Breedloves remain one of the mainstream acoustic guitar brands I’d love to have one of, along with a Seagull.
I have 2 and for the under $1000 market they are great. Even at the $500 price point they are well worth the money. They play well and I haven't had either succumb to temperature or humidity changes. So, they're pretty stable.
I've done it many times, sometimes you just drop your pick. When it does happen OCD usually kicks in and you have to get it out
@Dannyalcatraz
www.zzounds.com
I was surprised by the price to quality ratio. They can get pricey, but the affordable models seem worth it.
The pricey ones seem to hold up in that range, though. I routinely see them recommended alongside even boutique builders.
The one I bought wasn't even on the Music Man website, so I wonder if it's out of production. Lukather has 3 other signature models but they're ~3.5 to 4K. The Petrucci models are up there too. Steve Morse has a model by them too that looks cool. Aside from a few exceptions my price range for guitars is usually $500-$1000. I don't have need for anything more and prefer to upgrade a cheaper guitar then buy a guitar at a higher initial price point. There are a lot of budget friendly guitars out there with good hardware, build quality and electronics. Squier, Fender and Epiphone are offering great guitars under $1000. There are a few I've been eyeing for a while. A G&L, a BC Rich Mockingbird, and a PRS in my future would be nice. I also want to track down a Guild S-300D from the mid 70s to the early 80s. They are getting hard to find and the prices are increasing pretty quick. Only place I've seen them are on Reverb or Ebay so hard to tell what you're going to get. Here's what they look like. I had one about 1995, it was a great guitar but sold it like a dummy.
Never played a Godin, don't think I've ever saw one. I always want more guitars but that's the collector part of the hobby for me.
My friend who I who I met when I started taking lessons from him in 1994. He buys higher end guitars, I've played a few of his Les Pauls, the Jeff Beck signature Strat, and a couple others. You're right they are usually better in some way but I personally didn't see enough difference to justify the extra cost. If I had more disposable income I'd be more inclined to buy higher end models. but "Relic" guitars are ridiculous to me.
I've never looked into having a custom shop guitar made to my specs simply because I can't afford one. Buying another guitarist high end custom reproduction/signature model doesn't really appeal to me. I wonder how unique the originals were, and you can probably mod a guitar and get close to the same results for a quarter of the price. Take Jimmy Pages "Dragon" reproductions by Fender for instance. From what I recall it was just a cheap Telecaster that was in the studio when he joined the Yardbirds and given to him by Jeff Beck. I don't know for a fact, but I believe it was just a stock 1959 Fender Telecaster. He may have made some mods but I don't think so. What most likely makes the guitar so special is the way pickups were made in 1959, different wiring, magnets and the winding process was done by hand if I'm not mistaken. Not worth the money in my opinion, although this one is very reasonably priced.
