Guilty As Charged

So today I found myself cruising around the forums looking at opinions from other faceless peers who seem to know everything about guitars, pickups, and what have you... basically know-it-all-guitar gearheads like me. I'm on a few forums; you can find me as DaveThePius on MyLesPaul.com. What I do is one of 2 things: 

1) Educate myself on guitar theories

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2) Try to find other people that validate my beliefs

Any time I think to myself "This pickup is gonna sound AWESOME!!" because I like the description of it, I go to the forums to find at least 4 guys who have experience with it, and back me up. The downside to this is that for everything you find a good review on, you find 20 people say there is something better, and in some cases it'll be something that you a) never heard of, or b) read somewhere else that it sucks.

The plus side to the forums is that you get more insightful info than "It sounds great!!" or "This really sucks!!" like most reviews on the shopping sites. Keep in mind, the guys on Musician's Friend's website probably bought the item with their eyes more than likely. A lot of complaints are due to the fact that they were never tried the item before buying it, or received something that could have been damaged in transit, didn't sound as bitchin' as the picture looked, or know nothing about setups. I wish I had a dollar for every review I saw that stated something about the setup being horrible. I never expect mail-order guitars to be setup, I live in Wisconsin. There's a reason guitars have trussrods.

Usually, in the forums, you'll come across geeks like us who will tell you a certain guitar tends to be darker, lacking sustain, or something more descriptive. They'll give you feedback on how 2 pickups compare, saying one's more articulate than the other, has more gain, or more clarity. After a while, you get an understanding for terms like "glassy", or "chimey". Plus you'll get some comical exchanges.

This all said, there have been some pieces of gear I have bought despite negative reviews and feedback. I completely went for broke when I tried the X2 XDS95 wireless systems. They had horrible reviews, but I tried them anyway. They are still fantastic units, and I still love them to death to this day. At the risk of seeming like I'm reaching for a shameless plug, here's a video of one of the bands I'm in where I'm using the X2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y6rme93m6U

This demos the "lifeless wireless that kills sustain". I get sustain for days through those wireless systems.

So basically, take what some of the reviewers and experts say with a grain of salt. If you have a $200 guitar, chances are ANY upgrades are gonna make it sound more gooder to you. Also, just because you don't like something off the bat, doesn't mean you won't like it down the road. It's quite common to go full circle on liking gear. Sounds can grow on you, and sometimes you discover ways to make a thing work for you by use of different approach.