Neither of them look good to me ;) (Gaming)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Friday, May 05, 2017, 15:55 (2768 days ago) @ uberfoop

Great post!

Lots to talk about here, but there's one point in particular that I want to clarify a little:

And so about those guitars. Are the Waterloos silly? I don't think so.

Could it be argued that they're "inferior" to a modern high-end guitar? You could certainly make all kinds of arguments in favor of that.
But a modern high-end guitar isn't simply the same but better. They have qualitatively different appearances and audio characteristics. And regardless of the notion of a "bad-sounding guitar", a good guitarist can still seemingly coax good music out of a Waterloo. Does it have its own limitations? Sure, much as my Miyata sucks on steep hills. But that doesn't make the whole thing silly.

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Here's the thing: modern guitars can, and often do, sound identical to vintage ones. Your point about preferences (what sounds "good" is subjective) is completely valid. But that's not where my point is leaning. You can build a guitar that sounds identical to the old 30's department store guitars for just a few hundred dollars. There is no magic "mojo" behind these instruments. They sound the way they do because of the materials used, the bracing patterns, and the quality of parts & hardware. All of these elements can be duplicated perfectly. Other modern guitar makers already do it.

I don't find it silly that people want a guitar that is a recreation of a cheap, department-store guitar from the 30s. I find it silly that anyone would think it is worth paying close to $3K for a recreation of a cheap, budget instrument. It's like if Ferrari built a perfect replica of an 80s hatchback and charged $400K for it. It just isn't necessary or justifiable.

That's where I'm coming from when it comes to people who spend large amounts of money to "perfectly replicate" the look, sound, and feel of retro games. In every way that can be measured, they never looked or sounded good in the first place. Again, there's no accounting for taste... but that's the "nostalgia" factor I was talking about.