This is a 600 jazz guitar and this is a six thousand dollar jazz guitar today I'm
discussing which one I personally like the most as well as the age-old question does having an
expensive instrument help you play music better might be surprised coming on up so whether you
play sax piano based trumpet or guitar like me we've all wondered whether having a expensive or
high quality instrument actually matters when it comes to improving as a musician well I'm going
to discuss my personal experience with you and then you can go ahead and decide for yourself so
this is my 600 Ibanez art core af95 guitar it's the very first jazz guitar I ever got when I was
getting serious about actually playing it and wanting to have an instrument that kind of fit
the style a little bit better so I went on down to Guitar Center and thought to myself I'll just get
an instrument that sounds good enough that will tie me over for now and that will fit my current
budget which quite frankly was not very much so I found this Ibanez I played it I thought wow this
actually sounds pretty good bought it that day took it back home and for the next 14 years I
exclusively played this instrument now this guitar has gotten me through thousands and thousands
of hours of practice it's gotten me through hundreds and hundreds of gigs and I have become
a professional jazz musician play playing this instrument meaning I made my living completely
off for performing and teaching Jazz so a few specs on this instrument so we can do a comparison
with my other guitar it's a maple neck a macassar ebony fretboard a spruce top Linden back insides
and super 58 pickups so this is a factory made guitar it's mass produced on a big scale Ibanez
art cores are in abundance all over music stores across the United States and elsewhere now this
here is my custom made Victor Baker 15-inch hollow body guitar Victor Baker is an incredible luthier
based out of San Diego I first became aware of him when he had his shop out in New York
City and always admired his instruments from afar now truth be told I'm really not a gear person I
really don't care about getting other instruments that just goes to show you I had my Ibanez for 14
years never felt the need to change it and in fact it was only because of the begging of my
wife filipia who constantly would tell me like Brent you're professional jazz musician like why
don't you have like a pro level instrument and I'd always just tell her like babe like listen
the guitar sounds fine it sounds good I don't like messing with new stuff we could spend the money
elsewhere there's lots of other things we could do and like I'm getting along just fine with this
instrument but after a year after year after year she finally broke me down and I made the jump and
after nine months of production and working with Victor this is the instrument that came about so
a few specs on the instrument it has a Honduras mahogany neck an ebony fretboard a spruce top and
maple back and sides an important note about the entire wood used for the body of the instrument
it's all imported from Italy where traditional cello Woods are sourced from so kind of very
high quality stuff we're dealing with here and for pickups they're Kent Armstrong pickups so before
I discuss which one I like better and whether the expensive instrument is worth it or not let's go
ahead and listen to what they sound like like so here's what my Ibanez art core sounds like
foreign
okay so for me clearly there's a difference in the sound this one sounds a little bit thinner
doesn't quite have as much depth or body to it and the Victor baker has a lot more depth and
body to the actual sound now an important thing though to talk about when we're talking about
quality of instrument is how do they actually feel because that will really depend on preference now
the Ibanez is actually a much heavier instrument than the Victor Baker this one is much lighter
and that was one of the really shocking things for me when I first picked up the instrument
when it got shipped to my door was wow this thing is so much lighter than this guitar
which I thought was going to be the opposite for some reason in my head I thought this one
was going to be heavier and that is totally not the case now this I've been as as far as playing
it is actually quite easy to navigate for me it could just be because I've been playing it
for so many years but actually it's not a bad instrument it at all like it really does in my
opinion get the job done it's not difficult to navigate however after playing the Victor Baker
it is immediately obvious to me that it is a lot more seamless to play this instrument somehow my
fingers move across it with much more ease which to me is something that is a markable difference
so which one do I like better and to be clear neither Ibanez or Victor Baker are sponsoring
this video this is purely my opinion after playing both of these instruments quite a bit
Georgia which one of these guitars do you like better do you like this one better what do you
like like this one better this one or this one here blink once if you like this one blink once
yep that yep yep I kind of agree with you so for me it's not really even a competition the
Victor Baker is a far superior instrument so if we're asking ourselves does paying a lot of money
like six thousand dollars which is a significant investment for anybody is it worth it the answer
to me is yes 100 in my personal opinion because this instrument is incredibly fun to play it
sounds great and it looks absolutely incredible and keep in mind I'm a professional musician so
this is an investment in my career and one more other thing to mention this truly is
what I would call my dream guitar right so this isn't an instrument that I will ever buy again
I will never buy another instrument that is quite like this instrument it was custom made took nine
months for it to get here it's just not again my thing to buy more guitars and more stuff not in my
character so this is like a one-time thing for me and it's something that again truly adds value to
me as a professional musician but now the really important question that this video is really about
and that is do you need an expensive instrument or a high quality instrument to become a great jazz
musician or to improve quicker and let's just go over a few facts really quick on my Ibanez
I have logged thousands and thousands of hours I've played hundreds and hundreds of gigs like
I said I became a professional jazz musician using that instrument I achieved a high level
of playing and proficiency using the Ibanez so do you need a high quality instrument to
play music well the answer is absolutely no but does it help to have a high quality instrument
absolutely yes to use a different example when I used to play the tenor saxophone in the high
school jazz band I had a student model saxophone and so years later when I wanted to sell it to buy
my then girlfriend now wife a ring I brought it to someone who was interested in refurbishing it
and fixing it up and he owned a Mark VI a summer Mark 6 tenor saxophone he allowed me to play both
instruments so I could see what they felt like and the difference between the summer Mark 6 and the
student model tenor saxophone was completely different like leakage of air it was way way
harder to play the student model saxophone than it was the mark 6. so the ease of which you're able
to play an instrument will reduce the friction of being able to produce the music that you want to
but again that doesn't necessarily need to stop you at all from achieving the technical ability
that you want to achieve it just simply reduces the friction now another point is it's way more
motivating to play a nice instrument that is really enjoyable to play and yes even looks
really nice and it does inspire you to want to play your instrument more which we all know is
the only way to really get better at playing your instrument is simple by practicing in fact I was
having a conversation with Victor Baker before doing this video and this is a quote that he said
to me he said I always say the player is 80 the sound of my guitars a developed player can do just
fine on almost any guitar but a pro instrument makes it way easier and a great guitar is more
inspiring to play so if 80 of the way you sound on your instrument has to do with you and only
you yourself I would highly recommend not letting the barrier of buying an expensive instrument if
that's your particular situation or the thought that you need to buy one in order to play better
get in the way really make sure that you can play your instrument really well and know that
you can achieve a really high level proficiency no matter what instrument you are playing so now
that you know it doesn't matter what instrument you play you can still play jazz at a high level
let's get to work click on the video on the screen right now and I'll show you how to go
from beginner to intermediate to Advanced jazz player I'll walk you through each in every step
of how exactly to move up and improve and it has nothing to do with what instrument you place go
ahead and click that video on the screen right now if you found this video helpful please hit
the like button make sure you subscribe to the channel and we'll see you in the next video cheers