Hypothetically speaking, would you ...

[JeffD]

On a serious note...

My Dad was a carpenter. He once told me that only another carpenter gives a darn about what kind of tools are in your toolbox. Everyone else only cares about how well you use those tools.

A lot to that. The players are more worried about it than the audience.

[pops1]

It's certainly true that Willy Nelson could play with a beat up old guitar and nobody cared. But unfortunately, I'm not Willy Nelson.

Well, Chris Martin cares, he has told Willie he will fix his guitar for free. He hates it that one of his guitars is out there with a hole in it. I told him there is no better advertising than having a guitar that even with a hole in it a famous touring star has enough confidence in it to play it and tour with it. He said he didn't care he doesn't like it. So there is one person

[JeffD]

There's also this Martin, which I can't decide is either an abomination or the absolute most awesome bluegrass guitar I've ever seen:



C.

Its an awesome early country music song off an awesome album by an awesome due, and also a great book about them, so the guitar is awesome too. IMO.

[Tobin]

... buy an instrument of the kind you want, from a maker you like, for a sales decent price, if the instrument was just godawful ugly?

Nope, I wouldn't. Not a new instrument, anyway. Vintage instruments can be overlooked in the 'ugly' department, depending on what breed of ugly it is, but they would have to have the tone I'm after. New instruments, though, would have to be 100% of what I want before I spent my money on them.

[JeffD]

Some would say I "uglified" my mandolin.

[Tavy]

Very entertaining thread

Normally I would say "who cares", but there are limits. Of course some things are so bad that they become almost good...

[tiltman]

I thought this thread was going to be about this guitar...

http://www.mandolincafe.com/ads/107179#107179

In the classifieds now if you want to jump on it!

Kirk

[mandroid]

A little Buffer time, a little finish touch up can take the not so swift part out.

[JeffD]

I thought this thread was going to be about this guitar...

http://www.mandolincafe.com/ads/107179#107179

In the classifieds now if you want to jump on it!

Love it.

[Phil Goodson]

If I needed to ask the opinion of others, I wouldn't buy it.

[KVee]

A three year old with a Sharpie could fix that in about 5 minutes....

[T.D.Nydn]

Suppose the mandolin sounded amazing,,but was bright pink with stickers of naked women all over it...

[CES]

I'm big enough that I don't get messed with much, but I can take it and give it as well as anybody (meaning I don't get offended easily, and can flip the smack talk on if needed).

I almost bought one of Martin's Ed Sheeran models a few weeks back...ugly neon green X and all. Unfortunately, the barely finished top already had a couple of sizable dents. I'll probably check back in a couple weeks and see if they'll drop the price for being shop worn. Played great, and sounded much better than I anticipated. Would be a good one to travel with, and with the electronics, easy to use in our praise band (where you can't tell how good my Taylor 714 really sounds, anyway)

[Mandoplumb]

That's.easy, it's an abomination. Any thing else are un sure of?

[Al Trujillo]

Knew a gal once that wasn't much for pretty but she was pretty stout everywhere else. Didn't marry her but the guy who did is the luckiest guy I know. I guess the same would go for ugly mandolins that play remarkably well.

[Steve Ostrander]

While I would most certainly take Taylor Swift herself out in public, I could not suffer the slings and arrows from my musical cohorts were I to take her namesake guitar to a gig.....sorry Taylor......

[allenhopkins]

Red card! You can't post that and not post pictures! We insist on seeing...

Sorry, don't have a pic of the charango, but there's one depicted here that has a good shot of the head and ears. The hair stuck out between some of the back plates; the one in the pic seems to have undergone depilatory treatment.

[JEStanek]

Instruments aren't cheap, at least hand built ones. I won't spend money on one from a builder I like unless it looks good to my eyes. Also, if anyone else doesn't like the way the instrument I like looks, their opinion on it is fine but won't affect me.

Jamie

[jaycat]

Maybe I am shallow, but I like my instruments to be attractive. My latest acquisition (1965 Gibson B25) is so beautiful that every morning when I get up, it cries out to me, "take me out of my case." And so, I do.

[Jess L.]

... is there a point at which ugliness trumps all other factors? ...

Yes but it's not related to public perception, rather it's whether or not *I* can "get used to" it.

What gets my goat is ugly peghead shapes. There seems to be no shortage of them in all kinds of different varieties, even in some of the vintage instruments (especially some of the old banjos or modern copies). That's a deal-breaker for me.

An unacceptable peghead shape could, theoretically, be 'fixed' via a little judicious application of a wood rasp or perhaps more-appropriate tools... Haven't done that yet but there are certain instruments that, if I were to actually *buy* one of them, I'd have to do *something* about the peghead shape because it just isn't to my liking. Meanwhile, I have managed to avoid buying such instruments... less work that way.

The other deal-breaker: ugly inlays. Of course such things are a matter of personal preference, but generally speaking, the fancier the inlay, the less I like it. Although there are always exceptions. It *is* possible to have fancy inlays without being "too much" or garish. Another matter of personal taste, as in, "is it art or is it just ugly?"

As to guitars with decorated tops, that would be on a case-by-case basis, depending on whether or not I took a fancy to the decoration. There's always flat-black spray-paint, and presumably (maybe) some electronic means of compensating for whatever tone changes that the extra mass of the paint might cause.

[Roger Moss]

You mean if it had like an ugly scroll sticking out of the top?

[pops1]

First and foremost for me it is sound, if it ain't got a sound that I like no amount of pretty or ugly will change my mind either way.