"five watt world" started out with me wrestling with the question of how much gear did I really need, after spending decades collecting guitars and buying and building amplifiers. As I dug down into what mattered to me most I realized that no one had made short histories of the iconic gear and so I made one about the Telecaster, and that proved very popular. As I'm always engaged by a good story I started making others. Now I try to alternate between a video on how to have less gear and histories that I hope will help people find the tone in their heads without having to buy everything that I went through. I hope that works for you.
Thanks in advance, and thanks for being a part of five watt world.
Keith
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The song I wish I had written: " It's A Wonderful World"
Very entertaining. One song for the rest of your life has to be 'The song remains the same' ;-)
Furniture!!😳. Everything in my house are found or gifted objects! I’ve invested the house itself, but musical stuff I buy, even my stereo speakers are rehabilitated found objects! 70’s and 90’s made (4)🤣
Luxury guitars: Premium woods, high end hardware and electronics, excellent craftsmanship. There are guitars around $2000 that have it all that. Even special runs $1000 - $1500 made overseas with great quality above average. I would think the luxury is in getting a guitar custom order, one of, unique decoration, best materials and best craftsmanship. High end production guitars can be wonderful, but are not exclusive, which at least for me I don't care. Money also plays in. Thanks Keith !
Yeah I have a RevStar, series one, new from Sweetwater in 2017, $800, green flames Mat finish top, Indonesian built, with inlay …..wrap tail, I replaced the bridge and both PU’s SD’s controls = a stacked master Volume and tone, and a volume for the neck PU, knob removed (just the rubber cap) A gold Jack I need a new PU switch But it’s my daily driver. $2500 total, including labor. To me that’s expensive, and also, no stock guitars work for me. the PRS hollow SE, was the closest. I replaced the wiring, (huge tonal improvement😳) & the tuners & the neck PU. $1800 My new Schecter Exploreresqe sustainer, Floyd $1500, plus improvements $2200 I can’t imagine paying more than $2200 for new & stock, because in that range, they all need ….something! I’ve since had the PRS plek’d that’s when I did the tuners, that’s $2100 then🙄
As far as Murphy Lab Gibson guitars, his aging process is best suited for tribute guitars, Johnny Winter Firebirds, etc. Without making the guitar worn out, why not make the vintage instruments as close to original as possible? NOS Sprague caps, pickup output as close as possible including the neck profile? There, you've got something!
As an owner of a 62 6G3 Deluxe, 61 6G9A Tremolux, 63 6G7 Bandmaster and a 60 6G12 Concert, I can understand why someone would get into the brown/blonde Fender amps. I have also owned a few others that have been sold over the years. The Tremolux is probably my favorite of the bunch. It's exactly the same amp as a 6G11 Vibrolux combo with an 8 ohm output transformer. The brown Vibrolux is a favorite of Mark Knopfler. A really cool amp if you can find one. You kind of missed that Leo Fender was likely trying to outdo Magnatone's vibrato when designing the Harmonic Vibrato. Magnatone also used Woodward-Schumacher transformers starting in the 50's. A Magnatone 213/413 amp is right up your alley. Great recording amp. I also own a 55 5E3 Deluxe, and the 6G3 Deluxe is pretty different. The 6G3 Deluxe gets more volume & grind with less compression. Even though the Marshall amp is based on a 5F6A Bassman, the 6G3 really has a Marshall vibe to it. The 6G2 Princeton is very close to a 5F11 Vibrolux. It doesn't achieve the same type of grind that the 6G3 Deluxe does
A luxury guitar is a second guitar.
Your Five Watt World sign on the wall looks crooked. Kinda distracting… the camera might not be level; one or the other. Might be both.
My favs are Gibson Historic and Jackson Chatvel
Thanks Keith. 🙂
Luxury is designing and building your own! 🎉. I’m 6’4” and my hands like big V necks. I got tired of not being able to get what I wanted and paying 5 times more for what I can make myself. I love Strats, but I made Teles, Jazzmasters, Telemasters, LP Jr, Carve top LP burst, semi hollows like a 335 and Starcaster. Now, I’m venturing into my own designs and I’m even designing the pickups and winding them. I’m retired now so I’ve got time.
