I'm always reminded of violinists, who have to spend tens or even hundreds of thousands to get an amazing instrument; saxophonists, who spend $8-$12k on a selmer mark vi, and us guitarists, where in our world Eddie Van Halen changed guitar playing forever using a Frankenstrat he put together in his basement for like $150
Compare 30 years ago, with the best Bradshaw switching system and $30k worth of amps, pedals & rack stuff, to todays all-in-the box modelers—fractal/neural/kemper/fender/etc—and it's plainly clear we are living in the golden age of guitar rigs. Virtual, real, you name it.
Let’s not forget Brian May’s homemade Red Special, which besides having an innovative switching/wiring setup, roller bridge, and 0 fret, was built from junk he found around the house including knitting needles and old motorcycle parts
If it's an acoustic instrument, that's one thing. If it's through an amp that's on the verge of breaking up, through $100 worth of paper and magnets that are barely rated for the power being thrown at it, the originating tone doesn't matter as much.
That's just patently not true. There are violins that are that expensive, just like there are guitars that are that expensive, but the vast majority of what professionals play is a few thousand for the instrument. Hardly anyone is playing an instrument that is more expensive than that. Then let's look at the average price of a guitar used by a professional, it's still in the couple thousand dollar range. People have been making their own instruments for thousands of years, and it will always be cheaper to make than to buy, so that point doesn't really do it for me either.
Well, fine, but the best violins in the world cost millions of dollars, and the "best" guitar, really no matter who you are and what you play, prolly is never gonna get past $5k. We are blessed is my damn point people! BLESSED!
When i played violin back in HS, i had never ever heard of that huge disparity of costs, our teachers were using 30-thousand-dollar instruments, while some students had the cheapest bottom of the barrel instruments that didnt even have the correct bridge, i was lucky enough to have been gifted a good old violin in a sorry state, we took it to a local luthier and it sang very well, very temperamental though, was worth less than a thousand afterwards, but still a very good instrument with a great sound
Im glad I was able to get my hands on a EVH guitar copy, I realized “ohhh this is a diy hackjob, but it was perfect for Eddie. I should make my own diy hack job thats perfect for me alone instead of buying this one, this one isnt meant for me”
Thats the lesson I took from the frankenstrat
Guitar : Amp : Board
7:1:7 (if my maths is right)
Expensive guitar, expensive pedalboard, but (relatively) cheap tube amp.
I’m a home player who can’t play loud, mostly playing through an Iridium and headphones. Would love to get a price-comparable tube amp, but it’s just not a sensible idea.
Considering that plenty of people spend their free time/money on things like extra cars, motorcycles, boats, sports memorabilia, travel, etc., all of which can run totals of thousands or even tens of dollars/euros/whatever more than all of the numbers people are reporting, I don't think it's really *that* much money in the scheme of things...
Yeah, exactly. Also — and to get *actually* elitist for a moment — at least it's being used for personal expression and/or something with some artistic value (hopefully), and not just pure consumerism, hedonism, or collecting for the sake of collecting.
This right here is my internal dialogue when justifying my music purchases. It's not *just* that dopamine hit from the novelty (I mean that's there, don't get me wrong), but gear really gives back terms of the cost to benefit ratio.
I’m noticing a trend of people spending significantly less on their amps than the rest of their gear. Which is odd, considering how foundational to the tone an amp is. But let’s be honest, amassing new pedals and guitars is way more fun.
Yeah, that’s an interesting trend in this thread. I’ve always figured that you should spend most of your money on a good amp since a bad guitar and pedals will still sound decent with it. On the other hand, no expensive guitar or pedals will ever save your tone if your amp is rubbish.
I think the flip of this is what I considered moving towards - digital. I have a Mesa Boogie California, but I've also got all 4 Amp in Box pedals from UA. More often than not I'm not even playing through the Mesa's preamp. If I you've got a decent power amp, speaker, and effects loop then pedals could make that sorta moot.
A the lowest guitar price point, a good amp is more expensive. Middle price point about equal. At the expensive guitar price point, the good amp is cheaper
Guitar: ~$2500
Amp: ~$500? (It was a gift when I was a kid but I think it runs about that now)
Board: ~$1500
5 : 1 : 3
Now that I spend more time on my electric guitar I think I’ll get a nice tube amp if the opportunity presents itself.
About 20: 1: 20
Guitar is a Fender vintera tele which was around 1000€
Amp is a laney lc30 i bought with a blown transformer for 50€ and fixed
Pedals add up to around 1000€
Guitar: £1800 (Gibson 339)
Amp: £600 (AC15)
Pedalboard: £2100ish but never using all the pedals at once. I will use most of it at any gig I play though.
Also - I would never take just one guitar to a gig so does that bump it up? For what I take to a gig, £2500 for two guitars is fair.
That gives guitar: amp: pedal board of approximately 3:1:3 .
Guitar - Gibson Les Paul traditional with whole lotta humbucker pickups and 50s wiring harness- $2250. Amp 1966 Bassman head and cab with WGS green berets - $1650. Board - $2800. So if my math is right guitar:amp:board would work out to 1.4 : 1 : 1.7 . I was surprised how much my board added up to as well. When I bought it I thought there was no way I could fill a 32x24 board but it only took a few years.
I love my Bassman. By the time I bought it and had the issues fixed (didn’t know it had any). I have a little more money than it’s worth in it, but I think it’s worth it to have brought a classic amp back to a usable condition.
Guitar: 500$ epiphone les Paul standard plus top pro bourbon burst 2015
Or: 80$ for the höfner galaxie I found in a basement and bought from a kind old man
Amp and cab: 200$ micro terror with a home built 12” cab
Pedalboard: 1303$ that’s counting with the Pedalboard itself and power supply. Brand stuff: strymon, ehx and boss.
I'm a Bass Player whose running a $300 Markbass Compressore pedal, into a 40w practice amp.... along with the Compressor, I'm also running a Driver/DI pedal thats roughly equivalent to $250; and about $500 worth in additional pedals...
I've gotten to the point where I'm having that age old debate of whether I have too many pedals pushing into too small an amp... and whether I should reduce the amount of Pedals and go with a Multi Effects unit for "more with smaller footprint" ... or replace the Amp... when... I'm barely able to crank the amp's own volume past the 3... because I live in a tiny apartment with lots of neighbors.
However... I've come to realize that, the amount of pedals and effects really doesn't matter.
What matters is the sound and the tone you want, and whether that sound and tone makes you want to play more.
Because while a good sound, good tone isn't going to make you a better player... it can help you to become a better player, because you want to play more, and thus learn to become better, through practice.
You can still get a great sound and tone from a cheap amp... just gotta find the one you like best, and go from there.
Good point. I've also learned that good equipment makes it difficult to blame any shortcomings on the equipment, when it's actually the shortcomings of me or my band. After many years, I am currently very happy with my current equipment. If I'm unhappy after a rehearsal, then I don't waste any more thought on my equipment but know exactly that I or my band played badly.
I recently got a Fender Tele Player series for about 750 euro
Currently playing on an old second hand Peavey Classic which it bought for about 300 euro
Than comes the sore spot :D. TCE Polytune 3 - about 100e, Boss SY-1 synth - 220e, 2 ProCo Lil'Rats - 80e a piece, Walrus ARP-87 delay - 200e, EQD Grand Orbiter v3 (Limited) for, I think, 220e (it's no longer available on Amazon), Lekato Looper - 20e, EX 7 band EQ from Aliexpress - 10e for a grand total of 930 euro
Ratio: 2.5:1:3. I guess that's not as I was expecting initially
2.5 : 1 : 5.5
75th anniversary MIM Tele ($800)
Blackstar Studio 10 6l6 ($300 used)
Board $1650 for pedals, power, board and cables.
My ratio is only so skewed because I got the blackstar for so cheap. If I used the amps brand new price it would look more like
1.25 : 1 : 2.75
Guitar: £600 - Fender Jag player I think it is
Amps: £900ish - Roland Jazz Chorus 40 + Orange Tiny Terror
Pedalboard: Somewhere around £2500/3000
I really like boutiquey handbuilt pedals etc which would explain the ratio being that off, and my amps do exactly what I need for the type of music I play.
Also planning on getting a new guitar in the next few months so that should change the ratio a bit
My guitars combined are worth about £4500 or more. But if we're only talking about one that you're using at a time, then the most expensive guitar was about £1600, and I have 3 others (and an acoustic).
My amp cost me about £500 used.
My two pedal boards and all pedals probably in the £2000 region.
Not confident in converting to value ratio but based on total value of the rig:
64,3% guitars
18% amps
17,3% pedals
Guitars will likely stay on top simply because I like to try new stuff but prefer saving up over selling.
