Originally Posted by
Alex Orr
This again?
I don't check into the cafe all that often anymore, but when I do, it's almost a guarantee that one of the top three general threads will be the four millionth time someone has started a thread in which:
1. The question of whether expensive mandolins are really all that good is raised.
2. The OP (who often states he's only played mandolin for a short while and doesn't actually know much about mandolins) will likely say that they're over-rated and he thinks most people can't tell the difference between, for example, a low-end Kentucky A and, for example, a Nugget, Gilchrist, Dudenbostel, etc..., in a "blind taste test."
3. Almost immediately several people will say they can hear the differences while at least one person will say he has, for example, a $75 Epiphone that sounds better than any instrument he's ever heard, and thus ALL high-end instruments are scams.
4. Someone will suggest that expensive instruments are really just a way for snooty high-end instrument owners to act snooty towards other people with less expensive instruments at jams.
5. Someone will say that Thile, Grisman, Skaggs, etc...., would sound just as good on a Rogue with massive intonation problems, buzzing frets, and a softball-sized hole in the back, therefore there is really no superiority in sound from more expensive or higher quality instruments since everything has to do with the player.
6. Eventually everyone will concede that a Gilchrist does, indeed, sound better than a Rogue...but then the question will go deeply into the weeds regarding the exact price-range in which more-expensive instruments are actually better than the cheapest instruments on the market and thus justify people spending the extra money, as well as the price range at which all higher-end instruments all sound exactly the same and it just becomes a contest to see who can foolishly blow the most cash.
7. About half the time there will be a second thread originating as an offshoot of the first-thread that basically is arguing the same thing but doing it with slightly different examples, thus tempting the same folks to restate the same arguments they made in the first thread.
8. There is a 25% likelihood the whole thing gets shut down at some point after it gets too personal, maybe in regards to someone slamming an instrument maker someone else loves or perhaps someone's chops and general knowledge about instruments are questioned.
9. The whole thing will repeat itself after about a 7-10 day break.
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