"Customs" and other "luxury" models... Why do you pay extra

[sixesandsevens]

Originally Posted by s2y

I've grown accustomed to the better craftsmanship as well as having 100% input on my specs.

That's a good point and it made me realize that I misrepresented my question originally.

I don't mean actual custom instruments (factory-built or luthier-built), but rather something like an LP studio vs an LP custom (or in my case, the Hamer Studio and Custom).

I'll go back and edit that in a minute!

Thanks for the comments everyone. Great stuff!

[shane88]

lucky for me i like junkyard dogs

[Moot]

Originally Posted by JimboMansonMB-1

The upgrade from a VW Beetle to a Ford Explorer is not the same as LP Studio to LP Custom!

Try going from a VW Beetle to a BMW 740Li. Now that's what you want to be driving cross-country in, my friend

Good point, but I live in the Yukon - I've never seen a BMW 740Li...

But now I want one! Heck, it's probably better on gas than the Explorer, anyway.

[zumaboy]

Just for fun, I once posted the opinion on the old Birds & Moons forum that a PRS with birds was like a painted harlot (all the ones I own have moons). The near-riot that my opinion generated was kinda funny. I know a lot of folks are all about the bling and that's fine, but workhorse guitars have more appeal for me...

[tsar nicholas]

^ funny, I'm not really a PRS fan or a fan of fancy inlay in general (Grit Laskin guitars excepted), but I do like the bird thing for some reason. I like how they're all a different bird.

[vortexxxx]

Originally Posted by dspellman

The general notion is that more time is taken and better, more select materials are used. While that may be incrementally true, we're looking at a real 5-10% difference for a huge price increase, particularly where larger manufacturers' custom shops are concerned. I asked Gibson, for example, for a custom shop Axcess Custom with a wide flame top. A standard Axcess is in the $3K range, an Axcess Custom (white multi-layer binding on body and headstock, ebony f/b, real MOP inlays, etc.) in the $4K range. Adding a nice top added $1760 (for a total of $5760) to the total price.

By comparison, the same guitar from Carvin with the same or better woods would run around $2k. Whatever else you may think about Carvin, it's still US-made and their construction and woods are generally top-notch. That's not to compare or bash Gibson in this case; just to note the difference in profit-taking. Prices begin to go back up again when you talk about completely hand-built guitars from small builders (they have to buy a lot of things at higher prices due to their tiny volume), but you'll find you can get absolutely awesome woods, construction quality and design from some of these small hand-builders for somewhere in the $3K range (a CNC-based production price from Gibson, for example).

Alan Cringean ("Skelf") at AC Guitars in Scotland, for example, produces some of the most beautiful and best-sounding basses in the world from amazingly exotic woods in that price range. Imagine what these guitars would cost if they were even remotely available from a production-type guitar company!

That is spectacular!

[bluesjuke]

I like good quality but never have been one for fancy but rather simple lines and fairly plain.

Two tone and plaintops are my favorites.

[sixesandsevens]

Originally Posted by tsar nicholas

^ funny, I'm not really a PRS fan or a fan of fancy inlay in general (Grit Laskin guitars excepted), but I do like the bird thing for some reason. I like how they're all a different bird.

It's funny, I'm sort of the opposite... I originally thought it was like a flip-book of one bird wheeling through the sky. When I realized it was more of a catalog of birds, I liked it just a little less.

That said, in my old age, I also find that I tend to prefer no fretboard markers to just about anything else. Which makes my lust for a Hamer Studio Custom all the more puzzling.