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I’m officially offended (by Victory amps) 😡

Hiwatts-n-Gibsons

Well-known member
Joined
May 10, 2024
Messages
759
I’d admire your perspective.. and will take away the notion that we are all just trying to get our bills paid (by someone else) and if we can (and I have done) pay it forward too.

Bonjour.

*edit: it would seem in this day and age philanthropy is non existent.. and it’s the working class that are constantly having the step up for charity donations and continue to “pay it forward”
I don’t see Elon Musk, Bill Gates or any government paying anything forward.. pfft.
Musk is an epic douchenozzle, but I will say Melinda Gates has given billions of Bill's profit earning to charities.
 
Joined
Jun 16, 2009
Messages
52
I’m not saying that todays guitars are not built well.. I have a ‘21 60s standard bought for £1700 and it’s absolutely perfect.. and would suit any new guitar player 100%.. what I’m saying is that .. the makers of instruments and amps have added the “yacht club” section to their product page.. which is what I disagree with..which prices the average Joe out of that market .. and I’m not saying they can’t do this.. either, they can do what they want.. what I am saying is it’s all bollocks.

Bonjour
This is hardly a new concept. There have always been models from every mfg that are out of my reach
 

J.D.

Well-known member
Joined
May 24, 2006
Messages
10,061
cWSPYBjh1Ggm.gif
 

William Payne

Active member
Joined
Aug 10, 2007
Messages
879
I have been thinking about this. It’s like the Gibson custom shop Les Paul’s vs Murphy labs. The Murphy labs cost way more but are fundamentally just a Gibson custom shop reissue with some extra attention to the finish.

As for boutique amps I think it is quite obvious what is not intended to be for working players.

But then the question becomes if you are a working player and your music is your craft, your trade. What are you tools worth to you?

I saw a complete hammond organ setup for sale the other day for $10,000. My initial thought that is expensive, but then I changed my view that if a Hammond player was a working musician and he was working his trade that price is probably worth it to them.

In high school when I first became interested in music I met other music students. Many were classical players. Everything in rock music is cheap compared to those people. I know people with $10,000 saxophones, piano’s that cost more than a new car. Many of my friends had no money like me and would rent their instruments to be able to play.

I think the bigger fundamental problem is that the “working player” is becoming harder and harder to find and that the companies as companies do are marketing towards the people who buy their products which unfortunately is not often working musicians.
 

William Payne

Active member
Joined
Aug 10, 2007
Messages
879
Also looking at some guitar amp prices. They haven’t changed much in the last 20 years for the high end stuff. What has changed is the stagnation of my income and what I can save for. Where in the past I may have been able save up for a very expensive piece I no longer can now.

My “spare money” is what has disappeared.
 

Hiwatts-n-Gibsons

Well-known member
Joined
May 10, 2024
Messages
759
I have been thinking about this. It’s like the Gibson custom shop Les Paul’s vs Murphy labs. The Murphy labs cost way more but are fundamentally just a Gibson custom shop reissue with some extra attention to the finish.

As for boutique amps I think it is quite obvious what is not intended to be for working players.

But then the question becomes if you are a working player and your music is your craft, your trade. What are you tools worth to you?

I saw a complete hammond organ setup for sale the other day for $10,000. My initial thought that is expensive, but then I changed my view that if a Hammond player was a working musician and he was working his trade that price is probably worth it to them.

In high school when I first became interested in music I met other music students. Many were classical players. Everything in rock music is cheap compared to those people. I know people with $10,000 saxophones, piano’s that cost more than a new car. Many of my friends had no money like me and would rent their instruments to be able to play.

I think the bigger fundamental problem is that the “working player” is becoming harder and harder to find and that the companies as companies do are marketing towards the people who buy their products which unfortunately is not often working musicians.

My brand new Hiwatt Custom Shop DR103, Reeves DR505, Matamp GT150, and Magnatone Panoramic Stereo head were all very expensive amps. Add around $1200-$1500 for loading my Hiwatt DR103 with period correct NOS Mullard ECC83's and EL34's. The others all had their preamps loaded with NOS Telefunkin, Mullard, Amperex, and RFT ECC83's none of which were cheap.

