guitarboy2828 wrote:
I doubt I could ever afford a Morgan anyway.. So, don't feel too bad! ? Are they in the price range of the higher end Larrivees?
Don't know how they match up new. A rosewood Morgan is roughly equivalent in specification to a 9 series Larrivee. A mahogany would get stacked up against a 5 series Larrivee (in the Larrivee line the 09 models are rosewood, the 05s mahogany but otherwise there is little difference in the specs).
When it comes to high end Larry's, morgans, Kevin Ryan guitars, are they all roughly in the same ball park price wise, sound wise, quality wise, etc.?
I'd think you'd pay a lot more for a Ryan than you would for a Larry or a Morgan. Personally I think name and reputation count for a lot in this sort of market. I remember going to the Lewes Guitar Festival a couple of years ago. I got talking to one luthier, Nick Benjamin. His guitars then were over 3000 pounds new. Also exhibiting was Richard Osborne who was not as well known but whose guitars were very good indeed. He had a second hand guitar on show, in very good condition, played well, sounded fab. I still think about that guitar. It was going for a little over a grand. New guitars were about 1800 pounds (then). I remember saying to Nick Benjamin that I thought that Osborne's guitars were excellent value for money. He agreed and then said something like "So buy one now. Once he gets better known the price will go up. That's the way this market works."
The other thing I remember about that festival was that everybody was trying to sell a guitar to headline act Richard Thompson - or talking about trying. One of the support acts told a story about how she'd just taken delivery of a new guitar (an Atkin) and the luthier told her "If you get Richard Thompson to order one you can have this one for free." They all knew what it was worth to them to have a name artist get up on stage with one of their guitars.
Nick Benjamin had already crossed that gap - Eric Roche and Newton Faulkner had used his guitars.
But I digress....
This is not to suggest that Kevin Ryan is a rip off artist. I have no reason to believe that his guitars are anything other than top notch.
The high end Larries are very good guitars indeed. Think past the 05 and 09 series. A friend of mine recently bought one of their vintage line, a sunburst OM, and it is really something special.
But Larrivees will always be Larrivees in the 2nd hand market, they won't be Ryans. Neither will Morgans. Prices on 2nd hand instruments should be reasonable. Racman and I both paid a price for a 2nd hand Morgan that would fetch you only a half-way decent new Taylor and not even a new 5 series Larry.
A worship leader whose guitar tone I love is Paul baloche and he uses McPherson guitars..
http://mcphersonguitars.com/ Again, are they the same as high end Larry's, morgans, Ryans'? etc?
Not that i'll ever own one I dont think, just wondering if all those guitars are roughly the same?
There's subjective issues here as well. One man's tone is anothers torment. I have been massively impressed with the Lowdens that I have played, but they are not everybody's cup of tea. Lowden has a signature sound that not everybody and every type of player goes for. Bluegrass players mostly won't touch a Fylde with a bargepole because they have a zero fret. Some people don't like my Morgan because they find the tone too dark.
Morgans aren't Ryans aren't Lowdens aren't Olssons aren't Fyldes aren't Collings aren't Benjamins aren't Manzers.
For me this is a good thing. Many of these boutique makers have their own ideas about sound and construction and are not only trying to carve out a little piece of unique territory for themselves but also chasing what they consider the perfect tone, the optimum balance. This means that acoustic guitarists have lots of options these days when it comes to high end instruments.
