If you’re after buy an expensive guitar, but you’re not exactly cash-rich what are your best options? Let’s review the best ways to buy an expensive guitar…
Good guitars cost quite a bit of money. If you’re looking at a top-end Gibson Les Paul or Fender, you could be paying anywhere from $2000 to $5000 or more. For most people, including a lot of professional musicians, this is just way too much, especially if it is a one-off payment.
This is why sub-$500 electric guitars are so popular; the price is doable for most players and you still get a quality axe. Plus, each major guitar brand often does “budget” models of its flagship guitars. A great example of this is Epiphone SG Special; it retails for $399.99 which is quite a bit cheaper than the $899 Epiphone Prophecy.
The average, decent-quality electric guitar from a big brand will set you back anywhere from $800 to $1500. At this price point, you’re getting a quality guitar with plenty of high-end specs – things like premium pickups, quality build materials, and high-end workmanship. But you’re not paying the BIG BUCKS associated with super-high-end models like the Gibson Les Paul Standard (60s or 50s edition) which retail for over $2500 a pop.
1 – Buying An Expensive Electric Guitar on Finance
If you’ve been diligently playing guitar for years and you want to treat yourself to an expensive, flagship model, the best way to do it is to finance the purchase, meaning you pay it off in instalments over 24 months. I’ve done this in the past and it works great; I always use Sam Ash Music too because it does 0% interest for 24 months (which is exactly what you want).
For instance, I bought an ESP E-11 Viper on finance, the guitar retails for $1899, but I was able to get it for just $80 a month over 24 months – and with no interest. I knew I could manage the payments, so this was a great deal and pretty much a no brainer for me.
What does interest free financing mean? Simple: you only pay for the agreed value of the guitar, there are no extra charges associated with the credit. For instance, say you want to buy a Gibson Les Paul Classic for $1999. With 0% interest on your finance, that is all you’d pay – over 24 months. For a guitar of this price, you’re looking at 24 monthly payments of $84.
Of course, because finance agreements are credit-based agreements, you’ll have to be approved before you can undertake the financing. If you have a credit card, as most people do, and you stay up to date with payments, you shouldn’t have any issues getting approved. Just keep in mind that this will be a 24 month commitment. But at the end, you will own your guitar outright and can do with it what you want.
2 – Use A Credit Card
I’m not a huge fan of credit cards, I’d much rather use store finance programs like the one offered by Sam Ash. And the reason for this is simple: you don’t pay any interest on your purchase, whereas with most credit cards, you will pay interest on your balance. And on big purchases, this interest can add up quickly…
If you can, get yourself a 0% APR credit card, so you can pay the guitar off over 12 months. There are plenty of credit card companies that offer 0% APR for 12 months, so finding one shouldn’t be an issue. Once you have the card, use it to make the purchase and then BURN IT. You do this because you do not want to be adding to the balance. Then, make sure you pay off the balance in 12 months to avoid any interest charges.
3 – Buy A Used Electric Guitar
Buying used is one way to get a better deal on an electric guitar. Guitars tend to hold their value, however, so if you’re looking for a bargain on a Les Paul or a Strat, you’re not likely to find one – unless you happen to come across a complete noob that has no idea what they’re selling.
If you’re looking for sub-$1000 electric guitars, you’ll have a bit more success. I bought a Gibson SG a few years back off a guy a knew for $300. That guitar retails online for over $1000, so this was a great deal. But I only got it because I knew him and he had a gazillion other guitars. Plus, the SG needed some work doing to the pickups.
Best Place To Find & Buy Used Guitars:
- Sam Ash
- Reverb
- Ebay
- Facebook Marketplace
Wrapping Up…
The above listed methods are the three most popular ways to buy an expensive electric guitar for less. If I were you, I’d go the finance route. If you use Sam Ash, view all its current offers here, you will get 0% interest on your purchase, so you ONLY pay the RRP of the guitar and nothing more.
Interest is a bitch, so you want to avoid it at all costs. Not paying interest means you ONLY pay for the value of the guitar. And if you get a good one, it will hold its value, so unlike a car, it can be viewed as something of an investment. Good guitars ALWAYS hold their value. And good guitars cost a lot of money, so for most people, financing is the only way to acquire one.
Using finance, you’ll get the guitar you want right away. All you have to do then is make sure you keep up with the payments. If you don’t, you’re open to charges and repo-men, so make sure you ONLY ever get financing on a guitar that you can actually afford. Always operate within a budget and be conservative with your estimation of what you can afford.
Fifty to eighty bucks per month might not sound like a lot of money, but if you lose your job and you have to make these payments for 24 months, either sum of money will soon start to feel like a whole lot more. My advice? Keep it as cheap as you can. Or, get yourself a cheaper (but equally good) guitar and save yourself the hassle of 24 month agreements.
Hell, you can even get financing on sub-$500 guitars, so why not just do that? If money’s tight, this is a great way to get a decent axe without hammering your savings. And there are plenty of awesome options in the $500 to $600 bracket these days. My personal favourite, however, has the be the Epiphone SG Custom – it costs $579 and you can get on it finance for $25 a month.
And it is a freakin’ killer guitar too!
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