA for live performance will lack the dynamics of a real tube amp and will not sound authentic but rather like a cheap effect pedal and they can't do "feedback" correctly. For rhythm guitar or CHR-pop "Top-40" music where the guitar is mixed down in background, it really doesn't matter what amp you use and any Digital Signal Processing black box would do nicely.
The first famous guitar amp was Leo Fender's "Bassman" amp which he designed for his bass guitars. Many other guitar amps that came after were copies of that "Bassman" amp design. Compare the first Fender "Bassman" amps with the first Marshall and Vox amps you'll notice their similarities. Jim Marshall took the "Bassman" amp design and made it louder.
In the early 50's all guitar amps made by Leo Fender, Jim Marshall, Vox, Gibson, etc., were built to very high standards with high-grade components, vacuum tubes, point-to-point wiring, heavy-magnet speakers, strong enclosures, and made to last. What was considered to be "consumer/professional grade" back then would be considered to be "expensive boutique" today. Today most guitar amps are OEM'd from factories in Korea, China, Taiwan, Mexico, Indonesia, India, and wherever else the labor and cost of materials is cheapest. Many imported amp cabinets are made from chipboard or MDF while boutique amp cabinets are made from quality hardwood ply and built solid with fingerjoints or dovetail joints. Today's "consumer grade" amps can sound ok, but if you want the sound and tone of the guitar amps made in the 50's and 60's, you'll have to spend more money on "expensive boutique" amps.
Beware that some famous amp makers like Fender, Marshall, and VOX are selling rebaded OEM'ed amps made by outsourced companies from oversees. Their amps made in China, India, Korea, and Malaysia have the logos and the names of formerly famous amps made by their parent companies', but the circuitry is entirely different. Do not waste any of your money on these amps, they devalue drastically as soon as you walk out the door with them. Fender "Champion" amps made oversees are junk. Marshall and VOX's oversees made amps are overpriced junk. You can buy much better amps on the used market.
When you buy an "expensive boutique" amp, you can sometimes meet the actual person that hand-made your amp and get the satisfaction that you're buying something made in the USA by someone who really cares about music and his craft instead of some re-badged product which comes from a 3rd world country where an impoverished pre-teen working for no-pay in unsafe conditions for very long hours uses the absolute cheapest materials and alternates the brand-badges depending on the time of day. Two examples would be Fender's alternate badging of the same amps as "Squier", "Fender", or "Yorkville/Traynor", and Korg/Marshall's alternate badging of the same amps as "Marshall" or "Park." The world's largest instrument maker Samick badges their amps for OEM brands such as "Epiphone/Gibson", "Washburn", "Hammer", "Cort", "Kima", "Dinosaur", "Kustom", "Ric", "Danelectro/Honeytone", "Archer", "Ibanez", "Gretsch Rogue", "Hohner", "Yorkville", "Beckener", "Electra", "Brownsville", "Gorilla", "Ibanez", "Dean", "Hiwatt", "Dean Markley", "Johnson", "Pyramid", "Performance Plus", "Abilene", "Prime", "Leem", and dozens of other marketed brands. The OEM'd brands have minor cosmetic differences, but those rebadged amps are from the same parts and sound the same, lacking in tone and character. Another thing to consider is that OEM'd and imported amps get drastically devalued as soon as they are sold while hand-made boutique amps increase in value. A common sentiment among dealers is that "the import amps loose about 1/3 their value as soon as you [buy them and] walk out the [store] doors with them."
The bad aspect of "expensive boutique" amps is that they are usually absurdly expensively overpriced. Many "expensive boutique" amps are overpriced more than the "vintage" amps they're supposed to be copying. Some of the reasons for that are: the builders are guys working out of their garages handmaking each amp one by one - taking a month to make each one - they need to make a living; they're electrical engineers and not businessmen and naive about how much they can charge and run a business (they know nothing of marketing, distribution, supply, demand); they use expensive parts and can't get discounts on prices because they sell so few of them; they see that other "expensive boutique" companies charge high prices and figure they can sell their products for around the same prices because they've received good magazine reviews; and some are just plain greedy. Mark Sampson's Matchless Amplifiers restarted the whole "expensive boutique" market in the 1980's and gradually increased their prices to absurd extremes. Eventually Matchless Amplifiers with prices such as $9000 for a stack & single enclosure, $4500 for a combo, $1000 for a 4x12, and $500 for a box pedal, priced themselves out of the market so their products didn't "move" in retail. The fawning guitar magazines and Matchless' insatiable greed eventually drove them to raise prices beyond reason and they drove themselves out of business. Howard Alexander Dumble charges the highest prices for guitar amps and Walter Woods charges the highest prices for bass amps. Tube amps seem to be popular with guitar players while solid state amps seem to be popular with bass players; guitarists want distortion while bassists want clarity. Only Carvin sells new "boutique" amps for reasonable prices, much less than the competition, much less than used "vintage" originals, and often wins "best of" competitions in guitar magazines against amps that cost thousands more.