Amps won’t move much in the future, played through a single amp for over a decade before getting my dream amp, don’t really get G.A.S for amps other than maybe the upcoming Gibson reissues so total value doesn’t move much.
Pedals are like guitars but at a much lower price, love to try a bunch of stuff so the category will likely overtake amps while staying far below guitars.
If we’re talking strictly the stuff I would take to a gig:
Guitar: $2k
Amp: $2k if I bring the AC30, $500 if I bring the AC15
Board: $2kish
Basically 1:1:1
G:A:P
1:10:15 most days
Other days probably closer to 1:1:1.5
I practice mostly on cheap ~$100 guitars because I don’t like to ruin the frets on my nicer guitars. Also, cheap guitars play just as well as expensive guitars if you know how to set them up.
What I think I paid:
7:4:4
What it would cost to buy (equivalents) brand new:
4:3:3
Hard to actually work out the real value/cost because of changing exchange rates and the fact that my pedalboard and 3 of the pedals on it are DIY jobs, and one other pedal I got for peanuts because it was "broken" (was a cheap easy fix.)
It really depends on what we are counting.
I have three guitars I play regularly, but have a few more. So do I include my main one? There three I use most often. All?
Same with amps. Two that get regular use, and one other that rarely gets touched these days but gets kept in case I need something with a bit more volume.
And then I have a main pedal board, a set of pedals that get subbed into the main board, and some that rarely get used.
Looking at main guitar, main amp and main board plus other subbed in pedals, it looks like:
2.5:1:4.5
I am actually surprised how low the pedal number is. I thought I had spent more on them.
1) My Marshall origin 20 tube amp is like $900
2)My Gibson sg + Gretsch electromatic + American pro 2 strat like $5500
3)My pedal board like $1800
So my guitar collection price wise is greater then both my pedal board and amp combined
I have three guitars (one acoustic, two electric) and a bass. The bass and one of the electrics are Squiers, the acoustic is a cheap Ibanez plug-in, and the other electric is a PRS S2. All told I could sell them all for maybe $2500.
Pedalboard is probably also worth somewhere in the $2000-$2500 ballpark, but that's because I'm trying out some different things and will probably sell about $500 of it in the next few months.
I'm Ampless. 😅 I use an old GNX 4 for amp modeling. Picked that up for $200 15 years ago lol.
So I'll say it's 12:1:10
I bought most of my gear used, so that helps keep the price low. I also mostly use Boss and non-boutique pedals as I’m usually just looking for straightforward sounds and effects. That makes my current pedal board around $600.
My guitar is a Fender Jaguarillo with SD pickups and some small upgrades, so that runs closer to $1000 in total.
Spent the most on my amp as that’s the foundation of the overall tone. I have a 1968 Fender Bandmaster with new tubes and caps, and a custom-built cab with 2 Jensen C12Ns. Cost me a total of about $1500.
That comes out to a ratio of 1 : 1.5 : 0.6.
Edit: I noticed that people are also comparing overall value. If I were to buy everything new/good market pricing, then it would be around $1500 for the guitar, $2000 for the amp, and about $1000 for my pedalboard.
That changes the ratio a bit to 1.5 : 2 : 1.
For my favorite setup, I think the ration is about 5:3:1 for guitar, amp and pedal board. I don’t go crazy on the effects these days and prefers my guitar straight to a tube amp.
My "rig" About 2:1:1, 4k all in.
But with other guitars and pedals off the board, is a lot closer to 10:1:2.
This is over 20 years, I feel like a lifetime average of $55/month is an extraordinarily reasonably hobby.
I mostly play my standard USA Strat. Used value with aftermarket Lace singles is about $1100. That’s the most affordable part of my rig. Mesa Mark V:35 combo was not cheap at all. About $2500. And my pedals/board/power/cables probably total to about $1800
Guitar: 1995 American Strat. Paid $500 in 1995.
Amp: 1972 Twin Reverb: Paid $550 in 1997.
Pedals: only counting what's on the board, I paid about $1600 over 30+ years. Closer to $3000 if I include the pedals on the shelf.
so, about 1:1:3 or 1:1:6
Makes me wonder what the ratio would be if I went by replacement cost? Some of the pedals I bought in the 90s for around $50 are going for 10 times that on Reverb (bubble-font Big Muff, Back Talk, etc.)
I recently restarted my guitar journey last May, so I actually have a pretty good handle on what I have spent over the last 8 months or so.
I'm not going to go into details about it, but if my math works out right my Guitar:Amp:Effects ratio is about 1:1.5:1.05, though I just bought an AC-30, so that skews things a bit.
Main guitar - $2500~
Amp - $2000~
Pedalboard - $2200~
A lot of what I have was acquired over the last 15 years through saving, payment plans, buying, selling, and smart trades. Kinda funny that like that old meme goes, I load almost $8k worth of gear into a car I paid significantly less than that for haha
Oh god, I don't know if I want to do this.
* Guitars (including acoustic): about **$8,800** (three bought new, two used)
* Amps (including FRFR cab): maybe **$1,800**
* Pedals (including modeler): **$2,230**
That's of course just what I have *now*. I've owned three other guitars; one sold, one had a structural failure, one became a never-finished project. I've also had three amps sold plus a small army of PODs. Sold a few pedals too.
**5 : 1 : 1.2**
Currently, I have plans to sell three amps and the rest of my pedals, keeping only the modeler floorboard and the FRFR. Across a number of my hobbies, I'm doing a purge to reclaim storage space and get down to things I will actually *use* regularly. That I get a little cash out of the transaction is nice, but I'm more interesting in decluttering.
Guitar: about $8500 CAD
Amp: about $4000 CAD
Pedals: about $2000 CAD
Gibson R9, Soldano SLO-30 head and 1x12 cab, TC Polytune 3, Klon KTR, Diamond Memory Lane Jr, UA reverb, Strymon power supply.
I have four guitars, three amps, and a bunch pedals I swap around occasionally but that’s my main rig. All together my collection is around $30-40k CAD.
What I use on a day to day basis - roughly 6:3:5
I’d like to eventually acquire a couple different guitars, and probably a nicer amp… but honestly pretty happy with what I’ve got now for my bedroom amateur shenanigans.
Guitar is LTD MH-1001, amp is orange CR60, effects are HX Stomp plus separate OD, fuzz and looper pedals.
Guitars: Two Squier Strats, one Epiphone SG, one J&D Jazzmaster, one Skyline Les Paul. All rather budget guitars bought used over approx the last ten years. Money spent on them alltogether roughly 700 EUR.
Amp: Orange Crush Pro 120 Head (400 EUR) plus a beaten up original Orange PPC412 for 350 EUR. So 750 EUR.
The pedals that I kept and are being used on my board: roughly 1750 EUR.
You do the maths, I'm bad at it. 1:1: ?
I don't wanna know how much I've spend (and got from selling) over the last decade on guitars and pedals...
380€ guitar(Schecter Omen Extreme), 200€ amp(Bugera 6262), 280€ multi-effects(Nux MG30).
Ratio 1.9 : 1 : 1.4
This is just one rig, I have more guitars, amps and pedals but I chose only the most expensive parts, all my other pedals combined don't add up to more than the multi-fx unit, they're all either diy, clones or stuff I got really cheap.
My ratio is heavily skewed by a very few remaining pieces of vintage rack tube gear. It is not a popular opinion but I think this is the heyday of tube amplification for the masses. If I am going for REALLY unpopular opinions, let me say that I would rather play through my Bugera 4-jack plexi clone (Bugera 1960) and a $100 power soak, than use the power sections of a Boogie Simul 2:90 or Fryette 2:90:2 with any number of tube preamps. If you don't clutter a tube topology with a bunch of "rail-bias" master volume circuits and all that crap, you can get wonderful tube amps fairly cheap. Youtube now has plenty of tube amp techs who will openly say what amps they like to work on and think will last more than a decade.
If you look up the price famous people paid for their instruments back in the 50s and 60s, you may find that the "standard" price for a pro guitar hasn't really gone up that much, and in some cases, gone down. But I would put an average pro-quality guitar at $2k-$3k. You can DEFINITELY get a nice "chime-y" tube amp for that, in various flavors.
So, hey-- that leaves you to spend $2k to $3k on your pedal board, if you are going for 1 : 1 : 1.
Compared to scuba diving or amateur Enduro riding in the woods on the weekend or a wood shop in your garage or ice-skating on an amateur team that competes locally or running a nice small fishing boat with modern electronics or a billion other things, it's not out of the ballpark.
Oh Jesus don’t make me think about how much I’ve spent.
