I am certainly not trying to convince you to trade in your guitars for cheaper ones. My point is that the whole idea of the more money you spend on a guitar the better it sounds and the better you play is not real. I have heard this line of baloney for years on music web sites. Many guitar players are convinced the more money you spend on a guitar the better you are as a guitar player. I have just never seen, felt or heard the truth. In 55 years of playing guitar I have listened to thousands of guitars, played hundreds and owned dozens. I agree that 40 years ago you were correct. Cheap guitars were the pits. Uneven frets, action way too high, bad electronics. But now modern guitars are all computer generated on CNC machines. Gibson supplies Epiphone factories all over the world with their CNC programs so they are basically all identical except the hardware. Fenders biggest problem right now is that MIM and MIJ guitars are being rated higher by many guitar players over the MIA guitars.
Perhaps you have a point on electrics, as they are easier to play to begin with. But, there is no way a 200 dollar acoustic is going to sound, or feel like a 2000 dollar one. Brazilian rosewood is the benchmark of tone woods for acoustics. You couldn't find a Brazilian rosewood acoustic for 2000, let alone 200 dollars. I have a variety of different acoustics, ranging from 300 dollar ones up to many thousands. I take the cheaper ones traveling, like when I go to Cuba or something. I cant risk flight damage on a good guitar. I travel with about a 700 dollar one in the rv. There is a huge difference in sound, and playability between them. Each step up in price range increases the ease of playing, and the tone quality of the guitar. My former girlfriend was a professional musician, so I had the pleasure of playing many of her friends guitars as well. She played an Eric Clapton series Martin D28. Her friends played many high end Gibsons, Taylors, Larrivees, etc. After playing these types of instruments, you would never attempt to convince someone that a 200 dollar guitar is the same. Im sorry, but the point of this thread is advice to someone wanting to learn guitar. Maybe after playing for 55 years, it is easy for you, but someone just trying to learn acoustic is making a mistake playing a cheap guitar any longer than a year in my opinion. I guess this is just you and me Seilerbird. Apparently no other guitar player want to voice an opinion on this one. lol
The only way I would be convinced that expensive guitars sound better is if I could play you a guitar song you have never heard before and you could tell me how much the guitar cost. I know you cannot do that. However what you could do is to stop in a music store someday and play an Epiphone Les Paul Jr Special II and then explain to me exactly how a $2000 Gibson LP would be an improvement.