A big reason why there are so many price complainers is because if you’re married or have kids, you’re basically poor and can’t afford a lot of things. So if you see products on the internet, it’s a little bit of torture that you can’t buy it. Back in the old days, times were simpler and being poor and not buying stuff was fine
Heck ya...I took cannot wait to fit myself into the same exact peg hole as everyone else...literally.make me a copy of a copy of a copy so I can be just like everyone else..insignificant.truly and embarrassingly so.such is all humans seemingly.insignificant. I couldn't fit into that darn round hole if I was paid a million bucks...lol.my tetragrammatical shape just will NOT bend, fold and manipulate correctly to facilitate such an waste of talents to myself. Cookie-cutter cloneisms...here I come...lol.
That's funny. Amen! And I need a 60,000$ strat so I can play Mustang Sally for that guy who requests it at every bar gig and never puts a buck in my tip jar. He will then request " Wipe Out" when I am doing a solo acoustic gig. Later He will be so drunk he will dent my van while exiting the parking lot. Maybe I just need a good bourbon and a night off🤔.
@@saber5849 absolutely! We all buy guitars for our own unique reasons. Some folks collect baseballs even though they really can't play baseball. And that is A-OK. I love to play under 200$ guitars because for me guitar playing is a job. And I rarely get the luxury of playing music I really enjoy. If it was just for fun, I'd likely choose completely different guitars. But the filthy places I play and the amateurish part time players I work with now, warrant a sub 200$ guitar.
You do realize “ class” distinction was invented by our Cold War enemy? You vote for the politicians that keep it alive? Classic division that prevents a United States! Keep electing career politicians
About 30 years ago (rough estimate) I bought a used 1978 wine red Les Paul Custom for $768 (about $1800 today??). I still have it. It played well and sounded good. Collector prices are way out of my reach, but there are plenty of good players for far far less than 40K. Even the "beginner" models are light years ahead of the junk I grew up with.
Also Gibson wants in on that secondary pricing. Could they sell them at 10, sell them out and make a profit? Yep. However they see them instantly go for 3-4x that price They want in on that profit. So they’re now pricing them accordingly
Why would someone pay $40k for a Gibson? Easy: Because they can. There are lots of people -- and I mean a LOT of people -- for whom $1,000, $1,500, $2,000 is walking-around money, and for whom a typical checking account balance is $50,000. That’s just working cash for them -- their real money isn’t in checking accounts. Those people aren’t watching and commenting on guitar videos on RUclips but don’t think they don’t exist because you don’t know one. And they didn't get the money by obsessing about guitar gear. If they did, they wouldn’t have the money. Irony is everywhere you look in this life.
as the OP summed up, these people don't really care about the price. I have a friend thay has a Spiderman #1. the dude bought his kid a Porsche for his 18th bday. he has a private jet. 40k is pocket change for a guy like him. there are a lot of people out there with that kind of money.
"Why would someone pay $40k for a Gibson? " Because you can count on getting at least 40k when you sell it. when you buy a high dollar guitar, you're really just borrowing it for free but with a large up front deposit.
I like that. A $40K guitar isn't necessarily a guitar, at that price point it's memorabilia and/or a collectors piece / investment. Gibson doesn't have any delusions that they are making those high price tag guitars for your everyday gigging or hobby guitarists. They are essentially expensive trophies to be displayed or locked away in a safe. If people didn't buy them they wouldn't make them. As long as they sell they will continue to do these highly limited runs of these types of instruments.
I always wanted an Olympic white, rosewood neck Strat. Eventually, my dreams were answered. One day, while in my local music store, there it was. A pristine Olympic white Strat. It had the original bill of sale and hard case. The price was steep, but there was no way I was letting this beauty go. Anyway, I managed to make a deal with the sales guy (I was a well established customer) I traded in a very nice watch as a deposit and agreed to pay a set price every month. I was so excited, I couldn’t stop telling my friends and family about “my dream guitar” Once I’d made the final payment, the guitar would be mine. I scrimped and scraped every penny I had, did extra time at work and cut right back on any non essentials. I did this for more time than I will ever admit to anyone. Eventually, the day came when I made the final payment. Nervously, I got it home, opened the case and just stared at it. When I finally plucked up the courage to pick it up and plug it in to my amp, i then realised that I couldn’t actually play the guitar. How we all laughed!
Most I spent on a New Gibson is $5100 CND I'd never go higher, but the one I bought for that price is wicked sounding and plays sweet. It might go up in value, but I'm not concerned about that, I just love playing it.
Excellently stated. I went with my father 20 years ago down south to look at some antique furniture. I was amazed that these stores didn't have 3 chairs from the 1700s but warehouses full of them still! You see a single item and you get the "scarcity" effect and think that is it. Nope there is either a warehouse full of them OR like Gibson they'll just make another "limited run" as long as they sell out.
It wasn't Gibson that did this, it was the poser buyers market! Gibson saw that they were releasing Guitars that were immediately getting scalped for twice the amount they were charging so they thought lets charge what the market is wiling to pay!
I wonder how many clarinets were sold to nubs when Benny Goodman was THE MAN. Collectible!!! Nah... Pokemon cards: NOW WE'RE TALKING! (get real) Value is transient, attached to Clapton's auctioneer bidding on a box of fading years (Anyone for Tennis)
It reminds me of the scene from that movie Wall Street; Daryl Hannah is giving Charlie Sheen a tour of Gordon Gekko's house and Charlie says a painting on the wall looks like a 6 year old painted it. She replies that Gordon paid $2,000,000 for it and he says "I thought he was a better businessman than to pay that much for this trash." She answers "it's worth $6,000,000 today."
Not unless someone's actually handing over $6mil for it. I can say something is worth anything I want, but unless someone's handing me that cash, it's not.
@@Scott__C Human psychology is weird. If enough people say it's worth a lot of money, it'll be worth a lot of money. The South Park episode on Space Cash summed it up well. For example, Bitcoin for a while. Commercial Real Estate is trying to keep the values high, but a crash in the market might be coming.
And in the second, crappy, Wall Street movie, he has the Tulip Mania poster. Bubbles are bubbles, the only thing that keeps a bubble from popping, is demand. Keep pumping demand high enough and prices will stay high. But everything goes out of fashion eventually, and if the demand starts to shrink, so too will the prices. Just look at the used luxury watch market, lol.
