THX1123
Tele-Holic
I believe there is such a thing as objectively good choices, and therefore objectively good tone. Taste may be subjective, but I would suggest developing mature taste based on experience, learning, and an open mind leads to better choices, and therefore what a majority of persons would agree is good tone. Being self-reflective, or asking yourself why you actually believe something, or believe something is good is not an easy skill to develop. You cannot buy this ability, or achieve it with better tools alone.
I also believe that purpose is important. Good tone to the bedroom player can be quite different to what a gigging musician or recording guitarist would consider good tone. Both are valid, but they have differing purposes. Both are arguably more dependent on the experience and learning the person has developed than on the tools they buy.
Many of us have met someone who raves about their gear and the journey they took to find good tone. You go over there and they plug in a beautiful $3K guitar through a vintage amp, and they sound way less than good. They arguably do not have the learning, experience, and therefore mature taste to use the tools they have chased. They have arguably made poor choices because they focused only on purchasing tools, not learning to use them, or asking themselves why they believe what they do.
Some people like McDonalds more than steak. This does not make McDonalds objectively better. Some people like pron more than love. This does not make the objective value of love diminish. Some people will drown a $40 steak in ketchup without hesitation and tell you how amazing it is.
Consuming only McD's and pron will arguably probably never lead to truly mature taste. This is arguably true regardless of how many words one types on a computer that assert that one cannot be wrong because everything is subjective. Please consider this as an analogy and not an attack on anyone.
I also believe there's a use for deliberately bad choices. A terrible old cheap guitar with no truss rod from 1972 with strings like a cheesecutter through a Gorilla with a 6" speaker might be a good choice for something. Likewise, if I am severely sodium-deficient then perhaps McDonalds is a good choice.
I also believe that purpose is important. Good tone to the bedroom player can be quite different to what a gigging musician or recording guitarist would consider good tone. Both are valid, but they have differing purposes. Both are arguably more dependent on the experience and learning the person has developed than on the tools they buy.
Many of us have met someone who raves about their gear and the journey they took to find good tone. You go over there and they plug in a beautiful $3K guitar through a vintage amp, and they sound way less than good. They arguably do not have the learning, experience, and therefore mature taste to use the tools they have chased. They have arguably made poor choices because they focused only on purchasing tools, not learning to use them, or asking themselves why they believe what they do.
Some people like McDonalds more than steak. This does not make McDonalds objectively better. Some people like pron more than love. This does not make the objective value of love diminish. Some people will drown a $40 steak in ketchup without hesitation and tell you how amazing it is.
Consuming only McD's and pron will arguably probably never lead to truly mature taste. This is arguably true regardless of how many words one types on a computer that assert that one cannot be wrong because everything is subjective. Please consider this as an analogy and not an attack on anyone.
I also believe there's a use for deliberately bad choices. A terrible old cheap guitar with no truss rod from 1972 with strings like a cheesecutter through a Gorilla with a 6" speaker might be a good choice for something. Likewise, if I am severely sodium-deficient then perhaps McDonalds is a good choice.
