Beedster

Now, I agree with 99% of your posts BUT not this one; music for me is about feeling and irrespective of all the total audio logic you’ve talked, a big rig makes me feel good when I play and for me that beats the logic. My Mesa rig makes no sense acoustically but a lot of sense emotionally, and that what works for me, it’s not an objective space after all 👍

I had a similar issue playing a 4/4 and 3/4 during the same period, the 4/4 with guts for bluegrass and the 3/4 with steels for Jazzier stuff (I doubt anyone who knows Jazz would recognise my playing as Jazz BTW). I hate to say this but I can't help thinking that - as I found - it come down more to listening to yourself than to instrument mechanics. I'm sure - at least I hope - that others will have more helpful advice 👍

Sadly these days I just walk away at the slightest sniff of scam, both as buyer and seller. Luckily most scammers are lazy and generic so they're easy to spot, but some are certainly more subtle, and a few are downright cunning. But for me there is a 100% watertight rule, trust your gut; if it feels dodgy, shut it down. There is a very good scientific database behind our evolved and largely subconscious ability to detect deception and cheating in others. But there's a problem and scammers understand that problem very well; the apprehension and anxiety that feeds into our gut feeling can be over-ridden by hope and its cognitive consequences; "I feel like it's dodgy (anxiety) but I want it to be legit (hope) and think how good it would be if it was....". Excitement! Anxiety is an evolutionarily ancient and tried and trusted emotion. Hope and excitement less so. Always trust your anxiety 👍 Apols for lecture, been a long week and i need a beer

I imagine it is and always has been a largely commercial decision. I guess it's a manufacturers job to estimate the cost:benefit ratio of every new model, either in terms of sale of that model or in wider brand awareness/status (I'm sure some if not many signature models are exercises in PR as opposed to product line extension), and if that estimate suggests that putting Flea or whoever's name on the model is going to tilt it in favour of benefit, then they'd be foolish not to? BUT I really wouldn't want to be the person who rubber stamps any of them

Yep, these guys are not today’s Jacos

I'm with you mate, the old saying (think it was Lily Tomlin) "The problem with the rat race is that even if you win it you're still a rat" seems relevant? The whole space seems to be full of adults acting like children when sweets are being handed out at a party, trying to shout "Me, me, me" louder than all the other kids, the whole thing pretty much an absence of style over an absence of substance. If I've got time to kill I play music or listen to recordings of people who play music 👍