Used.

Being careful and meticulous when choosing/buying a second hand guitar is critical as you all know. With a bit of luck, you save lots of cash. And recycling is good for the environment

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'94/'07 Bastard-o-caster (MIM/Hwy1 hybrid)
'11 Gibson SG Std Ltd
'10 Gibson LP Std Trad Pro
'04 Gibson SG Special w/f with SD Phat Cats
BaCH Telecaster
'97 Marshall JCM900 4500 DR
'64 Selmer Treble n Bass 50 head
Marshall 1960B
Various stompboxes

I buy new. Call me wierd but I hate the idea of someone else touching my guitars. To me my guitars are like my wife, only ?I have the honor of touching her. Plus, I like having the piece of mind of the provenance for insurance purposes.
ABS

I have close to thirty. Only three have been purchased new and only when I was able to get a very good price, and they couldn't be found used close by. Much of what I look for isn't available new anyway. It's also economics. I couldn't come close to having what I have if I purchased new. Plus there's hardly anything I enjoy more than bringing an already clean guitar home to spend as much time as possible making it play and look like new. I can spend days polishing, setting up, and then playing. It's all part of owning guitars, and what I love to do. Plus, if you buy used at the right price, your probably better off than leaving the money in the bank to earn .75% interest and see inflation eat more than that away.

I like to "test drive" used guitars, and if I find one that rubs me the right way, I buy that model brand new. I might buy only one or two guitars a year, so that guitar really has to be special to make me want to buy it.

Uuhh.....unless your wife was a virgen when you met her, you may have just contradicted yourself with that analogy....

New and UNOPENED BOX for me. I played a few in the store to decide what I liked and had the sales guy order me an unboxed one direct from the factory regardless if they had one on the floor or not. They look at me weird but I don't really care what they think. I have done it this way 3 times already. There is NOTHING like opening a fresh cardboard box with the untouched MIA Strat of your dreams in it. I won't even let the sales guy open it. I will buy used too though but if I'm going to buy new and pay the "new price" premium, its gotta be absolutely new.

Nah, I'm glad my wife had a little experience. To me, that's a good thing. Just think of all the tricks she knew when you first met her!

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"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


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