A few years ago I tested out a ~£200 Squier Duo-Sonic against a real 1957 Fender Duo-Sonic which was priced somewhere north of £3,000. Perhaps it's not so surprising, given the age, but the new Squier felt, played and sounded far better than the old guitar. Sure, it wouldn't have impressed any collectors, but if you're going to actually play the instrument, old, expensive guitars are rarely worth giving a second thought to.
I sold my £4,000 Gibson Custom Shop '59 VOS Historic Reissue Les Paul because the £400 Epiphone Joe Perry Les Paul I had sounded and felt better to me, and I enjoyed playing it more. Every single other person around thought I was insane, of course, and they all preferred the Gibson. Objectively, the Gibson was a far superior instrument. Far superior.
But get them in my hands and the Epiphone felt better, and it got me closer to the sound I had in my head. 1/10th the price, mass-produced by under-paid workers in a Korean factory, and it gets the job done better, for me.
A few years later, I pick up a B-stock Epiphone LP Studio, just because it looked nice (white & gold) and had the price dramatically reduced. I figured it could be an okay backup or 'rough' guitar in case I happen to be playing in one of the shadier towns. Within about 4 months it had become my main guitar. It still is my main guitar. £130 and if I had to, I'd pay ten times that to have another of these.
I've lost track of how much I've spent on parts companies like Warmoth, and no matter how personalised the builds may be, no matter how expensive they are, no matter how many hours I throw into putting them together and setting them up 'perfectly', I still reach for those mass-produced, generic Epiphones.
At various times I've been playing with rigs well over the five-figure mark. A few thousands on a guitar, a few thousand on an amp and cab, a thousand or so on pedals and accessories. I keep going back to generic MIK/MIC guitars, mostly around £250, and a stock, 'affordable' Marshall JVM. Hindsight being what it is, I realise I probably could have saved several years' salary if I'd always simply stuck with this gear and never bought into the notion that more expensive, custom, vintage and 'boutique' guitars, amps, pedals and pickups sound or play better than cheap, generic equivalents.
Always give cheap stuff a go. If it feels, sounds and looks good to you, stick with it. Nobody in the audience cares how much you spent on your gear. You don't get on the stage with the price tag still dangling off the headstock. (Unless you're Spinal Tap.)
