electric guitars are like furniture to me, in the sense that expensive furniture made from rare stuff does the same job that cheap furniture does. the reasons to pay a higher price usually have nothing to do with functionality. you pay for craftsmanship, longevity, etc. specs for electrics are pretty transparent. everyone can decide for themselves if they are willing shell off a couple hundred more for the same spec guitar, just made with a more exotic wood that might make the guitar sound better. or worse. you just don't know. to me it's esoterics, but i understand where it comes from. i am sure the wood has an influence, but unless the guitar is literally rotting away and you are very familiar with the setup, or have the opportunity to actually listen side by side, i think it would be hard to tell woods apart. i think people choose tonewood from a "might as well" perspective. tone wood guitars usually cost a premium, i think people set themselves up for buying an expensive guitar first, and then why not buy the one with the nice wood that promises you mojo. that dentist who decided now it's time for a les paul doesn't really care about the wood probably, but it's an easy sell to guys like these to tell them about tonewood and stuff so they have a cool story to tell about that 4.5k guitar they can barely play.
i personally don't care at all about the wood in terms of tone. i'd care more about the guitar being lighter/having a better balance or the wood not being some super exotic, endangered type stuff. honestly would rather want to buy a guitar made out of common woods. actually, the holy grail for me would be a full aluminum whip.
lastly, qc plays a huge role in the pricing of more expensive guitars. they just do everything under less time pressure and more thoroughly, or at least they are supposed to. a couple hundred extra pay for a bunch of workers inspecting and maybe fixing up that guitar for a day, in comparison to a cheaper model which gets a superficial 5 minute check. granted, this can also go wrong, and gibson has become infamous for bad qc in the last few years.
a good sounding guitar sounds good. that should be all.
Topic: Guitar Thread (Read 20476 times)