Victory's MK Overdrive even costs a little more than a freaking Wizard Modern Classic or MTL, and tbt even if the cost was the same I would take a Wizard over any of Victory's high gain amps ten out of ten times.
 

Xpensive Wino

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 3, 2012
Messages
7,035
If I lived there with good hunting and fishing readily available that sounds like the epitome of all the freedom I could want. Give me a nice Lute or Lyre, and a wood fire to cook my catch over and I'd be in heaven.
You'd 've been soundly punished for poaching, very likely.

As for later, the 1723 Black Act was passed after groups of poachers took part in a series of poaching raids. The act made hunting deer, rabbits or hare crimes punishable by death.
 

William Payne

Active member
Joined
Aug 10, 2007
Messages
879
My brand new Hiwatt Custom Shop DR103, Reeves DR505, Matamp GT150, and Magnatone Panoramic Stereo head were all very expensive amps. Add around $1200-$1500 for loading my Hiwatt DR103 with period correct NOS Mullard ECC83's and EL34's. The others all had their preamps loaded with NOS Telefunkin, Mullard, Amperex, and RFT ECC83's none of which were cheap.

Victory's MK Overdrive even costs a little more than a freaking Wizard Modern Classic or MTL, and tbt even if the cost was the same I would take a Wizard over any of Victory's high gain amps ten out of ten times.

Yeah I agreed with what you are saying about there being better amps cheaper.

That is why I am less offended than the original poster. There really isn’t any gate keeping here as as you say you can get better stuff cheaper.
 

MarcB

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 1, 2023
Messages
1,494
I traded a hardtail strat for a 80s AC30..

I’ll stick to the old stuff thanks.. and the old ways of trading with like minded muso’s. 👍
 

Any Name You Wish

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 15, 2021
Messages
583
I must have played through 100 amps by now over the past 40 years, and God knows how many guitars. You know what? The basic reissue or American standard stuff is by far the best bang for the buck if you buy used, they are plentiful, and most working musicians can afford them assuming they don't spend all their money on other bad habits. I agree the high dollar boutique amps and aged guitars are not worth it, but some wealthy people buy them and so what? Let them try to quench their desires. I don't even want to think about them because that's depressing.
 

MarcB

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 1, 2023
Messages
1,494
I must have played through 100 amps by now over the past 40 years, and God knows how many guitars. You know what? The basic reissue or American standard stuff is by far the best bang for the buck if you buy used, they are plentiful, and most working musicians can afford them assuming they don't spend all their money on other bad habits. I agree the high dollar boutique amps and aged guitars are not worth it, but some wealthy people buy them and so what? Let them try to quench their desires. I don't even want to think about them because that's depressing.
The “standard” usa range will always be the best guitar you can buy 💯
 

William Payne

Active member
Joined
Aug 10, 2007
Messages
879
It’s the same in the hot rod/vintage car community. Some people will spend mega money to replicate their youth or have what they couldn’t afford growing up.

When I was a little kid I really wanted a remote control yacht but my family was poor and I didn’t have any money I was only really young.

Do I need one today? No. But I will buy one oneday because I never could back then
 

J T

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 20, 2005
Messages
10,564
Ha
I had those muscle cars in the 70's. People at the time couldn't unload them fast enough because of the gas crisis (ha ha gas lines and gas was upward of eighty cents a gallon). I bought em for fifteen hundred, eighteen hundred, then drove them changed parts had fun. Been there, done that. Those days are gone. Nowadays those surviving cars are bought up by dreamers who never had one for seventy, eighty thousand. Those cars now have crazy big seven, eight hundred horsepower engines that get ten miles a gallon if they're lucky. Can't even drive the freekin things. Oh man, not for me. They can keep em.

Are guitars and amps the same way? Getting there, there already. Is it worth plunking down all that dough? To some, I guess so.
 
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