NGD incoming! Mod platform - Ideas?

[Chistopher]

I'm not sure what this means

Music equipment doesn't follow the same buisness strategy as a craftsman's tools.

Investing a lot of money into music equipment doesn't increase value the same way that other tools do because value is not as tangible in the music world.

 

[Top-L]

This falls apart when you consider that guitar pickups don't have the same cost/benefit tradeoffs as something you'd find in a factory

I don't know what it means either.

Unfortunately, with manufacturing in china, and these being easy to copy, with no control over IP theft, I believe you can buy cheap clones of name brand pickups. This technology is 100 years old.

The value of buying name brand pickups is consistency and knowing what you are getting.

 

[Chistopher]

Maybe 3rd times a charm. A tool that cost more is generally better than one that doesn't. Sometimes you pay for brand names sure, but generally a $10k machine is going to be more flexible, yield better results, and last longer than a $5k machine. Sometimes a tool is more expensive purely because it costs more to make than a cheaper one.

Guitar pickups are so cheap to make that they are priced purely based off how much people are willing to pay. No humbucker is better or worse than any other humbucker, they are just different.

Any guitar can perform any guitar song. Some might require a little finagling and the final product might not be 100% what you want it to be, but a skilled guitar player can get the job done within reason. Buying new guitar equipment has value, but it's abstract and subjective.

On the other hand, if my job is to rebuild engines, I can put a pretty accurate number on how much money I've lost because I've been resurfacing the blocks by hand instead of with a milling machine.

I can't put a number on how much money I've lost or gained because I recorded my album with a chinesium humbucker instead of a JB

In short, you can't throw $100m at a band and expect them to be successful.

 

[Top-L]

Maybe 3rd times a charm. A tool that cost more is generally better than one that doesn't. Sometimes you pay for brand names sure, but generally a $10k machine is going to be more flexible, yield better results, and last longer than a $5k machine. Sometimes a tool is more expensive purely because it costs more to make than a cheaper one.

Guitar pickups are so cheap to make that they are priced purely based off how much people are willing to pay. No humbucker is better or worse than any other humbucker, they are just different.

Any guitar can perform any guitar song. Some might require a little finagling and the final product might not be 100% what you want it to be, but a skilled guitar player can get the job done within reason. Buying new guitar equipment has value, but it's abstract and subjective.

On the other hand, if my job is to rebuild engines, I can put a pretty accurate number on how much money I've lost because I've been resurfacing the blocks by hand instead of with a milling machine.

I can't put a number on how much money I've lost or gained because I recorded my album with a chinesium humbucker instead of a JB

In short, you can't throw $100m at a band and expect them to be successful.

There is a book called "Zen and the Art of Motorcyle Maintenance".

The author writes about his and a friends motorcycle journey. His friend has an expensive BMW motorcycle, and the handlebars came loose. There was a $100 part from BMW which is a thin metal shim used to make the bar larger so it is not loose in the clamp. His friend happily paid this so that he had the confidence of knowing that the BMW mechanics had worked on it. He felt complete.

The author noted that if it was his bike, he would have used tinsnips on an aluminum can and made the shim for free. The end result would have been the same as if the mechanic had done the work, and he would have saved $100.

However his friend wanted the feeling that came with knowing that it was a BMW branded, $100 piece of aluminum.

I remember that feeling of completeness that I used to get from buying a pickup that some guitar hero had endorsed and that I saw advertized in Guitar Player. After having swapped enough pickups, and gaining age and experience, I realized what was really going on.