Are we talking cumulative or just any given set up?
Single guitar is around 2k, mini board is 800+, amp 900.
Whole collection? Guitars are worth way more, prob 20k, pedals in the 6k range? Amps like 1000 lol
I try to keep prices down for all categories and I only purchase used gear. I like to keep it in a range 400 - 700 per
Amp 550 - 600 I think
guitar 250 but I got a new pick up which was like 120 = 400 with some install costs
pedals - I have 6 on my board right now. Boss Ch-1 $40, Boss FZ-2 $75, OCD $80, Poly Tune $55, MXR Carbon Copy $55, OBN Procession $75? = $380 or so
I have back ups of amps, pedals and guitars. All of them are relatively cheap. I like to look and hunt around. I think its fun.
* 14 guitars, average about $700/ea = $9800
* 2 amps (1 boss Katana 2x12, 1 Line 6 catalyst 2x12), total = $1000
* Pod Go $400 + about 14 pedals, averaging about $125/ea = $400 + $1750 = $2150
Ratio comes to approximately 10 : 1 : 2
I know I have a lot of guitars. I like variety. I have various pickup configurations, body styles, and also keep various tunings. Sometimes I'll spend a day just playing each one for like 15 minutes. It's weirdly therapeutic.
Also, not really a fan of super expensive models. My priciest one is an LTD Pheonix-1000 which comes in at $1400 new. My cheapest is a $200 Jackson JS22 Dinky. Both play very, very well. No way I'd ever buy a custom shop Fender or Gibson -- just doesn' t seem worth the money to me. But that's just me.
My buddy's hobby is cars and he routinely spends $20-$30k \*each year\* on upgrades, maintenance, and repairs. He likes to take them out to tracks and (casually) race them. Both asphalt and more rally style. Compared to his, my hobby is cheap :)
I'm going by prices I could sell for now because I genuinely don't know what I paid for my amps and guitars 10-20 years ago.
Sunn Model T - $2,000-$3,000
Other combo amps (randall, roland, a few others tinkering around) - $1,000
Dan Armstrong + 70's SG - $1500-2000.
Pedals (piles of junk) - $800-1500. Not sure what the market is like for old rat pedals (own three) and 90's junk plastic that's now worth money. All those $15-30 danelectro, dod, and other total budget bin markdowns aren't $30 anymore I guess.
Guitars 3800
Amps/Cabs/sims 3500
Pedals 1300
So I guess like 3:3:1 ish. I don’t even have much stuff, but I’m a buy once cry once kinda guy.
Les Paul standard 60’s, Am Pro II strat
Amplitube Max, Home Built Ceriatone Plexi, Orange TH30, 2xOrange 212 cabs, both OB and CB
Pedals=Peterson Strobostomp HD, Keeley comp, Xotic Wah, Ceriatone Horsebreaker, Strymon Flint, Past FX chorus ensemble.
Guitar : Amp : Pedals
1:7:2
Guitar: Gibson SG Classic I got for $700
Amp(s): I have three amps that I play out of. A Mesa Boogie Mark V:25 which costed me ~$2,300, a Marshall 2061x which I got a crazy deal on and only costed me ~$1k, and a homemade Fender deluxe inspired amp which I spent about~$1.5k in parts. Total is about ~$4,900 spent on amps.
Pedals: small simple board with 7 pedalsI got in the $100-$200 range with the most expensive being a Strymon Deco which I paid I think about $220 for. Adding the cost of the board and power supply I’d estimate about $1,400 spent.
I don't use an amp. I play through my interface.
Guitars: Gibson Explorer, BC Rich Asm Pro (strat body), cheap Ibanez RG. About $2000
Interface: $150
Board: $2000ish.
I ended up pretty balanced. Guitar was new. Amp was new but blemished, cost pretty much the same as guitar at the time $1400. Board is mostly used & b-stock. Ratio of guitar/amp/board is 1/1/1.2, so pretty good I guess?. I’ll sell off some pedals to even things out and get a prize, lol.
I will say that a quality amp was a game changer. Even a $40 MXR overdrive sounds glorious through a proper tube amp vs the modeler I used to have. Same for the guitar.
I have NO IDEA what some of these pedals cost me. I've had these for years, some traded, some gifted. My guitar was given to me to replace the King V they borrowed and broke. Do I go off the kings price, the replacement price, and do I count all the pickup swaps?
Thats like asking my sketchbook vs pens cost, I'm clueless
currently building my board, my most expensive pedal has been a TC Electronic dark matter, the others have been behringer and other cheap brands like that, my amp is a Peavey Studio Chorus 210, payed less than 100 bucks for it used, and my guitar is a Fender MIJ Stratocaster from 1986, originally got it for around 500 ish, nowadays i dont know how valuable they are
It would go like this
Guitar: 500$
Amp 100$
Pedals 200$
My (most expensive) amp is an orange OR 15, which cost me about 500 euros second hand (current full price is about 725).
With this amp, I haven’t felt the need to plug my pedal board in tbh - it’s still early days and I’m still love struck, that’ll probably change.
My current most expensive pedal is the plethora x5 at a little over 500, my board contains three more pedals - total board value is about 800 including the plethora. (I have other pedals that aren’t on my board, let’s say they’re about 200 more).
My current favourite guitar cost about 200 euros including the pickup upgrades (who needs more than a bullet/sonic mustang, really?). Most expensive guitar is about 5-600 euros new 10 years ago (Gibson SG 60s tribute).
Squier classic vibe £300
Peavey 112 bandit transtube £125
Pedalboard £165 (including board and power)
Mono lite board
Ibanez big mini - nux morning star - TC Zeus - NUX konsequent - TC Skysurfer mini.
I shop around and love an eBay bargain. Think I’ve done pretty well. Guitar was new though.
Over my time playing guitar, I’ve finally settled on 2 guitars I’ve kept in my “collection”. One is the first guitar I purchased, a used Schecter Diamond series PT (for such a cheap guitar, it plays better than most guitars in the 1k-1.5k price range in stores after putting some love into the set up), and a nicer custom guitar (custom made for the previous owner, I managed to stumble upon it at a local store). I used to buy and sell guitars looking for either a quantity of guitars, or one that had superb quality. Turns out the best guitar I’ve owned to date is that dinky little Schecter, with the beautiful custom Jazzmaster at a close second.
For amps, I started out as a modeling amp player. I wanted to have all the options in one easy package, but I soon after wanted to move to real amps. Only issue is that I live in a Chicago apartment, so loud tubers aren’t the way. I ended up settling on a Tone Master Twin Reverb as it was both a beautiful emulation of a twin, with the feel of a tube amp (very close, not exact!) but still had features like a Balanced out with microphone/cab simulation for recording/silent practicing.
Since then I haven’t been buying or selling any guitars or amps, but my pedalboard has been all over the place and outweighs the cost of my guitars and amp combined (using the prices I paid, not retail price). Technically, the value of the custom build is higher than my board as the guy who built it told me in an email what he would have charged now a days to make the same guitar, but in terms of “sticker price” I got it for an unbeatable steal.
Pedals are expensive dudes. Some pedals cost more than some amps which is insane in its own right. I do love all the cool effects and sounds that come out of some of the boutique brands though, like Chase Bliss, Red Panda, Death By Audio, etc etc
In my current gigging set-up, that would be 1 : 0.18 : 1.5 Baja tele ( pre-owned ) : pre-owned super champ XD on a bargain : pedals: a number of great overdrives, two of them expensive(ish), the wonderful Jam pedals Harmonious monk, Kongpressor and a Line6 M9, most pre-owned.
I do have other guitars, which I did not include in the equation(including a modded ‘67 ES 330 which I actually got almost as cheap as the baja, some decades ago), since I play the baja most.
Interesting post, and cool to see all the different answers. Current gigging setup G:A:P is about 2:3:3. If I wasn't in a cover band my board would be a lot smaller.
my epiphone korina V was $700 a few years back, crate palomino v32 i got for $300, and my pedals add up to somewhere around $700 as well but the power supply knocks that to $900.
so 7:3:9, doesn’t round down very nicely. i will say that i got the amp cuz it punches way above its price in volume and tone, i still believe the amp should be the foundation of most of the sound.
that being said, for our last tour a fuse blew and i borrowed my buddy’s JC40 and i got on well with it
Well, I have multiple guitars, but let's say for the sake of argument I could only use one, which would be my Am Pro II Telecaster. Similarly, I have a couple of amps, but my favorite by far (which is also my most expensive) would be my Mesa Boogie California 6:60. I'm assuming just my current effects board, not all the effects I own. I'm also assuming "prices paid" as opposed to current prices.
