I sorta concur with the idea that we guitarists tend to over-nitpick on tone. At the end of the day, unless you're a closet guitarist whose work does not go out to the general masses, it's the masses' opinions that matter.
I don't think you need a musician to tell you that a particular tone sounds good, or that one sound is better than the other. Any listener of decent music should be considered a suitable judge of tone, since he/she is part of the crowd we eventually wish the music to reach out to. Of course, if I were trying to get a nice metal tone, I'd ask someone who listens to metal, and not a jazz enthusiast.
Good tone(part of which comes from gear) makes you want to practise more, more practice increases your dexterity, which in turn helps you play and sound better.
For pros, music is their life, while for most of us, music is but a hobby/passion that cannot afford to demand the bulk of our time. They have worked hard to attain their dexterity and thus the so-called ordinary pedals are sufficient to make them sound v good, while hobbyists like myself either require a significantly longer time, or a whole lotta talent to sound as good with the same bunch of pedals. So how? bo pian, spend a bit more now in the hope of getting good tone with less skill, but continue to work on dexterity. :wink:
