When I was a child, I saw my cousin playing the guitar and thought it was very cool, which sparked my desire to become just as cool.
This was the first time I, like most Chinese children (born in the 80s), had a visual encounter with the guitar, and we repeatedly begged our parents to buy us a guitar to learn.
Later, in a state of annoyance, my parents found a “familiar person” who took them to a so-called “famous” local music store, intending to buy the cheapest guitar possible to keep their child occupied.
I was born in a fourth-tier city where I spent my childhood, and I still remember the feeling of stepping into the largest local music store in 1997. Wow, there are so many guitars, and the more expensive ones are hung higher. However, it seemed that the most expensive one in the store was just over two thousand yuan. After the staff and the ‘familiar person’ introduced the options, my mother eventually focused on the lowest row of ‘guitars’ hanging on the wall…
A certain cotton brand guitar, with a classical head and folk body, the kind that can never be tuned properly, worth 150 yuan. I spent my last three years in this city with it and a counterfeit 98 World Cup tricolor football.
Fast forward 22 years to now, after being deeply involved in this industry for several years, and through in-depth communication with repair clients and students’ parents, I gradually realized that the general understanding of the guitar as an instrument among most Chinese people has significant issues.
For instance, regarding the most basic question of how much a guitar should cost, due to the ‘smartness’ of Chinese people, especially manufacturers, they go to great lengths to reduce the production costs of guitars, recruiting the cheapest labor possible. Note that it’s recruiting, not hiring skilled workers or technicians, making the production cost of a guitar as low as a few hundred or even dozens of yuan, as long as it somewhat resembles a guitar and makes sound, it’s considered okay.
The main buyers of guitars are often beginners or their parents, who mostly believe that a wooden box with strings can be sold for a few hundred yuan, while one or two thousand yuan is too expensive. They think they can buy a better one later after they learn, unaware that their concept of a good guitar is far from the true definition of an ‘instrument’.
We first need to clarify the difference between instruments and furniture. Instruments are meant for playing, and the focus should be on their sound and performance, with appearance being a secondary concern. Furniture is meant to be displayed and hold items; as long as it looks good, is practical, and sturdy, that’s enough. They are fundamentally different.
The guitar has always been made of solid wood, or in other words, solid plates, without using plywood, gypsum board, or resin board. Different types of wood have different acoustic properties. The aforementioned types do have some properties, but they require a certain level of technical content to meet the so-called necessary acoustic performance. How much technical content can you expect from a cheap guitar?
The wood cost of a regular solid wood guitar (using spruce and rosewood as an estimate) is about 1000 yuan, while other components and embellishments (industry standard level) only add a few hundred yuan. If purchased in large quantities, it can be even cheaper. So why does a guitar of this level from a well-known American, Japanese, or European brand sell for at least tens of thousands of yuan? Even domestically produced ones sell for at least 3000 yuan.
Craftsmanship, brand added value, labor costs, operational costs.
The story of ‘drawing a line for 1 dollar but knowing where to draw it costs 9999 dollars’ basically illustrates the importance of craftsmanship. When the material quality is similar, craftsmanship significantly influences all aspects of the instrument. Personally, I believe the impact ratio of craftsmanship and materials on a guitar’s sound is at least 60% craftsmanship to 40% materials, and possibly even more for craftsmanship. The feel of the guitar depends entirely on how it is adjusted.
Craftsmanship encompasses many aspects, such as wood selection, drying treatment, cutting methods, beam design, bonding methods, types of glue used, types of paint sprayed, thickness of paint, fret processing, overall tuning, etc. Each item has rich connotations and technical content, requiring a lot of effort from skilled workers. However, the most impressive aspect of these international brands is not this, but their ability to ensure quality control while producing tens of thousands of guitars each year, which is the most challenging task.
Wenjun, who majored in microelectronics, knows a bit about the CPU manufacturing process. All the CPUs in our phones and computers are made from silicon as the base material. Where does silicon come from?
From sand.
How much is a ton of sand worth, and how much is a ton of CPU worth? How many tons of sand can a nail-sized phone CPU buy…
The difference in price reflects the technical content.
So, returning to the question, how much should such a complex and technically rich job reflected in each guitar be worth? It is indeed difficult to estimate, but its selling price can reflect that.
A guitar that can be classified as an ordinary instrument should cost at least over ten thousand yuan, not a few hundred or one or two thousand.
If one is unaware of these circumstances, making such a boastful statement is highly suspect, but after understanding, what about then?
We have lived in deception for too long, so long that we no longer know what a guitar should look like and are unwilling to believe what the correct concept is.