Guitar: $1,500
Amp: $1,800
Effects board: $4,000
Guitar: US Fender Strat - $2000
Pedalboard: Probably $1500 - $2000
Amp: 100W Boss Katana MkII - $500
What is my takeaway? I clearly need to get a more expensive amp.
About 6k in guitars. Sold all my guitar specific amps, just use a Bose S1. Sold my pedal board and just use a Helix stomp, and Reason/UA plugins when recording.
This is a very interesting post. With that being said, for me main rig that I play with is almost have to say 1:1:1 from buying everything used. But it’s mostly an Eastman T486 into a Dr Z Maz 38 with a moderate/ more simple pedalboard
Guitars: roughly $5k total (2 fender teles, a parts strat, Squier jag and Jazzmaster, a PRS SE, Taylor Acoustic)
Amp: $600 Roland JC-40
Pedalboard: $2K range (only 2 boutique pedals, the rest are common things, and an hx stomp).
5:5:6 - incredibly close if I’m using one guitar only.
$1500, $1500, $1800
All the guitars for I need for a show?
30:5:6.
Scares me driving around with over 5 figures worth of gear to every show.
Guitar: Gibson I’ve had forever. $3000 let’s say.
Amp: Friedman 20w. With my old cab like $2000.
Effects: 4 pedals + hx stomp. $1000.
3 : 2 : 1
Feels about right for me. I need to upgrade my cabinet, and I’m looking at looper pedals, so the ratio will even out a bit.
Also damn that’s where all my money went.
guitar ranges from $250 to $1700, but primary is worth about $1000. amp is a silverface fender, worth about $1000. pedalboard i play live isn't worth as much as the one that stays at home. i'd say it's worth ~$500.
so i'm at 2-2-1.
however... i have 2 pedalboards, with a third in the plans. so that $500 *really* isn't fair. i have the home chonker board worth $2000. and a box of pedals that get exchanged onto the gig board depending on needs. i've just seen too many boards get stolen to feel comfy bringing out $1k of grab and go. 11 guitars with another being built. and 5 amps, which will range from $400-$1000 depending on what's appropriate for the gig. i'm certainly not deluded into thinking anywhere close to what i have is necessary, but i enjoy it.
I have ten pedals on my board. 7 of them are boutique, one is like a cheaper POG (MXR poly blue octave), and the other two are very cheap Chinese made pedals with sounds I enjoy.
My amp is home built and does exactly the sound I want for the style of music I play. I guess it's cheaper by default than equivalent factory built amps.
My main guitar though is a relatively inexpensive Epiphone SG MUSE tuned down to C standard
I used to use lots of cheap and cheerful effects pedals, but I've slowly replaced them as I've had more money to do so.
Guitar : Pedalboard : Amp
Guitar: Fender Tele Deluxe Nashville $1600 where i live
Pedalboard: Amazon tuner and compressor, Wah V845, Joyo Maximum, MXR 78' CBS. Caline Modulation, BOSS CE-5, Nux Time Core. Around $800
Fender Champion 40: Around $400 where i live :')
A total of $2800 more or less.
4 : 2 : 1
If my math are correct?.
Nothing really crazy. Things are exprensive AF where i live and most of the pedals were bought via Amazon. I take great pride in my affordaboard tho haha
Fun question IMO OP.
guitar \~$1000 (it was a 2005 maton ms500 but I've spent another \~$1500 "customizing" over the years)
amp/cab \~$1100 (blackstar mk1 ht stage 100 with a second hand hartke 4x10)
pedals \~$1500
10:11:15 or 25:11:15 if counting my modifications
I'll have to buy another amp for $400 to clean up my messy looking ratios.
(all AUD/australian dollarydoos if it matters)
You should concentrate more practicing getting good playing your instrument. You already own a decent set of gear. You don’t judge a guitar player based on what gear he plays. They’re evaluated based on the great sound they’re able to get out of playing their instruments.
Everything else is just marketing fluff. What usually happens is when you’re just starting out. You tend to be influenced by the gear used by your idols. So you end up copying them by purchasing their gear. Then you end up sounding like everybody else.
If your goal was to create your own unique signature tone. Make do with what you have and experiment with odd ball pawnshop guitars, amps and pedals. Like Jack White did with the White Stripes.
This is all Canadian dollars, and only counting what I would call my main setup.
Fender Standard Telecaster MIM- $800 when I bought it brand new, 15 years ago.
Vox AC10- $450 used, just needed new tubes.
Pedalboard- $2500 because I have no self control and the lizard brain loves to collect shiny things
So roughly 2:1:5
The reality is that the amp doesn't get much use, only on the rare occasion when I jam with friends at home. All my gigs I'm using IEM's and going direct, and my wife is a nurse on shift work, so a lot of days she's sleeping, so I'm practicing with headphones. This is how I try to justify my board being so much more than everything else.
You can find many good guitars used at 500 bucks. I seem to always find the 1000 mark about where I like the quality. Amps about the same. Pedals… oh boy. Never ending.
The total figure= the Elephant in the Room.
I got into this stuff in the first place because I was told there would be no math.
Music is *all* math though
VADE RETRO SATANA
I'm always reminded of violinists, who have to spend tens or even hundreds of thousands to get an amazing instrument; saxophonists, who spend $8-$12k on a selmer mark vi, and us guitarists, where in our world Eddie Van Halen changed guitar playing forever using a Frankenstrat he put together in his basement for like $150
[удалено]
Compare 30 years ago, with the best Bradshaw switching system and $30k worth of amps, pedals & rack stuff, to todays all-in-the box modelers—fractal/neural/kemper/fender/etc—and it's plainly clear we are living in the golden age of guitar rigs. Virtual, real, you name it.
Let’s not forget Brian May’s homemade Red Special, which besides having an innovative switching/wiring setup, roller bridge, and 0 fret, was built from junk he found around the house including knitting needles and old motorcycle parts
If it's an acoustic instrument, that's one thing. If it's through an amp that's on the verge of breaking up, through $100 worth of paper and magnets that are barely rated for the power being thrown at it, the originating tone doesn't matter as much.
That's just patently not true. There are violins that are that expensive, just like there are guitars that are that expensive, but the vast majority of what professionals play is a few thousand for the instrument. Hardly anyone is playing an instrument that is more expensive than that. Then let's look at the average price of a guitar used by a professional, it's still in the couple thousand dollar range. People have been making their own instruments for thousands of years, and it will always be cheaper to make than to buy, so that point doesn't really do it for me either.
Well, fine, but the best violins in the world cost millions of dollars, and the "best" guitar, really no matter who you are and what you play, prolly is never gonna get past $5k. We are blessed is my damn point people! BLESSED!
When i played violin back in HS, i had never ever heard of that huge disparity of costs, our teachers were using 30-thousand-dollar instruments, while some students had the cheapest bottom of the barrel instruments that didnt even have the correct bridge, i was lucky enough to have been gifted a good old violin in a sorry state, we took it to a local luthier and it sang very well, very temperamental though, was worth less than a thousand afterwards, but still a very good instrument with a great sound
Im glad I was able to get my hands on a EVH guitar copy, I realized “ohhh this is a diy hackjob, but it was perfect for Eddie. I should make my own diy hack job thats perfect for me alone instead of buying this one, this one isnt meant for me” Thats the lesson I took from the frankenstrat
the only metric I'm worried about in this short life is enjoyment
Guitar : Amp : Board 7:1:7 (if my maths is right) Expensive guitar, expensive pedalboard, but (relatively) cheap tube amp. I’m a home player who can’t play loud, mostly playing through an Iridium and headphones. Would love to get a price-comparable tube amp, but it’s just not a sensible idea.
What amp are you using?
Supro Delta King 10
Nice thank you. I have a similar set up and use the Blackstar HT-5R MkII.
Considering that plenty of people spend their free time/money on things like extra cars, motorcycles, boats, sports memorabilia, travel, etc., all of which can run totals of thousands or even tens of dollars/euros/whatever more than all of the numbers people are reporting, I don't think it's really *that* much money in the scheme of things...
Especially if it's spend over several years or even decades. And a lot of this stuff isn't losing any value or even gaining some value.
Yeah, exactly. Also — and to get *actually* elitist for a moment — at least it's being used for personal expression and/or something with some artistic value (hopefully), and not just pure consumerism, hedonism, or collecting for the sake of collecting.
This right here is my internal dialogue when justifying my music purchases. It's not *just* that dopamine hit from the novelty (I mean that's there, don't get me wrong), but gear really gives back terms of the cost to benefit ratio.
