The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

I'm kindof stuck between a rock and a hard place. There is absolutely nothing around me where music stores are concerned. There are a couple of Music Go Rounds within 45 and 90 minutes of me but then I have to deal with strange people. Not fond of the traffic, the smell, the congestion and the proximity to them. I brave the grocery store once a week and that's it. I'm done for the week. I did drive 90 minutes round trip into the heart of suburbia to pick up a really sweet Greg Bennett Avion AV6 and it saved me $50 so worth it, but just.

Maybe I'm just getting old and set in my ways, but I think people are getting stranger.

There is a GC about 90 minutes from me but that's 3 hours in traffic only to come home empty handed.

I bought two on Craig's List and walked away from a dozen more. And out the gas and time. Some of the locations and people gave me the creeps.

I've snagged some really sweet deals on Goodwill but there again I know what to look for. Got three great guitars on eBay in recent months as well.

I used to live two blocks from a big pawn shop and got many great deals there but now I am an hour from them one way. I do miss that a heck of a lot. I probably walked out of that place with a guitar or two on dozens of occasions. Paid $150 for a Vantage Ghost with OHSC and $300 for a one-off Carvin DC-127 neck-thru with case and $325 for a DC-135 neck-thru with case for example.

We'll be moving soon and maybe it will be better picking there.

I haven't bought a guitar in the last 7 or 8 years... and only know Samick and Cort in this list... brand names seem to change fast nowadays...

I've noticed that too. A lot of startups fall on their face in the first year or three then another dozen pop up to take its place.

Some in that list had a wide range of offerings from budget to pretty nice. A lot of reviews to weed through.

Samick and Cort do manufacture for a lot of different companies as well... and have been around for a very long time (even some people may not know that they sell under their own name (especially Cort)).

I like a lot of the guitars Cort sold under their own name from the 90s onward, so no surprise they make your list.

Samick is a mixed bag... feeling wise they cut more corners to meet the price point.

For all the startups, it's too hard to keep track. As said the last guitar I bought was 7 or 8 years ago... and that was a Rickenbacker 12 string... something I always wanted to have... a lovely guitar, but way too expensive.

Samick for a long time had had several ranges. Beginner, intermediate and a handful of high end models. Mine is an Artist which is in the middle. Not expensive enough to make me a guitar snob but hardly cheap in any way. Very well made instrument.

Stadium had a few nice models and quite a few beginner/entry level models. Same with Karera, Brownsville, Ashland, Crafter and Drive. There were no real cheapies for the Switch Vibracells. Way ahead of their time just like Parker. Spear is mostly midrange and above.

I look at others now. If I were to focus strictly on Matsumoku it would be one guitar a year at most. I simply can't afford them now and I absolutely refuse to pay the ridiculous prices people are asking for them now. They can keep them. I have 10 and they aren't going anywhere.