When you start paying big bucks, you end up paying the costs of excellent wood quality which in turn gives you better resonance and a much finer feel to the guitar, and top grade hardware such as EMG pick-ups, better built-in EQ and whatnot. So, you are paying for best of the best, unfortunatly, only a small fraction of people who are lucky enough to own a range of fine guitars know exactly what the fine difference in quality is. I play musicman basses, and despite paying a lot for my stingray, I'm confident no cheap copy can ever match it's trademark sound that I bought it for.