Since custom shops reproduce vintage guitars, luxury is all about scarcity and nostalgia, or in this case, a vintage Fender or Gibson in working order. A rational consumer, who believes in the law of diminishing marginal utility, would simply buy a Fender American Pro ll Strat or Gibson LP Standard. Are guitarists rational? Probably not 😊.
I don' think brown is truly as popular as they say it is.....When you try to buy a brown amp...they only want green for it.
I would go for a Collings every time.
EYE'm an old guy. In a few months, the odometer will flip over to 77. I started twanging around 1958 or 1959, becoming more serious when my older brother brought home a new 1960 PRO (and plugged a Jazzmaster into it!). That PRO was a really excellent amp. Forty watts and a 15-incher. That was the first real amp I ever played through. Second and third, were two nearly-new Concerts ... so I got to start off pretty good. My first amp was a 1964 Super Reverb. So we thought those little Fender amps were just what they were ... student models. I got to see and hear new blonde Bassmans and Bandmasters as well. The brown faces were sweet amps and the sound stayed with me for many years. I finally got to own one of my own when I found a blonde '62 Bandmaster in 2020. What's that? SIXTY years? But what a sound. Thanks for covering the Browns ... I'm very blessed to have one after all this time!
It’s funny I was just having this conversation with my kid in the car this morning. She asked if five dollars was a lot of money. I said it depends on what it’s for and how hard it was to get. She asked if a hundred dollars was a lot of money. I said “Yes. Always.” 😂
Always thoughtful and thought, provoking topics and narrative. I could argue that on some fundamental level, having ANY guitar is a luxury purchase as a pastime or a hobby because it’s non-essential to literally sustaining life. Although the ubiquitous availability of a decent playing and sounding acoustic or electric for $100 makes it much less of an arguable luxury than it ever used to be. An easier case, is a second guitar as a luxury purchase, no matter the type or price point. An even easier case than THAT, is a relative duplicate of a guitar you already have, such as a second acoustic or a second Strat- again, cost of those first guitars and their “duplicates” notwithstanding. I am a gigging guitarist. I go to band practice with a different guitar than I played at the last rehearsal about 90% of the time. My acoustic is currently always the same but my electrics are always different from the last gig. I come from a place where I felt like the lottery to have gotten my first electric guitar. I still have it. I now have lots of guitars, relative to some, and I don’t cycle through gear. My 17 year old self just starting out with an interest in guitar, could NEVER have imagined the musical assets (guitar and non-guitar) I have now at age 50. And ALL of it, even though it’s stuff I use a lot is still a LUXURY purchase, and I always take a moment of gratitude I have whenever I’m doing music, in recognition of all I have. In some ways, music and yes even the acquisition of a significant musical product (that could even include a nice case) is another opportunity among many to mindful in gratitude of many things: What I have, what my ability is, where music has taken me, how a life in music has changed and shaped me as a person. So many things. As a cancer survivor, LIVING is a luxury. Each day and each birthday is a luxury.
I remember years ago playing a Parker Fly at a gig randomly and it was Great to play. But stumbling onto his arch top videos really gave me a new respect for his passion. Such a blessing we have guys like him in the guitar business.
I bought a 40th anniversary Squier Tele for $250 and it’s one of the best players I’ve ever seen.
Hifi. People like their power amps "burnt in" and their speakers broken in just like guitarists. Vintage Hifi speakers and amps can hold their value like a Les Paul, and like vintage guitars, scarcity and legend combine to inflate prices to eye-popping levels on certain old gear.
Never really thought about guitars as a luxury. Great guitars are a joy. They can be found in any shape and syle and at any price nowadays. I suppose everything other than food and shelter is a luxury. Damn, my way of thinking is a luxury! Great show Keith.
Kinda reminds me of my Guild Jetstar S50. An SH killer IMO 😉
If you are barely making your rent and/or coming up with grocery money then any guitar is a luxury. If you are a hobby player any guitars beyond one is a luxury. If you are a pro and gigging as your actual job then anything beyond whatever you simply need to do that job is a luxury. As to the cost of the guitar itself, lately if it's more than a couple of hundred bucks it's pretty much a luxury because even budget instruments are quite playable. If you own fifteen guitars ranging from nearly a thousand dollars to a few thousand dollars each then you are so far into the land of luxury you probably have no actual idea what is luxury and what isnt.
