Re: Jeez, prices on USA LM308 ProCo Rats have gotten stupid
That vid demonstrates what I have always said.
They aren't exactly doing it in the most scientific way possible. Teaching Sensation and Perception and doing experiments was a hobby of mine for a while. I can beat a ton of details that are problematic with it, but the fundamental issue is correct.
The REAL way to do this is a repeated measures design, whereby each person will listen to a pedal with one of the various chips and try to decide which it was. They would do this repeatedly, with the chips presented in different orders. Then, if after repeated passes they could identify them better than chance (say greater than 33% accuracy) then you would know. And even if they could identify them accurately, if there was any proportional difference in preference between them with the group of people tested. Even if I can tell grocery store brand vanilla from brand name vanilla from ice cream shop vanilla only says that they are different. But if there is no distinct preference...then there is clearly not a "superior" ice cream. And a lot of times the grocery store is the SAME thing in a different box.
Also - should be done alone. Many will raise/not raise their hands just because they don't want to seem stupid compared to others.
I'd baseline the pedals with as sensitive a spectral analysis of the sound as possible when setting the knobs too.
Like I said - I bet there are some killer sounds coming off the vinyl from the 70's that were a Norlin LP through a Solid State Peavey...and today, some coming off a hard drive that were a Marshall plug in and a Swiss cheese short tenon poly topped 498T based Les Paul - that you would swear was a 59 reissue through a Splawn.
Science talks, BS walks. Unfortunately, music is mostly BS. The pedal costs more because cork sniffers and booteekers pay the money. A Rat shouldn't cost any more than any other pedal of that nature. Get real - how much do you think the parts cost?
A Les Paul Custom is $300 worth of wood and parts (when purchased in bulk) Same as an ESP 1000, or PRS SE, or any other guitar that size and shape. Maybe $600 when said and done at the most. The market (that's you if you buy them...and their stupidity and deafness) makes up the difference.
There is a reason wine guys do blind taste testings. They want the best WINE - not the best CORK.
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