trekster -
811852 makes a good point, and it's something to think about. My bro is very serious in the vintage stuff and owns a lot of very elite dream guitars.
He used to live on the east coast and moved out here a number of years ago. He had most of his collection transported, but shipped out a number of the really valuable guitars to me ahead of time (yes, that may sound backward, but it was more secure this way since the movers had to carry a declaration of what they were carrying for insurance purposes).
He had me check them out when the arrived to make sure they made it through. One of the instruments was truly amazing - an 50's Les Paul Goldtop with P90s. It looked pretty tired, but felt nice so I plugged it in to give it a spin. Absolutely the best guitar I ever played, beautiful, rich tone, suprisingly light, and eternal sustain. If you follow the vintage guitar prices, you can imagine that this was a very expensive guitar (like multiple Series II basses!).
I called him and told him that they had made it OK and that this guitar was really incredible. There were actually two goldtops, and the other one was beautiful to look at but not particularly soul-stirring. I asked him whether all the goldtops were as good as the good one.
And now, I finally get to the point of this story. His answer was that the good goldtop was really extraordinary. Once you get into the right circles, you'll see a number of these guitars. They're all expensive, but you really need to play it to find out how it turned out. And the real trick to getting a fantastic instrument is to not buy a bad one!
He's a big believer in this philosophy and it really does make sense. There's nothing like the feeling of designing your instrument, seeing it built, then opening the case for the first time. But, because they are built of natural materials by human beings, it really can be a crapshoot as to how it will all turn out. If you want a 37 scale or a samurai inlay on the body, it'll have to be a custom, but in a lot of cases, your money might be better served by looking at instruments (new or used) that are already built. Pick it up, play it, and if it's not right put it back. What could be more fun than searching?
Now, this is much easier to do if you're looking for a Mexican Strat that a Series bass since you have very little chance to bump into one unless you live in a big city. But you actually can try this with Strats or Jazz Basses or whatever. Go to a store that has 5 of them hanging on the wall and try them out. They'll probably be pretty consistent and pretty similar. And one will probably be better - perhaps the setup happens to be better because of the humidity that day, or you lucked out on pickups. Wouldn't it make sense to buy that one? Comparing robot-made Strats with Alembics is sort of silly, but the same truth holds true there. If you can swing a trip to the factory someday, it's quite an eye-opening experience to try out so many different instruments.
Of course, there's another factor at play here too - what feels right and sounds best to you is not an absolute. Take two guys in to try Strats, and they may well walk off with different instruments. But, if we're really judging by tone and feel, I wouldn't be all that surprised if they end up fighting over the good one too.
I have four Alembics, two which I had built for me. If you sat and played the four of them, you certainly would spend most of your time staring at one of my custom-built ones. But if you were going to take one home, you might be surprised at which one you'd pick.
David Fung