That depends, if you are renting an expensive small studio in a prominent western city that is also suffering from hyper-inflation with zero perspective of ever owning a house to raise a family in, all your guitars dont mean anything.
Exactly, people who 'collect' and 'invest' in any field are ok if they use the items for their intended use. They will pay what they can afford for the piece as the market determines. However if these items are never seen again by sitting in safes, vaults and banks then they would be as well just buying gold and leave the items to those who want to USE them. It's always the less well off that are denied by the rich and arrogant. Nothing will change the fact that people like 'ownership'. " I have one , you don't " .
Saddest part is they went after kids hobbies like Legos, hot wheels, pokemon cards. It's ridiculous how much some children's hobbies cost now. Most kids don't want the garage filled with collectors items then just want the ones they like and people will try to flip something like a Lego mini fig for a few hundred
It's because people want to buy the things they dreamed of owning as kids, but couldn't afford. Boomers "invest" in muscle cars and rock-n-roll guitars. The younger generations who've now grown up "invest" in Lego, Pokemon, and videogames. If you just want to play some music, a $500 Epiphone or Squire is all you'd ever need. $10,000+ instruments are for something else...
@@thefuneralparadeI don't think I would call people stupid who are MAKING money.....I think YOU could be stupid for not seeing the market of supply and demand!
I get it. The guitars that speak to me are often sold for under 1K. At least if you shop around. Some are asking much more. I don't bite on those. I pay less or I don't buy. Eventually, those guitars will float above 1k. And then they will float above 2k. And so on....I buy the ones I love while they are cheap. Once the price exceeds my pricepoint, they are instant unobantium. A lot of the guitars I love are doing this, I won't pay more, but somebody is paying more. Yes, early Ibanez guitars are becoming unobtanium. All Ibanez guitars are becoming unobtainium. People are waking up to the fact that these are the best electric guitars ever made. They really are THAT good.
that's why greco strats from the 70's and 80's are such a great deal. People already found out how good the les pauls are that they made so the top models of those cheap japanese knockoffs are going for upwards of 8k and a set of pickups from them going for 2k but you can still get the strats for under a grand.
I know a guy who's always buying guitars. More power to him. It's his hobby. Me, I'm poor, and feel lucky to have one guitar. I'm somewhat of a luthier and modded my favorite guitar back in the early 90s ,it has a Schaller bridge, 56 Gibson humbucker in the bridge and hot pickups in the middle and neck. It sounds like a Fender Strat and a Les Paul. I'm a bassist and own one bass, it sounds fantastic. I bought a Chapman Stick in the early 90s which I am still taking lessons when I can afford the price tag.
I don't begrudge rich people buying stuff they enjoy. It doesn't make me mad, jealous or outraged. It gives people jobs making these things. More power to them, I hope they have fun.
I'd never trash talk anyone for buying an expensive guitar anymore than I'd make fun of someone who prefers inexpensive guitars. I happen to own cheap, used MIM Fenders and MIJ Fenders. But I also own used custom shop guitars. And yes, I own some very special, vintage "golden era" Fenders and Gibsons. All of them have more than doubled in value. And that will keep rising. But that's not why I bought them. They're my dream guitars. I love them. So I play them every day. They're guitars. Not paintings.
There’s a guy on an auction site who often lists very high end reissues for big $, and the descriptions usually say “unplayed.” Describes himself as a “supercollector.” Shame to have all those beautiful axes and never play them.
I can't afford a $4k Gibson let a $40k one, however, if a $40k guitar has the spirit of some great gutarist and whoever owns the guitar will have the talent of that gutarist while playing the guitar, I would go to the bank and try to get a loan today.😂
I always wonder about the investment part. I have already seen the bottom of the custom hot rod market fall out. Cars that have were $300,000 gaveling at Barrett Jackson for $40-50,000, a bloodbath. The boomers are all retiring and trying not to outlive their money. While I’d love to “invest” my 401K in a nice Sunburst there is day coming sometime when the players who want that guitar and can afford it are, uh, dead, or we are all trying to cash out and suddenly a ‘59 is worth much less than I paid for it. We’ve already seen archtop prices collapse. So don’t think that your favorite vintage guitar is immune. Sunbursts might be immune like Stradivarius or the could implode.
Good point. I read an article that said around 2000 the Elvis collectible market went bonkers but by 2007-2010 the air got punched out of it because most of the people who loved Elvis were retired and needed the money or dead and the estate was dumping it. I can see the hotrod and Elvis markets overlapping in terms of population.
From the perspective of the value of components used in the build, probably no guitars worth 40,000$. Fortunately for people who own 40,000$ guitars, there's more than the components used that determines value.
I bought a top of the line Cordoba (classical/flamenco) C12 luthier series after auditioning other guitars all afternoon. I asked to play the $10,000 guitar telling them this was just out of curiosity. I would NOT buy it. It was indeed better than my Cordoba. From low, medium, to high, every pitch came through at the same level. The guitar was way better than me, but, at least I could hear it!
Looking at the price of top end mandolins, particularly the recent master model F5 reissues it's basically the same thing, there's a copy of Bill Monroe's Lloyd Loar that is definitely for looking at not for playing.
As a player I would never pay 40k guitar, but if I were a collector with lots of disposable income, then maybe. We are talking about investment pieces. And I am pretty sure that most wealthy people don’t care if poor people think they are stupid.
I couldn't believe that a tele same style and year as mine was on Reverb for $ 30,000. This is ridiculous. Made me almost put mine for sale and buy 100 squires and epiphones...
Never thought about the side effects of exploding prices like that. But it makes sense that one might get afraid of using expensive gear, especially for those of us that don't live under the moneytree...
Paying that amount of money for an aged guitar is ridiculous and is a Keeping up with the Jones thing. The only difference in the older Les Pauls and other vintage guitars is that the magnets in the pickups have aged and de-gaussed to alnico 3 or 4 levels. This is what makes the guitars sound "sweet". Simply throw some Alnico 3 pickups in your LP and it will sound virtually indistinguishable from a $50,000 vintage Les Paul.
At the end of the day, the people buying $40k Gibsons are MAKING MONEY......Period, The End......meanwhile everyone in the comments section of youtube is wasting their Time and Life.
I remember in the book, Dr. Zhivago, the rich were breaking up and burning priceless furniture to stay warm. I can just see some rich guitar hoarder burning his collection because the guitar market crashed and he can't afford to heat his castle.