$100 won't buy you much any more. Turns out when you print money like a school kid in his basement, it's worth almost zero. I have luxurious PRS guitars, but it took me decades to own one. I don't buy them new ever. I loved my $600 Ibanez guitars and my Partscaster with aftermarket bridge, LSR roller nut and Lace sensors from the 90's. They simply don't compare to my private stock, but, they will get the job done just as well. To me anything below $1k in 2024 money is inexpensive. The measure has always been one months average salary for a "good" instrument. In today's median range, that's around $3-4K. The squier classic vibes of recent years have been very good guitars for the money. Throw lollars in and a rewire and you're ready for the road. It's all relative.
I highly recommend the CPI inflation calculator for some perspective on the cost of things over time. $100 in May 2024 has the same buying power as... $54.61 in May 2000, $34.16 in May 1985, $16.94 in May 1975, $10 in May 1965. I feel like that perspective isn't there in some of the "things were cheaper when I was a kid..." discussions.
More than 2k new.
Why not PRS is largely boomers. Boomers make the Gibson and Fender trendy. They refuse to accept other things might be just as good and sadly the myth of these companies making the best guitars propagates. The other issue is there’s no huge artists coming out anymore. Music is so scattered now that you don’t have a Hendrix playing a Fender that EVERYONE sees. Instead you have lots of communities enjoying the guitars from the musicians who inspire them. This drives a lot of ESP/LTD, PRS, EBMN etc
Guitars may be a luxury, but I'm not sure many of us could live without music in our lives. Which means someone needs to have a guitar!
i play bargain basement stuff dont need the perfection no matter how rich, just dont need the perfection. i have a couple of really nice guitars i bumped into. i have a full set or ever color they made .... just a cheapo brand i i have one stringed for many tunings such as drops and nashville ....it is easier to switch to them in the rack.... good topic! again!!
A luxury is playing along with something with a groove that takes over your soul so the playing comes out of you just staying out of the way?
100%. It meets every definition of luxury.
My 1st instructor was a pro guitarist in a touring band that I liked. He had a PRS, this would have been 89' and it played like butter. Very lively and resonant. I had never seen one before and was mesmerized by the pearl diving bird. We would often switch guitars during the lesson because he liked my Les Paul as well.
I collect watches but not guitars. As a working musician for 35 or so years I have at most owned 5 electrics at any one time. But I currently own 40 watches. The guitar is a tool and the watch is a luxury to me. I don't Need a watch, but I Need a guitar. But, I do not own cheap guitars, ever. Because I need them to work all the time, every time, without worry. So buying nice guitars is a necessity, not a luxury. I think binding is a luxury on a guitar. I think real MOP is a luxury. I think a guitar over 4K is a bit much. No guitar should cost any more than that IMHO. Addition. I don't believe in fake wear of relic-ing of a guitar. If it doesn't come by the wear honestly it is a fraud in my eyes. I am adding as I watch. For solid body luxury you could certainly add the ESP custom shop as well as Tyler, Jackson and even Schecter who originally was a US based custom shop only. So solid body luxury is certainly there. Look at ESP custom shop builds if you want your mind blown. I would add the Hamer custom shop as well.
100% on “relic” guitars. Feels like hipster posing to me.
I wish I could have caught this one live, Keith. I see lots of friends in the chat, and this is such a great subject! Cheers, brother 🙂
Wow! Thanks Matty!
I got a timex watch for a gift when I was eight years old in 1969. I fell and broke it the same day. Never wore another watch.
My top players were Page, Beck when I started. They still are, I've just added Keith. Often Angus/Malcolm, Kossoff, VH are along for tge ride. I also discovered Johnny Thunders who's playing I've just fallen in love with. He played an LP Junior because they were cheap for Gibsons. Now that model, that vintage, costs around $10,000.
The Collings may be one of my future axes. I am very intrigued by them. I've always been intrigued by a quality Gibson alternative. MIJ Tokais have been my recent go-to's. The Collings, of course, are a leg up, even from the MIJ Tokai Premium that I just purchased. The Premiums are supposed to be the equivalent of a Gibson CS. I've only played one Custom Shop LP and I would say this Tokai SG ticks the boxes and for 2,000 that's significant savings.
Thanks for the lead on Ken Parker. I just looked him up and subscribed.
Let's go one rabbit hole deeper and talk about having a Luxury Problem.
