Re: Does The Name On The Headstock Really Matter?

Guncho wrote:
> hanson_mike@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> > Well, the premise is that said gear does work reliably and does sound
> > great (even if only when wielded by the owner) - that it fulfills
> > without compromise all of the sonic requirements of the band. Given
> > this as a starting point, what exactly does a crappy name on the
> > headstock say? I submit that what it says is: "This person has found a
> > pearl among the pebbles."
> >
> > But I'm being unfair. Guncho is filtering and has not, at this point,
> > heard the gear in use. It therefore presents a substandard first
> > impression. However, one doesn't need to hear the gear in order to gain
> > a more accurate impression than this: as long as your bull*** meter is
> > working properly then the *manner* in which the owner talks about his
> > equipment will tell you if it's pearls or pebbles you're dealing with.
>
> Of course. If the guy is telling me he's owned

or has had experience playing

> Gibsons, Fenders etc
> and found this guitar and he's modded it to be up to snuff

or not modded it at all but merely owns a cheap POS that by accident
and through the vagueries of poor quality control happens to be a
cracker

> then that
> shows he cares about music.
>
> However if this Squier Affinity is the only guitar he's ever owned then
> come on. How would he know what a pearl is?

I concede that he would not, and that whilst it remains possible that
what he's got is a good'un, it is far more likely to be the POS it
appears to be. Moreover, anecdotes about McCartney aside, one would
expect any reasonably enthused or ambitious players at least to explore
other equipment that purports to be better, even if they end up
sticking with what they've got. They will then be doing so with reason
- thereby showing that they care about music.

I think the important thing is to be able to speak about the equipment
that you've got (or, if money precludes, the equipment that you'd like
to have) with some reasonable justification, whatever the equipment
happens to be. Not caring what brand of instrument you play is one
thing; having a good, solid, *musical* reason why you don't care what
brand of instrument you play is another thing entirely.
--
Mike.

.

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