I've been guitar shopping recently - GuitarZone.com FORUM

I was guitar shopping with my brother the other day, and I picked up an Alvarez Regent Dreadnaught guitar. Not sure of the exact model as I couldn't find it on their website, but it was Mahogany, cutaway, and had electronics in it. I really liked the sound I got out of it (so much that I'm actually considering making one my next purchase). For $480 with a hard case, I couldn't find a better deal anywhere in the store. Since he was looking at spending less than $500, I told him to get this. We stacked it up side by side with a few other guitars in that price range and it sounded far and away better than any of the others. It wasn't until I pulled a Martin HD28 off the wall that we found a guitar that sounded better (this particular shop doesn't have much in the way of Gibson for some reason). I actually have a Regent Dreadnaught myself, and I also love the tone of it. He's fairly sure that he is going to get this one on Monday.

Before that I was out shopping for guitars with a friend of mine, the guy who I'm trying to start a band with. He's been playing a pawn shop special electric guitar for the past 2 years, and had decided that it's time for a switch. So we actually went looking for both an electric and an acoustic. We came across a real gem of an electric in an Ibanez SZ5 something for $300. When we were looking at electric guitars, I was going to try to sell him on a Seagul S6 or M6, but the shop only had a few in at the time, and as this shop doesn't carry much Alvarez, we actually asked for help from a sales guy

. He pointed us at some Art & Luthrie stuff, and after some playing around, we came up with a fairly solid sounding one for $350. It doesn't really hold a candle to my Alvarez or my brother's Alvarez, but it will get the job done. After he had decided on that one, he wanted to see what a really nice guitar sounded like, for comparison purposes. So we walked over to the Martin side of the acoustic room. I picked up a HD28 and played that for a while, and he said it sounded nice, but not worth the $2500 price tag. So we worked our way over to the Gibsons. He picked up a small bodied one (not sure which model, didn't check) and again, said it sounded nice, but nothing special. After he was done with that one, I picked up the J45 and started strumming. We were both blown away completely. It was quite simply the most amazingly defined guitar tone I've ever heard. I could practically hear every nuance of the chord. Even though this guitar sounded amazing, $1800 was a bit to rich for his blood (and mine) so we passed. I have, however, decided to buy a J45 at some point in my life. I have some more important musical purchases first, though, so it will have to wait a while.

Anyway, long story short, it sucks guitar shopping for other people when you have no money.