My dad shared this article by Daniel Hoang outlining general patterns in guitar quality at a range of price points. I do ultimately think that it’s a decent read for anyone considering buying a first or second instrument, but I have a few thoughts:
0. variables
The author compares [anecdotal] trends across instruments in the price range of $150-$3000 USD – in other words, instruments that are available “off the shelf” at regular music stores. That’s a good range to work with and very useful for ordinary shoppers. However, there’s no effort made to define the low, mid and high range price points, and nor does Hoang make consistent references to any particular points in the range. For example:
“If you want to make your cheap guitar sound like an expensive guitar, then the absolute best thing you can do is swap out your guitar pickups to higher quality ones. It is a fairly cheap process and can make a $500 guitar sound like a $1,500 guitar.”
That may be the case, but what about making your $150 guitar sound like a $3000 guitar? While Hoang does correctly state further on that “there is a HUGE quality difference between a guitar that costs $150 compared to a guitar that costs $500,” the lack of detailed discussion of features found at on bottom-of-the-range instruments leaves this statement feeling a little unsubstantiated. And the reality is that many first-guitar buyers aren’t choosing between spending $150 or $500, we’re choosing between spending $150 or $200, $250 or $300, and so on. At smaller incremental differences, it becomes much harder to see and feel the difference – especially for those lacking a deep understanding of the instrument.
1. US versus the world
The statements about the difference in manufacturing quality between US-made instruments and [mainland] Asian-made instruments don’t seem comprehensively researched to me, and no sources are provided – I think it’s wise to be wary of ad populum fallacies. Yes, the Asian market is certainly producing more instruments, and more super-low-end instruments, than the US (and Japan and Mexico, if we’re using Fender offerings as an example) by volume. But it’s worth remembering that mainland Asia is an industrial powerhouse which is producing more of literally everything, likely including high-end and custom shop instruments, even if there’s hardly any demand for those in the West.
Consider Eastman guitars as one example – superb quality Chinese-made instruments sold at an “affordable luxury” price point in Australia (due to China’s manipulation of it’s own currency value). I also want to draw attention to Ibanez guitars whose lower instruments boast outstanding Japanese design and are produced in Indonesia to excellent tolerances using quality materials.
Comparative statements about global manufacturing are a little bit apples-to-oranges IMO.
2. design before construction
One key point missed is that cheap guitars are *designed* to be manufactured as quickly and cheaply as possible, with large tolerances, while still ultimately resulting in a somewhat playable instrument. This is important. With electric guitars we don’t always see an obvious visual difference in the kinds of instruments made available at each price point, and by that I mean to say that extremely cheap electrics are available in an amazingly broad range of styles and shapes because solid timber is easy to CNC to shape (though notice many cheaper guitars don’t feature detailed carving or contouring). However, in acoustic instruments the differences are really quite extreme, especially when you can inspect the instrument in person: horizontal flat bracing that doesn’t tension the guitar top, decal rosettes, spray-painted plywood fingerboards, all-in-one stain and varnish tops, bolted-on bridges, saddles set consistently too high… These are deliberate choices made by the design team long before any timber hits the bench.
3. plastic bias
“cheaper guitars usually use nuts made out of plastic, which is terrible for tuning stability.”
Well, maybe. It really depends on the plastic used. Having slots cut to the correct size for the strings and adequately lubricated is far more important than anything else as far as tuning stability goes, and in some cases, purpose-made polymers like Tusq are even considered preferable for their stability and consistency over organic materials. Further, it’s worth noting that historically some entry-level guitar manufacturers have been known to offer zero-frets on their lower ranger instruments, which is a clever way to address a whole lot of geometric and mechanical issues around the headstock, though it comes at a very small compromise to open string tone. Though it’s not super fashionable at the moment (unfortunately, in my opinion).
4. upgrades
“You could take a cheap guitar and upgrade it to have all of the specifications of an expensive guitar and it would still only cost a fraction of the price.”
Sure you could, but it could end up being quite a large fraction of the cost of a high-end instrument. And this ignores labour cost, time investment, shipping costs (I believe this article was published pre-COVID), risk of blemishing or damaging the instrument, and so on.
Let’s be clear about this: a $150 USD guitar usually cannot be made to play like a $3000 USD guitar due to differences in basic geometry as a result of different design and manufacturing tolerances, even if every single component was upgraded. I would say that a $700 USD guitar can probably get pretty close if you get one of the better ones, but if you’re not able to do the work yourself (electronics, fretwork, action, intonation) to a $3000 guitar standard, then you’ll be paying someone else to do it for you. I sure hope you have a local luthier who can do the work, otherwise you’ll be paying for the round-trip shipping for the instrument and all of the new components. The price gap starts to close pretty quickly.
5. conclusion
Just wanted to acknowledge that this part is good: the closing statement about how returns diminish as price increases past a certain threshold is extremely important and highly applicable.
When making important purchases we should always go for the best quality item we can reasonably budget for.
Happy shopping!
Eitan Muir 