Can a great player make a cheap guitar sound great?

[dneal]

Originally Posted by srick

https://www.facebook.com/tobywalkerb...3293166900509/

You'll need Facebook to watch this. It's a one minute clip of Toby playing his next door neighbor's guitar (Dylan - age 5). Oh yeah, the guitar is plastic (not C-F either - polystyrene plastic.)

Originally Posted by Denny B

"Can a great player make a cheap guitar sound great? "

Not to my ears...but he can make it sound a little less cheap than the average guitar player can...

Which is what Toby did in that video. Cool tune, great playing and performance, but still a crap guitar.

[Osage]

A truly great player can make any guitar sound great assuming it's in playable condition. A bad player can make the best guitar in the world sound like junk.

[Steel and wood]

Great players make cheap guitars sound better than they should is how I can best describe it.

[Tico]

Yes, to some degree.

But that doesn't mean better guitars are not worth it, or better, or that the great guitarist wouldn't sound even better on a better guitar.

[RussL30]

A great player can certainly make a cheap guitar sound good. Toby could make a 2x4 attached to a cardboard box and strung with weed eater string sound better than I could make the best pre-war Martin D model sound.

[Mbroady]

There are limits on what a great player can do on "bad Guitar"
In fact I was jamming with a new friend last night, who is an amazing player.
It was an impromptu hang and the guitar he was playing was subpar.
It did not intonate well nor did it have an appealing sound. The guitar did not highlight his skills

With that said a good performer could still entertain with a crappie guitar

[Daniel Grenier]

If that was the case, all great guitar players would just play on cheap guitars and save themselves thousands of $. They don’t.

[BT55]

Originally Posted by 1neeto

Truth is the average listener can’t hear the difference in between a $3000 Martin and a $400 Yamaha. A great player will make anything sound good, but of course the keen of ear can hear the bad tone of a cheap guitar.

Totally Agree - it’s the player (90%) and the guitar (10%). Just look at how people consume music today. Are they listening to Records (yes I said records) or CD’s on audiophile systems or are they listening to iTunes with cheap headphones? We hear the difference but the average listener cannot tell a $200 Alvarez vs. a $4500 Taylor.

[Steadfastly]

No, not great but quite good depending on what is being played.

[rwmct]

Sometimes they don't even need a guitar. A shovel will do:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9-ltPsbw9g

[Denny B]

Originally Posted by rwmct

Sometimes they don't even need a guitar. A shovel will do:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9-ltPsbw9g

That vid shows up here a lot, and that guy sure can jam...


But for the LAST time...that's not a SHOVEL...that's a SPADE!!

[rwmct]

Originally Posted by Denny B

That vid shows up here a lot, and that guy sure can jam...


But for the LAST time...that's not a SHOVEL...that's a SPADE!!

Whatever it is, it shows that when you can play, you can play.


He is pretty good with an oil can too . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-dmuTEhWdk

[Denny B]

Originally Posted by rwmct

Whatever it is, it shows that when you can play, you can play.


He is pretty good with an oil can too . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-dmuTEhWdk

Yeah, that's Justin Johnson...he's got lots of those vids out...

If he can put strings on it, he can play it.... fun stuff to watch...

[Mobile1]

I skimmed through the 5 pages of comments in this thread and I don't know if anyone mentioned it but, I play better after a couple/three beers consumed in 1 1/2 to 2 hours time.

A good player can make a cheap guitar sound pretty good. That's as far as I'm going to go.

[Nymuso]

I would have said yes until my wife bought me a Backpacker. I can't make that thing sound good at all.