Equating $$ to sound and playability

Christopher Cozad

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... I'm still trying to think of French words, though...... :grief:
Tom,

You kidder, you. Think of all the French words you already know: Restaurant, Chef, Menu, à la carte, Apéritif, Café, Salade, Soupe, Omelette, Bon appétit, Hors d’oeuvre, Vinaigrette, just to name a few.
 

bluesypicky

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And I know he's familiar with croque Monsieur.... he just appears not to value credibility that much to me.
 

Antney

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Is cul de sac french? In Paris do they call pricey little streets that have no outlets "dead ends"?
 

twocorgis

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Tom,

You kidder, you. Think of all the French words you already know: Restaurant, Chef, Menu, à la carte, Apéritif, Café, Salade, Soupe, Omelette, Bon appétit, Hors d’oeuvre, Vinaigrette, just to name a few.

You forgot my favorite crème brûlée:smile:
 

JohnW63

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My kid is getting and A in his French class, this year. Do I get credibility, by association ?

If not, what does mayonnaise get me ? Or guillotine ?
 

davismanLV

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Okay then, noblesse oblige!! That's one of my favorite French phrases. People need to keep it in mind with the widening gap between the haves and the have nots...... but I won't get political. :playful:
 

Zelja

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This thread is making me hungry. J'ai faim. J'ai voudrais un pain au chocolat.

Lower end guitars are a lot better these days and mostly due to CNC machines. The same machines are also often blamed for higher end manufactured guitars losing their souls because most are no longer made by hand...

The gap between entry level and higher end mass produced guitars has probably never been smaller. The quote mentioned in the OP probably came from someone who grew up in the age of cheap, crappy imports which barely made the grade as musical inputs. As such, perhaps he was surprised at the quality you get for your money now. Cheap is no longer necessarily nasty.
 

bluesypicky

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My kid is getting and A in his French class, this year. Do I get credibility, by association ?
If not, what does mayonnaise get me ? Or guillotine ?

The A for the kid in French class does count towards your credibility John. A quality education is a sign that sophistication runs in the family.
Mayonnaise is excellent. Can be substituted to butter in the famous guitar selling argumentation.
Guillotine works, but harder to use in everyday conversation.

Bottom line: Your posts just got a bit more credibility, congratulations.
 

bluesypicky

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J'ai faim. Je voudrais un pain au chocolat.

Except for the very excusable little grammatical typo, now corrected, it is very impressive.
I know you spent time there, and couldn't resist the calling of the morning bakery smell, emanating from the street vents.... :)
 

fronobulax

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Ma capacité à écrire en français, comme un accord, est diminuée.

If I say an instrument "played well above its ($500) price tag" then it means I have expectations for a $500 instrument and the instrument exceeded my expectations. This is ultimately about my expectations and not the instrument. As noted elsewhere my expectations will be related to my experience. Most instrumentalists will get to a point when they can list all the flaws of their beginning instrument and explain what they want in a replacement or upgrade.

There is anecdotal evidence that beginner guitars today are better instruments than beginner guitars from, say, ten years ago. And there are also anecdotes that suggest that if you take a fixed price (adjusting for inflation) you can get a better new instrument at that price today. So in some sense "quality" or "bang for the buck" is improving. But the more experience a player has and teh more you move away from starter instruments, the less valid these anecdotes are.
 

Neal

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This thread is making me hungry. J'ai faim. J'ai voudrais un pain au chocolat.

Lower end guitars are a lot better these days and mostly due to CNC machines. The same machines are also often blamed for higher end manufactured guitars losing their souls because most are no longer made by hand...

The gap between entry level and higher end mass produced guitars has probably never been smaller. The quote mentioned in the OP probably came from someone who grew up in the age of cheap, crappy imports which barely made the grade as musical inputs. As such, perhaps he was surprised at the quality you get for your money now. Cheap is no longer necessarily nasty.

I agree completely with the above.

CNC manufacturing is a double-edged sword. It improves consistency and lowers production cost, allowing lower-skilled (and poorly paid) workers to sit in one place on a production line and collectively make a decent guitar at a great price.

But that same process does not generally include the ability to make adjustments for individual pieces of wood. Even if wood quality is the same (debatable) between American and offshore guitars, smaller American manufacturers are able to maximize the use of the wood they have on hand to improve the overall quality of the instrument, to a level that mass production just can't achieve. That goes for tone as well as fit and finish.

OTOH, if I were in my teens and just starting out, a Chinese guitar would offer, at its price point, a great guitar in comparison to the old Harmony I learned on, which was almost unplayable.
 
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