If you have the money and want to be a "collector", I recommend buying a Carvin stack (head, top 4x12 slanted enclosure, bottom 4x12 straight enclosure) and collecting different makers' "head" preamp/amps instead of combos, otherwise you would clutter your practice room with expensive combos that all have the same sounding speakers made by Celestion or Jensen or clones of both by Weber, Mojo, Eminence, etc. You don't want to keep re-buying speakers you already have. By using the Carvin 4x12s as a reference, you could really compare the differences between head units. Plus you'd spend less money by not buying redundant speakers. If each boutique amp company uses the same Celestion or Jensen speakers (or clones thereof), then the differences between different brands' enclosure prices are their markups and why re-buy the same speakers over and over again? When you keep the "head" preamp/amp seperate from the speaker enclosure, you can take advantage of a power attenuator/load box/power soak that lets you play your amp at full blast with full distortion but at quiet volumes. Attenuators let your amp cook, without frying. Some attenuators have headphone output so you can practice at home in complete silence while pushing your amp to maximum output power.
I prefer the amps made by manufacturers located in Los Angeles and Southern California because they cater to professionals and recording studio musicians, get feedback from professionals and recording studio musicians, make design changes and modificiations in responce to that feedback, network professionally and personally with other manufacturers to trade information and employees, have better access to parts suppliers, have greater competition in the local higher-end dealers, sell more at a faster rate than other manufacturers so their products improve faster with each generation, and they do so at a much faster rate than manufacturers located further from Hollywood.
Magazine reviews of boutique guitar amplifiers are practically useless. Boutique guitar amps have been described as "creamy", "bluesy", "British sounding", "American sounding", "dirty", "vintage sounding", and dozens of other useless descriptions. When an amp is described as "touch sensitive" it really means that is has some kind of built in compression. It is actually impossible to tell what the sound of an amp has because it is impossible to differentiate the sound made by guitar's pickups, the guitarist's fingers, how hard/soft the guitarist is plucking the strings, the room, the speaker's interaction with the room, the feedback, etc., You can only deduce what the amp is "doing" by comparing it to other amps using the same instrument, speaker, and room. If you are familiar enough with your instrument, speaker, and room, only you can hear what the amp is doing to your sound. It is your entirely subjective personal preference that concludes if the guitar + amp combination you are listening to is good. What you think is "good" might actually be what sounds familiar. You can differentiate between head amp units by using the same guitar and same speakers in the same room; if you start varying the guitars, speakers, and rooms, you can't tell what the amp head is doing. Keep in mind that if you're trying to match a guitar/amp/speaker setup with that of a famous player or recording, that famous player probably used a different setup for recording than touring and that recording has probably been processed, compressed, equalized, remixed and remastered which significantly changed the sound. Remember... some of the most ripping guitar sounds ever were recorded with small amps cranked to the brink of self destruction. Also consider that many famous players on famous recordings used solid-state transistor effects pedals recorded direct or run through the clean amp so what you're hearing is that solid-state effect just louder. Just a note: when recording "Purple Haze", Jimi Hendrix didn't even use an amp - just went straight from FuzzFace to an Orange power amp to a 4x12 cabinet. The benefits of the boutique amp and the special tube "gain stages" are negated when you use transistor effects pedals. Some people spend thousands collecting vintage amps without realizing that their idol musician was using solid-state transistor effects pedals run through a clean amp or direct box. If you want that sound, just get any amp and those pedals. Boutique guitar amps are meant to be heard using their own tube preamps and tube "gain stages" which have their own unique "signature" sound. Boutique guitar amps are meant to sound like you and your music with the "tone" the designer engineered.
