Wednesday 15 February 2012

Brand Concious Syndrome Part 1


There are many times when we decide to buy a piece of gear, the first thing that comes to our mind is probably the brand name of a product that we usually associate the product with. This is hardly a surprise and this is pretty evident in especially in Singapore. When I started changing the pickups of my first guitar, i wanted the best pickups with the amount of money I have. I bought a pair of Dimarzio Evolutions and don't take this in a wrong way. Dimarzio Evolutions are really good and probably still is my favourite pickup up till today. However, contrary to my believe at that time, installing Dimarzio Evolutions didn't make me sound or play anywhere closer to Steve Vai, as much as I would have liked.

However, there are many times when we make our decision relying too much on the brand image that we are being conditioned with and we make our decisions picking up those costly "branded product" without giving other lesser brands a chance. Guitar pickups are definitely one of those that are always being overlooked.

Thanks to a few local shops (namely Tymc and SVguitars), they have provide our market an alternative voice in the choice of lesser priced pickups; namely Tesla and Artec Giovanni. I personally believe that products of lesser brands should be given a chance instead of being bash and shove aside due to it's lesser known brand name and country of origin.

Next time, before anyone of us decide to buy any product be it pedals, pickups or tunners, do our necessary research on what's available to us and what exactly are we looking out for, before we make our final decision. We might just pick up a golden egg while saving a lot more money in the progress.

2 comments:

  1. Interesting info bro but if comparison with a prestige and a j custom? Is it just branding or in actual fact j customs are much much better quality than prestige models? Care to advise bro. Sorry caus never really tried playing a j custom before though.

    Thanks

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  2. Within the same brand, there is obviously a difference in terms of quality. J customs are after all build by the best craftsman there are in Fujigen. But if we are talking about playability, it's a subjective thing. Remember, one man's meat is another man's poison.

    That being said, would you be willing to give guitars of lesser brand name a try? A good example will be Craftsman by citymusic? Even Uno or Swing guitars that is brought in by SV guitars?

    When the choice of changing pickups, are you willing to give pickups with lesser brand name such as GFS or Artec a try instead of jumping straight to Dimarzio or Duncans?

    These are the things which are touched on upon in the article.

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