What's the expensivest guitar you bought

Subject: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 29 Oct 12 - 11:43 PM

I bought this one for $2000. Played it on TV in a news story. There's only 2 of them.#001 and #002. I have #002.
Krinkle Guitar

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: Ebbie
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 12:02 AM

Nice guitar, Dick.

A couple of years ago I bought a Dobro from a friend who had bought a new one. I didn't do anything with it, just put it with the other instruments. Then this year he asked me if he could buy it back because he needed an extra one for whenever he went south. I gladly sold it back for the same amount I had paid him- glad to know it's gone to a good home.

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 12:42 AM

I bought a really nice metal body Dobro for $500 a few years ago. Model 36. From an 88 year old man. Said he played with Gid Tanner and The Skillet Lickers.
=(:-( ))

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: Bert
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 01:28 AM

$500 in Nashville. It's plywood with birds eye maple finish. As they say 'An ounce of image is worth a pound of performance'.

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 01:39 AM

True. The flashier the better.
=(:-( D)

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: GUEST,Musket sans cookie
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 03:36 AM

About 30 years ago I blew the savings on a Martin D41 for £2k. That would equate to about £5k now. I sold it for about what I paid for it.

Last year I bought a Rainsong OM10 for £1.7k. Value in that I rarely take another guitar out with me now. That good.

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 06:27 AM

I spent a little over $2,000 USD for my Santa Cruz OM-PW about 15 years back. Everything else in my stable... under $1,000 each.

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: alex s
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 06:36 AM

Another "Big Willy" contest from Krinkle.

A better thread would be how little did you (truthfully) pay for a good one - in my case a Harmony Sovereign 12 string for £37 (copy of invoice available on request)

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 06:42 AM

That's the other thread. Pay attention. I recently bought a nice Yamaha classical CG 101 for $45. With gigbag. Sold it for $150. I can find nice Squier Affinity Strats for $25-$30. I have 3 of them. I had 4, but used one in a trade for an American Deluxe Strat last Friday.
=(:-( ))

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 06:43 AM

Henry/Dick, have you uploaded a video or sound file in which you play that instrument? Would be interestingest.

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: alex s
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 06:45 AM

Krinkle has the biggest willy.

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 06:46 AM

I may do that soon. It was at the station's website, but I'm having trouble finding it.
I might do something this week. It's a really good guitar.
=(:-( D)

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: Lester
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 07:32 AM

ps - Expensivest is not a word

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 07:38 AM

I know expensivest isn't a word. But I didn't have room for What is the Most Expensive Guitar You Bought?
It gets the message across. At least I spelled it properly. Unlike a certain schoolteacher here who can't spell.
=(:-( P)

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: GUEST,Desi C
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 07:43 AM

I bought a Crafter electro/acoustic 3 years ago, I've been offered £900 for it, but I'd not sell it for double that it's so good

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: Lester
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 07:44 AM

What is the most expensive guitar you HAVE bought :)

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: G-Force
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 07:44 AM

It's also the last guitar I bought - a Martin D-18 for 100 UK pounds (well, it was in 1969). Still play it a bit, but I'm more into concertina these days, and they're a bit more expensive.

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 07:48 AM

What is the most expensive guitar you have EVER bought?
=(:-( D)

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 11:09 AM

I bought a Zeidler archtop for about 3k and never played it(his instruments had an incredible sound and depth, but you had to work with the instrument for a while in order to get it to speak) so I sold it for what seemed a good price. John sadly passed away in 2002, and I recently saw someone asking about 20k for one.

It was the most beautiful guitar I've ever seen.

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 11:48 AM

My usual motto is:

"why would I spend £2000 on just one hopefully very good quality big brand name guitar
when I can get anything up to 20 to 30 or more
reasonable quality ebay auction cheapos for the same money ?"

My usual cut off for any individual guitar was £200.

But I once gave into stupid temptation and spent about £350
on a brand new Korean made "Burns Steer" reissue
because I always fancied one since reading reviews
back in the late 70s when only approx 40 were ever made.

I realised wasting so much money was a mistake first day it was delivered.
It's an ok guitar, but no better quality than others I acquired for less than £100,
and now I rarely ever get it out of it's box to play it.

For years I was desperate to track down a "Burns Flyte"
and might even have paid silly money..
Eventually by chance I found a Flyte Bass in a shop in Woolwich,
the build quality & playability was appalling..
so I came to my senses.

The Korean Flyte reissues from 12 years or so ago were better made
but the design was changed so much to appeal to USA teenage heavy metal kids
that it was no longer the same guitar that us 40 somethings yearned for so nostalgically .
So didn't bother even though I could've got one from a US ebay shop's blowout sale for about £100 + shipping & tax.


These days I just don't have the spare money to be so self indulgent.

