Can you hear the difference between a $200, $2,000, $20,000, and $200,000 guitar?

0:00 I didn't expect to be that Blown Away by it wow like there are pieces you can play where you go hey this is a little bit easier but just to play the open strings and Go whoo today's video is brought to you by classical guitar Pro that's my brand new online classical guitar course which is 6 hours 53 videos it's a whole curriculum designed to teach you what you would normally learn in the first 6 months to a year of classical guar lessons so if you want to learn classical guitar but are stuck struggling reading music or struggling to learn the techniques check out classical guitarpro to learn more hey friends I am joined today by expert luer Marshall beray we are in his fancy new showroom and for me this is

0:47 like a being in a candy store I mean everywhere I look there's a guitar that's even more interesting and fascinating than the next so I'm sure we'll jam on these guitars a little bit later but actually we're here today because Marshall has invited me to try out some guitars uh but I don't really know what we're doing exactly yet so Marshall fill me in cuz I can't wait to try out whatever it is you have in store okay yeah I was looking at a lot of the comments from the Rob scalon video that we did together uh the uh this guitar is worth $275,000 video and there was a lot of comments saying I can't hear the difference so I called you over to see if we can hear the difference okay between a $200 guitar $2,000 guitar guitar mhm $20,000 guitar and

1:34 $200,000 guitar I hope we can hear the difference find absolutely as a whole we generally price graded off of the Acoustics but this is one where you at home will probably want to listen to it on a good set of headphones uh don't just grab your your AliExpress earbuds yeah I think one apple earbud for this video is probably not going to cut it do two do two stereo is always a good idea okay well that sounds fascinating I can't wait to try out these instruments let's start off with a $200 guitar okay that sounds good all right here it is should be o That's the appropriate way to pick up a $200 guitar probably right we should with respect yeah this is a c by Corda it's a

2:20 C1 okay uh you know it's for for the money it's actually a reasonably okay place to start this one was used as a walking guitar well and they did it in style with this color this is oh yeah it's uh this accessorizes well with everything it goes with your shirt and mine can't go wrong it's a bold fashion statement well it's bold something that's right and we got a maple Bridge a not stain Maple fretboard um this I mean you know I used to work at a guitar shop and this is kind of similar to the ones that some of the ones that we used to sell around the same price range I noticed they're by different companies but pretty similar you know laminate tops um and uh yeah very inexpensive sides and backs overbuilt uh you know it's built to be a

3:06 durable guitar yeah well I'm I'm excited to let's let's see how this thing uh plays so right off the bat a bit uh a bit Buzzy uh but that's something we can we can fix no yeah this guitar has a trust rod in it and I think looking down the yeah it does a trust Rod is a a a metal rod that goes in inside the neck which you can adjust to change the the angle of the neck yeah well to put relief into the fingerboard okay so it should not be used to adjust the action but uh to used to adjust the curvature of the fingerboard so that way it doesn't Buzz uh this one looks like it was pulled into a dead straight line yeah the neck is like completely flat

3:51 yeah which we don't want right we want a little bit of relief right you want the surface of the neck to mimic the envelope of movement of the string because it moves more here at the 12th fret than it does at the nut or the saddle oh wow but this thing is dead dead flat yeah oh yeah it makes Mid America look rather U geographically interesting or geologically interesting unless you live there then it's beautiful that's right let's hear a little bit of how this thing plays here I'll play some uh some Mozart Variations by Sor trying to get over the buzz [Music]

4:45 so right off the bat uh my impression is that the sound sounds you know it's like this the resonance is really not making it out of the instrument it's sounds a bit trapped yeah it's like a guitar with a head cold yeah exactly uh is it because of the laminate body or laminate top you think or yeah the the top is probably a very inexpensive well most likely an inexpensive piece of wood uh sandwiched with another inexpensive piece of wood in between with a very inexpensive piece of wood on the inside right uh probably not the best quality materials and chances are the interior is highly overbuilt uh for durability not for sound interesting you know as we go through all these different guitars today I was thinking what's my criteria how do I actually judge a good guitar

5:31 and for me I think it's very important that first and foremost the guitar is really easy to play it's so playability is that got to be my my first thing if if it's a cheap guitar but I can really play it then at least I can I can make music on it if it's fighting me and I can't do what I want to do then it's just like I I don't care how you know famous the guitar is I don't want to play it yeah so playability is one thing then I think about you know the overall tamber of the instrument you have guitars which are baser you have guitars which are brighter um then there's resonance how how much vibration is going on with the instrument is it totally dead like this one it's just like nothing's really happening it sounds like it's kind of trapped I like that it sounds like it has a a head cold I guess with this one I mean my my first reaction is actually the playability is not so bad the action isn't too high I

