[paranoid]

let me put it this way.. i teach professionally (did the whole masters degree thing etc etc.. not trying to put myself on a pedestal here, just saying i'm not some dick fart working out of a music store).. have taught for 15 years now, at colleges, non profit music schools, etc etc., i've worked with nearly a thousand students in the course of that time.

here's a good example- i teach a blues group guitar course for players that essentially only play at home, never played in a band.. etc etc. some are really good, some not so much. i've had a few students, and this seems like a thing in the blues dad culture, not bother practicing anything that i had handed to them. instead, they'd show up the next week with a $2400 souped up strat, a fender twin with a klon, etc. all the right blues gear. still sounded like shit. why? they couldn't figure out how to touch the fret board (one guy would just hammer on it, via the anxiety he'd give himself over not being able to play), dig into his strings so hard the amp couldn't even react. it took months for him to trust me and turn it around, all of a sudden he started to sound good.

then he quit. lol. a good chunk of tone comes from your ability to play, how you hold the guitar, how you attack it, how your physical body interacts with the gear. like how can you make great gear sound good if you don't even know to play guitar or use the gear correctly.. which is essentially an extension of the instrument? if that's asinine to you then i guess ill see you in a few years when you've figured it out.