Last guitar I bought was about 2 years ago,
A Washburn Paul Stanley PS7000 Goldtop, highest UK retail value approx £700,
which I got in an end of line clear-out sale for £160.

I justified this as my belated 50th birthday present to myself.

The Gold finish and modified Les Paul design
is rather more fitting for a gent of my mature age...

just gotta get my head around the Buzz Feiten Tuning System
which I buggered first time I adjusted the action
and delicate intonation.

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: Will Fly
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 12:43 PM

Custom-made 0 model (just over parlour) sized guitar, commissioned from my local luthier. £1,450 and I chose the woods and style.

Cocobolo back and sides, Englemann spruce face, mahogany and maple "skunk" neck (from an old Edwardian wardrobe), ebony fingerboard and Brazilian rosewood bridge. Maple bindings and snakewood machine heads.

Here 'tis in action: Button Up Your Overcoat

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: Little Hawk
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 01:22 PM

The most expensive one was a new Taylor GC-Koa (Grand Concert, koa back & sides, spruce top). It cost about $4,000 & tax.

I've been tempted to buy Martin D-41's a couple of times, but never did. I get by fine with the very reliable Martin HD-28. It's the guitar I play the most often. They usually run about $2,500.

I hope to try out one the Rainsong guitars one of these days, but no one around here stocks them.

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 02:05 PM

Let me anchor the list.

I've only got one guitar, and it isn't a guitar anyway, it's a ukulele. It was free; the owner had stopped playing it long ago and gave it to a mutual friend, who was fully uked up and gave it to me.

It was a bargain.

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 02:20 PM

That's for the other thread. Cheapest. We're braggin' on how much we spent here.
And I spent over $1800 on my Gibson banjo. That model is about $4,000 now. RB 3 Wreath.
=(:-( o)

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: alex s
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 02:49 PM

Great guitar, Will. Nice playing too. Fab combination.

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: Will Fly
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 03:00 PM

Cheers Alex!

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: Don Firth
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 03:31 PM

It would seem that the real measure should be—how good a guitar did you get for the least money?

I've owned some outrageously good guitars over the years, and the most I paid for any of them was about $650. And I traded in a $250 guitar on that.   Very nice concert quality classical, which I eventually sold for $3000.

In 1960, with the aid of a friend who made regular trips to Spain every year, I placed an order with Arcangel Fernandez in Madrid for a flamenco guitar like the one my friend brought back on his most recent trip. Fernandez made guitars to order. A year and a half later, I received it. It was a flamenco guitar (spruce soundboard, Spanish cypress back and sides, same dimensions as a classical guitar).

The guitar cost me 7,000 pesetas ($116.66 American), plus import duty and air freight from Madrid. Total cost, about $175.00.

Beautiful instrument! When playing classical on it, it was warm and mellow, and for folk song and ballad accompaniment, very solid. Everything I needed and more.

As one would expect, where it really shone was in playing flamenco. Nought would have it but that I take some flamenco lessons from one of the guitarists who was playing at the Spanish Village exhibit at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. When you leaned into it, the "Arcangel" would really snap and bristle, and it definitely spoke Spanish!

It was a real kick to be singing a program of folk songs, accompanying myself on the Arcangel, then announce a bit of Spanish folk music, and play a flamenco solo. Left members of the audience with their mouths open, and muttering, "Ye gods, he can really play that thing!"

I've used a number of other guitars (beaters to pack around when I didn't want to subject the Arcangel to possible theft or some stumble-bum pouring his beer through the soundhole), but I still have the Arcangel.

It's the flagship of the fleet.

A recent check of guitar brokers—not regular music stores, but ones who deal strictly in top quality classical and flamenco guitars—tells me that Arcangel Fernandez is no longer taking orders for instruments because he is back-ordered for ten years. And he's getting a bit on in years.

1961 is regarded as THE vintage year for Arcangel Fernandez flamenco guitars. Montoya, Sabicas, Mario Escudero, and all the other "biggies" in flamenco played them. They are much sought after, and ones in good condition are going for around $20,000!!!

Mine is a 1961, number 136. Right in the middle of the kind folks are looking for. And it's in excellent condition.

This is what it looks like (although mine has a clear plastic golpeador—tap plate—instead of a white plastic one):   

"Arcangel."

I may sell it eventually. But not yet.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 03:36 PM

There's another thread for bragging on how little you spent.
=(:-( ))

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: Spot
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 03:46 PM

New DS2H.... :-)

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 04:04 PM

Henry - my uke is the most expensive guitar(-like instrument) I've ever bought. And it's worth even more than what I paid for it.

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: Don Firth
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 04:29 PM

Henry, the Arcangel is not at "cheap" guitar. The amount I paid for it was miniscule compared to its value, but how many here can say they own a guitar that's worth $20,000?

