frankcastle said:
Hey Jbar,
Great info!
But I am strongly against Steve's Music. I prefer Songbird and Time Capsule which are both on Queen West mind you I prefer to gawk at all the pretty vintage guitars that these places sell rather than the brand new off the racks that Steve's provides.
Not to mention you can find things like Bogner Amps/Cabs and other cool high end equipment at these places.
Any thoughts on how to spend $1000? Not sure how much the Jackson's go for but let's say for arguments sake that they go for $1000 new. What about spending that $1000 on a vintage guitar that will hold it's value rather than a brand new guitar which will depreciate the second you take it out of the store?
In my opinion the Jackson guitars are more of a fashion statement than instruments of really high quality. As opposed to say Fender, Gibson, PRS...... mind you Fenders and Gibsons run the full spectrum in prices.
No problem. I'll comment on your comments/questions one at a time.
a) I've been to both Song and Time Capsule in order to compare their prices with Steve's, (on the products that I have been interested in) and Steve's prices are been better. Also, Steve's music has treated me well (since I have been a half-decent customer) by giving me further discounts and freebies. However, I do agree with your observation that these smaller places carry much more unique/weird guitars, but they are not really my taste.
b) I can't even beginning to think about bringing in half-stacks and full-stacks into my 1 bedroom apartment. Even a 25-watt tube amp would upset the neighbors since tube-amps need to be cranked in order to reach their proper distortion limits. And I'm not necessary looking for high-end equipment...I'm looking for bang for the buck. Case in point: I have an Ibanez RG320FM (a $450 beginner model made in Indonesia, but I upgraded the pickups to DiMarzios) and have been lusting after a RGA121VLF (a $1,150 professional-level model made in Japan) for a few months now. Last week, someone from another forum advised me that a store in North Bay (called Acclaim Electronics) was having a clearance on them for $850. I ordered it on Monday, and it is being delivered as we speak. Normally, spending $850 on an Ibanez RG would get you an intermediate level RG (built in Korea). So what I got was a top-level RG for a mid-level price. God bless capitalism. Case in point #2: I also bought a Dean Z 79 re-issue (Explorer type-body with a Brazilia-burst color) a year ago since I was looking for a Gibson-type guitar for the stuff I don’t play on my RG. After comparing it to a Gibson Explorer (among other cheaper guitars of the same style), I found that the Dean was a better-built (and classier looking) guitar for less money than the Gibson ($650 verses $950). The Dean was better reviewed by many sources, and Dean is a large-scale boutique manufacturer as opposed to Gibson, which means different marketing strategies, manufacturing processes, quality-control, general operations, etc…. Oh, and I hate Les-Pauls.
c) My thoughts on how to spend $1000, see immediately above (e.g. my new RGA). Ha! Seriously though, I’m not too knowledgeable about Jackson pricing and quality scales (ask me about Ibanez and Dean), but here are my assumptions based on my minimal research on this company:
-Entry-level: $0-$700, made in China (I could be wrong on the country)
-Intermediate level: $700-$2000, made in Korea
-Professional level: $2000-$4000, made in USA
-Custom shop: $4000-?????, made in USA (one-off specialty orders)
I was actually thinking about buying a $1000 mid-level Jackson, a nice red DKMGT (with a EMG 81 in the bridge and a 85 in the neck – both stock, as opposed to the cheapie EMG HZ pickups from last year), but the RGA deal came up instead. I was thinking about the Jackson because of the EMG active pickups that come stock with it. Ibanez has a mid-level RG (around $1000) that has those same EMG’s, but the Ibanez comes in black only (which I don’t like). Being that I am in this hobby for entertainment purposes, and my guitars will be buried with me, I have no problems buying a guitar that is right for me (regardless of cost). I’m not in this for investment purposes. I’d rather buy a $1000 guitar that has a $500 book value (a year down the road) that is comfortable to play, than buy a $1000 guitar that has a $800 book value (a year down the road) that is uncomfortable to play. I’m not a serious collector, and not %100 informed on what the actual market is doing in terms of book values. But what I do know is that buying vintage doesn’t guarantee a return on investment, most of the time an old piece of crap is still an old piece of crap. In short, what ever you think the best guitar is for $1000, then that’s your guitar. The only thing I can give an opinion about on guitars is product attributes. But, if I HAD to give a personal opinion on collectible guitars, and choose one, I would suggest small companies that hand build guitars exclusively like Lado in Scarborough. Their website has extensive information on their company and manufacturing processes.
d) Many guitar fashion statements are made buy many guitar companies. I do agree that Jackson maybe a tad one-dimensional in that %95 of it’s product line caters to the heavy-metal crowd. But pretty much every guitar manufacturer produces instruments of tremendous quality… the key is to identify the country of manufacture. Here is what I have found on the Ibanez RG-series and Dean Z-series:
-Entry-Level: Indonesia (Ibanez), China (Dean)
-Intermediate-Level: Korea (both)
-Professional-Level: Japan (Ibanez), USA (Dean)
Lastly, I’ve tried-out Fenders, which are not my style (I don’t like 3-pickup designs, the fretboard is nowhere as fast as Ibanez fretboards, I don’t like single coil pickups, etc..), and Gibsons, which are over-hyped (in my opinion) and cost too much for what they are (hence my Dean purchase).
Cheers
