How do you guys afford buying guitars???

[Sonic Blue 55]

At 19 in 1974, I had a Melody Maker I paid $125 for when I was 17. My amp was a Bandmaster.
I worked on the farm for $1.35 an hour.
$13.50 a day for ten hours in the Summer heat.
It took 2 weeks to make enough for that MM.

 

[nac]

Disclaimer: I'm not a hobbyist. I use the gear in connection with making a living.

Wait, what? I don't understand this....you MAKE $$ with gear!?! Apparently I have this all backwards!

I'm kidding and your post was very well written and your perspective and needs (and probably skills) are clearly different from my own. Carry on my friend!

 

[Mike Duncan]

A life-sucking job and soul-crushing debt.

Win the lottery or invent something…

 

[László]

Wait, what? I don't understand this....you MAKE $$ with gear!?! Apparently I have this all backwards!

Don't worry, I have plenty of other life things all backwards!

 

[Prina]

This all being said, I'm also in my early 40s now and have a thriving career and family I'm passionate about. It takes nothing away from my artistic ventures.

So awesome when life's firing on all cylinders! Enjoy the ride including the bumps, especially the kids who will be out of the house all too soon.

 

[tiboy]

At about 19 I got my first guitar purchased with my own money. it was a weeks salary from my summer job. I still have it over 4 decades later. Got my second new guitar at age 50 from my wife as a birthday present. Then I retired at 50 and went hog wild with guitar buys. It took a lifetime of hard work to be able to buy guitars.

 

[Draconomics]

I buy mainly from Sweetwater, and they give interest free financing for...well, most everything. It took about three years, but I've grown my credit account with them...considerably. I like them, they are great people to work with, if there is something you need that they dont have they will go looking for you. They offer a nice warranty service, and its pretty much the only large music retailer I will buy stuff from sight unseen. GC can eat a bag of d...pretzels. Large, elongated, vaguely spade shaped pretzels.

I also buy used gear alot. Saves money, and gives gear a second life. I've got a bunch of stuff I've bought used for cheap, and sometimes I'll get em cleaned up and resell for a tidy profit.

I also run a few side hustles to make extra cheddar just for gear, including selling parts and pedals. Last year went pretty nice, maybe an extra ten grand from side hustles alone, and all of it goes to gear, pizza, and root beer...and cat food. Mainly cat food.

 

[Moondog Wily]

and all of it goes to gear, pizza, and root beer...and cat food. Mainly cat food.

What's your favorite root beer? I LOVE good root beer and have several favorites ;~))

 

[Draconomics]

What's your favorite root beer? I LOVE good root beer and have several favorites ;~))

There's many I havent tried yet, but generally I like Virgil's. We also have the locally made River City Root Beer, Boylan is good, but Virgil's is a tad heavier. I used to like Bundaberg too, but honestly...its sarsaparilla marketed as root beer. It's good, but damn...its straight liquid licorice.

IBC is good when I can't find anything else, or if Costco has the big 24 bottle packs.

 

[Moondog Wily]

There's many I havent tried yet, but generally I like Virgil's. We also have the locally made River City Root Beer, Boylan is good, but Virgil's is a tad heavier. I used to like Bundaberg too, but honestly...its sarsaparilla marketed as root beer. It's good, but damn...its straight liquid licorice.

IBC is good when I can't find anything else, or if Costco has the big 24 bottle packs.

Right on! I like Virgil's as well! Bundaberg is pretty available, so I drink quite a bit of that. I think Bundabergs Ginger Beer is the best I have ever had. Henry Weinhard's works for me when available. Sprecher root beer is one of my favorites, but I am not able to find it locally. The best I ever had though was JC Grays Golden Root Beer!! Only "golden" root beer I have ever seen, but man was it good. Made by the JC Gray Brewing company (Janesville, WI). Have not seen it in probably 20 years and I am pretty certain they stopped making it way back when, but wow was it good. I think they still make a root beer, but not the Golden root beer ;~(( Of course, the old school A&W from the fountain at the drive up was always great, but the A&W in a can may as well be pig sh!t!!!

