Luthier hand built guitars

Some maintenance tips-

mcknightguitars.com/more-info/maintenance/

this jumped out at me



All of our current guitars use catalyzed urethane lacquer finish and requires very little care. I suggest a lightly water dampened cloth to remove any body oils followed by a clean soft cotton cloth to dry the finsh. There is no need for any chemicals or polishes with this durable finish.

Derick , I've never played one- well, except my 2 Martins- I don't think they qualify though

I don't think I could ever justify a cost in multiples of 1000's

Thanks for sharing the post about McNight guitars. He offered some sensible advice on maintenance and did not go over board on the need to humidify. I hang my guitars on the wall with wooden guitar hangers I bought from Sweetwater. I like looking at them and they are easy to grab and play; even when I only have a few minutes.

I own an expensive (for me) hand made Boucher guitar that looks great and sounds terrific. Mainly an ego thing I guess, but I also wanted it as heirloom to pass to my one music playing grandson. My playing doesn't bring out its best sound, but I enjoy it. My other guitars are factory made and are fine instruments. When next GAS over comes my ability to resist I plan for something like a Recording King or an Inspired by Gibson Epiphone or another Alvarez. I hear good things about them.

Right now I think we live in one of the golden ages for guitar building. There are many fine factory made guitars. Do you find that with factory made guitars you can get very good ones but often get ones not so good. With hand made ones from good luthiers you almost never hear about one needing a lot of post production work to reach its best playing condition.

Have you ever checked out prices at thenorthamericanguitar.com/ ? Many shock me.

This is just anecdotal from my experience.  YMMV.  I've only run across 2 people in real life that had boutique, custom made guitars.  By that I just mean non-factory made.

I honestly can't remember anything about them that stuck out as far as sound or looks and etc goes except for the prices paid for both.  All I can remember thinking is this:  nothing necessarily negative about the guitar itself, just that I didn't think the super high price they paid was being represented in the guitar by any of its qualities over a more affordable factory made one.

As far as factory made guitars go, I've only found that they seem to be more consistent in sound and quality with the exception of Gibsons.  When I think about it, that doesn't surprise me.  Hand-made can never match the consistency of just about anything factory made, whether good or bad.  Machines don't have moods and emotions and do their thing the same way....every time.  They also do it tirelessly, faster, and more efficiently; hence the lower price on factory made guitars (that's a big part of the reason for the lower price at least).

Also, again, this is just my opinion from what I've seen, YMMV, but I've seen people who buy boutique, hand-made guitars are more hesitant to express  any  dissatisfaction with them because it's kind of embarrassing to admit.  (Only found this out in a convo with one of them later). They've paid sometimes multiple thousands of dollars to end up with a guitar that doesn't sound any better than a 500 to 800 dollar guitar.  That's hard to take for some people.

Lastly, every guitar I've ever owned has been factory made and the only post-production work I've ever done was lowering the action a wee bit on just a few and on only  one  guitar I changed the nut and saddle to bone.  Again, this is all anecdotal; just what I have experienced, YMMV. 

ive played dozens, but all at the Montréal Luthier Show, which no longer runs.
20,000$ was the most expensive. a Matsuda. I loved it.

tom,

I'd like any of them Martin Guitars, I bet them are all great, my least favourite is the relict one, I totally dislike relict Guitars.
But in reality at those prices they are not for me.
As far as the Martin Authentic strings go, I definitely recommend them.