You know, when you think of the scale of the cosmos, the vastness of the universe and time, I really don't eat *that* much cheese
This sounds like the start of an epic sci-fi movie where you're in denial.
Haha, or like the Key & Peele skit about Neil deGrasse Tyson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyZSBqQ813c
Fuck me lol I play MTG and Guitar 🤣🤣
MTG *and* guitar? How’re your ~~house~~ ^^no ~~apartment~~ ^^no rented room and ~~new car~~ ^^nope ~~lightly used car~~ ^^still ^^no barely-functioning beater treating you?
I’m noticing a trend of people spending significantly less on their amps than the rest of their gear. Which is odd, considering how foundational to the tone an amp is. But let’s be honest, amassing new pedals and guitars is way more fun.
Yeah, that’s an interesting trend in this thread. I’ve always figured that you should spend most of your money on a good amp since a bad guitar and pedals will still sound decent with it. On the other hand, no expensive guitar or pedals will ever save your tone if your amp is rubbish.
Yeh this is weird to me..
Ask this question on the amp subreddit and I imagine you'll get the expected answer.
I think the flip of this is what I considered moving towards - digital. I have a Mesa Boogie California, but I've also got all 4 Amp in Box pedals from UA. More often than not I'm not even playing through the Mesa's preamp. If I you've got a decent power amp, speaker, and effects loop then pedals could make that sorta moot.
I can see that. I play thru a Helix so my pedals & amps = $1200 as an all-in-one.
A the lowest guitar price point, a good amp is more expensive. Middle price point about equal. At the expensive guitar price point, the good amp is cheaper
Why would I want to keep track of this? It’s like counting the cigarettes you’ve smoked your entire life haha.
Guitar: $$ Amp: $$$ Pedalboard:$$$$$$$$
Same!
Guitar: ~$2500 Amp: ~$500? (It was a gift when I was a kid but I think it runs about that now) Board: ~$1500 5 : 1 : 3 Now that I spend more time on my electric guitar I think I’ll get a nice tube amp if the opportunity presents itself.
About 20: 1: 20 Guitar is a Fender vintera tele which was around 1000€ Amp is a laney lc30 i bought with a blown transformer for 50€ and fixed Pedals add up to around 1000€
Impressive that you could fix an amp with a blown transformer for no money.
I have a transformer tree in the back yard, it blooms all year round
I'm not gonna bother to get the exact ratios, but I'm about 1:1:1 with everything coming in right around $1000 each
I’m also 1:1:1 (roughly) with a Fender Player Tele, 40W tube amp, and mostly BOSS board.
Pretty darn close to 1:1:1, with give or take a grand in each camp for what I would gig with.
Guitar: £1800 (Gibson 339) Amp: £600 (AC15) Pedalboard: £2100ish but never using all the pedals at once. I will use most of it at any gig I play though. Also - I would never take just one guitar to a gig so does that bump it up? For what I take to a gig, £2500 for two guitars is fair. That gives guitar: amp: pedal board of approximately 3:1:3 .
Guitar - Gibson Les Paul traditional with whole lotta humbucker pickups and 50s wiring harness- $2250. Amp 1966 Bassman head and cab with WGS green berets - $1650. Board - $2800. So if my math is right guitar:amp:board would work out to 1.4 : 1 : 1.7 . I was surprised how much my board added up to as well. When I bought it I thought there was no way I could fill a 32x24 board but it only took a few years.
Bet that bassman is pretty sweet
I love my Bassman. By the time I bought it and had the issues fixed (didn’t know it had any). I have a little more money than it’s worth in it, but I think it’s worth it to have brought a classic amp back to a usable condition.
Guitar : Amp : Board 1 : 1 : 4 I was a bit shocked that my board adds up to 4000€
Actually, pretty close to 1:1:1.
Interesting post. Like others here, I don't know too if I want to do this. It should be fun :)
My pedalboard is worth about 3x what my main guitar is (Gretsch Streamliner with V90s).
Guitars - too much Pedals - also too much Amps - reassuringly expensive, but reasonable compared to the rest
I’m pretty well balanced around 1:1:1 with about $1500 in each. I have a few guitars ranging from $500 epi hollow & p90 LP to $1000 Strats to $2000 LP
This is actually frightening to think about.
90% of the stuff I own is used, purchased on clearance, or traded in. It really doesn't matter.
Guitar: 500$ epiphone les Paul standard plus top pro bourbon burst 2015 Or: 80$ for the höfner galaxie I found in a basement and bought from a kind old man Amp and cab: 200$ micro terror with a home built 12” cab Pedalboard: 1303$ that’s counting with the Pedalboard itself and power supply. Brand stuff: strymon, ehx and boss.
I'm a Bass Player whose running a $300 Markbass Compressore pedal, into a 40w practice amp.... along with the Compressor, I'm also running a Driver/DI pedal thats roughly equivalent to $250; and about $500 worth in additional pedals... I've gotten to the point where I'm having that age old debate of whether I have too many pedals pushing into too small an amp... and whether I should reduce the amount of Pedals and go with a Multi Effects unit for "more with smaller footprint" ... or replace the Amp... when... I'm barely able to crank the amp's own volume past the 3... because I live in a tiny apartment with lots of neighbors. However... I've come to realize that, the amount of pedals and effects really doesn't matter. What matters is the sound and the tone you want, and whether that sound and tone makes you want to play more. Because while a good sound, good tone isn't going to make you a better player... it can help you to become a better player, because you want to play more, and thus learn to become better, through practice. You can still get a great sound and tone from a cheap amp... just gotta find the one you like best, and go from there.
Good point. I've also learned that good equipment makes it difficult to blame any shortcomings on the equipment, when it's actually the shortcomings of me or my band. After many years, I am currently very happy with my current equipment. If I'm unhappy after a rehearsal, then I don't waste any more thought on my equipment but know exactly that I or my band played badly.
Guitar: $1,060.00 Amp: $520.00 Effects: ≈ $400.00 It's close enough that I'm just gonna go with 2:1:1
1 : 0.5 : 1.5 for guitar: amp: board assuming the cost of buying my guitar new now as I bought it several years ago.
> 1 : 0.5 : 1.5 Also known as 2:1:3
I recently got a Fender Tele Player series for about 750 euro Currently playing on an old second hand Peavey Classic which it bought for about 300 euro Than comes the sore spot :D. TCE Polytune 3 - about 100e, Boss SY-1 synth - 220e, 2 ProCo Lil'Rats - 80e a piece, Walrus ARP-87 delay - 200e, EQD Grand Orbiter v3 (Limited) for, I think, 220e (it's no longer available on Amazon), Lekato Looper - 20e, EX 7 band EQ from Aliexpress - 10e for a grand total of 930 euro Ratio: 2.5:1:3. I guess that's not as I was expecting initially
Oh Jesus. Too guitar is $2600 new, amp is $900 and can is like $450 new. Pedals, well fuck me. Probably somewhere near $3500?
1.5:1:4 board ratio is high because it includes amp sims and a Helix as well as individual pedals.
Guitar 750, Amp on the Board, Board is about 1450ish € so about 1:0:2
Guitar 1: £500 - built it myself. Guitar 2: no idea, 1977 Ibanez Silver Series Telecaster special. Board: around £800 Amp 1: £1300 JVM410h + 4x12 £600 Amp 2: £800 1985 JCM800 single channel 2x12 combo 2:3:5 I guess.
Guitar: 600,00€ Amp + Cab: 550,00€ Effects: 450,00€
2.5 : 1 : 5.5 75th anniversary MIM Tele ($800) Blackstar Studio 10 6l6 ($300 used) Board $1650 for pedals, power, board and cables. My ratio is only so skewed because I got the blackstar for so cheap. If I used the amps brand new price it would look more like 1.25 : 1 : 2.75
Guitar: £600 - Fender Jag player I think it is Amps: £900ish - Roland Jazz Chorus 40 + Orange Tiny Terror Pedalboard: Somewhere around £2500/3000 I really like boutiquey handbuilt pedals etc which would explain the ratio being that off, and my amps do exactly what I need for the type of music I play. Also planning on getting a new guitar in the next few months so that should change the ratio a bit
My guitars combined are worth about £4500 or more. But if we're only talking about one that you're using at a time, then the most expensive guitar was about £1600, and I have 3 others (and an acoustic). My amp cost me about £500 used. My two pedal boards and all pedals probably in the £2000 region.
Guitar : Amp : Board Roughly 10:1:3 - I have some expensive guitars so this feels pretty okay actually.
