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Old 12-10-2013, 12:12 PM
ac ac is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HHP View Post
Maybe the simplest answer is the best, a lot of people don't like the way they sound.
Maybe. Maybe not. Simplistic answers are not always best, in fact seldom are, and this statement seemed to me to be a very simplistic answer.

"A lot of people say Gibson guitars sound dead."
"A lot of people say Taylors are too bright."
"A lot of people say fingerstyle is boring."
"A lot of people say country western music is for the uneducated."
"A lot of people say classical music is for bores and snobs."
. . . and on and on . . .

If I said that I do not like the sound of "Martins" or "Taylors"---how much broader or general a statement could I possibly make? I can only make it even more general and meaningless by adding "a lot of people say . . ."

In the end what makes "good" sound and "bad" sound is subjective, like it or not. I also have my own ideas (strong ideas) on what makes a good sounding guitar and what is or is not truly "good music". But I do recognize this is my own viewpoint and that it is subjective even though I'd love to convince everyone that my tastes in everything/everywhere are what they all should agree with and love also.

I've been living mostly in another country for some years now and I can tell you that "steel string acoustic guitars" are not considered the epitome of what is able to produce great sound here. They likely would not even be 10th on such a list. You could tell the local people until the end of eternity that "a lot of people" say it's a fact and how lovely they sound and so, therefore by extension, attempt to convince them that it must be true for them too. And . . . . . they would simply walk away amazed at your complete lack of any knowledge of what musical instruments do really sound good or not and what constitutes truly great music.

I'm not sure we really need to bolster our personal viewpoints and biases using such general phrases as "a lot of people". It takes away credibility from any poster and makes their subsequent posts on the same subject questionable, at best.

Sometimes simplistic statements are useful though. They are able to reveal personal biases quickly and that does have value for other readers.
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