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Good point for sure. The other thing for electric, of course you need a decent guitar to start with, but lately I've been kind of thinking that the amp is the really crucial link. (Not that the guitar isn't important of course, but a good amp will make a lot of guitars sound nice, whereas a great guitar through a so-so amp, not as much) Ha! Funny, I have the opposite opinion. I can get a decent guitar to sound good through most (but not all) amps, but even a great amp can't make a lousy guitar sound good. I'm not a tone hound who looks for any particular sound, so I can usually find at least one sound that any amp does well. But a bad guitar will sound bad through anything. I should also note that I don't use high gain settings, so I suppose that if you use the amp to layer on thick distortion, it doesn't matter much what the input signal is.

None of your fucking business. *edited to add that my most expensive ax is not even in the top 3 of those most valuable to me.

I've fought off my "good archtop" longings for a long time now. Newports and Monacos have held that at bay, but it's always there, latent perhaps. I remind myself that I don't sound very good on even the stuff I have, and a five-digit-archtop won't be changing that.

I think the Jackson pc1 I sold last year was prolly the most pricey guitar I've ever bought, $1800 used. But I'm cheap, well I used to be cheap but now I'm just broke.

Hmm. A crap guitar that can't be tuned, or buzzes, or has dead spots, or is a tone suck in general won't be helped by a good pickup. I'd order them 1. guitar, 2. amp, 3. pickup. 0. player 1. guitar 2. amp 3. pickup 4. pedal Problem is, my player is very expensive (trust me, lots of $ invested in the player in my case, and still requires regular and expensive up keep). But my player doesn't sound very good. Thus, the sound coming from my good guitar, moderate amp, and descent pedals, sounds crappy.

That's love that is ^^^ I bought my Peavey Rotor EXP (Pearl White) just because of the way it looked (I love explorers) & I wasn't disappointed when I got it (it may well be my stage guitar). I don't think I ever paid over £500 for a new guitar & I aint really had any bad ones through the years. As I never had any money early doors, I have always gone for cheaper imports (the best I could afford) & now, I mainly buy used Korean made guitars...

I can't believe how much instrument prices have risen. I paid a whopping $1,200 for my '89 Les Paul Custom in 1990; now, to get the same guitar, will cost you close to $4,000! Gibbys are way overpriced, IMHO.

Value of my most expensive guitar? Fookin' priceless!

$350-$600 on my main 2. I just scored a BC Rich Mockingbird ST (in Trans-Blue/thru-neck/FR/MAFIA p-ups) for £240 ($370) on eBay UK. I also have a Peavey Rotor EXP (Pearl White Explorer) which cost me $360 & I'm customizing an Ibanez RG (cost $120) = I already sold the neck + EMG 81 for over $250 on that one. The Ibanez is getting a new neck/pick-ups/electrics & will be stripped back to the wood... Just got the Mockingbird today & I must say, it's a peach! Not sure about the Rockfield MAFIA pick-ups yet but it deffo RAWKS (NGD thread coming soon)... The most expensive guitar I ever bought was a Jackson DK2M in Snow White which I got in the sales (with free moulded case) at $765. Good guitar but not in my top 3 (Top 3: 88 Cali / Peavey EXP / BC Rich Mockingbird). I don't believe expensive is best. In fact, most of the best guitars (apart from my Cali) have been sub $400 Korean imports...

Good point for sure. The other thing for electric, of course you need a decent guitar to start with, but lately I've been kind of thinking that the amp is the really crucial link. (Not that the guitar isn't important of course, but a good amp will make a lot of guitars sound nice, whereas a great guitar through a so-so amp, not as much)

My most expensive classical guitar cost me $12K, but those are sort of another world. I don't have any expensive classicals anymore. These days I have convinced myself that $1500 used will always acquire something really nice, and that seems to work for me. Most electrics I've purchased hang in around $1200. The '68RI Les Paul Custom was $2K, which I think is the most I've paid for an electric. Today I'm at a $1500 instrument.