Snake oil? ;-)

2022-10-03 07:02 pm

I'm reading a book on organic chemistry and I met this cameo:

Quote

Trombone oil is used to lubricate trombone slides.
It's basically a light machine oil, but it's also a wonderful metaphor.
Trombone oil is very specialized.
Musicians who need it will pay a high price for the best quality of trombone oil.
And the total world market is a few gallons a year. (Actually, that's a made-up number, but this is a metaphor, so never mind.)
The point is that, no matter how excellent a trombone oil maker you are, no matter how fine your trombone oil is or how much you can charge for it, you're never going to make a really serious amount of money selling it because the total market is just too small.
I find this to be an excellent analogy that can be applied to many situations, and now you can use it too.

Re: Snake oil? ;-)

Reply #1 – 2022-10-06 12:01 am

Interesting. The best trombone cream seems to depend greatly on who you ask. I had one instructor who said to just buy POND'S Cold Cream. At any rate, the better cream never seemed to help my playing!

Re: Snake oil? ;-)

Reply #2 – 2022-10-06 08:14 am

A friend of mine, guitarist, had a Fender, then switched to a Gibson, then settled back to a Stratocaster.
His conclusion: "switching instrument can't make me any better... I should switch the musician!"