WHAT PRICE QUALITY?
I want to raise the point of guitar pricing, particularly from issue 421. The Patrick James Eggle Macon, at just over £4,000, really is a beautiful-looking guitar; you can clearly see from the photographs the amount of work and skill involved in its creation, fixed neck, violin finish, etc. There are not many readers of the mag that could produce a guitar of that standard. The Asher Mozo, on the other hand, is as different as chalk and cheese. It’s two bits of wood bolted together for goodness sake: how have they come up with a price of more than four grand? Someone will be asking five grand for a Seasick Steve replica before long.
I love the fact that you feature different guitars of all prices to suit all players, but please question the pricing strategy, especially of bolt-on guitars.
I love the way the magazine has grown into its current format – keep up the good work. Graeme Holdroyd, Dubai, via email Many thanks for your perspectives, Luke and Graeme. As you say, pricing can be a tricky subject. Typically, the price of a guitar that’s been built by a skilled luthier from hand-selected tonewoods does reflect the cost of the hours of work that was put into it. In that sense, a £4,000 instrument can still represent decent value, if that meticulous level of build quality is important to you. With respect to Graeme’s comment on the Mozo, we think you may be doing Asher a bit of an injustice: they make fine guitars by hand and that is simply an expensive thing for a low-volume maker to do, bolt-on neck or not, with none of the economies of scale that the big brands can offer. After completion, the instrument must be imported by a retailer or distributor who must take a cut to make their living, too. If you additionally factor in a weak pound, then yes, hand-built American guitars from small makers can be distinctly salty in price at the moment. Are they worth it? If you pick it up and it feels like heaven and you can afford it, then yes. But no, you don’t have to spend that much to get a great Tele-style guitar. Overall, we are, as Luke also points out, living in a golden age of cheap thrills.