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How much "sound" is the player vs guitar?
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Cervantes
Posts: 503
Joined: Jun. 14 2014
From: Encinitas, CA USA
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 RE: How much "sound" is th... (in reply to Piwin)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Piwin
I get the impression that the great maestros would be "recognizable" on any guitar. Give Sabicas a cardboard guitar and you could still immediately tell it's him. Part of it is technique, but it's also that ability to project intent and emotion through the instrument. Their ability to do this is so strong that they can "overpower" the limitations that a cheap guitar would present. Most of us obviously can't. Put it this way, I played El Viejin's guitar and I briefly got the impression that I sounded like him. He played mine and he just sounded like El Viejin.
On the other hand, the objective qualities of sound very much depend on the quality of the guitar.
In other words, sound is 100% the player and 100% the guitar. There's no real "vs" here. On the one side there is the objective quality of sound that the guitar can produce, on the other side there is subjective quality of sound, the "personality" that only the guitarist can produce. But these are two separate planes that don't necessarily interact all of that much and in any event aren't in any kind of opposition to one another.
I like your explanation and it makes sense. What I am really getting at here is how can I arrive at what I should spend on a guitar? The guitar I have which I paid $1,000 for is probably "good enough" to play until I die, but I might "sound" better and enjoy playing it more with a more expensive guitar. I am really at a beginner level and so maybe I need to improve more before thinking about this justified. I know it is not necessary for me to progress. I guess its the age old problem of living within your means. Some people drive very expensive cars and drink bottles of wine costing hundreds of dollars each. I am not wealthy so I must think about what is practical.
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Ah well, there was a fantastic passion there, in my case anyway. I discovered flamenco
very early on. It grips you in a way that you can't get away - Paco Pena
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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Mar. 7 2016 19:39:48
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Piwin
Posts: 3561
Joined: Feb. 9 2016
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RE: How much "sound" is th... (in reply to Cervantes)
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quote:
I like your explanation and it makes sense. What I am really getting at here is how can I arrive at what I should spend on a guitar? The guitar I have which I paid $1,000 for is probably "good enough" to play until I die, but I might "sound" better and enjoy playing it more with a more expensive guitar. I am really at a beginner level and so maybe I need to improve more before thinking about this justified. I know it is not necessary for me to progress. I guess its the age old problem of living within your means. Some people drive very expensive cars and drink bottles of wine costing hundreds of dollars each. I am not wealthy so I must think about what is practical.
Got it. Sorry I went completely off track then!  Price is and has been an issue for me as well. I started out with a cheap Antonio Bernal guitar (I think it was around 650 EUR) that served me well for the first few years. When I felt ready to move on to another guitar, my main priority was getting something that was not factory made. But the prices of luthiers, although obviously fair and many times generous considering the work put into it, can still be prohibitive for some of us. So I looked into second hand guitars. I'd been looking for a guitar for about 18 months when I finally got the one I have now. It just clicked. I bought it around 2000 EUR and its original price was at the low end of luthier-made guitars. I've since tried many much more expensive guitars but I've never found anything that came even close to this one. Not in terms of the objective quality of the guitar, but in terms of the very subjective sense of comfort I have with it. It's very comfortable to play for me and therefore I have a lot more fun with it than a guitar I'd have to "struggle" with.
Basically, how much I spent on the guitar wasn't determined by anything else than how much money I could actually afford to pay (like you said, living within our means...). I had that limit of around 2000 EUR. So I went looking for guitars in that price range and kept on looking until I found something in that price range that worked for me. And for the use I make of it ("semi-professional let's say), I don't see the need for anything more. And it hasn't prevented me from progressing, rather the contrary, even if the more I play the more aware of my limitations I get...
Anyways, don't know if that helps. Just my own personal experience.
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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Mar. 7 2016 20:50:44
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