Gearhead wrote
Moral of this post, as has been said before: it does come down to the individual guitar.
Yes it does. But I think quality control gets tighter as you go up in price. You will still find differences between two guitars supposedly the same, but no stinkers. Down at the lower ranges where QC is slack you might find a real lemon, but you might also find one that's really exceptional for the price.
Working from there, if you're buying on-line you're probably better off buying a Larrivee than an A&L. Though in either case it's preferable by far to play the guitar, to check out the finish and construction, before handing over the wonga.
There are brands where you are paying for the name, but generally you do get more as you go up the price range. There are great Yamahas, Corts etc to be had for 5 to 10K. But I've been there. When I bought the Morgan I narrowed my choice down to 3 or 4 instruments, one of them a very nice Yamaha for about 11K, played them all, and then asked the sales guy to play them all whilst I stood a couple of meters back. There was a clear winner - the others didn't have the richness of tone and especially the separation between each note.
Not that only Morgans do this, I came across one of those Takamine Supernaturals recently. If that had been in the shop when I bought the Morgan then the choice would have been a difficult one - though between those two guitars. As it was there was a really good Larrivee there, but it was on consignment and so the shop couldn't give a discount.
Money is often a not unreasonable constraint though - I had GAS and an unexpected windfall bonus.
