after all that discussion...i somehow fail to see the unique discussion topic. in essence, what was being thrown around for argument was a set of obvious assumptions? (ie. you'll never know how a guitar sounds until it is done - duh)
i do have one comment about this lovely quote though: Am I suppose the musician as some kind of badge thing? Man, I'd rather be myself. Supposed to be some kind of badge? Uh, yeah. How else would someone have the intuition to tell good tone apart from bad tone as a result of playing, gigging or scr#wing around on the guitar? Now you don't have to be a world class virtuoso, that wasn't the point, but you do have to be able to play to have some kind of validity to declaring "tone requirements." This is only logical. Hell, a plumber can have tone requirements, my grandmother can have tone requirements, the guy selling sago can have tone requirements....but that doesn't mean that I'd weigh their understanding and intuition of tone more than someone who actually plays and might know what they are talking about in a more meaningful way.