Hardly unique to gaming.
In the guitar world it's a running joke that only 5000 of the the 1500 1959 Gibson Les Paul's survive.
($$$$, 6 digit prices for real ones is the rule, and top examples go for $500k+).
In the guitar world it's a running joke that only 5000 of the the 1500 1959 Gibson Les Paul's survive.
($$$$, 6 digit prices for real ones is the rule, and top examples go for $500k+).
Especially records from the legendary Harthouse label, seems to be ubiquitously available. Harthouse was famous for its limited edition policy and restricted selling of its records. They were very selective and that's how the famous "sound of Frankfurt" was born: access to Harthouse records was limited, and distribution took mainly place here in Frankfurt. It was tough back then to buy certain records even in the famous Delirium store.
Nowadays you simply place an order in the Internets...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Nail
That said, I'd like to know the carbon date on those wooden fragments.
In between comes the Protestant Reformation, more than a century of religious wars across all of Europe where one side in many cases actively sought to destroy relics and the gradual conversion to Islam of many densely populated Christian areas.
A catalogue from the 1870 is next to worthless for telling us how many relics existed in the early 1500s.
I thought we were talking about how many are on display? What does the number of fragments that existed in the 1500s matter?
There are far less now that Protestants spent a century destroying purported fragments.
Frankly though, I consider authenticity overrated.
'Master!' I said, shocked.
'So it is, Adso. And there are ever richer treasuries. Some time ago, in the cathedral of Cologne, I saw the skull of John the Baptist at the age of twelve.'
'Really?' I exclaimed, amazed. Then, siezed by doubt, I added, 'But the Baptist was executed at a more advanced age!'
'The other skull must be in another treasury,' William said, with a grave face. I never understood when he was jesting.” ― Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPY9Mxg3OJQ
Long story short, go for the $700-$2k guitar unless you're an "art collector" that will never play it.
Then again, I doubt many people can tell the difference between a $200 guitar and a $700 one.
Once you get past a certain price, you're paying more for different (e.g. custom build) rather than better.
I'm a weirdo in that I generally like modern (even ultramodern, I own a Strandberg) - guitars for playability - thinner necks, comfort contours, that sort of thing, but vintage for tone...so I have a couple I've commissioned that try to combine the best of both worlds.
Here are two of mine: https://i.imgur.com/pVQiOfC.jpeg
They both look like weird, but both have vintage roots...
The one on the left is heavily inspired by vintage Gibsons in the ways that mattger... neck and body are korina, the top (very not vintage) is flamed Hawaiian Koa.
The one on the right is basically my take on a Fender Strat... but headless (better weight distribution, and allows for the..) and with an excellent modern tremolo bridge.
My Yamaha FG800 cost $200 and is probably 70-80% as good as my Martin that cost $1300.
There is even less of a difference between cheap and expensive electric guitars. Especially if you learn to do a good setup yourself and replace the pickups.
Just about every cheap electric I've ever seen has shitty pots, bad or no shielding, maybe even bad grounding.
Hum sucks.
Then I saved up and got an American Fender Jazzmaster that's a recreation of one of the 60s models (cost around $2k used), and I can easily play that for 3-4 hours at a time without straining my hands. Everything just feels nicer in your hands because of the wood quality and you play better since it's more ergonomical.
I agree that you probably can't hear the difference between a Squire and a Fender unless you are really familiar with how guitars and the pickup electronics work and have really good musical hearing, however I'd say in general the cutoff for a good sounding guitar (that's almost indistinguishable from something in the $750 to $2k range) is around $400. Anything less than that and the quality of materials and wiring will probably be bad enough to be noticeable, or things will wear out sooner rather than later (and poor ergonomics can keep you from playing at your full potential).
There are exceptions to that though, I have a cheapo Washburn fretless bass that plays and sounds great, and I think I got it used for around $100.
Then above the low 4 figures you're getting diminishing returns and/or just getting a collectible instead of something you intend to actually make music with.
My favorite story along those lines was when I got paid $300 to own an exotic bass for a decade.
The bass in question: An Alembic 6 string fretless. Original retail price in 1991: $6800 ($14.4k inflation adjusted).
My local small town music store took it in on trade...tagged it at around $2500 or so... it proceeded to sit on the wall for the next 3 or 4 years. Owner of the store was a quirky older dude who doesn't do internet sales at all.
So, finally, I catch the owner in a good mood one day and say look - I'm the only guy with weird enough tastes in this town to ever buy that...but I can't afford it at that price. I'll give $1000 in cash, today.
...and he took it.
That was, if memory serves, about 2003.
Had a bit of cash crunch when I was laid off for about 6 months circa 2012 or so, and put up a few of my instruments at a high end consignment shop (but in a big city, with an actual instrument market). Even aftger their cut I ended up with about $1,350.
A $200 strat will never be in tune, the tuning pegs will all have weird amounts of varying resistance, the bridge might rattle, you probably need a fret leveling right out of the box unless you're ok with either a crazy high action or nasty fret buzz, and so on. Oh and it sounds pretty terrible relative to something with decent pups in a decent amp.
Personally the sweet spot of cheap guitars is more like $500 with inflation these days. The expensive stuff from China and cheap stuff from Korea is great. Those are giggable, serviceable guitars. In the $1k range for cheap American, expensive Korean, or Mexican or Japanese guitars you're paying for quality control. One model will play and sound like the others.
Back in the day my old man parted ways with a 60s Tele - he doesn't appreciate being reminded about it