Today's budget guitars are so much better than when I was starting out.

In the acoustic world, it's amazing what you can get in the $300-600 range these days.

Tribal elders and rich collectors can talk all they want about the grails of McCarty-era Kalamazoo, Leo-era Fullerton, pre-WWII Nazareth ... truth be told, we are in the BEST era ever for guitarists. In that fully functional instruments that are pleasing to all five senses abound at EVERY price point for EVERY consumer segment and demographic.

The great equalizer has been the advent of affordable, advanced computer - specifically CAD and CNC - technology and cheap Asian labor doing for peanuts what the machines can't. You simply no longer have to fill a room with skilled labor using traditional tools and means to make great product. That's what made those guitars of days gone by so expensive. Today's do-most-everything machines get more affordable every day, they can run 24/7 365 days a year if need be, with the only margin of tolerances error being operator/human oriented. And unit consistency is off the charts as well thanks to tech and modern means - every brand used to be vulnerable to trash and treasure in consecutive serial numbers. No longer the case, or at least you only see lemons and duds being an entire line versus limited examples.