So... do people with all the best equipment

[BentheMighty]

I was at a Sam Ash playing a MIM Standard Strat. I was doing the bends test to see if it fretted out and it sounded pretty poopish. Then I went up and down the neck to see if there weren't dead spots. When I put it down to think some more I looked up and this fat dude was staring at me with his mouth open like I just queefed on his mom. Then plugged in and swept tapped until I put the guitar up.

I think he thought I was one of those douchers.

[180gROC]

I know that not having to struggle with my gear/sound makes me want to practice more and inspires more creative things than hard to set up/keep in tune guitars and thin fizzy amps.

I never really cared what my stuff looked like. I play with my eyes closed most of the time anyways. I've always cared what it sounded like.

[duck2k]

I think I am competent enough to play my fine gear...well enough to be dangerous anyway!

[Thumpalumpacus]

Originally Posted by 180gROC

I know that not having to struggle with my gear/sound makes me want to practice more and inspires more creative things than hard to set up/keep in tune guitars and thin fizzy amps.

I never really cared what my stuff looked like. I play with my eyes closed most of the time anyways. I've always cared what it sounded like.

A fair point. Being on a budget, I have to consider the Law of Diminishing Returns, myself.

At some point on the price curve, the return-per-dollar levels off.

[River]

Originally Posted by 180gROC

I never really cared what my stuff looked like. I play with my eyes closed most of the time anyways. I've always cared what it sounded like.

Sound is important, playability just as in my book.

I'll admit to deciding which guitar to play tonight (or, frequently this week) with my eyes. One week I'll want bling, the next an ugly duckling. I'm fickle like that, but image CAN matter (ask any public speaker), and I'm not above considering the audience when choosing the guitar. Set their expectations, than exceed them by a tiny bit.

[LiveSimply]

Originally Posted by blakem

Does better gear make you learn to play better and motivate you? It may actually do that... I mean I guess if I think about it, if I just started playing and I had a smoking new Les Paul and a sweet amp, I would want to learn I guess.... you would feel proud holding that axe in your hands.... but I distinctly remember when I started learning to play, that it consumed me, it's all I wanted to do, and heck all I had was a cheap Epiphone strat copy with a small Peavey amp... but when I hit that first power chord with distortion, chills went down my spine.

I am one of those fellows that is desperately trying to play up to the level of his gear. As such, I am very motivated to put in the time to reach that level. I feel quite fortunate and grateful for the gear that I own and think that one advantage to starting out with decent gear is that one is not incrementally upgrading or GASing for the "bigger-and-better thing" as one's skills improve. The way I currently look at it, I'm not going to purchase more hardware until my playing warrants it. In that light, it may actually save me money over the long term.

[River]

I just had an amusing mental image: me showing up at open mic to do three or four my my solo electric/vocal pieces wearing one of these:



jeans, button-down shirt, vest, and fedora. I'd sound just like I always do, but the audience wouldn't be listening until at least the third song. They'd be wondering who put mushrooms in their drinks.

[180gROC]

Originally Posted by Thumpalumpacus

A fair point. Being on a budget, I have to consider the Law of Diminishing Returns, myself.

At some point on the price curve, the return-per-dollar levels off.

I've always said guitars don't know how much they cost. I've had some great low budget guitars. Amps, maybe not so much.

But yeah... If I had walls of blingy custom shop guitars it would be sad and slightly uncomfortable.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Originally Posted by River

I just had an amusing mental image: me showing up at open mic to do three or four my my solo electric/vocal pieces wearing one of these:



jeans, button-down shirt, vest, and fedora. I'd sound just like I always do, but the audience wouldn't be listening until at least the third song. They'd be wondering who put mushrooms in their drinks.

Sometimes GAS is fuel to get you moving ... and then sometimes it's just a belch.

[Skintaster]

Originally Posted by River

I just had an amusing mental image: me showing up at open mic to do three or four my my solo electric/vocal pieces wearing one of these:



jeans, button-down shirt, vest, and fedora. I'd sound just like I always do, but the audience wouldn't be listening until at least the third song. They'd be wondering who put mushrooms in their drinks.

I'd check that show out in a minute! I like playing with people's expectations of image.

For instance, I tend to play fairly heavy stuff... Weird "Metal" I guess. The last thing I'd show up to a show wearing would be any of the typical heavy metal band "uniform". I hate that stuff.

My new band plans on wearing bunny suits for our first gig... And there will be lots of blood of course...

*Ahem* ... Anyway.... I think the way Malikon does it is cool. Play heavy stuff, but don't look like a stereotype.

[River]

Originally Posted by Skintaster

*Ahem* ... Anyway.... I think the way Malikon does it is cool. Play heavy stuff, but don't look like a stereotype.