I live near a custom Acoustic guitar store and it seems that some people will buy a $30, 000 acoustic without batting an eye. I think it's mind boggling. One day , left out in a very dry environment without a humidifier, that 30g guitar becomes a piece of unplayable dry wood. It's a very shaky investment
The great thing about the current market is that there’s so much gear out there for every budget, and most of it is really good, at any price point. 20 years ago that wasn’t the case.
I bought a Westone in 1981 brand new for $300 dollars. Those were 1981 dollars so would be a little under 1100 today. People asking for six to eight hundred for this model on Ebay nowadays. Well it is a PLAYER! It has great action, great tone and it stays in tune. After all these years I still love to PLAY it.
Gibson have watched the price of vintage gear skyrocket over the past 20 years and they want a piece of that market. But the vintage stuff has rarity and/or provenance. 40k for a new guitar that’s really not significantly different from a 2.5k guitar is just selling exclusivity. There’s no justification for it. Wood is a bit prettier, final fit and finish is more careful. After that? It’s just pitching it a silly price point knowing that there’s always someone with too much money who will buy it.
The people who call investment guitars firewood or call the buyers idiots are simply people without the understanding or the investment capital to grasp the fact that like art or gold or any tactile investment object, these are physical investments where one can park their money to eventually collect a profitable return all the while retaining the object in their possession.
When I was younger and gigging, I owned one good guitar. Played at least 1,000 gigs. I'm old now and have 6-8 high quality guitars... doesn't make sense to me.
For me personally, spending more than say $1000 on a guitar to actually take with me somewhere and play is just not gonna happen (atleast in my current situation). Could I save my $ and buy a nice Gibson? Absolutely, I could. The problem is that I would be so preoccupied with not wanting it to get damaged or stolen that I would never use it as it is intended. To me, that is just wasteful and irresponsible. Could my Epi LP custom get stolen or damaged? Of course but, I could replace it ($799) alot easier and therefore less burdensome on my wallet. I can't fault someone who buys $40K guitars as investments or wall hangers. Their money, their business just not gonna be me unless I win the lottery or something lol.
Great video! I had a 58 LP gold top I sold about 15 years ago…I bought it in 1975 for less than 300.00 I sold it for 55k to a collector. I found that he sold it 2 weeks later for 65k! I thought that the bottom was gonna fall out back then and I should get the money! Boy was I wrong! Regrets- yes/no!
I mean, if you can afford it, and want it... buy it and own it. Not just guitars, anything. People are so comfortable telling other people what is a valid transaction or not but the market is pretty simple - a product is, objectively, worth as much as people are willing to pay for it. The joy of ownership is varied, though - even on the same product. For some people, it's playing it. Some people buy beautiful guitars to display. Some do it as an investment. All are completely valid. There's room for every type of owner and I think the people that own one guitar they love and the people that own 35 different instruments are both dope. Either way, pull out the amps and let's jam! 🤣
I had a period in my life when going I bought too many guitars. Now as I age into retirement I need to thin the herd. I play them all on a rotating basis. My best friend and old bandmate has played one guitar for the last 45 years. If you have the cash do what you want. But not as an investment, you are lucky to get back what you paid for them. The market is over saturated. The problem is I love them all, but need to only keep a few.
Nice video! Being a car guy I see your point. Everything you said is spot on. Are you a collector or do you enjoy using it? Cars are harder to collect because they need special maintenance just sitting. Instruments take up way less room and don’t require as much storing maintenance, but it just sits there!
Theproblem for me is, I'm not financially able to afford to replace all of the gear I had to sell years ago with today's prices. Me, I've always wanted a 58 les Paul, which is totally impossible. But I want it to play, to use, not a show piece. It's sad the guitars of our dreams are so out of reach. Even the guitars I sold years ago I could never buy back. Let's face it les Paul's today are ridiculously expensive. It's sad. ✌
If I win the lottery I might buy an expensive guitar. I will probably buy a lot of cool bucket list stuff. I find joy in guitars in the 1K price. I do own a 2000 dollar Fender bass. That is the most expensive instrument I own. I use it every week playing at my church gig.
the reality is that for 1k you can find guitars that sound and play as good as guitars for 10k. On the other hand, buying a great cheap guitar is a gamble but buying a crappy expensive guitar pays off in the end.
I would too..however..I also am a guitarist of 37 straight years of playing and can play any guitar upsidedown or backwards even.and am at a high level of musicianship.i don't just walk away.i learn and do things correctly.finally and the guitar would have alot better time with my kind than it would in the hands of a rich newb.for instsnce.who would use it as a status symbol.
All these things are basically a way for rich people who want to put their money into something more interesting than stocks and bonds. Collectors of art sell their art to each other at higher prices so that their other art by the same artist will go up in price. I think the same thing applies to guitars, collector cars, watches or whatever you want to talk about. There are always collectors who don't really care about how much whatever they collect costs, but it's like anything else, some people don't care about anything else regarding their collections.
People don’t understand how many people actually make great money. It’s called diversifying your portfolio. You don’t invest in one thing. You are also afforded the ability to buy what you want. 1,000 to one person is easily 1 dollar to another.
If it’s your money you can spend it on whatever you want. People always talk about what they would do if they had unlimited resources. Wealthy women spend outrageous money on handbags. If a guy is buying a guitar for $40,000 he isn’t worried about the price.
Folks seem to never talk about the elephant in the room. Some rich folks buy pricey guitars as a way to cheat the government out of capital gains tax. If a guy buys a car, house, boat, RV, jewelry etc, there will almost ALWAYS be a deed, title, or some form of paper trail. But a rich guy can often pay cash for a pricey guitar and sell it for cash with absolutely no reciept, no bill of sale no title and if he realizes a big profit that can be undeclared income. Thst is just another way the uber wealthy invest their wealth and get around paying capital gains tax. It can be dirty crooked world. No one talks about this but this practice often inflates the price of vintage instruments.
Murphy lab brazillian rosewood new gibsons look nice. Most i ever spent on a guitar was a 59 bone by gil yaron and a little less money was a used prs private stock, mostly player grade examples
Kind of sad how these things end up simply becoming collector's items and thus paradoxically, overpriced junk. If it's not being played what real good is it? Kind of like the cycle of gentrification in a neighbourhood: first nobody wanted to live there, then artists moved in and gave it attention, then it becomes trendy and more expensive, and finally it becomes untouchable but nobody actually lives there; it's purely an investment.
