These days a serviceable, even very good, guitar can be bought for under $1000 US whether you're talking acoustic or electric, but let's look at the high end...
Not that many of us will ever have the funds to support a guitar collecting habit or to find the most expensive production guitar in existence and then go and buy it, but it's fun to dream.
What Influences the Cost of a Guitar?
- who made it - if a famous luthier or company made the guitar it will be worth more. If it's a prototype of a production model that was later successful even better.
- who played it - a guitar played and owned by Eric Clapton, Jerry Garcia or George Harrison (even a ukulele played by the former Beatle) is going to be worth more than a production model or a guitar previously owned by a nobody in guitar circles. Even a production model exactly the same as a guitar played by someone famous, particularly if it appears in a famous photo of the player in question, will become more desireable and therefore more expensive. Even if it's a terrible guitar.
- historical impact - there are some iconic single guitars eg Les Paul's prototype solid body, the first Fender Broadcaster, an early Fender Precision bass, the original Rickenbacker Frying Pan model lap steel guitar. These guitars, if they ever come up for sale, will bring seemingly ridiculous amounts of money. But as museum pieces, not working guitars, though they may actually be very good working guitars.
- manufacturing process - some companies make extra special production model guitars in which an extraordinary amout of care and artistry goes into the hand made production. The resultant guitar is going to be a very good guitar that's worth a lot of money. A current example is the PRS Dragon series. A combination of immaculate (though of dubious artistic taste if you're not into dragons) inlay, fine and expensive materials, exquisite hand working and limited production numbers gives rise to prices up around the $70,000 US mark.
- the age of the guitar - guitars, for a range of reasons, generally appreciate in value. A pre-war (and I don't mean either of the Iraq wars here) Martin or Gibson acoustic is worth much more than one made a few years later. These guitars have something of a mythic quality, but one that is not unfounded. The materials available, the amount of hand work involved and the time that the guitar has had to be seasoned gives these guitars a great sound. Why? Hand work has declined over the years as has the availability of the very best wood. Environmental considerations have outlawed the logging of certain woods once commonly used by guitar makers - ebony, rosewood and mahogany. These were often logged in very wasteful ways, clearing an entire area of central or South American rainforest to log a single tree. The modern way is to use sustainable methods.As musicians are generally environmentally onside, there aren't too many complaints about this, but we all would still like to lay our hands on a beautiful pre war Martin D 28 if we get the chance and to hell with the despicable methods used for obtaining the wood involved in producing the lovely sound.
What Is the World's Most Expensive Guitar?
It used to be Blackie, a Stratocaster once owned by Eric Clapton but Blackie's fetching price of $959,500 paid by a guitar store in 2004, was recently beaten by another Stratocaster guitar signed by many of the world's most famous guitarists. The Strat was auctioned to benefit a tsunami charity, Reach out to Asia. It was bought by Qatar’s royal family for $1,000,000 US. They donated it back to Reach Out To Asia, bringing in $2,700,000 US at another auction, so the guitar has generated a total of $3,700,000 US.
If you're ever thinking of spending this kind of money on a guitar I'd suggest getting one of the world's most expensive guitar picks to play it with. Made from a meteorite these are a bargain at $110 US for the Astrotone. Available from Meteorite Guitar Picks.
