Originally Posted by bikingshearer

I doubt it. I'll defer to the people who actually, you know, build frames for the final word.

But speaking from the unique position of never having brazed two pieces of metal together in my life, I am convinced that, once you get past a certain level of quality of steel, the builder's skill and the thickness of the tubes are more important than the name on the sticker or the number of butts. I'm a big boy, and the best riding bike I have was made in the mid-1960s with Columbus SP (thicker walls). To someone who is my height but lighter than I am might think it feels lifeless. By the same token, a thinner-walled tubed frame that feels great to them might feel a bit flexy to me. And this is not even getting into the differences in tube diameters . . . .