Remember what happened to the baseball card market. Once everyone realized they were "valuable" the ones being produced were worthless and most of the new buyers were left with shoeboxes full of cardboard rectangles.
My jem i bought 1700€ sold it for 2500 now it's 6000+ but i regret selling it every day. Not because of the money but because i will never be able to buy one ever again.
I have always wanted 2 particularly expensive guitars. Number 1 was a black Les Paul custom with a Floyd Rose. I finally bought a GORGEOUS one from Sweetwater last year. But as much as I love it, I barely play the thing because it is worth like 5k Number 2 is an es-345 configured EXACTLY like the one in the original Back to the future. Unfortunately they do NOT EXIST in that config so i am in the process of doing an order through the Gibson custom shop. Doubt i will play that one much either when i finally get it
Maybe try out playing them on special occasions. For example, Christmas, Easter, yours or someone else's birthday, during the superbowl or other tournament games, eclipse day, sundays, full moon nights, or anytime you want to treat yourself. I agree, I don't like practicing on my 'nice' $1k guitar. I save it for the times I perform pretty much for myself.
I will never buy another Gibson ,the amount of problems i had with a les paul i had which resulted in replacing the neck with another non Gibson neck to make it playable again ,there are lots of really good alternatives out there without having to pay for an expensive sticker Rkon
Bought Gibson les Paul custom lite limited proprietary in 2016only 600 made for £1500 now their £2500 last time I checked. Also got a 2017lp traditional £1500at the time sold it unfortunately, their now worth about £2000 🤦♂️
Those guitars sell faster than they can put them out, why do you think they just keep going up and up. Just wait till the new Page double neck hits the market...
businesses are about making money...If you dont like that fact, move to greenland. When some people spend 500k on a classic 59, that brings the price possibilities up for all the others. In a world where some guitars sell for 500k, 2 guitars for 40k total could be a deal.
I spent 7k Canadian on an R9. Made in 2016 ish far as I can tell It’s a good guitar.. even kind of really good It’s not worth 7k I kind of wish I went for a prs or a complete custom build made by a good luthier It’s what I have now so I play it, a lot The prices are rediculous.. period
"There no place in the heart that will ever be filled, and we will wait, and wait in that space" Charles Bukowski But I'd luv luv luv, a 2021 Gibson Black Beauty Custom R7 weight in @ 7lbs thanks!
Guitars have gone way outa my league!! The most any rare axe is worth is 10,000$ , anything over that is up to the person buying it! I purchased a76 les Paul custom for under a thousand! From a sensible player! He made a little money on it from me! It’s as good as any les Paul in any ones collection!! Great job Phillip
Fortunately, I own vintage - 54, 58 and 62 Strats. Since 1972 I have preferred these instruments and amps. And what I see in the backround of your video is Junk! Reminds me of the Kingston guitar that I had in 67".
I try not to be a snob - but everytime I see this guy and look at his back wall, all I see are high school grade toys on the wall. They look like pure junk toys. Because of that, I've never taken this guy seriously. (PS - I know next to nothing about electric guitars, only acoustic.)
It is kind of like a professional athletes getting enormous signing bonusses. The player is NOT worth millions of dollars. The point is to add to the player to the stable of a sports organization is to keep another organization from signing him. It all adds up parlaying your money and make more money down the road...hopefully.
All of it - vintage, recreation etc. - are marketing terms to make someone fork out for these things. They're not worth it. Neither are the 59 Les Pauls or the 62 Strats. They're all just wood with components screwed onto them.
The Internet is simultaneously the nicest and meanest place that doesn't actually exist.
Yeah! But the outternet is a dangerous place!
So the Internet doesn't exist? Really? By what definition?? Take a minute 🤣
A big reason why there are so many price complainers is because if you’re married or have kids, you’re basically poor and can’t afford a lot of things. So if you see products on the internet, it’s a little bit of torture that you can’t buy it. Back in the old days, times were simpler and being poor and not buying stuff was fine
I agree. Consume less and live more.
@@cuda426hemi as a physical space the Internet does not exist.
I need a $40,000 Les Paul for playing Brown Eyed Girl at the local VFW Hall.
I doubt you'll see something like that around a VFW music night. My opinion. Life member since '11.
Heck ya...I took cannot wait to fit myself into the same exact peg hole as everyone else...literally.make me a copy of a copy of a copy so I can be just like everyone else..insignificant.truly and embarrassingly so.such is all humans seemingly.insignificant.
I couldn't fit into that darn round hole if I was paid a million bucks...lol.my tetragrammatical shape just will NOT bend, fold and manipulate correctly to facilitate such an waste of talents to myself.
Cookie-cutter cloneisms...here I come...lol.
That's funny. Amen! And I need a 60,000$ strat so I can play Mustang Sally for that guy who requests it at every bar gig and never puts a buck in my tip jar.
He will then request " Wipe Out" when I am doing a solo acoustic gig.
Later He will be so drunk he will dent my van while exiting the parking lot.
Maybe I just need a good bourbon and a night off🤔.
It’s all relative
@@saber5849 absolutely!
We all buy guitars for our own unique reasons.
Some folks collect baseballs even though they really can't play baseball.
And that is A-OK.
I love to play under 200$ guitars because for me guitar playing is a job.
And I rarely get the luxury of playing music I really enjoy.
If it was just for fun, I'd likely choose completely different guitars.
But the filthy places I play and the amateurish part time players I work with now, warrant a sub 200$ guitar.
Rich or poor....or if you're in the middle....thank God theres a guitar for every budget....🎸❤️🙏🏾🎶🎶🎶
Amen to that!!
You do realize “ class” distinction was invented by our Cold War enemy? You vote for the politicians that keep it alive? Classic division that prevents a United States! Keep electing career politicians
About 30 years ago (rough estimate) I bought a used 1978 wine red Les Paul Custom for $768 (about $1800 today??). I still have it. It played well and sounded good. Collector prices are way out of my reach, but there are plenty of good players for far far less than 40K. Even the "beginner" models are light years ahead of the junk I grew up with.
Also Gibson wants in on that secondary pricing. Could they sell them at 10, sell them out and make a profit? Yep. However they see them instantly go for 3-4x that price
They want in on that profit. So they’re now pricing them accordingly
Why would someone pay $40k for a Gibson? Easy: Because they can. There are lots of people -- and I mean a LOT of people -- for whom $1,000, $1,500, $2,000 is walking-around money, and for whom a typical checking account balance is $50,000. That’s just working cash for them -- their real money isn’t in checking accounts. Those people aren’t watching and commenting on guitar videos on RUclips but don’t think they don’t exist because you don’t know one. And they didn't get the money by obsessing about guitar gear. If they did, they wouldn’t have the money. Irony is everywhere you look in this life.
