I find it useful to qualify who it is that is actually saying what. There are few people of real influence and I think most of us can read above the din after years on the boards. Still in honesty it is the din created by such statements (and propagated by a certain mentality) that keeps some good contributing members and or potential members at a distance. At some point the din is so loud you just won't engage anymore. I appreciate the content of the this thread myself. It's a drop of clear water in a an often murky pond and its important to keep perceptions open and information in check.
Personally I find gear bashing of any kind to be a lack of understanding. Whether its bashing cheap or expensive gear it is pointless to me. Quality dialogue with the intent to understand the strengths or shortcomings of gear is another thing and really helps us. Or helping a newer / budget strapped player get the most out of his/her gear in order to stay inspired and encouraged. This develops the ear. All gear can be useful to someone at some point.
Or when discussing tone: phrases like 'blows 'XXX' out of the water'. Often seen when people are comparing two quality products or two similar products (high-end or / vs low end doesn't matter). I find any generalizations along those lines are really just a sign of posturing, lack of real-life experience or the attempt to become validated by ones 'opinion' or 'purchase' choice.
Gear 'over praise' or gear shortsighted-ness. Often seen when discussing the purchase of (or ownership of) less expensive gear / Asian vs. USA gear / expensive gear. Sure, some budget gear is very musical and some expensive gear sounds very un-musical, but that will never level the playing field. Its silly to see the argument made. A modded entry level guitar will never be a well crafted guitar...(its ability to generate good sound aside). A boutique hand-made pedal never guarantees better tone than a less expensive standard or budget gem. But cheaply made gear is never a benchmark or reference point when seeking excellence or subtle harmonic detail. On the flip side, high-expense or high-cost is never a benchmark for quality sound. As a whole however, I have seen that those who care enough to produce excellence in craftsmanship, whether pickups, pedals, guitars, pre-amps, etc.. generally have excellence of tone as their chief goal and they generally reach that goal. Budget gear will always be able to get the job done, sometime really well. That never qualifies it as equal gear just by default, it just makes it usable gear that can get the job done. This is true of all tools.
Also mis-understood and propagated is the ' not worth twice, three times the cost etc' comments often heard when comparing guitars or pedals or pickups. I find It's the 'not worth' part that is seldom understood by the average player (sometimes with little experience with the gear in question other than a demo at GC as a reference point). Double the price is not meant to be double the sound quality. At some point in our tone development this becomes a game of personal details. A game of inches towards our vision. Sure, alot of gear can cover the first 90% well but that is where it ends (I really believe the average player settles for 50% development anyway) It is that last 10% that may require greater attention to detail and personal refinement. To get an extra 5%-10% we may need to pay 300% more, sometimes not. This is very true in Pro Audio in my experience particularly. It's not a linear gain ratio but that percentage is often worth any cost increase.
Lastly, defending gear as being one specific way (for better or worse) simply based one's own limited auto-biographical experience, tonal needs (or context). So often we discount the experience, the knowledge, the needs, values and mindfulness of other players who are consciously paying attention to the details as well. Even some 'newbies' just have excellent ears for tone and know what is what when they hear it. Context and clarification goes a long way here to expand the conversation and prevent the closing off of great possibilities. Defending any position with gear is a dead end anyway. Clarifying, demonstrating, documenting, putting our opinions in context etc. this is too easy to do nowadays and so useful for advancing us as a community.
100 % here.
Respect,
RG
EDIT: Long post. Thanks for reading. Cheers.
