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The average guitarist will spend $10,000 on gear over their lifetime - Guitar.com | All Things Guitar
>>>How much have you spent on guitar gear in your life? It’s the last thing that many of us would want to think about, but according to Fender CEO Andy Mooney, the average guitar player will spend around $10,000 on gear in their lifetime, provided that they keep playing after their first year.<<<
That 'first year' hurdle is big. Most people who start playing guitar never clear it.
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10-29-2019 10:08 AM
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I guess that makes me an above-average guitarist.
Originally Posted by MarkRhodes
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That figure seems easily attainable over a lifetime! And even more so, if one considers recording gear.
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Agreed. It's not that much if one thinks of a hobby pursued through several decades. (The rub is not what one spends but what one spends on things one soon after sells at a loss.) Originally Posted by M-ster
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Brilliant!...Thanks for my laugh for the day. Originally Posted by pcjazz
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It’s just a dollar an hour for the mandatory 10,000 hours, quite cheap really.
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If this bothers you, then make sure you never have kids:
Cost of raising a child - Wikipedia
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I wonder the value of sold gear over a guitarist’s lifetime. Gear comes. Gear goes. Life to date, I am a few hundred bucks ahead.
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I wonder what they mean by an "average" guitarist. I mean there are MANY people who buy one cheap (or perhaps not so cheap) guitar aspirationally, barely play it, never buy more gear, never change strings, never get set-ups etc., and then put their guitar up on Craigslist a few years later. If they really mean the average fairly serious lifelong player spends that much, maybe, but the average guitarist is not that.
John
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Originally Posted by John A.
Yea, terms like "average" guitarist or he "plays guitar" don't communicate much. To me the "average" guitarist is the guy or gal that has one guitar and leaned a few open chords and can play a few rock \ folk songs. I assume they spend < 10K on musical 'stuff' in a lifetime. (e.g. 90% of the time when I pick up their guitar in their den,,,, they says,, uh, I haven't changed the strings in long time!). I.e. the majority of people in America that play-guitar fit into this category.
The guitarist I play with put in a lot more effort then the above "I play guitar' folks, and yea, spending 10K in a lifetime,, no problem (well expect with their wife!).
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They're not talking about quality of playing. Originally Posted by jameslovestal
This is clear from the work Fender has been doing lately. (Fender is behind this study, as the OP makes plain.)
The industry wants to grow. One way is to attract new guitar players. Another way is to keep guitar players playing. Lots of people get a guitar and hack about a bit, maybe take a few lessons. Most quit within a year (or at least, don't get another guitar and let dust collect on the one they strum once in a blue moon.)
The goal is to get THOSE people to keep playing. If they do, they will get another guitar or two along life's way, an amp, accessories, the whole shmear. That's a reasonable expectation: guitarists who play for years spend money on gear. (Even if it's just picks, strings, and the ocassional set-up, that's not nothing. But most players who get to be pretty good grow disatisfied with the cheap first guitar they got. Or maybe it's okay but they want an acoustic AND an electric... AND a stage amp AND a practice amp...AND something to record one's practice sessions with, maybe make a rough demo of a new song...)
That's where the $10,000 comes from. Again, it has nothing to do with how well one plays. At least, this study is not aimed at quality of play, it's aimed at suggesting---to the industry---what a long-term player is likely to spend on gear, and thus incentivize the industry to KEEP players playing, not just expect a big crop of newbies every Christmas.
I don't think it's a lot of money for someone who starts young and keeps playing through retirement. It's a modest investment for the joy to be derived from a musical life.
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We above-average guitarists are more likely in for $25-40K. My two concert guitars are worth $14,000, and I have another 8 or 9 fretted instruments in the studio, along with various sound reinforcement and processing gear, software and hardware for arranging and learning, strings, picks, batteries, tools, etc., etc. As a pro, every bit is deductible.