They have yacht catalogs in the bathroom or full size grand pianos in the living room
Like he said , it’s often an investment. And if you can write it off as a “business expense “ , it’s even better
as the OP summed up, these people don't really care about the price. I have a friend thay has a Spiderman #1. the dude bought his kid a Porsche for his 18th bday. he has a private jet. 40k is pocket change for a guy like him. there are a lot of people out there with that kind of money.
"Why would someone pay $40k for a Gibson? "
Because you can count on getting at least 40k when you sell it. when you buy a high dollar guitar, you're really just borrowing it for free but with a large up front deposit.
I have seen plenty of expensive gibsons sold to great loss.
Makes me think i wont buy a new one !
I like that. A $40K guitar isn't necessarily a guitar, at that price point it's memorabilia and/or a collectors piece / investment. Gibson doesn't have any delusions that they are making those high price tag guitars for your everyday gigging or hobby guitarists. They are essentially expensive trophies to be displayed or locked away in a safe. If people didn't buy them they wouldn't make them. As long as they sell they will continue to do these highly limited runs of these types of instruments.
I always wanted an Olympic white, rosewood neck Strat. Eventually, my dreams were answered. One day, while in my local music store, there it was. A pristine Olympic white Strat. It had the original bill of sale and hard case. The price was steep, but there was no way I was letting this beauty go. Anyway, I managed to make a deal with the sales guy (I was a well established customer) I traded in a very nice watch as a deposit and agreed to pay a set price every month. I was so excited, I couldn’t stop telling my friends and family about “my dream guitar” Once I’d made the final payment, the guitar would be mine. I scrimped and scraped every penny I had, did extra time at work and cut right back on any non essentials. I did this for more time than I will ever admit to anyone. Eventually, the day came when I made the final payment. Nervously, I got it home, opened the case and just stared at it. When I finally plucked up the courage to pick it up and plug it in to my amp, i then realised that I couldn’t actually play the guitar. How we all laughed!
Most I spent on a New Gibson is $5100 CND I'd never go higher, but the one I bought for that price is wicked sounding and plays sweet.
It might go up in value, but I'm not concerned about that, I just love playing it.
You ever notice Normans rare guitars has a huge store and warehouse of "rare" guitars!😊
Are you claiming that they aren't rare?
& Joey B is always buying them 😂
@@ChrisP3000x well,how rare can they be?.have you ever been to a music store in Nashville,they're slammed with rare gear!
Excellently stated. I went with my father 20 years ago down south to look at some antique furniture. I was amazed that these stores didn't have 3 chairs from the 1700s but warehouses full of them still! You see a single item and you get the "scarcity" effect and think that is it. Nope there is either a warehouse full of them OR like Gibson they'll just make another "limited run" as long as they sell out.
It wasn't Gibson that did this, it was the poser buyers market! Gibson saw that they were releasing Guitars that were immediately getting scalped for twice the amount they were charging so they thought lets charge what the market is wiling to pay!
I noticed that too.
I wonder how many clarinets were sold to nubs when Benny Goodman was THE MAN. Collectible!!!
Nah... Pokemon cards: NOW WE'RE TALKING! (get real)
Value is transient, attached to Clapton's auctioneer bidding on a box of fading years (Anyone for Tennis)
It reminds me of the scene from that movie Wall Street; Daryl Hannah is giving Charlie Sheen a tour of Gordon Gekko's house and Charlie says a painting on the wall looks like a 6 year old painted it. She replies that Gordon paid $2,000,000 for it and he says "I thought he was a better businessman than to pay that much for this trash." She answers "it's worth $6,000,000 today."
Not unless someone's actually handing over $6mil for it. I can say something is worth anything I want, but unless someone's handing me that cash, it's not.
@@Scott__C Human psychology is weird. If enough people say it's worth a lot of money, it'll be worth a lot of money. The South Park episode on Space Cash summed it up well. For example, Bitcoin for a while. Commercial Real Estate is trying to keep the values high, but a crash in the market might be coming.
And in the second, crappy, Wall Street movie, he has the Tulip Mania poster. Bubbles are bubbles, the only thing that keeps a bubble from popping, is demand. Keep pumping demand high enough and prices will stay high. But everything goes out of fashion eventually, and if the demand starts to shrink, so too will the prices. Just look at the used luxury watch market, lol.
lol either a Basquiat, Pollock or de Kooning. I forget. But jeeeeez yeah the comparison to children’s art lol I’m dying.
@@Scott__C you're not an appraiser
*!* *Why Rich People Buy $40,000 Gibsons?* *Because they can.*
And they can’t play for shit
@@motorboy1966they didn’t buy it to play it.
Beautiful firewood during Apocalypse...
@@DouglasMcLaughlin-kq7hk yeah and the guitars will play real nice too
I like the new Gibson Reissues. They cost a bit more but they are "made right". BTW I like shiny not beat up. :)
Owning multiple guitars is a 1st World priveledge. So lucky to live here and have solid employment. That said I am still looking for "that" guitar.
Yes, we should count our blessings. We are also fortunate to have many low price guitars that are great.
Wrong, it's not a privilege, you WORK for it.....a privilege would be growing up wealthy.
That depends, if you are renting an expensive small studio in a prominent western city that is also suffering from hyper-inflation with zero perspective of ever owning a house to raise a family in, all your guitars dont mean anything.
Memorabilia and collector market has ruined car hobby, watches, guitars etc.
Exactly, people who 'collect' and 'invest' in any field are ok if they use the items for their intended use. They will pay what they can afford for the piece as the market determines. However if these items are never seen again by sitting in safes, vaults and banks then they would be as well just buying gold and leave the items to those who want to USE them. It's always the less well off that are denied by the rich and arrogant. Nothing will change the fact that people like 'ownership'. " I have one , you don't " .
Saddest part is they went after kids hobbies like Legos, hot wheels, pokemon cards. It's ridiculous how much some children's hobbies cost now. Most kids don't want the garage filled with collectors items then just want the ones they like and people will try to flip something like a Lego mini fig for a few hundred
It's because people want to buy the things they dreamed of owning as kids, but couldn't afford. Boomers "invest" in muscle cars and rock-n-roll guitars. The younger generations who've now grown up "invest" in Lego, Pokemon, and videogames.
