I was talking to a friend earlier today who liked my humble Kentucky KM-272, but wondered about some of the changes I have been making to it. After looking over its new fittings, he said, "How come you just don't get a better instrument."
I told him, "Why should I? I really like how this one sounds, and it plays very well."
He nodded and understood. We've both found gems that didn't cost much.
Having been in the musical instrument business at one time, I've often been amazed by how much musicians spend on instruments for what are often fairly questionable reasons. Violins actually made by Stradivarius and Guarneri are worth millions and highly sought, yet double blind tests have consistently shown even the most skilled players and appraisers can't tell them from other well made instruments. I am especially fond of the video in the link below, where an expert flutist not only fails to identify the most expensive flute but confused the best for a student instrument of modest price.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHMFdks4CGg
In my own work as a mental health professional, I am well familiar the power of the placebo. The belief that something is going to help is so powerful it can make us perceive healing. The placebo effect becomes more powerful as the thing we believe in becomes more complicated, too. This generalizes out to our perception of musical instruments. The more we spend on something, and the more experienced we believe its maker was, and the more complicated was it's making (i.e., hand carved verses cut by power tools), the more likely we are to perceive we hear better tone or that the instrument plays better.
The difference between junk instruments and well made ones is obvious. But what is the difference between an instrument of modest cost and quality build verses one of extreme cost and quality build? What makes a mandolin worth spending a fortune on? Where do we define the point of diminishing returns, where the gains are worth far less than the price increases? And how do we know if what we believe perceive actually is. Highly subjective questions what are always interesting.
(This isn't really a question post so much as just opening a topic for discussion, should anyone be interested.)
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