An interesting, but disturbing trend

E

Em7

deus ex machina
Joined
Apr 27, 2012
Messages
946
For most of my playing career, I owned one electric guitar and maybe a backup along with an acoustic guitar and one amplifier. Today, there is a preference to purchase a bunch of lesser quality guitars to owning one really good guitar and maybe a lesser quality backup. I do not know when or where this mindset originated, but there is an advantage to owning only one good guitar over a bunch of inferior guitars, especially if that is all one can afford. It is like owning and practicing with only one firearm. One gets to know it intimately. That is why one Stevensville PRS guitar beats a stable of SEs. A Stevensville PRS guitar will continue to please long after the sting of the price is forgotten, buy once, cry once.

I know others have mentioned this fact, but chops and tone cannot be purchased. All but the most gifted guitarists built their chops through extensive practice (a.k.a. woodshedding). No amount of guitars, amps, or pedals are going to change that equation. It is much easier to become proficient with guitar when one is not swapping between guitars on a regular basis. If one cannot play with one's eyes closed (or at least without continuously looking at one's hands), one has not reached the level of familiarity to play more than one guitar, especially when we are talking about guitars with different scale lengths, which can take a period of adjustment for even experienced guitarists.
 
How other people spend their money, learn to play, or develop whatever level skill they want is of absolutely no consequence to me.

Use your money to buy what you want, play what you want, how you want, on how ever many instruments you want....I will not dispute.
 
Simon Says said:
Christ, get a life with your dis to SE. Made in USA stamp means nothing
Click to expand...
This comment is a prime example of why the UK economy is in the dump. If one does care where a product is made, one should not be surprised when one cannot earn a living. Products that are brand name only combined with labor arbitrage is killing first world workers and the quality of first world brands.. It is not a sustainable business model for anyone other than investors. If you honestly do not think that there is a difference in quality between a Stevensville guitar and Cort contract manufactured guitar, then no one is going to convince you. This problem does not only affect PRS. It affects every major first world brand. I no longer purchase Marshall gear or Celestion speakers that are not made in the UK. I like quality. Gear has to be made to higher standard when it carries a higher price tag.

By the way, you missed the forest for focusing on the trees. Practice is what a guitarist better, not the amount of gear he/she owns. Playing a quality instrument is inspiring, which, in turn, usually results in my practice time.
 
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Em7 said:
This comment is a prime example of why the UK economy is in the dump. If one does care where a product is made, one should not be surprised when one cannot earn a living. Products that are brand name only combined with labor arbitrage is killing first world workers and the quality of first world brands.. It is not a sustainable business model for anyone other than investors. If you honestly do not think that there is a difference in quality between a Stevensville guitar and Cort contract manufactured guitar, then no one is going to convince you. This problem does not only affect PRS. It affects every major first world brand. I no longer purchase Marshall gear or Celestion speakers that are not made in the UK. I like quality. Gear has to be made to higher standard when it carries a higher price tag.
Click to expand...
Economically Im doing just fine. Again, get a life
 
Simon Says said:
Maybe I should put you on to ignore list and be done with your narrow-minded nonsense?
Click to expand...
You would miss a good bit of knowledge.

I happen to be an advocate of buying the best guitar you can afford that feels good in your hands. If that is an SE, so be it. If you can afford the latest wood library, good for you, and go for it - it will probably make you play more, which will make you better.
 
veinbuster said:
You would miss a good bit of knowledge.

I happen to be an advocate of buying the best guitar you can afford that feels good in your hands. If that is an SE, so be it. If you can afford the latest wood library, good for you, and go for it - it will probably make you play more, which will make you better.
Click to expand...

I'm 42, I've sucked eggs before and I'm done with schooling.

I don't own SE's but the patronising language on the edge of bulling makes my blood boil.

There's nothing wrong with Se, they're waaaay above the crap I could afford when I was a kid
 
It appears that people who shout the loudest about not caring where a product is made are usually people with jobs that cannot be outsourced. The problem with that mindset is that their customer bases are in jeopardy of vanishing. If Simson Says is truly a dentist, then his job is protected by a state monopoly. However, most people who work in the first world are perilously in danger of being made obsolete by labor arbitrage, even jobs that require one to be face-to-face with one's customer. People complain about Maryland-made PRS guitars being overpriced, but that is only because they have gotten used to the prices of products made by arbitraged labor. I paid approximately $800.00 for new Les Paul Custom in 1977. That was a metric truckload of money for a 16-year-old kid with a part-time job (I covered part of the cost with my own cash and my parents chipped in the rest). That figure equates to $3,745 in 2022 dollars, which makes even a core PRS not look ridiculously expensive. A 1977 Les Paul Custom is not remotely as well-built as a 2022 Custom 24. For the most part, most American brands have become much cheaper, even the brands that are made with American labor. It is people that have changed.

