The player not the instrument.

There's a form of rock music where the singers sound like the Cookie Monster from Sesame Street on speed; indoors highland pipes (witnessed two pipebands last night, they were great in the Santa Claus parade), beginner fiddlers (endearing though they may e, they sound like crap), etc etc, you get the idea.

There are some cheap guitars with cheap strings which can't be intonated that parents want to purchase for their kids (often against my advice) for their first instrument. Three reasons they sound like shit (strings, box, intonation) and any one of them bother me, but all three together makes me cringe. That I have to listen to them played for a half hour every week is my personal hell.

Peace, Mooh.