zerostreet Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 Well Epiphone updated their PRESS SITE And I gotta say I was a bit disappointed to see so few models offered this year. I was hoping to see some semi hollows... And the one that really interests me, the Wilshire reissue, is US made which means it will probably be out of my $ range! The pics are really nice tho'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hiberna Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 Dont like any of them to be perfectly honest. i think they might be pushing for some more of the "Hardcore" crowd pushing that signature futura towards all the people that buy deans (THE WORST GUITARS EVER) and the funny shaped ibanez's (Not so bad but are bastards to play) If i do buy another guitar this year, i'll probably look for some older epi's. like the emperors and whatnot. then again i could just throw my money into a bank account all year, buy a gibson and become an arsehole like most people i know with gibbos do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.Nelson Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 Well Epiphone updated their PRESS SITE And I gotta say I was a bit disappointed to see so few models offered this year. I was hoping to see some semi hollows... And the one that really interests me' date=' the Wilshire reissue, is US made which means it will probably be out of my $ range! The pics are really nice tho'.[/quote'] $4832 USD list price...which means your best "mom and pop " price is going to be about $2900 and you can count on Musician's Friend to want $3K for an odd-shaped SG with P-90s...and yeppers, some fool is preparing to buy one at this very moment...just not anyone in this forum...guess I called that one right.. Mr. Nelson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hiberna Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 $4832 USD list price...which means your best "mom and pop " price is going to be about $2900 and you can count on Musician's Friend to want $3K for an odd-shaped SG with P-90s...and yeppers' date=' some fool is preparing to buy one at this very moment...just not anyone in this forum...guess I called that one right.. Mr. Nelson[/quote'] Ouch that much? Sweet Jesus i could buy a prs for that much and live a happy man Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i hate classical music Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 that much for a hollow? noway man! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AyushPresley Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 Well nothing I like or as a matter of fact most of them...atleast in this forum there are very less people who like the present models....Now the question is how freaking far can they go..making it affordable at the same time creating some really good designs..well these are not so great designs but look at their prices "Not Affordable by working Guitarists" well may be they aren't made for working Guitarists.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duane v Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 I'll pay $3000 for that Wilshire.... I tried to get on a waiting list at SweetWater today, but they refused.. They won't even take a $2000 deposit.... ....... makes me wonder a bit:-s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
generation zero Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 Ouch that much? Sweet Jesus i could buy a prs for that much and live a happy man Hey man, just looking at your sig... What's a Parker Hornet? I used to play the flys, but I have never heard of a hornet. Sorry for the OT post... Nobody shoot me please, LOL! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EpiEric Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 I'll pay $3000 for that Wilshire.... I tried to get on a waiting list at SweetWater today' date=' but they refused.. They won't even take a $2000 deposit.... ....... makes me wonder a bit:-s [/quote'] With only 100 being made worldwide, I wonder what their allocation is? They may only be getting a handful of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.Nelson Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 With only 100 being made worldwide' date=' I wonder what their allocation is? They may only be getting a handful of them.[/quote'] These guitars were sold before they were announced. This is more about the publicity than the actual guitars being for sale. What happens is the top 100 dealers probably get choice of first refusal and it trickles down from there. Any dealer with enough reserve capital money is going to buy one of these because there exist a sucker market who will pay list or close to list for one of these artificial rarities. With the actual dealer cost probably being around $2400 the dealer knows they can always make at least something off these because there's always some dim-witted collector wannabe who'll say "Sure, I'll pay $3K for an entirely contrived "collectible"...these kinds of people also have a house full of valuable Franklin Mint collectibles in their homes too. Once the dealer gets the guitar they can sit on it or sell it to their "special" customers as a favor of sorts. Some will even display the guitar to attract people into the shop. These of course will have some future collector value...until Gibson gets a feel for the market