 

[Rod/]

At 19, I was lucky to be playing professionally in Colorado with a great band playing concerts (started guitar when I was 10), and had saved up for a long time to buy my first Les Paul Standard. $325 back then. (This is in the early 70’s.. PRS didn’t exist then. I wish it had…) .The world has changed a lot since then but if I were you I’d save your $$ for a nice SE. they’re great guitars and all under $1000 and they’re great all mahogany versions are in the $650 range new. Used, much less…
Heck, you could eat ramen noodles for a while. That’s what I did..(well it was hot dogs), but you get the point…… good luck…..
As far as the S2 line ($2K) and core line ($4k+), Some folks here (including myself) are professional musicians).
Many here are professional businessmen, laborers of all kinds, hobbyists, doctors, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, journeymen ect, and many of them are weekend warriors playing in bands or just playing for themselves and friends and generally much older than you and have worked very hard for years so that they can afford some nice guitars, amps, ect……
Because of inflation, Covid, supply chain issues ect., guitars and amps have risen drastically over the past 3 years…like 30%!
I purchased 2 of my core guitars used for way less than half what they sell for new now... There’s that route as well.
I wish you the best… and keep Rockin
take a hard look at the SE’s.. I have a Santana SE that’s killer and John Mann’s Guitar Vault and other dealers have 20% off sales a few times a year…..You’ll figure it out….

 

[Draconomics]

I'll mention my old PRS story too. So, like the OP I was 19, I had an Epi LP that was literally falling apar (in a pinch, one time I used gum to resolder the wiring). I had met a friend at a local jam who turned me on to PRS. At the time, I knew about the $4000 ones, and I couldnt imagine ever being able to afford a PRS, I mean... I was working graveyard at a grocery store for $10 an hour. I had no savings, alot of my dough went to textbooks and helping my granny with her rent. There was no way I'd ever afford a core, but this guy told me about the PRS SE series. Now that I could do. I saved up about $400, went Ebay hunting, and I won it for $320: A 2006 SE Singlecut in red. That was my only electric up to 2020, and we had some great times together.

I'm 36 now, and can finally afford most anything I need, but I still wheel and deal. I havent bought a core yet because...well, not much point in it. I've got about six SE guitars now, and all of em play as good as any domestic guitar I've ever demoed or turned around and resold. So, I guess to echo other posters here, don't worry about affording a core, save yer dough and score a nice SE. Those are guitars that you can do anything with. I use all mine on studio records and live gigs.

 

[Draconomics]

Right on! I like Virgil's as well! Bundaberg is pretty available, so I drink quite a bit of that. I think Bundabergs Ginger Beer is the best I have ever had. Henry Weinhard's works for me when available. Sprecher root beer is one of my favorites, but I am not able to find it locally. The best I ever had though was JC Grays Golden Root Beer!! Only "golden" root beer I have ever seen, but man was it good. Made by the JC Gray Brewing company (Janesville, WI). Have not seen it in probably 20 years and I am pretty certain they stopped making it way back when, but wow was it good. I think they still make a root beer, but not the Golden root beer ;~(( Of course, the old school A&W from the fountain at the drive up was always great, but the A&W in a can may as well be pig sh!t!!!

A&W and Mug...yeah, stay far away from those two. In a pinch? Sure, if I'm stuck in like Sheboygan or something, and the water has recently been contaminated with nuclear waste, then sure, I'll take a Mug.

 

[Maxime Bousquet]

p.s. Besides, this is the PRS forum. Don't you know that we're all doctors, dentists and blues lawyers here?

And at least one electrician!!!

 

[DISTORT6]

And at least one electrician!!!

Two electricians.