If you just want to play some music, a $500 Epiphone or Squire is all you'd ever need. $10,000+ instruments are for something else...
My favourite guitar is a Gibson SG Junior. Cost less than a 1000.
People spend more than that for a single Pokemon card.
Well,people ARE inherently stupid.
@@thefuneralparadeI don't think I would call people stupid who are MAKING money.....I think YOU could be stupid for not seeing the market of supply and demand!
@@thefuneralparadeclearly you are ignorant of the value of pokemon cards.
I get it. The guitars that speak to me are often sold for under 1K. At least if you shop around. Some are asking much more. I don't bite on those. I pay less or I don't buy. Eventually, those guitars will float above 1k. And then they will float above 2k. And so on....I buy the ones I love while they are cheap. Once the price exceeds my pricepoint, they are instant unobantium. A lot of the guitars I love are doing this, I won't pay more, but somebody is paying more. Yes, early Ibanez guitars are becoming unobtanium. All Ibanez guitars are becoming unobtainium. People are waking up to the fact that these are the best electric guitars ever made. They really are THAT good.
that's why greco strats from the 70's and 80's are such a great deal. People already found out how good the les pauls are that they made so the top models of those cheap japanese knockoffs are going for upwards of 8k and a set of pickups from them going for 2k but you can still get the strats for under a grand.
I buy 40 dollar guitars at pawn shops set them up myself and they sound fantastic if you know what your doing.Overkill is just overkill.😊
I know a guy who's always buying guitars. More power to him. It's his hobby. Me, I'm poor, and feel lucky to have one guitar. I'm somewhat of a luthier and modded my favorite guitar back in the early 90s ,it has a Schaller bridge, 56 Gibson humbucker in the bridge and hot pickups in the middle and neck. It sounds like a Fender Strat and a Les Paul. I'm a bassist and own one bass, it sounds fantastic. I bought a Chapman Stick in the early 90s which I am still taking lessons when I can afford the price tag.
Just like classic cars, there is a huge difference between collector items and regular items.
Any guitar can be replicated exactly, not possible with automobiles.
I don't begrudge rich people buying stuff they enjoy. It doesn't make me mad, jealous or outraged. It gives people jobs making these things. More power to them, I hope they have fun.
Never would I have imagined a JEM going for that much. Insane.
I'd never trash talk anyone for buying an expensive guitar anymore than I'd make fun of someone who prefers inexpensive guitars. I happen to own cheap, used MIM Fenders and MIJ Fenders. But I also own used custom shop guitars. And yes, I own some very special, vintage "golden era" Fenders and Gibsons. All of them have more than doubled in value. And that will keep rising. But that's not why I bought them. They're my dream guitars. I love them. So I play them every day. They're guitars. Not paintings.
There’s a guy on an auction site who often lists very high end reissues for big $, and the descriptions usually say “unplayed.” Describes himself as a “supercollector.” Shame to have all those beautiful axes and never play them.
If you Have the Cash for what ever you want to Spend on Guitars,and your Outlook as well as your Wallet is Rich!Why Not!
I can't afford a $4k Gibson let a $40k one, however, if a $40k guitar has the spirit of some great gutarist and whoever owns the guitar will have the talent of that gutarist while playing the guitar, I would go to the bank and try to get a loan today.😂
I heard a few Mel Bay books have the spirit. You can read them and sometimes strange things happen.
@@ronj9448 I do have a couple of the Mel Bay books and while going through them I can feel a spirit awakening. 😄
I always wonder about the investment part. I have already seen the bottom of the custom hot rod market fall out. Cars that have were $300,000 gaveling at Barrett Jackson for $40-50,000, a bloodbath. The boomers are all retiring and trying not to outlive their money. While I’d love to “invest” my 401K in a nice Sunburst there is day coming sometime when the players who want that guitar and can afford it are, uh, dead, or we are all trying to cash out and suddenly a ‘59 is worth much less than I paid for it. We’ve already seen archtop prices collapse. So don’t think that your favorite vintage guitar is immune. Sunbursts might be immune like Stradivarius or the could implode.
So
Very wise comment Patrick.
Good point. I read an article that said around 2000 the Elvis collectible market went bonkers but by 2007-2010 the air got punched out of it because most of the people who loved Elvis were retired and needed the money or dead and the estate was dumping it. I can see the hotrod and Elvis markets overlapping in terms of population.
From the perspective of the value of components used in the build, probably no guitars worth 40,000$.
Fortunately for people who own 40,000$ guitars, there's more than the components used that determines value.
I bought a top of the line Cordoba (classical/flamenco) C12 luthier series after auditioning other guitars all afternoon. I asked to play the $10,000 guitar telling them this was just out of curiosity. I would NOT buy it. It was indeed better than my Cordoba. From low, medium, to high, every pitch came through at the same level. The guitar was way better than me, but, at least I could hear it!
That was great when you were like "look, ya know, no" LOL! I totally agree and i'm glad someone else is making sense about it.
I’m really really happy I came across your channel & podcast. I don’t have any friends who play or are in the guitar world so this is nice.
Looking at the price of top end mandolins, particularly the recent master model F5 reissues it's basically the same thing, there's a copy of Bill Monroe's Lloyd Loar that is definitely for looking at not for playing.
As a player I would never pay 40k guitar, but if I were a collector with lots of disposable income, then maybe. We are talking about investment pieces. And I am pretty sure that most wealthy people don’t care if poor people think they are stupid.
I couldn't believe that a tele same style and year as mine was on Reverb for $ 30,000. This is ridiculous. Made me almost put mine for sale and buy 100 squires and epiphones...
Never thought about the side effects of exploding prices like that. But it makes sense that one might get afraid of using expensive gear, especially for those of us that don't live under the moneytree...
Paying that amount of money for an aged guitar is ridiculous and is a Keeping up with the Jones thing. The only difference in the older Les Pauls and other vintage guitars is that the magnets in the pickups have aged and de-gaussed to alnico 3 or 4 levels. This is what makes the guitars sound "sweet". Simply throw some Alnico 3 pickups in your LP and it will sound virtually indistinguishable from a $50,000 vintage Les Paul.
Tonal magnets??