6:19 can play it but I really feel it's it's not doing anything for me it's like uh it's just sounds totally flat the sound is not going anywhere the sustain let's test let's test it out [Music] it's not terrible actually no but there's no resonance behind it there's no like sympathetic resonation going in it's all like it it's all the fundamental there's no overtone exactly right which is what we want so later I'll be testing it out with a piece by baros and this one well doesn't sound so great later on in this video we're actually going to do a uh just a backtack performance I'll play a few pieces and we'll hear each one right in a row so you can really test what's the difference but but first

7:05 I want to see what each you know instrument you prepared feels like here so all right I think I think we have a good impression here already we don't need to spend too much more time with the $200 guitar no this one's already beaten like a horse yeah all right let's toss it okay so one down so here's our $2,000 guitar okay it's a Francisco flato there is absolutely no relation to the FAS I was going to ask you because I thought F was kind of a famous name it is a famous name okay but not Francisco okay there never was and you know if the fat is are smart there probably should never be a Francisco because you don't want to get mixed up with this this is an anonymous japanese-made guitar okay imported by a um a gentleman who had a

7:54 creative streak with the naming of guitars for giving them very similar two famous names okay so getting a little sketchy right uh this one has a laminated sze and back but a solid top uh it's actually it's it's a nice guitar it sounds for for the price point it actually sounds pretty good it looks pretty too uh you know it's got the exterior Woods are really nice uh the finish on it is reasonably good uh the the top on it is a nice high quality Spruce top uh despite the color it's actually been sprayed over pretty heavily but it is a spruce not a cedar okay well so I'm excited to test this thing out here uh well this now I I feel

8:40 like I'm really playing a classical guitar at least I just holding it and looking at it's like okay this this looks and feels like a classical guitar the first one is kind of a toy you know right I mean if it's the difference between uh not playing the guitar and playing a guitar I'd rather have that $200 guitar than nothing yeah if I can afford more I'd rather have something more yeah well let's let's hear it I'm curious here I'll I'll actually get set up to play it properly when I when I play all the pieces back to back but just to get a feel for it let's see what it's like I'll play the same sore uh variation okay there's some resonance at least I hear you know something that really responds [Music] instantly that really sounds like a

9:27 guitar especially after the $200 one not yeah it's got that nice resonance it has a blend of tone colors that are accessible yes the thick base but also the clarity on top that 200 guar really had no resonance on bottom no it it didn't really have resonance on the bottom it didn't really have resonance on the top and it didn't have too much in the middle either other than that it's great other than that but here I really feel like the instrument when I pluck I I feel the vibration against my chest and I W so already at $22,000 we really have something that sounds like a real uh I mean we're getting now where we can make some art you know oh absolutely there are a lot of people in schools and

10:14 Performing who play on instruments of this caliber yeah you know this is kind of if you want to classify it as a concert quality instrument this is kind of the very very beginnings of a concert quality instrument I I I don't think that there's anybody who would play it fulltime as their concert instrument but you know if you're going to be playing a wedding Outdoors or something like that where you know Uncle Larry is going to drop some wine on your guitar this is really not a bad place to be as a concert quality instrum for years I played and when I was in college my instrument was actually been a bit cheaper than this one uh and I learned on it and I survived and I and I fell in love with classical lar music you know I think we just need an instrument that doesn't block us at every turn it doesn't fight us at every musical moment

10:59 and and and especially an instrument that has good playability because if the action's too high you're just going to be uh developing tension unnecessary tension so for me again playability is the most important thing everything else is extra you know absolutely yeah and you know I remember your guitar very well and you know this is definitely a step up from where you started out as and where I saw you progress uh in your earlier years oh we've known each other forever it's been a long time well my first guitar was uh something I bought at Guitar Center it was very shiny it looked like it was sprayed by uh 10 different layers of shellac and then they went over to a couple more couple more probably so I could see my face in I remember thinking like oh this is a good guitar it's like super shiny it had mother Pearl everywhere so I Mook the beautiful look

11:47 uh for a good guitar and it was also very high so you know High it must mean it's good right right of course so be careful uh don't be you know um swayed by a beautiful looking instrument it's got a sound good and feel good most importantly and this one I do I really like the sound so I mean in in the $2,000 range I mean this thing actually like you say I think you could go through college degrees and even play some uh professional gigs on this and and you can make good music oh absolutely this is a fine musical piece if you only have $2,000 this is a really great place to be uh you can get a new guitar for you know that's maybe not quite as good for right around the same price but this one actually is musical I was just also

