The new Wilshire price puts it out of my reach

[JefferySmith]

 

FYI - While the U.S. MSRP of the new 1962 Wilshire is $4832' date=' as with all guitars the "street price" or actual selling price to the retail buyer will be around $2900. [/quote']

 

Even at $2900, that would be my third largest investment (behind my house and my wife). I realize that limited edition models are expensive to make because it is difficult to get a profit until thousands are sold, but we here on the forum are players with limited incomes, and a $2900 Wilshire is a strange thing to offer a group who loves Epiphones because of their practical value.

[Parabar]

Big Woop! From a functionality standpoint, the Wilshire reissue is a mahogany slab guitar with 2 P-90's, standard controls and 24.75" scale. Only the shape makes it different from an LP Special or SG Special, so its appeal must be strictly about the visual aesthetic, or perhaps nostalgia to someone who owned one back in the day. There are plenty of less expensive mahogany slab guitars out there with P-90's that should nail that tone just fine, if it's a particular sound you're after.

 

Wouldn't even come close to triggering my GAS at a quarter of the price. For $2,900 retail you can get a LOT more guitar! Or a lot more guitars ... say a used Elitist and a coupla Agiles?

[charlie brown]

 

Hi Charlie - The Inspired by Lennon Casinos have not been officially released and in consideration of our relationship with and respect for the Lennon Estate' date=' it would be inappropriate to discuss these before officially released. I apologize for the "leak." As soon as we have some official information we will let you know. Thanks.[/quote']

 

Thanks, Epi1. Hope you'll continue to visit us. I think there is a LOT of anticipation on that Lennon guitar,

so "we'll be waiting...impatiently!" ;>)

 

CB

[JefferySmith]

Big Woop! From a functionality standpoint' date=' the Wilshire reissue is a mahogany slab guitar with 2 P-90's, standard controls and 24.75" scale. Only the shape makes it different from an LP Special or SG Special, so its appeal must be strictly about the visual aesthetic, or perhaps nostalgia to someone who owned one back in the day. There are plenty of less expensive mahogany slab guitars out there with P-90's that should nail that tone just fine, if it's a particular sound you're after.

 

Wouldn't even come close to triggering my GAS at a quarter of the price. For $2,900 retail you can get a LOT more guitar! Or a lot more guitars ... say a used Elitist and a coupla Agiles? [/quote']

 

If I had $2,900, it would take me two weeks to decide what to get with it. That's a chunk of money.

[Marcelo1281734115]

Charlie Brown mentioned in another thread how guitars doubled in price over the last 5 years. Now, we are in a recession, there will be restructuring, layoffs, people taking pay cuts to keep their jobs,....but guitar prices never come down, they actually went up in recent months. You are expected to make sacrifices, yet big-business keeps getting richer.

 

Guitars are even worse than real estate, they were inflated artificially and are holding steady. At least real estate showed that excesses could not be maintained and it came down to more affordable levels. I cannot afford to buy a new guitar anymore, so I scour ads for a depreciated used guitar instead.

[intellivised]

I am the proud? owner of a new MIC Wilshire. After my first burst of ZOMG new geeeeeetar wore off I found that... this guitar and I get along, but just barely. What clinched the whole deal was that I got a Guitar Center (ewwwww) gift card from my very well meaning Mom. I had a guitar fund set up and actually was pretty set on buying an Agile Harm or Valkyrie. The guitar player of my old band in Detroit had one that was a LP double cutaway style and raves about it. I flew back home from the rockies and played a show and was impressed... but then I got a gift card from Mom who knew her son was saving up for a new guitar and that Guitar Center was close to me in Ft. Collins. I had just gotten a Guitar Center catalog that day, had just got confirmation that my new band was a real deal and gigging was imminent and was thinking "live axe". I wanted a mahogany slab, was impatient and decided to get the weird Wilshire re-issue. I figured it would stand out (it does) and figured with a HH config I shouldn't have too much trouble. I'm retiring my souped up strat from active duty... so I sort of impulse bought this thing.

 

Well! I was wrong with the 'shouldn't be too much trouble' deal.

 

Things about this guitar:

1.) The volume knob for the guitar (bridge pickup) shattered almost as soon as I touched it. Who packs these things? I'm surprised the instrument came WHOLE. Gibson's tech support was gangbusters though, I'm expecting a new knob any day now.

 

2.) Everything electronic on this thing kind of... well... sucks. The pickguard strikes me as brittle/splinter prone, so I'm afraid to drill it. I worked for a while as a display artist/builder at Urban Outfitters and have a very good education in what happens when you drill cheap plastic. I want to replace this which leads to....

 

3.) The complete lack of information for this instrument... esp. pickguards. I've been bugging the living crap out of the nice people at Gibson who were silly enough to let me have their e-mail addresses. If anyone needs technical info or help with a pickguard let me know.

 

I've started to rant; but I am going somewhere with this. I can't help but feel the Wilshire is sort of a bad move. If Epiphone is producing a high class version of a guitar shape that hasn't been produced in so long and it's $300 consumer friendly counterpart - I can't help but feel that beginners that risk buying this who would graduate to something like the fancy big boy version wouldn't be put off by the thoroughly middling experience that is the MIC Wilshire. I would have gladly paid a little extra for a guitar with an interesting body shape like this that had a little bit nicer innards. I hope the historical Wilshire isn't a precursor to a product line because it's entry level model is a real downer.

 

I can't help but feel I have a retro kitsch guitar that hearkens back to a very middle of the road guitar and somehow disappoints even that legacy. At least the hipsters think it's cute. All I can think about when I play it lately is how many paychecks/plasma visits its going to take to get new pick-ups on it.

 

I think I'm going to get an Agile next. My $.02 on the Wilshire situation.

[intellivised]

 

It would be nice if they could find a middle ground between $300 Wilshires and $5' date='000 Wilshires. But that is sort of Gibson's domain.

 

If Chinese labor is cheap, how about nitro-finished guitars made in China for $1,000 or so that are recreations of the 1960's Epiphone models.[/quote']

 

Agreed. I was hungry for a non- SG/Tele/Strat/Paul solid body. I couldn't do semi-hollow and just couldn't do the metal shapes (thought a Mockingbird is so tempting sometimes) so.... Wilshire it was. I wish there was a platinum or deluxe model with better pups or finishing options or SOMETHING. This guitar is going to take another $200 just to get to an acceptable level of awesomeness for live.