Is the era of high end guitars over? Too expen$ive?

[Armitage]

I've been talking to some friends, mostly about the really expensive Les Pauls and such, but it still makes me wonder...

Is the era of high end guitars over? There haven't been any guitar heroes of late, that I know of anywayz, and the next big thing seems to have very little guitar and lots of old analog synths. Kind of like a New Wave resurgence.

Other than older guys, who's going to be putting up the big bucks for USA guitars. New or used. After all, Asian manufacturers have been doing a pretty good job of making very serviceable guitars for not a lot of money. And there's a zillion Les Paul etc already out there, many in their cases for bedroom rockers to leer at.

Some of us have huge collections to unload too, we're all getting older...

Or is it just a temp dip in the economy?

Any thoughts?

[gorch]

What's letting me sleep well is that the high-end automobile car market remains growing.

[Armitage]

A lot has to do with what you consider the high end, I'm more referring to the +$2,000 range, not just the +$50,000 collectable range. I just don't see many people buying the +$2,000 guitar anymore. Most stores around here are carrying very serviceable $600 guitars and people just seem happy with them. The dream of owning something better just doesn't seem to be there. It used to be you bought a cheap copy of something, but just had to get the real thing sooner or later, now people just seem happy enough... and percentage wise, there don't seem to be a lot of guitarists out there.

[django49]

When a LOT of great Hamers are available (used but in excellent condition) for not a lot more than $1k (sometimes less), and they wipe the floor with stuff on dealer's shelves with price tags of $2-3k (or more), there is not a lot of need to spend more----Esp for those that already have 8 or 10 guitars hogging space around the house. Youn ger folks coming up are not in that market, generally.

Now if a person really connects with those "boutique things" for $5k and up, more power to them. I like them. IMO, they are head and shoulders above the thousands of reissues being pumped out by the "big names" and sold largely on nostalgia, star worship and the dreams of aging boomers that could not afford one as a kid. As a store of value, probably not bad. But NOT investments (IMO). But if your ego requires a G or an F on the headstock, then I guess one needs to overpay to get something beyond serviceable.