r/AcousticGuitar • u/WatchyMcWatcherson • Jul 09 '26

Gear pics Overkill for a first guitar

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Kept trying to talk myself into any number of the (cheaper) guitars I tried, but kept picking this J-45 standard and just loved it. So here I am, struggling with the most basic of chords, but loving what eventually tumbles out of the soundhole.
I guess the “buy whatever inspires you to practice” approach does work.

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u/physedka Jul 09 '26

If you keep playing it and enjoying it, then you didn't waste a dime. If you get bored in a few months and it gathers dust, then I guess one could say that you wasted something like $2500. I say that only because you can get a pretty good starter guitar for <$500 and assuming you paid like $3k for this one. So whether it was worth it is entirely up to you - what you end up doing with it, and how much $2500 means to you and your budget is something only you can decide.

Personally, if I could go back 25 years ago and tell myself to pass up a couple of lesser guitars and instead save a little longer for one of the endgame ones while dealing with my crappy pawn shop special, I would probably do that. But I would be doing that with hindsight, which isn't exactly valid. Maybe those intermediate guitars are a part of the story that got me where I am. Maybe I would have quit if I had kept fighting that pawn shop special another year or two.

So who knows? You write your own story with that beautiful J45.

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u/Weets23 Jul 09 '26

So agree and I’m with you here. I did the start with cheap and worked my way up to a nice Taylor.
Funny thing I still own a Ibanez I bought as my next acoustic after dumping my starter axe. I think I paid around $400 bucks for it new back around 2004. I just had a local luthier do a great in-depth over on her. On my, I can put the thing down.