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In my experience selling similarly priced durable goods (firearms), it was always price. Having a brick and mortar presence with employees and inventory costs a

In my experience selling similarly priced durable goods (firearms), it was always price. Having a brick and mortar presence with employees and inventory costs a lot more than drop shipping from a distributor.

busterarm 6y ago
But instruments made out of wood are not all equivalent. There's a ton of variance. Buying guitars in person (or better, built to order from a luthier you know) is always preferred.
- kazinator 6y ago
  In the case of mass-produced solid-body electric guitars of good repute, there is less variance, but stuff can still go wrong. But not wrong in that same way whereby you compare three identical, well-made acoustic guitars side by side and one of them obviously "projects" the tone more.
  - busterarm 6y ago
    I can usually find something wrong with most guitars. A handful of my friends and I go to NAMM every year and just sit down and play every guitar all weekend. Play different things with different techniques all over the fretboard and you will almost always find something. Most of the are minor issues, but it helps a lot in narrowing down something to buy. Brand reputation doesn't mean much these days, especially with electric guitars. The way those are priced you'll see a huge spectrum in cost and construction techniques and the economics of electric guitars mostly means labor priced towards zero and cut corners. 11 and 13 piece laminate necks are a trend that I would like to see go away. It's a "look" that nobody can really see, usually means worse tone and says you couldn't find one good neck out of the wood you had. Same with the relic look. We usually find a couple of good Hall E brands every year with a 1-3 year waitlist for a good custom guitar. Some of those are today's "good" brands (Aristides...). Martin always has a few beautiful acoustics to sell out of the custom shop that cost as much as a car. Every year we usually find a different model Yamaha that's probably $1000 cheaper than it should be.

busterarm 6y ago

But instruments made out of wood are not all equivalent. There's a ton of variance. Buying guitars in person (or better, built to order from a luthier you know) is always preferred.

kazinator 6y ago
In the case of mass-produced solid-body electric guitars of good repute, there is less variance, but stuff can still go wrong. But not wrong in that same way whereby you compare three identical, well-made acoustic guitars side by side and one of them obviously "projects" the tone more.
- busterarm 6y ago
  I can usually find something wrong with most guitars. A handful of my friends and I go to NAMM every year and just sit down and play every guitar all weekend. Play different things with different techniques all over the fretboard and you will almost always find something. Most of the are minor issues, but it helps a lot in narrowing down something to buy. Brand reputation doesn't mean much these days, especially with electric guitars. The way those are priced you'll see a huge spectrum in cost and construction techniques and the economics of electric guitars mostly means labor priced towards zero and cut corners. 11 and 13 piece laminate necks are a trend that I would like to see go away. It's a "look" that nobody can really see, usually means worse tone and says you couldn't find one good neck out of the wood you had. Same with the relic look. We usually find a couple of good Hall E brands every year with a 1-3 year waitlist for a good custom guitar. Some of those are today's "good" brands (Aristides...). Martin always has a few beautiful acoustics to sell out of the custom shop that cost as much as a car. Every year we usually find a different model Yamaha that's probably $1000 cheaper than it should be.