Struggling the justify the purchase of a new guitar
I currently own an early 2000s Squier that I’ve been learning guitar on for a while. It’s served me well, but I’ve run into a few issues that are starting to hold me back.
Only the bridge pickup has ever worked, the nut is wearing down, and I’m noticing more and more dead frets. I’ve tried to fix the fret issues myself, but haven’t had any success. It’s still fine for basic chord playing, but now that I’m starting to learn more songs and lead parts, these problems are becoming really frustrating. I’ll get most of the way through a song and then hit a dead fret that stops me progressing, which has started to kill my motivation a bit.
From what I can tell, it would cost more to properly repair it than what I originally paid for the guitar. Because of that, and because I’ve been thinking about upgrading anyway, I’ve been looking at used guitars on Facebook Marketplace.
The issue I’m running into is that I'm struggling to justify even a fairly cheap guitar because I grew up without much money for hobbies or “luxury” purchases, even though I’m in a much better financial position now.
In a way, I catch myself thinking I’d only feel comfortable if I was buying something more “investment-like” (like a higher-end Fender or vintage piece) that holds its value, rather than just a regular upgrade guitar. But that feels like overthinking it.
Has anyone else been in a similar position and if so, how did you approach it?