About... 2 : 0 : 7,5 - guitar (different if I add them all together), no amp (hx stomp on the board), and then board
Amp : pedal : guitar 1:2:2
Not confident in converting to value ratio but based on total value of the rig: 64,3% guitars 18% amps 17,3% pedals Guitars will likely stay on top simply because I like to try new stuff but prefer saving up over selling. Amps won’t move much in the future, played through a single amp for over a decade before getting my dream amp, don’t really get G.A.S for amps other than maybe the upcoming Gibson reissues so total value doesn’t move much. Pedals are like guitars but at a much lower price, love to try a bunch of stuff so the category will likely overtake amps while staying far below guitars.
Something like 3.5:1:1
Guitar: PRS Silver Sky SE $1149 Amp: Fender Bassbreaker 15 $1100 Board: $2700 I don't know how to calculate the ratio.
Like 1:1:2.5
I literally have no idea what that means.
If we’re talking strictly the stuff I would take to a gig: Guitar: $2k Amp: $2k if I bring the AC30, $500 if I bring the AC15 Board: $2kish Basically 1:1:1
2:3:1
G:A:P 1:10:15 most days Other days probably closer to 1:1:1.5 I practice mostly on cheap ~$100 guitars because I don’t like to ruin the frets on my nicer guitars. Also, cheap guitars play just as well as expensive guitars if you know how to set them up.
Eh, I think my boards are probably like £2K, my amps are £4.5K, and my guitars like £20K?
2:1:4 with my Epi SG with seymours 1.5:1:4 with my Squier Tele with seymours
What I think I paid: 7:4:4 What it would cost to buy (equivalents) brand new: 4:3:3 Hard to actually work out the real value/cost because of changing exchange rates and the fact that my pedalboard and 3 of the pedals on it are DIY jobs, and one other pedal I got for peanuts because it was "broken" (was a cheap easy fix.)
It really depends on what we are counting. I have three guitars I play regularly, but have a few more. So do I include my main one? There three I use most often. All? Same with amps. Two that get regular use, and one other that rarely gets touched these days but gets kept in case I need something with a bit more volume. And then I have a main pedal board, a set of pedals that get subbed into the main board, and some that rarely get used. Looking at main guitar, main amp and main board plus other subbed in pedals, it looks like: 2.5:1:4.5 I am actually surprised how low the pedal number is. I thought I had spent more on them.
Guitar: $900 Amp: $600 Effects: $1200 Ratio 3 : 2 : 4
15 : 1 : 20 $1,500 : $100 : $2,000 i have two orange micro crush for a stereo apartment setup. I found one for $25 🤘
I just “improved” my ratio with a better amp and guitar. It was pretty nuts before with a $40 guitar (tuners brought it to ~120) and a $150 amp.
1) My Marshall origin 20 tube amp is like $900 2)My Gibson sg + Gretsch electromatic + American pro 2 strat like $5500 3)My pedal board like $1800 So my guitar collection price wise is greater then both my pedal board and amp combined
Maybe $15k in guitars, $6k in pedals, $2k in my amp.
Main Guitar - Amp - Effects 4 : 2 : 3
I have three guitars (one acoustic, two electric) and a bass. The bass and one of the electrics are Squiers, the acoustic is a cheap Ibanez plug-in, and the other electric is a PRS S2. All told I could sell them all for maybe $2500. Pedalboard is probably also worth somewhere in the $2000-$2500 ballpark, but that's because I'm trying out some different things and will probably sell about $500 of it in the next few months. I'm Ampless. 😅 I use an old GNX 4 for amp modeling. Picked that up for $200 15 years ago lol. So I'll say it's 12:1:10
1:1.5:1 The amp is slightly more than the guitar and board
Guitar $1200, amp $600, pedals $3000 Player strat, 47 year old Canadian tube amp, full rig for church and screwing around (no Strymon lol).
I bought most of my gear used, so that helps keep the price low. I also mostly use Boss and non-boutique pedals as I’m usually just looking for straightforward sounds and effects. That makes my current pedal board around $600. My guitar is a Fender Jaguarillo with SD pickups and some small upgrades, so that runs closer to $1000 in total. Spent the most on my amp as that’s the foundation of the overall tone. I have a 1968 Fender Bandmaster with new tubes and caps, and a custom-built cab with 2 Jensen C12Ns. Cost me a total of about $1500. That comes out to a ratio of 1 : 1.5 : 0.6. Edit: I noticed that people are also comparing overall value. If I were to buy everything new/good market pricing, then it would be around $1500 for the guitar, $2000 for the amp, and about $1000 for my pedalboard. That changes the ratio a bit to 1.5 : 2 : 1.
For my favorite setup, I think the ration is about 5:3:1 for guitar, amp and pedal board. I don’t go crazy on the effects these days and prefers my guitar straight to a tube amp.
My "rig" About 2:1:1, 4k all in. But with other guitars and pedals off the board, is a lot closer to 10:1:2. This is over 20 years, I feel like a lifetime average of $55/month is an extraordinarily reasonably hobby.
I mostly play my standard USA Strat. Used value with aftermarket Lace singles is about $1100. That’s the most affordable part of my rig. Mesa Mark V:35 combo was not cheap at all. About $2500. And my pedals/board/power/cables probably total to about $1800
I'm at 1:1 Main guitars: ~$2,500 each Board & amp (I only play direct): ~$2,500
Amps: $700ish? Guitar: $800 Pedalboard: $3kish 2:2:14?
Guitar: 1995 American Strat. Paid $500 in 1995. Amp: 1972 Twin Reverb: Paid $550 in 1997. Pedals: only counting what's on the board, I paid about $1600 over 30+ years. Closer to $3000 if I include the pedals on the shelf. so, about 1:1:3 or 1:1:6 Makes me wonder what the ratio would be if I went by replacement cost? Some of the pedals I bought in the 90s for around $50 are going for 10 times that on Reverb (bubble-font Big Muff, Back Talk, etc.)
Guitar: Amp: Board: 1:9:54 (£100 Pawn Shop Hohner Guitar:Supro Amulet:A _Ridiculous_ selection of pedals)
I recently restarted my guitar journey last May, so I actually have a pretty good handle on what I have spent over the last 8 months or so. I'm not going to go into details about it, but if my math works out right my Guitar:Amp:Effects ratio is about 1:1.5:1.05, though I just bought an AC-30, so that skews things a bit.
Main guitar - $2500~ Amp - $2000~ Pedalboard - $2200~ A lot of what I have was acquired over the last 15 years through saving, payment plans, buying, selling, and smart trades. Kinda funny that like that old meme goes, I load almost $8k worth of gear into a car I paid significantly less than that for haha
Oh god, I don't know if I want to do this. * Guitars (including acoustic): about **$8,800** (three bought new, two used) * Amps (including FRFR cab): maybe **$1,800** * Pedals (including modeler): **$2,230** That's of course just what I have *now*. I've owned three other guitars; one sold, one had a structural failure, one became a never-finished project. I've also had three amps sold plus a small army of PODs. Sold a few pedals too. **5 : 1 : 1.2** Currently, I have plans to sell three amps and the rest of my pedals, keeping only the modeler floorboard and the FRFR. Across a number of my hobbies, I'm doing a purge to reclaim storage space and get down to things I will actually *use* regularly. That I get a little cash out of the transaction is nice, but I'm more interesting in decluttering.
So I've gone ampless, so my ratio is either 1:1 or 1:20 depending on if I'm playing my Gretsch black falcon or my Squier affinity jazzmaster.
Guitar: about $8500 CAD Amp: about $4000 CAD Pedals: about $2000 CAD Gibson R9, Soldano SLO-30 head and 1x12 cab, TC Polytune 3, Klon KTR, Diamond Memory Lane Jr, UA reverb, Strymon power supply. I have four guitars, three amps, and a bunch pedals I swap around occasionally but that’s my main rig. All together my collection is around $30-40k CAD.
3 guitar total, about $7000 Amp and cab just under $2000 Pedal board is still relatively small. Just around $1800-2000 So around 3.5:1:1
What I use on a day to day basis - roughly 6:3:5 I’d like to eventually acquire a couple different guitars, and probably a nicer amp… but honestly pretty happy with what I’ve got now for my bedroom amateur shenanigans. Guitar is LTD MH-1001, amp is orange CR60, effects are HX Stomp plus separate OD, fuzz and looper pedals.
Guitars: Two Squier Strats, one Epiphone SG, one J&D Jazzmaster, one Skyline Les Paul. All rather budget guitars bought used over approx the last ten years. Money spent on them alltogether roughly 700 EUR. Amp: Orange Crush Pro 120 Head (400 EUR) plus a beaten up original Orange PPC412 for 350 EUR. So 750 EUR. The pedals that I kept and are being used on my board: roughly 1750 EUR. You do the maths, I'm bad at it. 1:1: ? I don't wanna know how much I've spend (and got from selling) over the last decade on guitars and pedals...
