Originally Posted by: alucard0941
These privatly owned shops will have guitars that you cant find at your Guitar Center, or even eBay. Its a real treat if you have one close by. In alot of stituations, not trying to sound redundant, small companies have nothing to offer but tonally exelent guitars. No one knows them by mouth, so when you shell out grands of bills, your not spending alot of it on the name. There are alot of exelent guitar out there. Try to play some unknown quality guitars and you will soon find they will kill any guitar you've played in the past.

I've played just as many poorly made privateer built guitars as I have mass produced guitars... I have a handfull of stores nearby that carry just about every little known brand out there... When you buy a guitar with a brand name... Fender, Gibson, Paul Reed Smith... etc... you're not just buying a (hopefully) great guitar... you're buying into the fraternity of players and owners of that same brand... and you're buying into the history of the instrument. I don't play the name game too often... But personally no one makes a better Strat than Fender, no one makes a better LP than Gibson (PRS actually does in my opinion, but for the sake of the argument), no one makes a versatile mix between the two of them like PRS... Straying away from certain brands, in my mind, is just as band as the people that only buy certain brands. I say get whatever guitar you want. It's your money... but I personally wouldn't spend more than 1500-2000 on any guitar... you can get much better guitars in that price range from all kinds of manufacturers...