CarloM

Agreed, and it's true for most hobbies (just substitute "skill" for "fitness" where appropriate). But equipment can and does play a part. I think of my other hobby: guitar playing. Yes you could put a pawn shop guitar in SRV's or Hendrix's hands and they'd still sound amazing. But I definitely have had the opposite experience where a well set-up, well built guitar has me able to pull of solos and chord changes that I can't on lesser quality, poorly set up instruments. The best guitar in the world isn't going to make me SRV. But I definitely play and sound better on my current guitars than I would if I went to the local music shop and picked up a $300 starter acoustic (which I'm sure SRV would have shredded on).