The above references are related to how the tube gain stages affect the signal. The signal from your guitar is "analogue." When you run that signal through a tube it does not become "tube-ified" and when you run the signal through a solid state transitor gain, it does not become "transistorized." Leo Fender's MusicMan amps he designed years after his tube Fender amps used a tube pre-amp for the gain stages, and a solid state power amp. Once the signal is changed by the preamp, the power amp could be either tube or solid state, theoretically - depending on how the amp is designed. If you plan to use lots of effects pedals, you might as well not waste your money on a boutique or any tube amp with tube gain stages you will never use, and instead plug your chain of effects into a solid state rack mountable guitar or PA power amp. When a guitar signal is run through a digital signal processor, it does become "digitized" - converted from analogue to digital, processed, and converted back to analogue again and sent to the power amp. Maybe in the future there will be "vintage purists" who will insist that certain DAC chips of a certain era are superior to other DAC chips and have arguments over bits and resolution - 16bit/44.1kHz DAC vs. 24bit/192kHz processing. I've heard a few arguments on how tube gain stages have harmonics that transistors and DSP will never have and I am looking for links on such debates.
Something never mentioned in guitar magazines is that one of the reasons why imported instruments cost so much more than they're priced in their native countries is because USA manufacturers have lobbied (bribed) politicians to impose tariffs and "import duties" on foreign instruments. The same is true in foreign countries as the biggest brands have protectionist tariffs against USA manufacturers.
Something to consider is that the imported amps are improving. Japanese imports used to be considered to be junk, now Roland's JC120 is considered a classic amp. Roland's JC120 has been made unchanged in design and sound since it was first released and prices for new and used JC120's have remained constant for decades. However, you could to get that chorus sound by buying Roland's Chorus effects pedals for much less than a JC120. Korean amps seem to be improving from junk to good-beginner amps. Branded imports such as Pignose (designed by Dennis Kager - amp guru consultant to Ampeg, Fender, Mesa Boogie), Rogue (formerly Gretsch), and Electar are making retro-styled tube amps. Novik and Sovtek Amps from Russia are actually quite good and affordable. Many people buy them, swap in new/better tubes and speakers, tweak them, and get pretty good sounding amps. Someday imported amps might reach the quality level of serious-professional as the best USA boutique amps. Someday digital guitar & amp modeling will be so good that you can't tell the difference, but then you wouldn't be playing a guitar amp, you'd be playing a computer.
Something else to consider is that many famous studio and jazz musicians are not using expensive boutique amps. They're trying to make a living playing music and are not interested in spending money on such ego-trophies when they're living session-gig to session-gig. Also, most session musicians bring their prize guitars and don't want to bother hauling heavy equipment around and straining their precious playing hands. Session musicians may occasionally use a boutique amp if one happens to be in the studio where they are working. The most popular guitar amps I've seen and heard session musicians use are the solid state transistor Fender Acoustasonic amps because they're lightweight, affordable, have many controls they can use to change the sound (they don't want to waste time with the unlabeled controls many boutique amps have), have a loud clean sound, and their effects are usually external stomp boxes or rack mounts. They're not made in America and they're not really boutique. They're good for practice and sessions, but I prefer a tube amp for live performances. The most essential pedal that every guitarist ought to use is the Roland noise gate.
My Specifications for an Ideal Guitar amp
EXAMPLES: Look at these amps to get an idea of where to start: Carvin BR515N, Carvin BR510N, Fender TB-600C
POWER CONNECTIONS: All equipment ought to have standard IEC-320 power plugs with 115/230 V switches and detachable power cords.
RACK MOUNTABLE: Just like most bass amps, all guitar amps ought to be rack mountable so you can interchange the amp with amp head cases, combo cases, and rack mounts. If the amp head cabinet or combo cabinet is damaged, you could easily buy a new one with a standarized rack space and install the amp inside it. If you wanted to install the amp head into a different cabinet with different speaker combinations, you would be able to do so more easily. examples: Carvin V3, Brunetti Amps
IMPEDENCE MATCHING: Can be a hassle. Eko Amps from Italy has designed a technology they call "BLS", Best Load System. The amp automatically adjusts the impedence. Elmwood makes cabinets that automatically adjust to the impedence from the amp. All amp and cabinet builders ought to have such systems so there will never be an impedence mismatch again.
AMP ONLY UNITS: players who use rack effects, digital effects, and transistor effects do not need an amp with gain or tone controls or any controls, just a volume control. For a backline of a wall of amp cabinets, a player only needs one preamp control either on the main head unit or in a rack of effects and just amp only units to drive the cabinets. Sunn Amps used to make such amps called Sunn Coliseum Slave amps.
