That was kind of my thought. At current rates, isn't £1500 about $1700 or $1800 or so? I'd've liked to have seen them do the entire challenge for the price of the Princeton or, preferably, less. I think "busting the bank" means something different to everybody with a bank account to bust, but, in my head, if a kid in high school can't pretty quickly save up the money mowing yards (or whatever their part time job is), then, at least in spirit, it busts the bank. I did like the fact that they both chose a different rig for the money...I like options.
The vid reminded me of a thing that GP mag used to do that was my fave thing in any guitar mag out there. It was the Sound Like page. I don't think they've had it as a feature since like 2012 or something. They'd pick an artist, and then give you two columns. I forget what they named them, but it was basically Here's the Artist's Rig and Here's the Budget Rig. The Artist side of the page would always add up to what you would expect...high end gear that added up to 5 figures easily...sometimes well into 5 digits I think the Warren Haynes rig was like $30k - I remember it because it was the first time I had ever heard of a Klon Centaur). The Budget side would contain both budget and mid-range gear, and usually ended up at $2k or less. If the artist used a Gibson, they'd use the Epi equivalent. If they used a particular pedal, they'd try to find something similar for a lot cheaper. It was always fun to see what they would come up with.
I watch most everything from Anderton's that they post that's the Captain and Chappers as well as the Acoustic Paradisio segments (or whatever they call it). I need to add this series to my list too. Neither one of them picked the budget rig I would've picked, but it was fun to see what they got, why they got, and hear the result. Thanks for posting!