Creativity Quote by John Sebastian

There is a very musicianly kind of diplomacy in Sebastian's aside: part gear-nerd observation, part gentle critique, part shrug. "B to B instruments" points to a specific arms race of timbre and range (baritone-to-bass territory, down-tuned setups, extended-scale guitars) that surged as players chased heavier lows without actually switching to the tools built for it. He's hearing the trend everywhere, but he also hears the compromises: people trying to muscle conventional guitars into roles that ask for different physics, different string tension, different resonance.

The subtext is less about purity and more about honesty. Sebastian isn't scolding; he's clocking how fashion moves faster than craft. When he says "everybody isn't... using them", he’s noting a gap between the sound people want and the instrument choices they make, a classic pop-music tension: image, habit, and budget versus sonic specificity. Then comes the pivotal softening: "although that has its own sound, and maybe its okay". That line is the artist's escape hatch from snobbery. Yes, the "right" instrument exists, but wrong tools can accidentally become style.

Contextually, it's also a snapshot of a culture shifting from songwriting and performance toward a more production-minded era, where tuning and gear selection shape identity as much as melody. Sebastian frames it like overheard shop talk, but the intent is serious: chasing a sound is fine; pretending the workaround is the same thing is where the ear starts to roll its eyes.