What rubbish
At the end of the day, the people buying $40k Gibsons are MAKING MONEY......Period, The End......meanwhile everyone in the comments section of youtube is wasting their Time and Life.
I play my JEM fp -97 but it never leaves the house. Has a ding here and there, but it so nice to play.
My main guitar since 2017.
I remember in the book, Dr. Zhivago, the rich were breaking up and burning priceless furniture to stay warm. I can just see some rich guitar hoarder burning his collection because the guitar market crashed and he can't afford to heat his castle.
I live near a custom Acoustic guitar store and it seems that some people will buy a $30, 000 acoustic without batting an eye. I think it's mind boggling. One day , left out in a very dry environment without a humidifier, that 30g guitar becomes a piece of unplayable dry wood. It's a very shaky investment
There is absolutely no reason for a guitar to be worth $40,000 unless it was owned by someone famous or its studded with diamonds!
The great thing about the current market is that there’s so much gear out there for every budget, and most of it is really good, at any price point. 20 years ago that wasn’t the case.
I bought a Westone in 1981 brand new for $300 dollars. Those were 1981 dollars so would be a little under 1100 today. People asking for six to eight hundred for this model on Ebay nowadays. Well it is a PLAYER! It has great action, great tone and it stays in tune. After all these years I still love to PLAY it.
Gibson have watched the price of vintage gear skyrocket over the past 20 years and they want a piece of that market. But the vintage stuff has rarity and/or provenance. 40k for a new guitar that’s really not significantly different from a 2.5k guitar is just selling exclusivity. There’s no justification for it. Wood is a bit prettier, final fit and finish is more careful. After that? It’s just pitching it a silly price point knowing that there’s always someone with too much money who will buy it.
The people who call investment guitars firewood or call the buyers idiots are simply people without the understanding or the investment capital to grasp the fact that like art or gold or any tactile investment object, these are physical investments where one can park their money to eventually collect a profitable return all the while retaining the object in their possession.
It’s a giffen good - the higher the price the higher the demand !
None of it is gonna appreciate in value the way the originals have
I don’t think I would compare artist tribute guitars to vintage autos or art as “investments”. Have any of them even outpaced inflation in value?
Two guitars, I was offered $500,00, 7 years ago for both. Last year I was offered a million,, each!
When I was younger and gigging, I owned one good guitar. Played at least 1,000 gigs. I'm old now and have 6-8 high quality guitars... doesn't make sense to me.
Same
For me personally, spending more than say $1000 on a guitar to actually take with me somewhere and play is just not gonna happen (atleast in my current situation). Could I save my $ and buy a nice Gibson? Absolutely, I could. The problem is that I would be so preoccupied with not wanting it to get damaged or stolen that I would never use it as it is intended. To me, that is just wasteful and irresponsible. Could my Epi LP custom get stolen or damaged? Of course but, I could replace it ($799) alot easier and therefore less burdensome on my wallet. I can't fault someone who buys $40K guitars as investments or wall hangers. Their money, their business just not gonna be me unless I win the lottery or something lol.
Great video! I had a 58 LP gold top I sold about 15 years ago…I bought it in 1975 for less than 300.00 I sold it for 55k to a collector. I found that he sold it 2 weeks later for 65k! I thought that the bottom was gonna fall out back then and I should get the money! Boy was I wrong! Regrets- yes/no!
the Jem is one of my dream guitars but there is no way im paying that kind of money for it. I would rather just buy my dream Keisel and call it a day.
I mean, if you can afford it, and want it... buy it and own it. Not just guitars, anything. People are so comfortable telling other people what is a valid transaction or not but the market is pretty simple - a product is, objectively, worth as much as people are willing to pay for it. The joy of ownership is varied, though - even on the same product. For some people, it's playing it. Some people buy beautiful guitars to display. Some do it as an investment. All are completely valid. There's room for every type of owner and I think the people that own one guitar they love and the people that own 35 different instruments are both dope. Either way, pull out the amps and let's jam! 🤣
I had a period in my life when going I bought too many guitars. Now as I age into retirement I need to thin the herd. I play them all on a rotating basis. My best friend and old bandmate has played one guitar for the last 45 years. If you have the cash do what you want. But not as an investment, you are lucky to get back what you paid for them. The market is over saturated. The problem is I love them all, but need to only keep a few.
Nice video! Being a car guy I see your point. Everything you said is spot on. Are you a collector or do you enjoy using it? Cars are harder to collect because they need special maintenance just sitting. Instruments take up way less room and don’t require as much storing maintenance, but it just sits there!
Theproblem for me is, I'm not financially able to afford to replace all of the gear I had to sell years ago with today's prices. Me, I've always wanted a 58 les Paul, which is totally impossible. But I want it to play, to use, not a show piece. It's sad the guitars of our dreams are so out of reach. Even the guitars I sold years ago I could never buy back. Let's face it les Paul's today are ridiculously expensive. It's sad. ✌
If you won't swat a flying pitcher of beer aside with it, it's not a guitar, it's memorabilia.
It doesn't matter how much it costs, that headstock will still snap off like a twig.
lol
A $500,000 Ferrari isn't going to get you to Ralphs any better than a new Corvette. Guitars have gotten out of hand.
I bought a PRS. On sale, 25% off. Hurray
Only speaking for myself, a forty thousand guitar had better be able to play itself and be damn good at it....
That floral has Steve’s own drapes lol
Does th carpet match...lol.
Realistically, the same can be said for those who spend more for a guitar than the sum of it's parts.
If I win the lottery I might buy an expensive guitar. I will probably buy a lot of cool bucket list stuff. I find joy in guitars in the 1K price. I do own a 2000 dollar Fender bass. That is the most expensive instrument I own. I use it every week playing at my church gig.
the reality is that for 1k you can find guitars that sound and play as good as guitars for 10k. On the other hand, buying a great cheap guitar is a gamble but buying a crappy expensive guitar pays off in the end.
I would too..however..I also am a guitarist of 37 straight years of playing and can play any guitar upsidedown or backwards even.and am at a high level of musicianship.i don't just walk away.i learn and do things correctly.finally and the guitar would have alot better time with my kind than it would in the hands of a rich newb.for instsnce.who would use it as a status symbol.
“ A whole in my sole “ luv it , me too
a whole what?i think you meant Hole
More than $500 dollars is a ripp....
