When you need to resort to selective reading, it says a lot.

 

You’re right missed the whole part I should have been in bed a long time ago

 

Leave the 76 out of this!! One of my favorite synths, and im not even kidding. Ive circuit bent at least ten of these or other siblings in the casio SA series. Insane sounds come out of that thing.

 

People who can afford anything they want stop concerning themselves with usefulness or quality. They buy for pomp, excess or raw hedonism, or, as you say: buy junk on purpose. Artists in particular are infamous for their self-destructive, highly irrational spending habits on junk.

"Poor" people rationalise buying specific gear because they want to ape their heroes. It's my gear, not my lack of learning or putting in effort.

Jimi Hendrix needs a guitar fitting his style and needs, but is limited by affordability and geographic availability. Ends up with cheap/free Fender Strats as a compromise.

Stevie Ray Vaughan's guitar hero is Jimi Hendrix. SRV buys Strat to ape JH.

John Mayer wants to ape SRV. Works a year to finally be able to afford his hero's Strat.

The many many guitarists who now want to ape JM go in with an almost unbreakable Strat-bias.

(Or whatever brand & model he's currently endorsing - PRS I think.)

Quality wasn't the main metric for Hendrix and quality isn't the main metric for people when they buy Fender now.

Brands buy artists and they've gotten much better at it the past ~25 or so years. So the next time someone buys a Kiesel because Stephen Carpenter plays or played one, they need to keep in mind that Stephen, like most modern guitar heroes, will bend with the wind and endorse whatever brand writes the biggest cheques.

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Back to the Virus and Surge XT.

Looking at the list of artists using the Virus TI, one could rationalise that since almost all of these are 20th century artists who haven't made much of a splash in the 21st century, that it's really just an outdated synth "of its time" that has long been superseded by much more powerful solutions.

One could.

In reality, SXT and V are both capable synths for very different audiences.

I don't think SXT is a good match for OP. IMO (and I'm not blaming them, it's only natural), they went in with a strong bias for the V and were looking to have other people rationalise their decision - whether they themselves realise it or not.

 

Last edited: Nov 17, 2025 at 3:59 PM