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that's about 50 squiers!!
cheers
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I don't have any really expensive guitars. I'd say I've spent about 7k on guitars and guitars and guitar equipment over about 45 years. My wife she's at about $250 dollars... one acoustic guitar that she hardly ever plays.
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From personal experience I have found the best way to get the guitar hobbies (who isn't a singer \ guitarist), more into playing is to get them to purchase the necessary 'gear' to create and play backing tracks: Something that makes playing alone a more fruitful experience. Again, playing ALONE.
Now I did this for selfish reasons; I would meet with these friend guitar hobbies and, well, there would be little that we could play TOGETHER. I would provide them CDs with backing tracks for songs I knew they liked; These were useful and better than trying to play over a recording that, of course, has all the parts being played. At first some would say 'this isn't the same song' since they were comparing the backing-track to a recording they knew well. The reason was they believed the recording was the SONG, while musicians know the recording is just an interpretation of the song; the song is the music.
Anyhow, my point here is that after one has one nice acoustic and one nice electric and an amp, I recommend one invest in ways to make playing alone a more fruitful and enjoyable experience than another guitar,,,, for most guitar hobbies, one ends up playing ALONE, 99% of the time.Last edited by jameslovestal; 10-29-2019 at 08:49 PM.
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Hmmm. Your last sentence is giving me some ideas. These are probably questions for my accountant but what the heck: Originally Posted by ronjazz
- Is that true for teachers too?
- Is there a minimum revenue amount that a person has to bring in as a pro or teacher?
- Can one deduct gear purchased before they become a pro or teacher?
- Does pro player or teacher have to be your sole or primary job?
I think you can see where I'm headed here...
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"Gear" in this context isn't limited to guitars and accessories, it includes amps too. $10K over a lifetime is easy.
How much money does a classical pianist spend on their instruments over a lifetime? They can hit $50K in a single day. Almost makes me wonder if there is a such thing as a "piano loan", not unlike an auto loan.
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Originally Posted by fep
Yep, real close. All it takes is one other guy who spent $3K more than you and the two of you average out to $10K. Sounds about right.
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You mean $6K more than fep, since fep paid $7K. Originally Posted by Jazzstdnt
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Oops, right. $3K more than the average. Originally Posted by grahambop
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My guess is that this so called research was done using the book How to Lie with Statistics. Originally Posted by MarkRhodes
I.e. the researchers adjusted the dollar cutoff to define 'average guitarist' instead of the other way around.
To me "average" means the majority; I.e. the majority of guitarist will spend $10K on gear in their lifetime. BUT I suspect that wasn't done in this research since I believe the majority of guitar players only own one guitar that they play a few times a month, and the only gear they need to purchase to keep up with their hobby is a tuner and strings (and maybe a new cheap non-tube amp after a decade or so).
Fender is using this for marketing and thus they adjusted the research to meet their needs. Yea, I'm cynical.
PS: I also assume none of us our "average guitarist" as I'm defining one: We are instead either amateur guitar enthusiast (that would be me), semi-pros (do paid gigs but have other means for income or are retired) or full-on pros. I highly doubt a guitar hobbies would come to a site like this.
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Well they didn't publish their methodology.
But if the guitarists in question are "lifetime" players, that would seem to mean someone who started as a kid or young adult and kept playing throughout life - even if only a little. They might switch guitars several times through the years, and that means more money spent, even if they only keep 1-2 guitars and an amp.
And then for others, there is that little thing we call GAS.
And - I hope you're making the best of things out there in Cali at the moment with all those damn fires. Good luck!
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Well, I've been playing 28 years, so that's like $350 a year, so how much do golfers spend?
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A club near me (private but not super exclusive by any means) had a golf membership down payment of $40,000 plus monthly dues of $450, back in the 90s. There was also a quarterly food/drink minimum and you could only spend so much on drink. That way you would spend more on food, and then of course more on drink when consuming said food, lol. Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
So...
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Lol, and I make money playing guitar.
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