Just a matter of time till the headstick plops off...Then its worth $5.00
I would buy one if I could. Hell I would buy certain real 59s for a million if I could 🤷 I felt great buying a 59 reissue for 5k when I could.
If you are so weak, people who you don't even know affect your actions, you need to rethink your life. BIGTIME.
All these things are basically a way for rich people who want to put their money into something more interesting than stocks and bonds. Collectors of art sell their art to each other at higher prices so that their other art by the same artist will go up in price. I think the same thing applies to guitars, collector cars, watches or whatever you want to talk about. There are always collectors who don't really care about how much whatever they collect costs, but it's like anything else, some people don't care about anything else regarding their collections.
That is why it is a Gibson, and not a fender.
People don’t understand how many people actually make great money. It’s called diversifying your portfolio. You don’t invest in one thing. You are also afforded the ability to buy what you want. 1,000 to one person is easily 1 dollar to another.
4:12 yes...
If it’s your money you can spend it on whatever you want. People always talk about what they would do if they had unlimited resources. Wealthy women spend outrageous money on handbags. If a guy is buying a guitar for $40,000 he isn’t worried about the price.
Folks seem to never talk about the elephant in the room.
Some rich folks buy pricey guitars as a way to cheat the government out of capital gains tax.
If a guy buys a car, house, boat, RV, jewelry etc, there will almost ALWAYS be a deed, title, or some form of paper trail.
But a rich guy can often pay cash for a pricey guitar and sell it for cash with absolutely no reciept, no bill of sale no title and if he realizes a big profit that can be undeclared income.
Thst is just another way the uber wealthy invest their wealth and get around paying capital gains tax.
It can be dirty crooked world.
No one talks about this but this practice often inflates the price of vintage instruments.
i bought a couple expensive guitars and have had a few to say ohh " they saw you coming" i don't pay any attention to the nay sayers.
Murphy lab brazillian rosewood new gibsons look nice. Most i ever spent on a guitar was a 59 bone by gil yaron and a little less money was a used prs private stock, mostly player grade examples
Value is in the eye of the beholder...
Kind of sad how these things end up simply becoming collector's items and thus paradoxically, overpriced junk. If it's not being played what real good is it? Kind of like the cycle of gentrification in a neighbourhood: first nobody wanted to live there, then artists moved in and gave it attention, then it becomes trendy and more expensive, and finally it becomes untouchable but nobody actually lives there; it's purely an investment.
Remember what happened to the baseball card market. Once everyone realized they were "valuable" the ones being produced were worthless and most of the new buyers were left with shoeboxes full of cardboard rectangles.
My jem i bought 1700€ sold it for 2500 now it's 6000+ but i regret selling it every day. Not because of the money but because i will never be able to buy one ever again.
I have always wanted 2 particularly expensive guitars.
Number 1 was a black Les Paul custom with a Floyd Rose. I finally bought a GORGEOUS one from Sweetwater last year. But as much as I love it, I barely play the thing because it is worth like 5k
Number 2 is an es-345 configured EXACTLY like the one in the original Back to the future. Unfortunately they do NOT EXIST in that config so i am in the process of doing an order through the Gibson custom shop. Doubt i will play that one much either when i finally get it
Maybe try out playing them on special occasions. For example, Christmas, Easter, yours or someone else's birthday, during the superbowl or other tournament games, eclipse day, sundays, full moon nights, or anytime you want to treat yourself. I agree, I don't like practicing on my 'nice' $1k guitar. I save it for the times I perform pretty much for myself.
I will never buy another Gibson ,the amount of problems i had with a les paul i had which resulted in replacing the neck with another non Gibson neck to make it playable again ,there are lots of really good alternatives out there without having to pay for an expensive sticker Rkon
If only there was a way that people didn’t have to buy $40,000.00 guitars 🤔🙄
Bought Gibson les Paul custom lite limited proprietary in 2016only 600 made for £1500 now their £2500 last time I checked. Also got a 2017lp traditional £1500at the time sold it unfortunately, their now worth about £2000 🤦♂️
I have bought a Schecter Solo II, I hope it going to serve a 2 decades at least.... ?
Those guitars sell faster than they can put them out, why do you think they just keep going up and up. Just wait till the new Page double neck hits the market...
businesses are about making money...If you dont like that fact, move to greenland. When some people spend 500k on a classic 59, that brings the price possibilities up for all the others. In a world where some guitars sell for 500k, 2 guitars for 40k total could be a deal.
I spent 7k Canadian on an R9. Made in 2016 ish far as I can tell
It’s a good guitar.. even kind of really good
It’s not worth 7k
I kind of wish I went for a prs or a complete custom build made by a good luthier
It’s what I have now so I play it, a lot
The prices are rediculous.. period
I bought a guitar this year almost solely because of inflation. I’d rather put my money in a quality guitar than a bank, stock, etc.
"There no place in the heart that will ever be filled, and we will wait, and wait in that space"
Charles Bukowski But I'd luv luv luv, a 2021 Gibson Black Beauty Custom R7 weight in @ 7lbs thanks!
Guitars have gone way outa my league!! The most any rare axe is worth is 10,000$ , anything over that is up to the person buying it! I purchased a76 les Paul custom for under a thousand! From a sensible player! He made a little money on it from me! It’s as good as any les Paul in any ones collection!! Great job Phillip
Fortunately, I own vintage - 54, 58 and 62 Strats. Since 1972 I have preferred these instruments and amps. And what I see in the backround of your video is Junk! Reminds me of the Kingston guitar that I had in 67".
Shut up.
I try not to be a snob - but everytime I see this guy and look at his back wall, all I see are high school grade toys on the wall. They look like pure junk toys. Because of that, I've never taken this guy seriously. (PS - I know next to nothing about electric guitars, only acoustic.)
It is kind of like a professional athletes getting enormous signing bonusses.
The player is NOT worth millions of dollars.
The point is to add to the player to the stable of a sports organization is to keep another
organization from signing him.
It all adds up parlaying your money and make more money down the road...hopefully.
There was a time when you needed a good guitar to gig with ........
Sure, it will.
Like Troglys????
All of it - vintage, recreation etc. - are marketing terms to make someone fork out for these things. They're not worth it. Neither are the 59 Les Pauls or the 62 Strats. They're all just wood with components screwed onto them.
Same idea as a NFT or artwork. It’s only worth that because they assign that value to it.
I have a fist sized chunk of raw copper in coliche and it's probably been that way for dozens of centuries...gotta be worth billions by now...