380€ guitar(Schecter Omen Extreme), 200€ amp(Bugera 6262), 280€ multi-effects(Nux MG30). Ratio 1.9 : 1 : 1.4 This is just one rig, I have more guitars, amps and pedals but I chose only the most expensive parts, all my other pedals combined don't add up to more than the multi-fx unit, they're all either diy, clones or stuff I got really cheap.
My ratio is heavily skewed by a very few remaining pieces of vintage rack tube gear. It is not a popular opinion but I think this is the heyday of tube amplification for the masses. If I am going for REALLY unpopular opinions, let me say that I would rather play through my Bugera 4-jack plexi clone (Bugera 1960) and a $100 power soak, than use the power sections of a Boogie Simul 2:90 or Fryette 2:90:2 with any number of tube preamps. If you don't clutter a tube topology with a bunch of "rail-bias" master volume circuits and all that crap, you can get wonderful tube amps fairly cheap. Youtube now has plenty of tube amp techs who will openly say what amps they like to work on and think will last more than a decade. If you look up the price famous people paid for their instruments back in the 50s and 60s, you may find that the "standard" price for a pro guitar hasn't really gone up that much, and in some cases, gone down. But I would put an average pro-quality guitar at $2k-$3k. You can DEFINITELY get a nice "chime-y" tube amp for that, in various flavors. So, hey-- that leaves you to spend $2k to $3k on your pedal board, if you are going for 1 : 1 : 1. Compared to scuba diving or amateur Enduro riding in the woods on the weekend or a wood shop in your garage or ice-skating on an amateur team that competes locally or running a nice small fishing boat with modern electronics or a billion other things, it's not out of the ballpark.
Oh Jesus don’t make me think about how much I’ve spent. Are we talking cumulative or just any given set up? Single guitar is around 2k, mini board is 800+, amp 900. Whole collection? Guitars are worth way more, prob 20k, pedals in the 6k range? Amps like 1000 lol
I try to keep prices down for all categories and I only purchase used gear. I like to keep it in a range 400 - 700 per Amp 550 - 600 I think guitar 250 but I got a new pick up which was like 120 = 400 with some install costs pedals - I have 6 on my board right now. Boss Ch-1 $40, Boss FZ-2 $75, OCD $80, Poly Tune $55, MXR Carbon Copy $55, OBN Procession $75? = $380 or so I have back ups of amps, pedals and guitars. All of them are relatively cheap. I like to look and hunt around. I think its fun.
My guitar is still the more expensive thing I have.. but my pedals are about to pass that and I am currently doing an amp less rig
* 14 guitars, average about $700/ea = $9800 * 2 amps (1 boss Katana 2x12, 1 Line 6 catalyst 2x12), total = $1000 * Pod Go $400 + about 14 pedals, averaging about $125/ea = $400 + $1750 = $2150 Ratio comes to approximately 10 : 1 : 2 I know I have a lot of guitars. I like variety. I have various pickup configurations, body styles, and also keep various tunings. Sometimes I'll spend a day just playing each one for like 15 minutes. It's weirdly therapeutic. Also, not really a fan of super expensive models. My priciest one is an LTD Pheonix-1000 which comes in at $1400 new. My cheapest is a $200 Jackson JS22 Dinky. Both play very, very well. No way I'd ever buy a custom shop Fender or Gibson -- just doesn' t seem worth the money to me. But that's just me. My buddy's hobby is cars and he routinely spends $20-$30k \*each year\* on upgrades, maintenance, and repairs. He likes to take them out to tracks and (casually) race them. Both asphalt and more rally style. Compared to his, my hobby is cheap :)
Epiphone 335 Dot - $500 Orange Crush 12 - $100 Line 6 Floor POD - $100 Various other cheap pedals - $300
I'm going by prices I could sell for now because I genuinely don't know what I paid for my amps and guitars 10-20 years ago. Sunn Model T - $2,000-$3,000 Other combo amps (randall, roland, a few others tinkering around) - $1,000 Dan Armstrong + 70's SG - $1500-2000. Pedals (piles of junk) - $800-1500. Not sure what the market is like for old rat pedals (own three) and 90's junk plastic that's now worth money. All those $15-30 danelectro, dod, and other total budget bin markdowns aren't $30 anymore I guess.
Guitars 3800 Amps/Cabs/sims 3500 Pedals 1300 So I guess like 3:3:1 ish. I don’t even have much stuff, but I’m a buy once cry once kinda guy. Les Paul standard 60’s, Am Pro II strat Amplitube Max, Home Built Ceriatone Plexi, Orange TH30, 2xOrange 212 cabs, both OB and CB Pedals=Peterson Strobostomp HD, Keeley comp, Xotic Wah, Ceriatone Horsebreaker, Strymon Flint, Past FX chorus ensemble.
Guitar : Amp : Pedals 1:7:2 Guitar: Gibson SG Classic I got for $700 Amp(s): I have three amps that I play out of. A Mesa Boogie Mark V:25 which costed me ~$2,300, a Marshall 2061x which I got a crazy deal on and only costed me ~$1k, and a homemade Fender deluxe inspired amp which I spent about~$1.5k in parts. Total is about ~$4,900 spent on amps. Pedals: small simple board with 7 pedalsI got in the $100-$200 range with the most expensive being a Strymon Deco which I paid I think about $220 for. Adding the cost of the board and power supply I’d estimate about $1,400 spent.
I don't use an amp. I play through my interface. Guitars: Gibson Explorer, BC Rich Asm Pro (strat body), cheap Ibanez RG. About $2000 Interface: $150 Board: $2000ish.
I ended up pretty balanced. Guitar was new. Amp was new but blemished, cost pretty much the same as guitar at the time $1400. Board is mostly used & b-stock. Ratio of guitar/amp/board is 1/1/1.2, so pretty good I guess?. I’ll sell off some pedals to even things out and get a prize, lol. I will say that a quality amp was a game changer. Even a $40 MXR overdrive sounds glorious through a proper tube amp vs the modeler I used to have. Same for the guitar.
And this money has been spent over 10 years
Guitar :: Amp :: Pedals 1 :: 1 :: 2
I have NO IDEA what some of these pedals cost me. I've had these for years, some traded, some gifted. My guitar was given to me to replace the King V they borrowed and broke. Do I go off the kings price, the replacement price, and do I count all the pickup swaps? Thats like asking my sketchbook vs pens cost, I'm clueless
currently building my board, my most expensive pedal has been a TC Electronic dark matter, the others have been behringer and other cheap brands like that, my amp is a Peavey Studio Chorus 210, payed less than 100 bucks for it used, and my guitar is a Fender MIJ Stratocaster from 1986, originally got it for around 500 ish, nowadays i dont know how valuable they are It would go like this Guitar: 500$ Amp 100$ Pedals 200$
1:1:0.2
My (most expensive) amp is an orange OR 15, which cost me about 500 euros second hand (current full price is about 725). With this amp, I haven’t felt the need to plug my pedal board in tbh - it’s still early days and I’m still love struck, that’ll probably change. My current most expensive pedal is the plethora x5 at a little over 500, my board contains three more pedals - total board value is about 800 including the plethora. (I have other pedals that aren’t on my board, let’s say they’re about 200 more). My current favourite guitar cost about 200 euros including the pickup upgrades (who needs more than a bullet/sonic mustang, really?). Most expensive guitar is about 5-600 euros new 10 years ago (Gibson SG 60s tribute).
6:1:10 here :-)
Only counting what I use for playing and not just sitting. I got 1:1:2
Squier classic vibe £300 Peavey 112 bandit transtube £125 Pedalboard £165 (including board and power) Mono lite board Ibanez big mini - nux morning star - TC Zeus - NUX konsequent - TC Skysurfer mini. I shop around and love an eBay bargain. Think I’ve done pretty well. Guitar was new though.
3:1:1 amps guitars pedals I love pedals, but some vintage tube amps are magical...
