Sound is everything.

Actually that's disingenuous. I once worked in a guitar shop that's core business was selling the mass-produced junk that is sold before Christmas and forgotten by Pancake Day. We were once the lucky recipients of a "Pink Stagg". It was mostly made of glue with factory floor sweepings to give it some substance and lovingly encased in pink emulsion. Does the "Stagg" brand still exist? I digress...

The thing sounded tremendous. No-one could explain it.

We challenged everyone who came in to try it. All agreed that it sounded tremendous.

Could we sell it?

Could we hell!

So, what do I learn from this? Sound is in fact not everything. When choosing a guitar we are first led by our eyes to decide which one to pick up. We are then led by our body which decides if the one we have picked up feels good: that feeling being a marvellous melting pot of the perception of its weight (which in itself is modulated by the perception of the object's size, which is perceived by the eyes that set this sequence in motion!), the shape of the neck in the hand, the frets on the fingers, the feelings of the contours as the instrument rests on our leg. Only once the eyes, fingers, hands, arms and legs have had there say do we discover how the thing sounds. 

And by this point it is already too late.

The perception of the sound is no longer neutral. It has already been influenced by the rest of the player who made the leap to discover what the instrument might sound like. And if the rest of the player is already satisifed, the player's subconscious will be working away at convincing the ears that this guitar is the guitar.

That this guitar sounds good!

Apparently fish tastes better when accompanied by the sounds of the sea but I am digressing again...

The bottom line is that I design guitars that look beautiful, feel wonderful and sound spectacular by appreciating that the sound is a whole body experience in which no detail can be left unattended.

They also smell pretty good in production!