Didn't have time to listen to this yet but love the intro (I believe it's John Mcerlain).. Generally , I don't like when people cover Hendrix bc it tends to sound really stilted -like they're just trying to play the notes instead of the feel... This is the opposite so cheers to him for that! Since I know the blues, I do know that's a cover of a cover, but still sounds great!!
The root comes from the Latin “lux,” referring to excess. By definition, you don’t need it. You have it because you want it, when something less expensive and/or exclusive would do the same job. Our corksniffer-hating times will protest, but “luxury” has always been tied to exclusivity. It deals inherently in the differentiation between haves and have-nots. It is defining the value of something in direct proportion with how many people cannot have it. It is inherently classist. “Luxury” celebrates classism. This is why there will always be, and perhaps more than ever, a market for $30,000 Gibsons which have no objective mechanical superiority to their $3,000 counterparts. I’m not judging here, but these are the facts of what Luxury means.
For me a Les Paul Murphy Labs would be a luxury. I have an LP standard and while it's the most expensive guitar I have, I don't consider it a lux item for me.
Long as it’s not a PoserCaster. Nothing luxurious about them.
Would Alembic be in that top tier of builders as a solid body guitar/bass builder?
Given their price points and the cost no object kind of craftsmanship, it would be hard to argue they are not.
Paying for craftsmanship? There’s almost no craftsmen in the guitar industry. CNC machines have eliminated all of them. The word craftsmanship is nothing more than a marketing term nowadays. Price doesn’t equate to luxury either. Gibson Les Paul’s are a prime example.
I think to a large extent “the concept of luxury” is subjecting. My Martin D-18E Retro is very luxurious to me, worth well over any other acoustic guitars I’ve owned over the last 50 years, but to Vince Gill it would be a “throw it in the pickup and play it by the camp fire,” low-end guitar with reasonable build quality.
Have you ever played a Collings or a handbuilt guitar by a single Luthier?
@@bldallas Probably not, I’m from Nashville and have seen him numerous times. His 53 Telecaster of course is his number one. Otherwise, he has a lot of player grade and some lower end guitars.
I would respectfully disagree,there's still a lot of hand work done after the CNC machines have saved some time.
It would behoove you to educate yourself on the guitar making process. Your comment is incredibly uninformed. There’s still quite a lot of hand work done on guitars and plenty of craftspeople working in the industry.
For me, as a prof.guitarist, my 2 gibsons are luxury, i play them every day, my squier tele is luxury too, because its a great working guitar. It has nothing to do with money.
For 40 years I set a limit on how much I'd spend on a guitar, that was $125. For that price I got a 61 Fender BassIV, a 58 Gretsch 6121, a 73 Rick 4001, a 30s Bakelite Rick, a 69 Tele, 12 string Mosrite, 52 Gibson 125 DC, G&L Lead 2, 67 SG special, and many more solid body customs. I didn't want to collect, I restored and customized myself and wasn't a flipper. I was patient and scoured ads, auctions and later craigslist. Many were trashed when bought. Others were perfect from police auctions. My Bass IV was $15. I sold my 1960 Byrdland for $1,500 when I needed money. The ones that I sold or were stolen still hurt decades later. The "luxury" was the time I invested in them, sometimes months of restoration. The payoff was the joy of playing. I still never take my 58 Fender to gigs, but my Indonesian sold body with roasted maple, impeccable rosewood, stainless frets, locking tuners and silent split humbuckers plays perfectly as any vintage luxury classic that I've ever owned including the one I sold to Steve Howe. I stll kick myself for not buying the original rusty nocaster for $600 in 1980 in Ojai, from the architect who couldn't play.
Oh yeah forgot the 59 strat and case for $99 at a pawn shop in the east bay in 1970. Stolen at a friend's house, I can still feel the resonance in my hands. One of my cheap Les Paul customs I sold in London in 1975 paid for a 2.5 year trip around the world a real luxury for a cheapskate backpacker.
100$ is alot of money, if thats all, you have!
Novo's are somewhere in the middle of where youve been landing as far as money goes but the build quality punches way above those numbers.
That’s what I keep hearing. Hard to find them in the wild though 😒
Luxury is having the proper Time to play all those nice instruments!
Ain’t that the truth!
yes thats hardest commodity to find
Ya dolts! You have the time you get & no more, it's what ya do with it that matters. Change if you want to, don't wait....
Its a big difference, if you are a professionell guitar player, or not!