Whats the difference in the $300 guitars and the $3000 guitars?

Question

I have been playing for a while. now im looking at getting a new guitar.

Answer 1

1) the price

2) possibly the quality

3) brand

4) sum1 might be scamming u

5) it also, might depend on were u live ( some areas prices

there items higher)

6) types (acoustic/electric)

7) might come with accessories

Gud luck

Hope this helps!

Rach x

Answer 2

Quality, brand and premium materials.  

Gibson guitars are a good example of price ramping.  A $300-$600 Epiphone Les Paul and a $3K+ Gibson Les Paul might differ in a number of ways:

- Better quality pickups for better output and tone.  The more of a connoisseur of guitars you become, the more you can hear the differences and develop an opinion on which ones you prefer.

- Built on American shores.  In many situations, that means better quality construction and setup, but not always.

- Exotic wood tops.  It's just prettier, although connoisseurs can hear the subtle differences the top delivers to the guitar.

- Better hardware.  Usually contributes to the guitar staying in tune better and sometimes contributes to better sustain and playability.

- Purely cosmetic goodies like nice inlays, binding, gold hardware, mounted pickguards, etc.

- An artist's name being attached to it, or a particularly sought model.  No real draw except the stigma of what's attached to the name.

- If the guitar's older, some vintages are particularly prized by connoisseurs.  Maybe it's just old, maybe it was a particularly good year for the factory, etc.  Doesn't affect the sound or playability, necessarily.

And so on.  

Whether that means something to you is something you'll have to judge.  Is it worth adding $1K or more to the price just to have a "Jimmy Page" model guitar to you?  Is it worth $500 to add a curly maple top?  $100 for gold hardware?

You can look at the cosmetics and the brand and answer for yourself if you're willing to pay premiums.  You can play a guitar to see exactly how well it plays and holds tune and how it sounds through an amp.  

IMHO, if you have to ask the differences, you're probably not going to appreciate them.  You might buy yourself a high dollar guitar and never appreciate the details that make them desirable to so many people, just because your ears aren't to the point of hearing the subtleties.

I'd save my money and get a quality lower cost guitar.  When you get to the point of appreciating the differences, you'll be able to play a  $300 guitar and a $3000 guitar and know precisely why one is worth more than the other.

Answer 3

Well,wats a difference between a 300$ car and 3000$ one?Quality,comfort and usability.

The 300$ guitar are cheaply prodected with machines or poor craftman ship,they will have a less attractive tone,high action(the distance of strings from the neck) poor inotation (the consistency of progressions of notes from 1st note to 12th) poor wood,look and circuitry and pickups,sometimes cheap guitars can be good if you can get one(all it takes is a thoro search).On the other hand if you buy a expensive guitar you are guarented Quality,tone,finish,comfort,uniqueness and usability and if that is not enough you get accesories like straps and hard cases in some cases though,u also get a 14 days no question ask return policy in some cases.And to be the best you have too play and play with the best.So guitar playing is all about becoming comfortable with your instrument and the expensive they are the more comfortable you are.

Answer 4

3000 dollar guitars are handmade, sometimes they are worth it, sometimes they are less worth it.

Answer 5

If you have ever played a high quality guitar you would understand.But I can tell you I have a great Fender Strat I found for three hundred.In 15 years it could be worth 3000.00

Answer 6

The main difference between a $300 and $3000 would be more aesthetic than anything else.   Unless you want to pay for the expensive finish then but something between $900 and $1500.  You will get great electronic, a nice neck, and a very playable guitar.  I  have two fender stratocasters costing around $1200 that plays great.

I would advise playing the guitar before purchasing because there are a great many factors that make a guitar good for you such as size of neck.

Answer 7

The biggest differences in price come from quality of wood, quality control in terms of parts/electronics/wood joints/fretboards and frets being accurate, etc all being up to spec, and quality components like a Bigsby vibrato, good floating trem, specialized internal circuitry, etc. To a lesser extent, higher price will also come from higher costs of labor if made in the US, marketing, and cost of transport/customs if it is made of an exotic wood.

The quality of the wood is vastly important. Your normal 300$ guitar is going to be made of basswood or agathis. While both of these can be decent tonewoods in their own right, at 300$ a guitar you aren't going to find mfg's who are interested in selecting and bidding on the higher quality sources of these woods. As such, it's hit or miss a lot of the time... this has given basswood a very undeserved bad rep. Agathis is referred to as a type of mahogany, but it is not related. Most of what is labeled "agathis" is more suitable for building furniture than guitars - ie, low tone, low resonance, low sustain, etc.

Even a 600$+ guitar won't necessarily be as good as a top of the line 2k$+.... because wood doesn't just come in "bad" "okay" and "good" categories, there are many levels of quality, many sources to get it from, and a lot of research that has to go into getting that sweet tonewood.

Also, if you want exotic woods like kona zebrawood or some such, you have to pay for it. A lot more, at least. Guitars that have these types of woods are going to be more expensive right off the bat.... the fact that they sound great doesn't make them any cheaper, either.

Quality hardware, components, electronics - The components aren't necessarily as important in regards to your selection - you can replace the tuning hardware, the pickups, all the wiring, the jacks, the k***s, the pots, the switches, etc etc, but you can't replace the wood, you can't replace the frets (easily), and you can't replace the quality of how the fretboard is made (ok, easily). Part of that 3000$ goes towards making sure the electronics are bottom of the bucket junk, part goes towards making sure the hardware isn't some cheap chrome POS (ie, tuning problems, burrs in the saddle etc), and part goes towards making sure that the neck is level, the frets are well machined and crowned, etc.

Finally, any time you add anything special to it, ie, some kind've gimmick, it ups the price. Ibanez has a series of 600$+ guitars that are really nothing more than 300$ guitars with a knockoff Floyd Rose and EMGs.

The same thing happens with 3k+ guitars, albeit not as often and always with much higher quality components. The electronics in a top-quality Martin are going to be a lot better than the far less expensive models of other brands, for instance.

In practice, what I've noticed is that the higher priced guitars tend to have better sustain due to higher quality tone wood - that's probably the single biggest sonic difference, discounting pickups.

All that said, I will probably never get a 3k+ guitar. I get a decent sound from my 300$ guitars and I'm okay with that for now. When I want a markedly better sound, I'll make a custom guitar... that way I get exactly what I want.

Won't keep me from going to Guitar Center every once in a while and playing 2 grand worth of Les Paul through 2 grand worth of Egnater... ahhh....

Saul

Answer 8

Most likely the tone. Although I'm not really sure though hehe. I've only played a really expensive guitar a few times at guitarcenter before. I would try some really expensive guitars out but my dad never lets me. I have played $300-$1000 guitars max, none more expensive.