Have you ever bought a guitar only because it was beautiful?

I can’t get a specific guitar I saw off my mind. I have no idea how much it is. I absolutely don’t need it. I need exactly two guitars and we have four in the house. Ive only been playing four months. But heck, I’m a grown up. I can buy it if I want. And I just might!

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Hi @artax_2,

I kinda bought my very first guitar recently, and I partially bought mine because of the looks :smiley:
Of course I spent hours and hours watching unboxing and review vids on youtube, before actually buying, but actually my mind was already made up.

I absolutely wanted a semi-hollow, and I even found it in green! :smiley:
What more could I have asked for?
(Ok, it plays nice too)

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I can say No I’ve never bought a guitar just because of how it looks. I do own beautiful guitars but only because they sound great. I find most beautiful guitars are just expensive and sound and play like crap.
So before you buy this guitar I highly recommend playing it first. If you can’t play it at least post what if is so you can get some feed back

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:joy: first things first Stacy, yes you’re an adult and if you can then hell yes!

To your point, my Electric guitar I first fell in love with because I loved the look of it, both in style and in the specific colour.

But….as it was / is a fair chunk of cash I had to be sure it sounded right and that I felt happy playing it. So use that attraction to shortlist but always go and play it first.

And last things last… yes you’re an adult and if you can then hell yes! :wink:

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Indeed I have. How it sounds also affects how much it’s played.

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How it looks is part of it. How it feels is more important to me… I’ve picked up beautiful guitars and put them down shortly afterwards.

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As well as what style of music you’re playing. I have guitars I prefer to strum with and guitars I prefer to finger pick with. The way my daily practice session is set up I’m effectively playing with three guitars.

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As a mature (read as “old”) who is playing for my own enjoyment and purposes, I think a guitar has multiple facets to enjoy.

First and foremost is sound and playability, because without that it is just a fancy firewood. However, my tastes and patterns of self reward are nuanced and the guitar feeds enjoyment by being those things as well as well crafted and soothing to behold, they can even smell nice! Or perhaps I have bonded with it by repairing it, then it has additional meaning.

The bottom line is that what ever makes you love you guitar will increase the joy of using it.

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Hahaha… I’ve seen you’re AVoYP Joshua… you’re still a spring chicken mate.

So true

Both fortunately and unfortunately I am a fair bit older than I look. Sigh.

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@Jamolay i was blessed with that curse too :wink:

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Yes, a 15€ small children guitar in a flea market, dusty and with rusted strings. It was just soo cute :smiling_face_with_three_hearts::heart_eyes: and even if it stays “differently in tune” it just sounds lovely :blush:

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I think looks were important when I bought my guitars (maybe not so for the Yamaha 12 string which has the typical acoustic guitar look), but it was not the only factor. Although, there are things like tailpieces, F-holes or Bigsby vibratos that give me a similar feeling that you have (even though I think Bigsbys look awful of LPs or SGs, they are just too bulky compared to the size of the guitar body).

However, looks could easily become the decisive factor when not buying something. Like, Ibanez is a big manufacturer with lots of different models, but the token “Ibanez guitar for metal players” with the pointed ends (just do a Google image search for “Ibanez”) is just not my style, however good they may sound. Also, while cutaways are useful for making access to the frets higher up the neck, they just look off on acoustic guitars - to my eyes at least.

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There’s no point not getting it if it’s pulling on your heart strings (:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:), BUT with one provision, it has to be ok to play! (Unless it’s inexpensive enough to become an ornament :joy:
I have been known to buy a guitar that I really liked what it looked like (and lived to regret it), one a Les Paul - it happened to be a really heavy one (around 10lbs) I just couldn’t cope with playing it more than 10-15 mins at a time! It had to go :joy:!

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I bought my guitar online. So, I had no clue about the sound (but I read the product reviews carefully :wink:). I definitely bought this one due to its wonderful colour (and the more than reasonable price) :sweat_smile:. As an absolute beginner, not knowing, whether I would stick with it, I primarely wanted a fairly good but cheap instrument. I know, I will buy a better one somewhen in the future, and then, the sound will definitely be more important. But for now I’m absolutely happy with my ‘blue beauty’ :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:.

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One of my favourite Swiss bands wrote a song about this
I did a rough translation below :smiley:

I recently ordered a guitar; an acoustic 1940s Gibson
Some link on a site from a store in Manhatten- Matt Umanov Guitars
It has pride of place at home in my living room in Bern-Bethlehem
in a guitar stand beside the TV stand.
Gorgeous

When my bandmates come round visiting, they can hardly believe their eyes
Now, you can spend a lifetime looking for another beauty like this, but you’ll never find one.
And of course, they all then want to have a go and see how it plays-
But I have to say:
Cut it out guys… Keep your dirty fingers off it!

It’s not that I’m protective or anything, that’s not the point.
There’s just one small thing I’d rather they didn’t know:
The little Gibson, although expensive and gorgeous-
To be honest, just sounds like
crap
:rofl:

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Only because of the looks? No. Do looks factor in heavily? Yes.

I mostly buy online at incredible discount with an excellent return policy. I have a bunch or guitars with very little duplication – they all bring something unique to the party.

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100% Yes, I have. I have an electric and an acoustic that I play at gigs and the others just land up going to live in my ‘Guitar Harem’. My rationale is that buying guitars, based solely on their looks, is still a whole lot cheaper than buying sports cars :smile:
P.S. some of the pretty ones are also really great things to play.

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Haha, I had exactly the same thought.
Also, I love to buy original paintings just to look at.
What’s the difference with a guitar? If it sounds good too, what a bonus! :smiley:

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I bought my first electric, a PRS SE Singlecut , because it stood out to me on all the rows of guitars on the shelves.

I wasn’t even intending to buy an electric guitar: I was visiting the music shop with my brother-in-law who was buying himself a new guitar. I was drawn to it for some reason and he noticed and said “That’s a really good guitar, you should get it”, so I did.

And that’s what started my guitar journey.

Oddly, I don’t have that guitar any more: I wanted to upgrade and didn’t feel attached enough to it to keep it (and didn’t see the point in owning multiple guitars, especially ones which were so similar, at the time).

But I do have the guitar my Brother-In-Law bought (A Fender Tele Lite-Ash) as he gave it to me when he left the country. That is also a beautiful guitar, especially the figured maple fretboard.

Cheers,

Keith

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