and then releases a down-market version (possibly an Asian-made Epiphone version) with a lot less authenticity and a lot less list price...suddenly the authenticity factor is out of the window because Gibson knows that by nature, the typical Epiphone buyer is more concerned with the image of the guitar rather than the substance and we now will have an Asian-made Wilshire listing for $3K and streeting for around $2K and the real suckers then come out of the wood work because some Epiphone owners like to pretend that they're collectors too and they'll gladly pay $2K for an $800 guitar as long as they can pretend that it's a valuable, rare guitar. The bottom line is the Gibson-made Wilshire comes with a built-in collector premium (though don't expect to retire on what you realize from that investment) and as soon as the publicity and novelty of that guitar wears off look for Gibson to come out with something to whet the appetite of the wanna bes and dreamers who hang out in places like this and own a dozen Asian-made guitars they think will some day be worth something more than used value adjusted for inflation. Gibson/Epiphone aren't selling a lot of guitars in the present market conditions so now they resort to selling to a special market segment who operate outside of the conditions with long-term investment in mind....and there are plenty of suckers in that segment too so if they don't make their margin on selling a thousand standard guitars, they'll take up the slack by selling a hundred special market guitars to an insulated market at ridiculously inflated prices...while knowing there'll always be some joker who just has to have one of these...I don't buy any of the so-called "limited editions" or the bullsh!t in their advertising copy. After thirty odd years I know that the real valuable guitars never start out being artificially rare, factory-made to be collectibles, nothing Asian-made ever achieves a huge collector premium (there are niche collectors of course, but in the actual vintage guitar market place, no) and they never announce that the guitar will rise in value because there's no way to predict that...but...Gibson included a really nice (but very inaccurate) graph showing the continual rise in "value" of the Wilshire and also mentions an incredibly inflated current market value for the original vintage guitars...someone needs to to tell Gibson that the vintage guitar market just took a huge dump and "values" are down anywhere from 30% to 50%...you can buy an actual 60's Wilshire today, in good condition for well-under $5K and it's still dropping...but if you want to by a poseur collectible I'm certain there are dealers who will sell you theirs for list price...for which of course you can have an actual 60's Wilshire...sometimes this is funny...other times it's sad beyond words.. Mr. Nelson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gashole Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 Well Epiphone updated their PRESS SITE And I gotta say I was a bit disappointed to see so few models offered this year. I was hoping to see some semi hollows... I second that...there's actually not a single new model that interests me- and I wish they had more in semi hollows too...ES 295 was next on my list, just couldn't get the extra cash together in time before they stopped production. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duane v Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 With only 100 being made worldwide' date=' I wonder what their allocation is? They may only be getting a handful of them.[/quote'] That could be a real possibility...... Sure some will hypothesize about the economics as to why Epi/Gibson are only selling 100 American Wilshires.... But as a guitar player, I can give a rip-roaring-flying-f**k about self embellished fruit-loop economics as to why people sell and buy things, (especially a guitar).. Like the old saying goes, "One Mans Trash is Another Mans Treasure." I personally have been waiting for a new American made Epi Wilshire, Crestwood or Coronet model for quite some time. If I don't manage to land one of the soon to be released 100 Wilshires, then I'll resort to plan B and go after a vintage one.... which is a hell of a Plan B. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larkin38 Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 I personally would not pay that much for a new one. I would rather spend for another vintage epiphone. There`s a few nice Olympics on the bay now. 100 models of one guitar is an insult to the loyal epiphone buyers. It can`t be about the money. Make a regular run of these guitars and make money. I think it`s for publicity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duffy Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 I don't think that all of the buyers will be "suckers". Like one guy said, he has been waiting for a new one to be issued, wilshire. People with quite large sums of money buy what they want for their own reasons and 3K is what they expect to pay for the range of guitar they like. It's not like they are fools that know they are wasting money. To them it makes sense and is a choice issue. I can respect their choices; but I like that 250 dollar one approx. that is white; that Wilshire. I'd buy one of those but I just got a Squire '50s Classic Vibe, nice guitar. If it is an