I do too. He's one of my role models, along with, well, I don't want to sound like Mr. Flattery here. Image is important, and it can be built on consistency, convention, or unconventionally consistent inconsistency. Personality's the key, really, as to which any one of us can pull off. Consistently unconventional:



I'm sure I could find flames like that Dean's to decal onto my MM V. But that Dean headstock? Not on your life.

I needs me an image consultant. Oh, wait, I'm married already.

[Nicky]

I have some expensive, mid-level and cheap gear. When all is said and done, I tend to play my least expensive guitar the most, a '95 MIJ Fender telecaster that I got on eBay for a cupple hunnert bucks. Some kid had put 3 EMG active pickups in it, Nashville style. I played it that way for a while, and actually liked it. However, the mod bug got me, so I put some very good pickups in it (Amalfitano bridge/middle, SD HotRails neck), and added GraphTec saddles and Schaller tuners. Now, my $200 piece of junk is a $700 piece of junk, but I just love the scale, weight and sound a bunch. Go figure...

[Gin&Pentatonic]

Doesn't matter and I don't care.

[Joeydego]

Originally Posted by Thumpalumpacus

A fair point. Being on a budget, I have to consider the Law of Diminishing Returns, myself.

At some point on the price curve, the return-per-dollar levels off.

somewhere around 1000 bucks. That being said, there's no reason you cant get a 400 dollar Ibanez or similar to play smooth and sound great.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Yep. I'd love to be able to drop five or six Gs on a guitar, but that isn't going to happen any time soon, I don't think.

[SteveGangi]

Originally Posted by River

I just had an amusing mental image: me showing up at open mic to do three or four my my solo electric/vocal pieces wearing one of these:



jeans, button-down shirt, vest, and fedora. I'd sound just like I always do, but the audience wouldn't be listening until at least the third song. They'd be wondering who put mushrooms in their drinks.

That is lightyears away from my mental image of you

[themightyjaymoe]

Originally Posted by Skintaster

To a lot of people, playing guitar is a hobby like any other - They feel that having the "best" gear will either offer them some elusive advantage, or think it gives them a bit of cred.

"Hobbies cost money. Interests are quite free."
- George Carlin

For me it was never about thinking the best gear would make me play better, it was about giving me the motivation to play. As far as cred there are people who will always have more gear, guitars, chops, 'cred'. Doesn't bother me. I have guitars that I like so I play more. I play more so I sound better. I sound better so I can justify dropping hard earned cash on a nice guitar. The cycle begins again. I'm not going to win a guitar playing competition anytime soon but anytime I get a nice guitar it makes me feel like I could.

[Malikon]

Originally Posted by alligatorbling

some folks own bose stereos, and listen to talk radio.

[River]

Originally Posted by SteveGangi

That is lightyears away from my mental image of you

Precisely. Photoshop that guitar into Colchar's avatar and that's what we'd be dealing with. People's heads would asplode. It would take at least two numbers before they could come to some kind of mental resolution. And I'm not talking about guitarists, just people. Meanwhile, I'd have gotten away with no one paying attention to the music, so perhaps I should lead with my worst instead of my best.

Back when I had a duet partner and first got my (much more subtle) V, I took it to practice and even he was sucking wind.

That's yours?!

Yeah, John, chill. Never heard of Lonnie Mack, Albert King, Kim Simmonds?

Well, yeah, b-b-b-but...

Gotta find me some flame decals.

[X–Ray]

Originally Posted by blakem

Actually play any good??? I know some do, and of course most professionals.. but it's funny, I hang out at the music store and guys with money will come in and buy the best pickups, and the best guitar, the best amp, and I am glad they can... but from what I see, most can barely play a G chord... LOL... I am generalizing , I know thats wrong to do, but it cracks me up... they are so concearned with having the best and they cant even play.... then you got the guys with no money that come in, pick up a cheap Squire Strat , plug into a cheap amp and sound awesome..... any one else notice this?

life's not fair

they also have a Harley, a '57 Chevy, a cigarette boat, antique guns, a gorgeous wife half their age, a full head of hair, their house is paid off, the kids are through college, and a solid retirement plan

i admire 'em... when i'm not hating 'em

[old mark]

Originally Posted by River

I'm getting better all the time, honest.

Practice, practice, practice.......


dude..


mark

[music to my ears]

Your not the only one who notices this. Gibson, Fender, PRS, and the rest of the guitar manufacturing companies notice it too and market their guitars and products to that demographic (hobbyists who can and are willing to pay top dollar). The reality of it is most die hard 17 year olds who have grand dreams and a love for the instrument don't have the capital to drop on a high end the guitar. It's the Novice players that fuel the industry.