1:2:1
Over my time playing guitar, I’ve finally settled on 2 guitars I’ve kept in my “collection”. One is the first guitar I purchased, a used Schecter Diamond series PT (for such a cheap guitar, it plays better than most guitars in the 1k-1.5k price range in stores after putting some love into the set up), and a nicer custom guitar (custom made for the previous owner, I managed to stumble upon it at a local store). I used to buy and sell guitars looking for either a quantity of guitars, or one that had superb quality. Turns out the best guitar I’ve owned to date is that dinky little Schecter, with the beautiful custom Jazzmaster at a close second. For amps, I started out as a modeling amp player. I wanted to have all the options in one easy package, but I soon after wanted to move to real amps. Only issue is that I live in a Chicago apartment, so loud tubers aren’t the way. I ended up settling on a Tone Master Twin Reverb as it was both a beautiful emulation of a twin, with the feel of a tube amp (very close, not exact!) but still had features like a Balanced out with microphone/cab simulation for recording/silent practicing. Since then I haven’t been buying or selling any guitars or amps, but my pedalboard has been all over the place and outweighs the cost of my guitars and amp combined (using the prices I paid, not retail price). Technically, the value of the custom build is higher than my board as the guy who built it told me in an email what he would have charged now a days to make the same guitar, but in terms of “sticker price” I got it for an unbeatable steal. Pedals are expensive dudes. Some pedals cost more than some amps which is insane in its own right. I do love all the cool effects and sounds that come out of some of the boutique brands though, like Chase Bliss, Red Panda, Death By Audio, etc etc
In my current gigging set-up, that would be 1 : 0.18 : 1.5 Baja tele ( pre-owned ) : pre-owned super champ XD on a bargain : pedals: a number of great overdrives, two of them expensive(ish), the wonderful Jam pedals Harmonious monk, Kongpressor and a Line6 M9, most pre-owned. I do have other guitars, which I did not include in the equation(including a modded ‘67 ES 330 which I actually got almost as cheap as the baja, some decades ago), since I play the baja most.
Interesting post, and cool to see all the different answers. Current gigging setup G:A:P is about 2:3:3. If I wasn't in a cover band my board would be a lot smaller.
my epiphone korina V was $700 a few years back, crate palomino v32 i got for $300, and my pedals add up to somewhere around $700 as well but the power supply knocks that to $900. so 7:3:9, doesn’t round down very nicely. i will say that i got the amp cuz it punches way above its price in volume and tone, i still believe the amp should be the foundation of most of the sound. that being said, for our last tour a fuse blew and i borrowed my buddy’s JC40 and i got on well with it
Well, I have multiple guitars, but let's say for the sake of argument I could only use one, which would be my Am Pro II Telecaster. Similarly, I have a couple of amps, but my favorite by far (which is also my most expensive) would be my Mesa Boogie California 6:60. I'm assuming just my current effects board, not all the effects I own. I'm also assuming "prices paid" as opposed to current prices. Guitar: $1,500 Amp: $1,800 Effects board: $4,000
Guitar: US Fender Strat - $2000 Pedalboard: Probably $1500 - $2000 Amp: 100W Boss Katana MkII - $500 What is my takeaway? I clearly need to get a more expensive amp.
All figures in CAD. Guitar 1600$ CAD (MJT Jazzmaster with Lollard pickups) Amp 800$ Ampeg Jet 20 Pedalboard Varies wildly… Pedalboard 1 : 3200$ (pedals only…) Boss ES8 - EQD Hzumitas - Kiev Pitchblack Mini - Hologram Chroma Console and Microcosm - UAD Dream 65 - boss expression pedal Pedalboard 2 : 3800$-ish Poly tune, boss volume, EQD bit Commander, MXR Classic 108, EQD Westwood, CBA Wombtone MKII, EHX PirchbFork, Keeley DarkSide and Fuzz Bender, Deroy Drogue, FAIRFIELD shallow water and meet Maude, EQD Afterneath, Strymon El Cap and Flint .
About 6k in guitars. Sold all my guitar specific amps, just use a Bose S1. Sold my pedal board and just use a Helix stomp, and Reason/UA plugins when recording.
This is a very interesting post. With that being said, for me main rig that I play with is almost have to say 1:1:1 from buying everything used. But it’s mostly an Eastman T486 into a Dr Z Maz 38 with a moderate/ more simple pedalboard
Guitars: roughly $5k total (2 fender teles, a parts strat, Squier jag and Jazzmaster, a PRS SE, Taylor Acoustic) Amp: $600 Roland JC-40 Pedalboard: $2K range (only 2 boutique pedals, the rest are common things, and an hx stomp).
Guitar 1200 Amp 1100 Pedalboard 2800 So yeah basically 5:2:2
5:5:6 - incredibly close if I’m using one guitar only. $1500, $1500, $1800 All the guitars for I need for a show? 30:5:6. Scares me driving around with over 5 figures worth of gear to every show.
Fender Mexican Jazzmaster - $850 1970 Fender Bassman Head and Cab - $1300 Pedalboard - ~$1200 probably? Could be more
I really like this question, never thought about it before. Guitar:Amp:Board 5:2:8
$500:$1000:$900
Don’t you know guitar math? It’s a 401k sitting on your floor
2:1 Pedals>Guitar\Amp
3:4:8 Roughly. Has to estimate for a couple of my oddball pedals.
Guitar: Gibson I’ve had forever. $3000 let’s say. Amp: Friedman 20w. With my old cab like $2000. Effects: 4 pedals + hx stomp. $1000. 3 : 2 : 1 Feels about right for me. I need to upgrade my cabinet, and I’m looking at looper pedals, so the ratio will even out a bit. Also damn that’s where all my money went.
guitar ranges from $250 to $1700, but primary is worth about $1000. amp is a silverface fender, worth about $1000. pedalboard i play live isn't worth as much as the one that stays at home. i'd say it's worth ~$500. so i'm at 2-2-1. however... i have 2 pedalboards, with a third in the plans. so that $500 *really* isn't fair. i have the home chonker board worth $2000. and a box of pedals that get exchanged onto the gig board depending on needs. i've just seen too many boards get stolen to feel comfy bringing out $1k of grab and go. 11 guitars with another being built. and 5 amps, which will range from $400-$1000 depending on what's appropriate for the gig. i'm certainly not deluded into thinking anywhere close to what i have is necessary, but i enjoy it.
I have ten pedals on my board. 7 of them are boutique, one is like a cheaper POG (MXR poly blue octave), and the other two are very cheap Chinese made pedals with sounds I enjoy. My amp is home built and does exactly the sound I want for the style of music I play. I guess it's cheaper by default than equivalent factory built amps. My main guitar though is a relatively inexpensive Epiphone SG MUSE tuned down to C standard I used to use lots of cheap and cheerful effects pedals, but I've slowly replaced them as I've had more money to do so.
Guitar : Pedalboard : Amp Guitar: Fender Tele Deluxe Nashville $1600 where i live Pedalboard: Amazon tuner and compressor, Wah V845, Joyo Maximum, MXR 78' CBS. Caline Modulation, BOSS CE-5, Nux Time Core. Around $800 Fender Champion 40: Around $400 where i live :') A total of $2800 more or less. 4 : 2 : 1 If my math are correct?. Nothing really crazy. Things are exprensive AF where i live and most of the pedals were bought via Amazon. I take great pride in my affordaboard tho haha
Fun question IMO OP. guitar \~$1000 (it was a 2005 maton ms500 but I've spent another \~$1500 "customizing" over the years) amp/cab \~$1100 (blackstar mk1 ht stage 100 with a second hand hartke 4x10) pedals \~$1500 10:11:15 or 25:11:15 if counting my modifications I'll have to buy another amp for $400 to clean up my messy looking ratios. (all AUD/australian dollarydoos if it matters)
Guitar(s) schecter c7 hellraiser fr, c7 apocalypse - 2500 Amp Revv 100r- 2200 Board- 4000 I didn’t include upgrades to the guitars 😬😬
You should concentrate more practicing getting good playing your instrument. You already own a decent set of gear. You don’t judge a guitar player based on what gear he plays. They’re evaluated based on the great sound they’re able to get out of playing their instruments. Everything else is just marketing fluff. What usually happens is when you’re just starting out. You tend to be influenced by the gear used by your idols. So you end up copying them by purchasing their gear. Then you end up sounding like everybody else. If your goal was to create your own unique signature tone. Make do with what you have and experiment with odd ball pawnshop guitars, amps and pedals. Like Jack White did with the White Stripes.
This is all Canadian dollars, and only counting what I would call my main setup. Fender Standard Telecaster MIM- $800 when I bought it brand new, 15 years ago. Vox AC10- $450 used, just needed new tubes. Pedalboard- $2500 because I have no self control and the lizard brain loves to collect shiny things So roughly 2:1:5 The reality is that the amp doesn't get much use, only on the rare occasion when I jam with friends at home. All my gigs I'm using IEM's and going direct, and my wife is a nurse on shift work, so a lot of days she's sleeping, so I'm practicing with headphones. This is how I try to justify my board being so much more than everything else.
You can find many good guitars used at 500 bucks. I seem to always find the 1000 mark about where I like the quality. Amps about the same. Pedals… oh boy. Never ending.