advertising or publicity move, that is understandable too. These guitar companies are in a highly highly competitive market. You have to produce certain products to stay in business, including instruments that you KNOW are inferior in practically every way - but have proven to sell in huge volumes, or that you have solid outlets for major sales. It is a business world and it requires thinking ahead of the game and focusing on specialty markets as well as other target markets. Some people buy these things as art and hang them on the wall and they never get played or minimally because often they don't even own an amp, it's just decoration. I completely agree on the collectability value being indeterminate. No one knows what the big collectors' guitars will be twenty, thirty years from now: possibly Dimebag Darrell type guitars and other guitars that are played by the youngsters today that don't have the money to buy these really nice guitars, in their opinions, but may have lots of money in the future. The things us older guys like, like Les Pauls, strats, explorers, firebirds, thunderbirds, SG's including bass SG's, etc., are being collected according to their estimated current collectors' item values. Some people aren't happy unless they are stealing, so to speak, one from someone who has no idea what they have at a garage sale or whatever. I personally don't like factory relic'd guitars and most photo finish guitars because being from my generation they seem fake. Paying big money for a relic'd looking guitar that no one, especially not you, relic'd seems fake, like lying. I like to see a guitar age naturally. But who am I to judge someone else's choice of the guitar they want. I'm not qualified and it's none of my business, unless the person is obviously being ripped off. The marketing plan to distribute those Wilshires is well planned, believe me. The value they place on them needs to be within reason or they lose cedibility and their reputation suffers. In my personal collection, some of the least expensive guitars play better than some of the expensive ones. But generally, the more expensive ones feel better, play better, and sound better. Plus a great amp is a necessity. I think that if you buy a real good guitar and then customize/hot rod it, change the pickguard to your preference and have other changes done by a pro tech, you get the best guitar for you that you can really take pride in and as such the guitar gains great value to you. A lot of times the guitar will have gained value to future collectors' as well, unless they are obsessed with getting fully stock, unmodified models that have had no changes whatsoever. We fixed up an "old" Gibson LP, nice version, and had to replace the pups, bridge, electronics, tuners, etc. We bought hardware from GFS and bought the best humbuckers Rondomusic sells and the same ones they use on the top of the line Agile LP copies, regular high output Agile humbuckers. We didn't sand it lightly and clear coat it or anything like that. It wound up playing super great and the customer was totally impressed with what he got, because it is what he wanted. He didn't want an antique restoration. Some would scoff at such a rebuild, but the customer wanted to keep the cost down but completely replace the hardware and electronics. This old Gibson is probably still worth a lot of money because of the way it feels and looks and sounds. Who knows what the kids today will want to collect twenty or thirty years from now. Some of the others are probably also predictable; but which ones will be valued highest? I have a lot of experience dealing with my 18 year old son and his bandmates and other kids and all of them have learned some little things from me. One thing I notice clearly is that when they play my Epi LP Stds with Seymour Duncan hot rodded pups and chrom '59 in the neck and JB in the bridge, they love them. I put a set of duncan designed humbuckers in a Schecter inexpensive H102-fm, flammed maple that looks a lot like a PRS and one of my son's bandmates is currently borrowing it and he loves it. I think he is trying to show up his friend with the real Indonesian PRS custom, if he possibly can. I don't know, but the guitar sounds and looks really good and plays unbelievably. The neck is perfect and chords fall right into my hand. I think what people are willing to pay for these limitted manufacture guitars is a difficult thing to estimate or understand. Probably quite different for each of the 100 people. Companies may hoard them though, just like those first Harley V Rods, with the Porsche designed motorcycle motors. They wouldn't sell them for less than top dollar in many cases. They ignored the mfg suggested retail value and waited for as much as they could get and often sold them, as said above, to their special customers at hugely inflated prices. As I said, I like the new Wilshire 250 dollar version that comes in white with regular humbuckers. Hope my amateur ideas are enjoyed by at least some of us here. Peace, Duffy Winfield, Pa. Heavy buggy country, like "wagon train" on Saturdays. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i hate classical music Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 yeh i saw the wilshire, it looked stunning Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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