[12watt]

Originally Posted by alligatorbling

some folks own bose stereos

Talk radio or not, Bose is the hallmark of the ill-informed.

no highs, no lows, must be BOSE

[Roberteaux]

I inherited a bunch of money, right about the same time as I decided to start playing the guitar (October 2010). I knew nothing of guitars except that I knew what a Les Paul was (thanks, Mr. Page) and what a Stratocaster was (thanks Mr. Hendrix). So I walked into a guitar store and bought a Stratocaster, more or less my first guitar (had a Teisco that I played for about three months back when I was about fifteen).I wasn't sure if I liked the Strat, so I walked back in two weeks later and got an LP trad plus. That was my second guitar. About three months after that, I walked in again and got an ES-335 because I mistakenly thought that's what Brian Setzer played. Somewhere in there, I got a Martin acoustic.

Got an ES-339 about six months later because I liked the ES sound, but didn't like how humungous the body of the 335 was. At this point I had only been playing for eight months. Haven't gotten another guitar since, because I like that 339 so much. Once in a while I haul one of the others out from under the bed just for... I dunno... fun? Tonight it was the lester's turn.

Here's why I did all that: I didn't know much about guitars and so got the most famous and popular ones, thinking that at least the guitar was of acceptable quality. I knew that if I got a good one and went to sell it, I'd lose money but not get totally hosed. I know from working as a mechanic that good tools are generally much nicer to work with than those of lower quality, and I you get what you pay for in the world of firearms, too. I wasn't sure how things stacked up in the guitar world, but figured it was prolly all the same.

So yes: who played those guitars had an influence over me, but I immediately discarded the signature models they showed me on the grounds that they were too pricey, and also because I didn't really know or care about the mods at all. I figured that if I couldn't learn to play on a regular ol' stratocaster, then I couldn't learn to play at all. It wasn't an anti-corksniffer reaction-- it was just a decision that I felt to be sensible. But I also knew that I really WAS gonna be playing these dratted things forever, and so didn't mind the expenditue. It was an assurance of quality that made me buy what I bought, more than anything else. That, and hunting for the right one to bond with.

I don't call myself a collector at all. I'll be buying a superstrat to replace the one I gave to my nephew-- that first guitar I mentioned buying-- and maybe someday something really grand, like what a luthier would build for you. But that's really about it, and for now what I've got is more than good enough.

Last spit: since day one I saw that it's the player who makes the guitar and not vice-verse. My cousin has an Epi SG, and he absolutely smokes it. And I've seen my instructor playing a squier strat and then some weird Overture guitar and likewise tearing it up. Seen a million other guys playing this, that, and the other less expensive guitar and tearing it up. Mississippi John Hurt played an el cheapo acoustic out of preference, and he made it sing like an angel. So that's really all I needed to know about the guitar's relationship to the player. And also: my cousin doesn't sound better on my lester than on his Epi SG. Both he and my instructor sound pretty much just like themselves, no matter what guitar they are playing.

--R

[McCloud9]

After teaching myself to play with help from thebnet of course,' the one thing I knew frilom day one is that for me to go out and spend $3500 on the Gibson name, and another $2000 on a bid name amp, would be no different than a 15 year old kid taking drivers ed going out and buying a ferarri!

Some day I may feel I'm at the point where I'm playing good enough to justify owning a Gibson, but by the time that day rolls around I still wont like baked maple unless it has whipped cream on it so I'll probably save the moneyand keep playing my Epiphone and just get a nicer amp.

[lpcustom69]

Buy the guitar that you want, and can afford. Don't worry about what gear others have.

[lpcustom69]

Buy the guitar that you want, and can afford. Don't worry about what gear others have.

[Mike-t]

Originally Posted by McCloud9

After teaching myself to play with help from thebnet of course,' the one thing I knew frilom day one is that for me to go out and spend $3500 on the Gibson name, and another $2000 on a bid name amp, would be no different than a 15 year old kid taking drivers ed going out and buying a ferarri!

Some day I may feel I'm at the point where I'm playing good enough to justify owning a Gibson, but by the time that day rolls around I still wont like baked maple unless it has whipped cream on it so I'll probably save the moneyand keep playing my Epiphone and just get a nicer amp.

I learned along time ago that doing things the hard way to impress myself was as meaningful as winning the title of "Best at Masturbation".

If you can afford the Ferrari, go out and buy it because it will make you smile, and when it doesn't anymore, sell it and buy something else.

[SteveGangi]

Originally Posted by Mike-t

I learned along time ago that doing things the hard way to impress myself was as meaningful as winning the title of "Best at Masturbation".

If you can afford the Ferrari, go out and buy it because it will make you smile, and when it doesn't anymore, sell it and buy something else.

But at the same time, don't "puke on" the guy driving the Yugo either.

[Bluesky]

Hey I have a Corvette but only drive the speed limit also. I'm not Old or "Great" but I enjoy nice gear and can play decent IMO.