[jkFeiwi]

Another reason for this may be that skilled people know enough to ignore marketing claims.

Let's take guitars. You can get a squire (introductory model), a Fender made in Mexico (intermediate, a few hundred dollars) or an American standard (top of the line, a few thousand dollars). Most working musicians I know will stick with the Mexican fender, because they know there's not much difference between them and the Americans (The Mexican guitars are quite nice), and you can gig with it without worrying that a scratch or nick will tank the value.

So who buys the American fenders? People in their 40s and 50s who play guitar, but not professionally. For them, the guitar is a collectors piece. The story behind the guitar matters more than how it plays. Don't get me wrong, American standards are great guitars. But unless you're looking for a very specific tone, the Mexican fender will do the job.

[gkya]

Squire makes lovely guitars. I owned one for some time in my first years (never became professional, play to myself on and off since years), it was a cyan strat, and people were amazed with the general intonation of the thing. The stupid 16yrs old version of me traded it for a shitty acoustic because I didn't have the money to buy a second one. I could still have that cheap piece of beauty and play it with joy.

The whole "tone" business (pun unintended) is a bit shady IMO. With an electric instrument, the wood contributes only so much to the tone. I'd look for sustain, feedback and intonation over that, especially in the cheaper segment. You can set up some nice tones with volume and tone on the guitar and the equalizer on the amp. Put on a nice set of strings and you're good to go. Tip: use a tuner app to test the notes from random places all over the neck, at least one note each fret. Make sure everything is in tune. With some cheaper guitars, they place the first few frets correctly and don't care that much for the rest.

[brett40324]

Ive been playing guitar for 25 years and still practice on high action junk $50 pawn shop acoustics, or even kids sized walmart guitars with now almost rusty strings. I do this for dexterity, mostly playing scales and usually out of tune. Then for actually playing, recording or anything serious, of course I play something nice.

Aside: I started learning the mandolin last year and picked up a Rogue model for 40 bucks. Ive learned to make it sound pleasant, but it is terribly strenuous to play. When i do upgrade I know that the piece of crap it really is will have done me very well :)