12:32 getting lost in this beautiful um these beautiful like wooden pegs and actually some kind of nice designs here in the machine heads too so it's got it's got its uh you know charm this guitar I wonder if maybe I was thinking since has this nice base Ranch I was thinking Tak it down to drop D and hearing some um y [Music]

13:27 beautiful sound I think the tamber is really lovely but uh playability wise because that action I'm not having a good time because it's uh especially when I got up here everything is too difficult you know yeah yeah well this also has a very old style setup and it can be changed although at a guitar at this price point is not necessarily worth the work that goes into it and we highly often recommend putting those resources to better allocation that makes sense more expensive guitars that's right cool okay well I I I do dig the sound of this one and later on we'll hear again more pieces on each one but uh I'm very interested if this is what $2,000 feels like the 200 to 2,000 was a huge change I'm very curious now what does a $20,000

14:13 guitar feel like a guitar a guitar oh what it's not a bass or something well we'll get Dave in here for yeah okay DAV 5504 will have to let us know all right so at 20,000 this is an art brune 37 Hower copy he hasn't done too many of these oh wow uh so your dad made this yeah my dad made this the 37 Hower this is based off of the iconic guitar that sovia played and uh he's the only person who has made drawings of that 37 Houser so anybody who offers a 37 Houser they are all built off of the plans that my father Drew wow so uh here it is looks beautiful it's a beautiful

14:59 guitar it's got Brazilian rosewood sides and back it's got a bear claw Spruce I tell you wood like that just doesn't grow on trees anymore I love the top this is so beautiful what you call it bearclaw yeah this is called bearclaw or hlea if you're German hustle fcta yeah hustle is in Baron fcta is fcta G now fantastic wow well I'm now I'm very excited to play it I didn't know I was going to play one of your dad's [Music] you know like a few notes and the quality difference for me I'm not sure how much of that is coming across but the feel of it the tamber the ease of playing is really uh a night and day

15:46 it's got a lot of overtones yeah this that's exactly right listen that's a stain also gorgeous it's still going yeah you we'll just wait yeah we you want to go grab lunch w does it thing I saw Pizza okay let's go it's really beautiful let me try that that Mozart variation thing cuz that uh we'll hear a little bit on each [Music] instrument beautiful [Music]

16:32 [Music] wow the clarity is like so incredible even that like pimo it's like super clear it's precise yeah wow [Music] it's this is what I meant when I talked about guitars that do half the playing for you I [Music] mean I feel like it's guiding me in many

17:19 [Music] ways beautiful resonance I mean some of this I know is not is hard to come across on on a recording but I can tell you with my experience playing lots of different guitars the jump from the last guitar to this guitar might not be as objective over uh by Audio but the feel is as much difference as from the 200 to 2,000 well they say that the first $5,000 is for the audience and everything after that is for the player that makes sense but and it does it makes perfect sense with that uh everything beyond that translates a lot or not everything but a lot of it afterwards translates into the response

18:05 into the player which allows a player to express their musical thoughts a lot easier exactly it frees up mental bandwidth so that way when you are playing something like this you don't have to worry about is my finger going to be in the right place how hard do I have have to hit this note it becomes instinctive it becomes an extension of you well said that's exactly my experience uh and the Freer you are in that moment on stage to then just let the intentions flow from your mind to the audience's ears you know all the mediums this is just a tool right at the end of the day these are tools they're beautiful tools but we want the tool to be as invisible as possible we want the immediacy of the intention to reach the audience uninhibited you know and I feel like

18:50 when I have good guitars like this that's what's happening oh yeah uh so it's just I think you said it very nicely let's check the the sustain up here [Music] so what I love about this guitar is compared to the first guitar is we hear the fundamental the actual note you're perceiving but after we hear that we get all this extra overtones here check this out so the fundamental is gone but I still hear this Halo of overtones that it's sympathetic resonation right yeah well you yeah exactly you get this beautiful evolution of sound as a transition from the fundamental because when you're dealing in that range and that octave the fundamental goes away fairly quickly as

19:37 you heard on the $200 guitar ex I mean that thing is all fundamental and it goes Tink and it's got the grace of dropping a wrench onto a piece of concrete uh this one it it has this evolution of sound where it goes it transitions from fundamental to overtones and then all the overtones flow in around to support the note that isn't there exactly in a way that enhances the nonexistent well said I think we we can isolate this and make it more obvious if you're having a hard time hearing it I'll play the E then I'll I'll immediately stop the fundamental so everything you're hearing after I stop the note is all extra overtones [Music] so all of that is just what's ringing it's the overtones we're hearing it's

