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Bronco,
Well, the verdict is in, and it seems to be that I'm wrong.
Fine, I can live with that. But you, and others, will also
note that I'm also living with my money still in my pocket.
> In the long run, its what you spend to get the sound you want.
Hey, you said it, not me. <g>
<diatribe>
A thing's value is first subject to the definition of that
very word, value. For me, value is not "how much are others
willing to pay for whatever it is that I'm looking at?", it's
"how well will this suit my purposes?". With that in mind, I
want/desire/need to have a sound that I can not only live with,
but that will be attractive to my listening audience. Except
for the rare audience member who is also a player, absolutely
none of them will give a flying damn about whether my amp,
guitar, or whatever, is of some particular make, model, year,
all original, is worth multi-kilobucks, or just a piece of crap.
All they want to know is that the music is enjoyable to them,
and that's the bottom line.
Now, in order to satisfy my clients/customers/audience, all
I need to do is present the right sound. I'll know I've done
that when they keep coming back to see me, which might also
be translated as "the promoter keeps asking me to come back".
If I can do that without breaking the bank by having the most
expensive gear, am I wrong to call greed for what it is?
And that is the proper name for someone who wants what others
can't have merely by virtue of how much money is in one's pocket
at a given moment.
As a seller, I applaud the advancement of value, and the gain
of profit; it's the capitalist economy at it's finest. But as
a potential buyer, I abhor the greed of those who jack up the
selling price simply to ensure that real players will never
be able to afford an instrument of high quality, nor to be
able to play such an instrument in front of an audience. To
me, that's not why the instrument maker built the thing in
the first place. He or she built it to be played, not to be
set in a case somewhere far away from any stage and bragged
about. I say, a pox upon those people who deprive working
musicians of the finer instruments.
That's what galls me the most about the VG price guide. They
don't report the average price an item sold for across the
counrtry in the last year or so, they report the top price
fetched by a given item, no matter where it was. And if you
believe otherwise, then I'll remind you of that old chestnut,
"follow the money". Where do you think VG makes its money,
eh? That's right, the advertisers. It goes like this:
If VG reports a high price, then its advertisers can justify
telling Joe Customer, "Hey, look, its right here in the Guide.
I need to sell this for X amount of dollars, otherwise I'd be
cheating myself! And you don't want to see me close my doors
because I didn't make enought profit, do you?" And then the
sellers, who are also advertisers, report that inflated price
back to VG, and the circle jerk starts all over again.
Expressed another way, VG has no vested interest in looking
out for Joe Customer's wallet. Bah!!
But in all this, according to the majority opinion here, I'm
still wrong. But hey, at least my cat still likes me! <lol>
</diatribe>
unlunf
--- In , "Bronco" <watches@a...> wrote:
>
> Thanks for all of the interest.
>
> Bruce D. is correct, as I have already received offers in excess
> of the eBay or Seattle music stores. However, every BF Twin
> Reverb I encounter in a music store has (a) some modification(s)
> done, (b) none have their original speakers and (c) very few have
> their original transformers.
>
> Sure, one could buy a $1299 amp, a pair of correct speakers from
> Norm on gbase.com ($400), a quad of RCA black plates ($600), and
> perhaps some Sprague Atom filter and bypass caps ($50). This
> pretty much puts you at the top end of the VG Price Guide.
>
> I repaired every aspect of this amp myself, and have the
> engineering credentials to back it up. Of course, I recognize
> that one can always buy a shredded amp running sino/ruski/yugo
> tubes into celestion speakers from a addict for a lot less.
> In the long run, its what you spend to get the sound you want.
>
> Three more local folks will be test driving this amp, so it looks
> to be sold.
>
> best,
>
> ... Bronco
> aka Dad of the Shuttleducks
>
