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Slash’s guitar collection is so epic that Gibson made a feature-length YouTube documentary about it and then published a book on it, but while the Guns N’ Roses guitarist admits to being “an addict” when it comes to the electric guitar, he argues that you don’t need to spend crazy money to get the only guitar you’ll ever need.
Indeed, in an interview with Reverb, in which he shares his philosophy for buying guitars, he says you only really need one good one and you are set for life.
And while you should expect to pay a certain premium for quality, he cautions against throwing cash at an instrument just because of the name on the headstock, or the year it was made.
“Spending too much money for something is just absolutely not worth it,” he says. “There is a line there that you cross where you are just spending money for the sake of the name or the label, or whatever it is. So I figured you have to spend a little bit of money for quality. But you don’t have to spend exorbitant amounts of money for it.”
The last 20 years have seen the market for vintage guitars appreciate to the point where even pros and über-collectors such as Joe Bonamassa have complained that it has become too “elitist”, with Bonamassa speaking last year about the fact that many players who want to play an old Stratocaster have now been priced out the market by people who see these instruments as investments first and foremost. He can see both sides of the coin.
People who buy a million-dollar, 500,000-dollar guitar, are the same people – mentally, anyway – as people who buy Rolls-Royces
“As a collector they’ve been great investments,” he said, appearing on Dave Friedman’s Tone-Talk podcast. “As a player there’s real disadvantages now and I feel bad for people who are into old things, who always wanted to experiment musically with them, which is what they’re for, that can’t justify $55,000 for a ‘57 Stratocaster. And at the end of the day it’s just a f*****g Stratocaster – it’s not going to sound much different to something you can buy new for a thousand bucks or less.”
Slash echoed this sentiment, arguing that mant of the people who are dropping six or seven figures on an electric guitar are of a similar mindset to those who might stockpile luxury cars. Is it worth it? Not if the instrument doesn’t speak to you.
“People who buy a million-dollar, 500,000-dollar guitar, are the same people – mentally, anyway – as people who buy Rolls-Royces,” he says. “There’s a point there where you’re buying it for the year, the value that it has accrued over time… If you’re not going to use it, if it doesn’t give you whatever it is that you are supposed to get out of an instrument, for that much money, then it just doesn’t make any sense.”
In Slash’s experience, vintage guitars come with their own issues, many of which a player can live with over time, some they can’t. Just don’t expect perfect.
And don’t expect to click with a guitar straight off the bat; after buying an ES-335 for Velvet Revolvers sophomore album, Libertad, he found he was just trying to make it sound like his signature sound of a Les Paul into a Marshall amp. Only when working on his blues guitar album, Orgy Of The Damned, did the ES-335 truly make sense on its own terms.
Slash does offer some encouragement for anyone looking to buy a vintage instrument. He says some of the air has been taken out of the market. The prices have come down a little. But whether you are buying new or vintage, you don’t have to – and shouldn’t – torpedo your finances.
“I honestly believe that you can get an excellent – as good as you’re ever going to need – guitar that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg,” he says.
Check out the full interview with Slash at Reverb, in which he unpacks his live rig, talks about his love for the Firebird, and explains how choosing the Les Paul in a time when it was unfashionable helped him find a signature sound.