20:23 just a beautiful sound it's gorgeous it's incredible yeah so that's what's happening all the time when you're playing you produce different overtones depending on where you are and so you have this background halo around all the notes you're playing that are producing those [Music] sounds well this is a really incredible instrument I'm looking forward to trying it out uh back to back with all these uh the pieces at the the end here but let's just let's talk a bit more now about uh about our last guitar because you know $200 $220,000 that's already pretty extreme I haven't I haven't bought a

21:09 $20,000 instrument before but 200,000 yet actually is this one on sale for you I'll throw in a case all of our guitars come with cases I'll do it if you throw in a k you got it okay sold I mean it's just a work of art you know and same with your instruments uh that you've made that the recent instruments you've that I've seen you make I mean are of the same quality just they it's really incredible to to look at and into to play Marshal so oh thank you thank you for for letting me play this one now I don't even know how how can it get better than this I'm so interested to see what this well let's add a zero and go from there no big deal it's set a zero what we're going to do is we're going to go from a bench copy of a 37 Houser to an actual 1936

21:56 Houser wow okay well so we're going to go from our modern exact copy to the real deal let's do it all right so we have the next guitar $200,000 ready you ready 1936 Houser that's beautiful I mean this is this is the guitar it's got a few scratches on the back uh as my old boss used to say that's just character right yeah those are Love Love Bites exactly uh and it's got uh two cracks on it and that's it uh they've been expertly repaired uh minor Minor playing wear uh this is pretty close to as

22:43 pristine as you can get I've had a couple without the cracks and they're obviously a bit more expensive because you know at this point we're grading based off of structural condition and and basically it's cumulative life up to this point so this is not the most perfect one I've had but it's really really really close it's really good oh that super excited to play this it's light it is it's actually not all that far off from the other guitars in terms of of the weight but what you're feeling is the balance of the guitar oh interesting it's it's north south east west balance and when you put it up to your chest you'll actually notice that it settles into

23:28 your body it doesn't want to fall away from it you are right and when it's up properly the weight tends to disappear off of them that's incredible I've never experienced that before I was also just enjoying the I I know this name Herman Hower I I I you know I know about Lu just to see the original label is also a beautiful thing Herman Hower guitar andin incredible 1936 wow um well let's see if we're in tune Sweet Sound [Music] e okay so just in tuning this thing I'm kind to blown away I didn't expect to be that Blown Away by it wow like um you know there are pieces you can play where you go hey this is a

24:14 little bit easier but just to play the open strings and go whoa yeah and beyond that you know this is with this guitar you can actually hear the guitars behind us resonating with it and that's because the way that he built he created this inertia of sound they're not loud guitars yeah super loud yeah but wow there's this energy and constant push behind the sound [Music] yeah it's got that clarity of your Dad's guitar but with a different

25:02 feel that's [Music] wisdom who I think the thing about that I'm really feeling with this is like like we were saying that playability thing it's like I I feel like I'm doing maybe 25% of the work I was doing with that $200 guitar so that's the main reason uh I the main thing I look for a guitar but I mean obviously I'm not be buying a $2 $100,000 guitar anytime soon but I mean wow the the difference is again night and day let's try that yat piece again I'm interested to hear what it sounds like in drop [Music]

25:55 D it's so sweet it's like I like it's asking me to play it softer more more adul well there's a reason why Yad played on auser did he yeah I didn't know yeah it's like a homecoming for that piece so you know this is history this is beyond just a musical instrument there are no more Hower ones being made and there haven't been for a long time there can only be less of these right you know hence the value right well I could just keep playing these instruments but I'm so ready to play them back to back so you guys can get a chance to really hear uh you know the same pieces back toback and how they how they sound so get your headphones ready if you can I want to thank you Marshall

26:41 for uh setting me up with these beautiful guitarist to try out today and uh is there anything that you wanted to mention to to my channel absolutely my pleasure and thanks for coming uh yeah uh please feel free to visit me me br.com uh you can call me visit me uh I make guitars I'm sure as you've seen elsewhere very good guitars and uh you know there I'll have a promo code of Brandon on my website that'll give you $500 off of a deposit for a guitar oh W uh so feel free to take advantage of that uh and uh just come on by give us a call we're happy to share these instruments with you at any time as well you know there's a lot more that we haven't touched on and you know

27:28 know whatever your budget is uh we'll help you find something great we'll leave a link in the bio so you can check out his website well thanks Marshall my pleasure thanks Brandon all right let's get to playing [Music]

29:39 [Music] [Applause] [Music]

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