Everyone is all for lower prices until those price reductions affect their ability to earn a living. The reality is that every day low prices lead to everyday low wages. Labor arbitrage is not an exercise in comparative advantage. It is an exercise in absolute advantage that pits first world workers against third world workers, a fight that first world workers cannot hope to win as long as they are not paying attention (labor arbitrage is really an exercise in arbitraging differences in currency, cost of living, and safety and health requirements). The average American's earnings have not improved in 40 years when adjusted for inflation. All of the growth in the market has accrued the wealthiest Americans via long-term capital appreciation, which in part is due to the rigging of the tax code (which I will not venture into in this forum), but in larger part due to the use of labor arbitrage. I do not agree with Marx on many things, but he was right when he stated that capitalism is a system that separates workers from the fruits of their labor. There used be checks and balances that kept capital in alignment with labor. Those checks and balances are now gone in many first world countries. The only check that the common man and woman have today is what they decide to purchase. I personally would rather keep my money in the first world where I can compete. When I purchase a Stevenville-built guitar, I am helping my neighbors who, in turn, have more to spend in the local economy and other first world economies. I hope I never see a day when PRS Guitars is a name brand only because it is not today. It is the concerted effort of people who work hard to make the company successful, many of whom were with PRS during the lean years.
 
Em7 said:
It appears that people who shout the loudest about not caring where a product is made are usually people with jobs that cannot be outsourced. The problem with that mindset is that their customer bases are in jeopardy of vanishing. If Simson Says is truly a dentist, then his job is protected by a state monopoly. However, most people who work in the first world are perilously in danger of being made obsolete by labor arbitrage, even jobs that require one to be face-to-face with one's customer. People complain about Maryland-made PRS guitars being overpriced, but that is only because they have gotten used to the prices of products made by arbitraged labor. I paid approximately $800.00 for new Les Paul Custom in 1977. That was a metric truckload of money for a 16-year-old kid with a part-time job (I covered part of the cost with my own cash and my parents chipped in the rest). That figure equates to $3,745 in 2022 dollars, which makes even a core PRS not look ridiculously expensive. A 1977 Les Paul Custom is not remotely as well-built as a 2022 Custom 24. For the most part, most American brands have become much cheaper, even the brands that are made with American labor. It is people that have changed.

Everyone is all for lower prices until those price reductions affect their ability to earn a living. The reality is that every day low prices lead to everyday low wages. Labor arbitrage is not an exercise in comparative advantage. It is an exercise in absolute advantage that pits first world workers against third world workers, a fight that first world workers cannot hope to win as long as they are not paying attention (labor arbitrage is really an exercise in arbitraging differences in currency, cost of living, and safety and health requirements). The average American's earnings have not improved in 40 years when adjusted for inflation. All of the growth in the market has accrued the wealthiest Americans via long-term capital appreciation, which in part is due to the rigging of the tax code (which I will not venture into in this forum), but in larger part due to the use of labor arbitrage. I do not agree with Marx on many things, but he was right when he stated that capitalism is a system that separates workers from the fruits of their labor. There used be checks and balances that kept capital in alignment with labor. Those checks and balances are now gone in many first world countries. The only check that the common man and woman have today is what they decide to purchase. I personally would rather keep my money in the first world where I can compete. When I purchase a Stevenville-built guitar, I am helping my neighbors who, in turn, have more to spend in the local economy and other first world economies. I hope I never see a day when PRS Guitars is a name brand only because it is not today. It is the concerted effort of people who work hard to make the company successful, many of whom were with PRS during the lean years.
Click to expand...

I'm a paramedic actually. A dentist for Lawers is a pun to snobs like yourself

Regarding the rest - American economy is as close to my heart as third world economy as I don't live in neither places
 
I’m a CORE guy, strictly. but if people enjoy the Se’s and S2’s, power to them. Whatever makes them happy. with all that’s going on in the world today, who enjoys which guitars, and berating them for it, is pretty meaningless!
 
Last edited:
Em7 said:
For most of my playing career, I owned one electric guitar and maybe a backup along with an acoustic guitar and one amplifier. Today, there is a preference to purchase a bunch of lesser quality guitars to owning one really good guitar and maybe a lesser quality backup. I do not know when or where this mindset originated, but there is an advantage to owning only one good guitar over a bunch of inferior guitars, especially if that is all one can afford. It is like owning and practicing with only one firearm. One gets to know it intimately. That is why one Stevensville PRS guitar beats a stable of SEs. A Stevensville PRS guitar will continue to please long after the sting of the price is forgotten, buy once, cry once.

I know others have mentioned this fact, but chops and tone cannot be purchased. All but the most gifted guitarists built their chops through extensive practice (a.k.a. woodshedding). No amount of guitars, amps, or pedals are going to change that equation. It is much easier to become proficient with guitar when one is not swapping between guitars on a regular basis. If one cannot play with one's eyes closed (or at least without continuously looking at one's hands), one has not reached the level of familiarity to play more than one guitar, especially when we are talking about guitars with different scale lengths, which can take a period of adjustment for even experienced guitarists.
Click to expand...
Owning and practicing with only 1 firearm ? Getting to know a GUN intimately? WTF.

Is this a serious post ? - I'm wondering, and hoping that it's a sarcastic riff on some new thing happening in popular culture or social media that I'm not aware of.

I try not to rant. - sorry
 
Nothing here, one way or another, is anything to get emotionally upset about. It’s just guitars and folks who enjoy a particular brand.

I don’t particularly care what anyone else plays. As long as it brings them joy and enriches their life, that’s a good thing.
 
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