Guild Brian May - Why so Expensive?

GAD

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Why are these $4000? Where they hand made in the custom shop or something?
 

guitarslinger

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Great question. I've had two of these over the years. The first one was from a Guild reps sample batch of guitars and she was practically giving the thing away. I don't think they sold well at first and I never bonded with it at all so it didn't last long in my hands. Same experience with the second one. Also, as cool as the switching options seemed, I was never able to master the permutations on the fly in a live setting. Maybe I would've done better if I had a PhD in Astrophysics.
 

matsickma

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That had always been on my mind also. I did get "deal" on years ago for around $1600. I struggled with the shorter 24" scale neck. (Never bought a Fender Jaguar for the same reason.) The switching was figured out but since the pickups are wired in series I found the high end was significantly rolled off. The thing is I had one of the Guild Brian May treble boost pedals but didn't make the connection that it was a treble boost to offset the treble roll-off from the massive inductance from the series wired pickups.

Wish I would have made the connection when I owned both items. I may have been able to enjoy the setup more.

The guitar, treble boost and a class A amp would have done the trick!

M
 

AcornHouse

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My guesses.
The name.
The rarity.
The Japanese Collectors.
The greedy.
 

Quantum Strummer

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I'd go mainly with the combo of rarity and name. Sometimes a particular collector can drive up prices too. I have a few really good and pretty rare instruments that aren't worth much $$-wise 'cuz no-one well known has ever played one (in public anyway). In some cases the "name" can be the brand and the time period, as with Gibson and the original Explorers & Flying Vs.

-Dave-
 

GAD

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I'd go mainly with the combo of rarity and name. Sometimes a particular collector can drive up prices too. I have a few really good and pretty rare instruments that aren't worth much $$-wise 'cuz no-one well known has ever played one (in public anyway). In some cases the "name" can be the brand and the time period, as with Gibson and the original Explorers & Flying Vs.

-Dave-


I get that, but there are other Brian May guitars out there for less than a grand that seem to get great reviews, too.
 

gilded

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My guesses.
The name.
The rarity.
The Japanese Collectors.
The greedy.

Chris, the Japanese Collectors haven't been the Tail that Wagged the Dog since the '90s. There is (usually) a strong international market, but the biggest buyers at any one time are usually determined by which country's currency has the most favorable exchange rate with U.S. Dollar.

Why don't you come down to the Arlington, Texas Guitar in October and see what I'm talking about? Love to meet you in person! Bring that cool mando you made. I'd love to see it (I know you already sold it, but still.....).
 

Walter Broes

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Supply and demand?

I'll say this about Brian May guitars. No offense to anyone who is, but I'm not a Queen fan, and I'm not a Brian May fan. But a luthier friend of mine is, and he built a very nicely done, very nerdy replica of May's Red Special, complete with an ultra rare bridge and tailpiece replica, and all the series/parallel/phase switching, super geeky Burns replica pickups, the works. And it's an amazing, extremely well thought out, great sounding super versatile guitar. You can do very convincing strat, tele, Les Paul, etc...impersonations with it, and there's not a bad or un-usable tone in it.
 
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