for a piece of brass this is pretty expensive, but it comes attached with the name of one of today's hot slide guitarists, so there's that. I wanted to try it so I did buy it along with the Joey Landreth one. I found both a tad too short and tight - I have big hands, but my fingers are by no means fat. Maybe these guys have smaller hands. I like the idea of the cutout but I have to use it on the wrong side to compensate for the shortness of the slide. As far as tone - any brass slide of similar thickness will sound exactly the same.