That's ten times what you paid for your Tin Lizzie.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: GUEST,Fyldeplayer
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 06:08 PM

Bought my Oberon about 30 years ago £475 - I had to walk round the town for a while to make decision - wish I had treated it better over the years - sadly now superceeded by S/H Martin £675 - better, louder, easier to play - take Fylde out to caress some eves.

Helped friend buy Sigma recently which at 3rd price of his Martin sounds as good, am considering Sigma small body for same reason.

Money no object I would get old 335 walnut with gold parts.

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 31 Oct 12 - 12:07 AM

I generally won't spend more than $1,000.
But I saw my National in the store, thought about it overnight, ,came back the next day with my Visa card. Bought it. And never regretted it.
=(:-( D)

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 31 Oct 12 - 02:52 AM

Henry: When people hesitate about a good instrument(or anything else that's good) because of the price, I always point out that once they've paid for it, they'll get over the price and just appreciate what they've got. If they get something that's cheaper but not as good, they'll think about what's wrong with it every time they use it.

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 31 Oct 12 - 03:05 AM

True. Get something you love.
=(:-( ))

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: GUEST,Big Al Whittle
Date: 31 Oct 12 - 03:28 AM

The first.   It was a Rosetti = £4/19/11. January 19th 1960. My 11th birthday.   That's the bugger that got got me hooked. that's the monster that led to a lifetime of thralldom to the wood and the wire.

Its like your first cigarette.

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: scouse
Date: 31 Oct 12 - 05:18 AM

I bought a Gibson 1935 LG75 Tenor guitar with original case for 3000 gulders back in 1999 been a joy ever since.. only ever seen one other like it.

As Aye,

Phil.

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 31 Oct 12 - 05:35 AM

You must mean L 75.Gibson didn't make LG's in the 30's. LG0 (I have one), LG 1, LG 2, and LG 3 comprise the LG series. LG's weren't introduced until 1942.
=(:-( ))

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: GUEST,Roger Knowles
Date: 31 Oct 12 - 01:47 PM

A Martin 1968 D-28 in 1972 for £250. Last of the Brazilian rosewood. It paid off my mortgage, took me all over the world and put my son through boarding school.Was it that expensive?
I've still got it, too.

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 31 Oct 12 - 09:10 PM

£300 for a Heartroom, including Fishman pickup and hard case. Bought about 12 yrs ago. Nice enough for me, can't justify spending more as I'm not a good enough guitarist. Always sounds better when other people play it! Only one repair when the plug-in bit dropped out!

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: Uncle Phil
Date: 31 Oct 12 - 10:57 PM

$1,000 for a '72 D18 fifteen or twenty years ago. That was probably too much at the time, but it was love at first sight and I would have paid whatever was necessary to take it home. It's still my favorite instrument.
- Phil

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: scouse
Date: 01 Nov 12 - 06:59 AM

Sorry Henry meant TG 75. Unfortunately Gibson have no records of them at least when I went to see them in '99 but George Gruhn's jaw damn near dropped when I took it to him. He priced it low, when I went back to Gibson they told me he wants it big time!!

As Aye,

Phil

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 02 Nov 12 - 05:59 AM

Aren't we lucky that we can choose exquisite hand-made guitars from the best of makers,good enough to serve as a companion for life for an amateur or professional, for around the price of a second-hand motor-scooter?

My fave three - D18, Tele, and LP reissue (OK, not exquisite and not hand-made)- came to around £1,000 in total on the second-hand rack.

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: GUEST,Big Al Whittle
Date: 02 Nov 12 - 11:38 AM

Well of course the pride of my collection is the Flobberwoggledogglecaster. This feedback, shredding monster can reproduce the same tones that I used for anthem for world peace from the I was Violated by a Chainsaw album.

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: olddude
Date: 02 Nov 12 - 11:56 AM

As Art Thieme told me once. We don't own great instruments even if we think we do, we only are stewards of them for they outlive us all.

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: musicmick
Date: 02 Nov 12 - 04:31 PM

Unlike many friends, I am not a collector. I spent $1,800 on a Nick Apolonio flat top and I brooded about the expense so much that I avoided playing it (I stuck with my old Gibson B-25). Eventually, I sold it to Jean Farnsworth, who loved Nick's guitars and knew that he had retired from the luthier biz to build sailboats.
Actually, I have yet to find a flat top to equal the touch of my 1961 Gibson, for which I paid about $500 some 25 years ago.

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: Brian May
Date: 02 Nov 12 - 05:31 PM

The most expensivest guitar I bought was my Martin 000-28, well worth the money.

I reckon 'expensivest' is a great word and conveys the meaning beautifully!!!

Subject: RE: What's the expensivest guitar you bought
From: Tootler
Date: 02 Nov 12 - 06:52 PM

About twenty quid to try guitar. I never really took to guitar so not too much money wasted. I don't even know what happened to it except I got rid of it somewhere along the line.

Now ukulele is a different matter. Even then, £180 is the most I've spent.