 

[HANGAR18]

I'm 19, I'm broke because uni :/
But my sister works part time maximum manager shifts at this bar that she's been at for a while and she's got like 12 grand in the savings (pure personal savings, no car payments, other things to pay off etc. all of that just for whatever she wants to do with it . The cores are like 4 grand, and a lot of you have multiple. some people get private stocks. Some of you EVEN get custom made private stocks which is awesome. As well as the minimum 2 beautiful cores that I aspire to have (a tobacco McCarty Singlecut and a light charcoal Tremonti) I'm recently super into some other big expensive stuff. I'm a music person, I'm studying music stuff, and my career path is leading me into a life in the music industry and all that. Half the time buying all this equipment seems damn near impossible, and then other days when I see other things a 12 grand customised private stock doesn't seem like as much wishful thinking as possibility. I'm kinda just curious how u guys justify every music purchase you make when it's so goddamn expensive... or is it? I CAN'T TELL I HAVE NO PERSPECTIVE ON THE VALUE OF MONEY

Edit: I'm not looking at buying hundreds of guitars now at my age. I have my 2 SE Tremontis (they are different) one that my dad got me for my 18th bday, and one that I bought myself. But my perspective on money is wayyyy off I think. Just from what I see around me, I'm curious how people who have been doing this for longer than me lmaooooo and how it's turned out for you guys.

If I could tell my 19 year old self a couple of things, I would say...
* Buy the right guitar the first time, regardless of the cost, and keep it forever. (Brick up the revolving door on the guitar collection.)
* There is no one perfect guitar that does everything.
* You can't play the Blues, if you didn't buy it used. (I have no idea what that means but it sounded cool.)

 

[Mike J.]

When I was in high school I washed dishes in a resturant after school and on weekends for a whopping $1.00 an hour!

This was back in 1968 through 1971. Saved for my first really good bass guitar, a Gibson EB3. It's all I could think about and I wanted it so bad. Eventually bought a brand new one and I remember the bass, case and tax came to $345.00.

Fast forward many years when I was working for good money in CNC machine shops. Worked 60 and sometimes 70 hours a week for years and years.

Long story short, I wound up buying a lot of gear and it was years later when I came to the realization that the only reason I was buying so much was because I was trying to fill a void. I had no life, I was divorced, no girl friend and I was unhuappy. Again, I couldn't see it at the time but now I can clearly see it all. If I could go back in time and talk to my younger self I could have helped him save thousands of dollars. Most of the gear purchases I made were downright stupid. Didn't need this stuff.

Bottom line. I know you're young and it's understandable why you want some of the things you do. But keep yourself in check because when it comes to buying gear it's a rabbit hole that can be deeper and more costly than you realize.

It's like Frank Zappa said: "Learn to make music with what you've got."

 

[Lewguitar]

If I could tell my 19 year old self a couple of things, I would say...
* Buy the right guitar the first time, regardless of the cost, and keep it forever. (Brick up the revolving door on the guitar collection.)
* There is no one perfect guitar that does everything.
* You can't sing the Blues, if you didn't buy it used. (I have no idea what that means but it sounded cool.)

I bought almost all of my PRS guitars used, and I know none of that money goes to PRS.

PRS relies on new guitar sales to stay in business.

I did buy my SE Silver Sky new. And my HDRX head and speaker cab.

(And a set of 57/08 pickups that don't quite work and are being returned)

But my Bernie Marsdens, Stripped 58 and CE22's were all bought used for less than what they were actually worth..

 

[Huggy Love]

How to afford expensive PRSi
2 words ....... male prostitution.

 

[Stephen J.]

There has been lots of talk about hard work and long hours. When I was 19, I was in college and had a part time job. In the summer I worked in a factory 60 hours a week. I have had times in life where I worked more than that. I got into a stupid situation where I went to work at 6 AM and came home at 11 PM for about six weeks trying to clean up someone else’s mess. I have also had times in life where I was unemployed or working part time. Even when I was broke as fk eating ketchup sandwiches on the cheapest white bread I could find, I have always been more engaged in music in my times of little work and little money. While I don’t encourage being broke to the point of malnutrition, don’t rob yourself of living life and playing music by working too much.