In order to ease up the difficulty of reading words, at the top of every post will be an overall average rating of each product, which is derived from a breakdown of the product at the bottom of the page. The breakdown consists of one or more of these categories:
Tone Quality: On a 1 to 10 numeric rating, a 1 sounding like worn out brakes and a 10 sounding like angels singing.
Tone Flexibility:On a 1 to 10 numeric rating, very subjective, but a 1 being barely able to play one type of music, a 5 being flexible to a few genres, and 10 is being able to play absolutely everything known and still have it sound good.
Loudness:On a 1 to 10 numeric rating, 1 being barely audible and 10 being Pete Townshend on steroids. This category mainly applies to amplifiers and speakers.
Worth (Monetary):Are you getting quality for your money? On a 1 to 10 numeric rating, 1 means that you are absolutely getting ripped off and a 10 means that you are getting the deal of a lifetime.
Portability: On a 1 to 10 numeric rating, 1 means that you need a team of highly skilled professionals to move the piece of equipment and 10 is something along the lines of fitting into your wallet. Most instruments and large equipment (amplifier, speaker) will be somewhere between 4 and 7, but this category is more akin to how portable the product is compared to similar products.
Reliability:A very necessary category. The very last thing you want to do is to spend every cent of your hard earned money on an instrument and have it crap out on you six months later. So, on a 1 to 10 numeric rating, 1 means that a product will last for a few days of steady use and a 10 means that it will last through the third world war. (No really, that’s actually what scoring a 10 means)
Cool Factor:Just how bad-ass can you look and/or sound on stage? The cool factor is my opinion on how much Ilike the product, regardless of the other ratings on the page. In order to get a 10, this product has to be imbued with the powers of the music gods. A 5 means that I am ambivalent towards the product/instrument.
I like cool factor the best =). How about a category on the action of the guitar or fluidity of playing on the neck (for guitars)? Like maybe ease of playing?