Why guitar reviews aren’t always right: trust your own ears, not someone else’s
A group of skilled classical guitarists were unable to consistently rank 12 instruments from best to worst even after playing them, according to a new study.
The surprising result raises questions about the role of subjectivity when attempting to assess an instrument’s sound.
“There was rough consensus on the most and least desirable instruments, but no clear subjective result beyond that,” the authors of the study wrote.
The highest ranked guitar was a handmade model that cost several thousand dollars while the lowest ranked was a student entry level model that cost just $500.
“However, disagreements were sometimes significant and one instrument (No. 2) even got both a highest and a lowest rating from the pool.”
The study, conducted at Purdue University, called on seven students enrolled in the classical guitar program. They were given up to 40 minutes to play the guitars and rank them from most to least desirable.
The result bucks the expectations of several expert guitar luthiers, who thought skilled musicians would generally rank the instruments in similar order.
The study also measured the frequency response function of each guitar but found no correlation with the players’ rankings.
Guitarists should take two important lessons away from this study:
Reviews that rank musical instruments in numerical order from best-to-worst should be taken with a large grain of salt. Trust your own ears – not someone else’s.
Spending more money doesn’t always buy you a better sounding instrument.