HANDLES: all equipment ought to have recessed handles. example: Marshall cabinets, AER Amps
WHEELS: all heavy equipment ought to have the option to add castor wheels
TILT BACK: all cabinets and combos ought to have the option to add tilt back stands
TUNER OUTPUT: all amps ought to have a one way output for connecting to an external tuner. If there is enough rack mountable space on the head unit or combo cabinet, then the player could add an external rackmount tuner. example: Fender Mexican Bassman
PANEL: front-panel controls, not on top
KNOBS: large "chickenhead" knobs - ideally glow in the dark. Cheap switches and knobs are the most annoying flaws in otherwise good amps. Even the most expensive guitar amps sometimes are stuck with cheap flimsy knobs and switches. I think all guitar amps that use switches should have toggle switches such as those used on foot effects pedals and the state of swich should be designated by colored jewel lights - with different colored ones for different states. That would make it a lot easier to see which channels were selected, which effects were turned on, and the switches on the amp and foot switches could all be consistent (it's annoying to have the amp switched to channel 2, then when you use the foot pedal to switch channels, the amp switch is inconsistent). I've always thought the switches on guitar amps were badly designed. Even the most expensive boutique amps annoyingly have crappy switches and confusing controls.
METERS: two large illuminated analog meters for A.C. line voltage monitoring for preamp and amp and power-output observation that allows easy output-tube biasing. I like to watch the meter needles move on hifi equipment. example: Ashdown
TUBE BIASING: tube biasing knobs that are accessed behind a closable front panel
TONE CONTROLS: a "tone bypass" switch that bypasses the tone controls
GAIN: a "gain bypass" switch that bypasses the gain controls so that the amp can be used as a "slave" amp unit
PANEL: clear plexiglass windows so you can see the tubes inside. example: Hughes & Kettner Amps, Surreal Amplification
LIGHTS: large jewel lights as in old Fender amps that indicate power (red), standby (yellow), and different colored lights for each channel. The lights must be readable on a darkened stage
SWITCHES: the same kind of push button toggle switches used on effects pedals or even lighted push button toggle switches. Crate BV amps have large lighted switches for power and standby. example: Fender Metalhead amps, Crate BV amps
FANS: large ventelation fans like those for computers which are inexpensive and quiet
SEPERATE BIAS: If the preamp is seperate from the amp, then there should be two sets of biasing knobs and analog meters
BYPASS: If you are using solid state effects pedals, digital effects, then you should bypass the amp's preamp (you really don't even need a guitar amp if you're using a rack of effects and pedals)
STANDARDIZED FOOT PEDAL SWITCH: All manufacturers ought to decide on one standard connection for foot pedals for their brand's models. The foot pedals ought to have the same lights as on the front of the amp so you can tell how the amp is set up at a glance on a darkened stage
OHM IMPENDENCE: all amps ought to have a switch in the back next to the speaker output that allows the player to use 4 ohm, 6 ohm, or 16 ohm speakers. All speaker cabinets ought to have switches that allows the player to set it at 4 ohm, 6 ohm, or 16 ohm settings.
GOOD EXAMPLES: Good examples of guitar amp layouts are the Carvin Legacy Head Unit, Fender Metalhead Head Unit, Peavey Supreme XL Head, Peavey JSX Joe Satriani Signature Head, Ibanez TN120, Krank Revolution, Krank Krankenstein, and Hughes & Kettner Duotone Head Unit. Each are pretty good except for a few flaws like undersized lights, flip switches, and round unreadable knobs.
PROBLEMS: Bad examples of guitar amp layouts are Rivera's amps which have the controls so close to each other that you can't read each knob's label and you accidently change one knob when you adjust another. Mesa Boogie's amps have tiny lettering for their tiny flip switches. Marshall stupidly puts digital effects on one of their tube amps, negating the whole purpose of buying a tube amp. Bad designs mean: the player cannot see the controls on a darkened stage, the player will accidently push the wrong switches, and the amp always has an inconsistent state. The flip switches and lights on the amp face indicate one configuration, but as soon as you press a few foot switch buttons, the amp face's indicators are all wrong.
DIGITAL MODELLING CALIBRATION: digital modelling head units never sound like the settings claim they are supposed to be modelling. If there was a microphone input on the face of the digital modelling head unit that allowed the player to calibrate their head unit to the cabinet the head unit is using, then the digital modelling could sound closer to what it is supposed to model. Until there is some kind of calibration, digital modelling settings are just nonsense.
GOODIES: if the guitar head units had clear plexiglass windows, then the players could cosmetically modify their amps with neon lights and more vent fans as do computer gaming enthusiasts modify their clear computer cases
DRUMS: Clear Plastic
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