Guitar Gear

I’ve heard some great advice, and hopefully have even given good advice about guitar gear over the years. So after a lot of thought, I decided to compile a list of stuff I’ve either heard or shared in this blog or on the forums. They’re not in any particular order, so I’ll just put them in bullets:

• “I get the best gear that my money will buy so that if I suck, at least I’ll know it’s not the gear…”
  A friend jokingly once shared that with me. But there’s really a ring of truth to it; at least as far as quality is concerned. Remember, you don’t have to pay top-dollar for great quality. There’s lots of stuff on the market that will do the job and then some, and not cost you an arm and a leg. On the other hand, sometimes quality does cost.
• Think for yourself. No one can tell you what YOU should think “good” tone is; they can only share their version of it.
  This is one my pet peeves of the online forums. There are lots of forum rats who live there who speak eloquently enough that the unwary will hang on every word they say. They could claim that what most players might think is a buzz-saw-sounding tone is great tone, and  their “followers” would take that as an edict from heaven.
• There is no “best” __________
  This is a corollary to the point above. To me, there’s nothing worse than listening to or reading someone’s bombast about what gear’s the best. There is no best. Take overdrive pedals, for instance. There are TONS on the market. But I can’t tell you how many threads I’ve read where so and so says that such and such is the best overdrive pedal on the planet. If there were a best overdrive, we’d only have one, and it would be the Timmy. 🙂
• No amount of gear will make you sound like _______________
  There’s the “brown sound” and Slash’s tone and SRV’s tone and Robben Ford’s tone. You could get all the gear they have, and guess what? You’ll sound like you. Deal with it. 🙂
• If you’re new to tube amps, start out with an inexpensive and “tweakable” amp.
  Some might disagree with me on this point, but it’s advice that I got from Neal at Tone Merchants in Orange, CA when I was considering buying a tube amp after having played a Line 6 FlexTone III and other solid state amps for years. He actually recommended a Fender Hot Rod, which I ended up getting, but there are some great inexpensive tube amps on the market to start out with. And frankly, if I had to do it all over again, I’d start out with a low-wattage tube amp like a Fender Champ 600 or VHT Special 6. These both cost less than $200, and will help teach you about tube overdrive and how a tube amp responds to various inputs. I still have the Hot Rod, and I still use it, but it’s loud – real loud. With a low-wattage amp, you can crank it and not blow your ears out; even if you hook it up to an extension speaker.
• There isn’t necessarily a correlation between higher price and “better.”
  Just because something costs more doesn’t mean it’ll make you sound better or will work with your rig. It goes back to never taking anyone’s word on what’s good. There might be some gear that’s all the rage, but until you try it, you’ll never know how it’ll sound. You might do just as well with something that costs half the price. For me, that’s the Mad Professor Deep Blue Delay. I have the original, hand-wired version. But I tried the PCB version and it does the job good enough for my uses. It’s slightly different with respect to being just a tad brighter to my ears, but that’s not something that can’t be fixed with EQ.
• Don’t buy gear based upon songs you hear on the radio or on your iPod.
  Keep in mind that professionally mixed and produced recordings have been tweaked to the hilt. Compression and reverb have been added, EQ has been adjusted, perhaps even stereo imaging has been applied. All these affect the original tone. Even if you go to a concert, you’re at the mercy of the sound engineer. For instance, last year I went to see the Experience Hendrix show with Joe Satriani. When Joe first came out, he sounded like crap! Way too loud, and super-compressed as to be muddy. The sound guys and Joe made adjustments, and it sounded fine after that. But it was a lesson for me to only trust an evaluation to being right in front of the gear to make the adjustments myself.
• Take your time with your decisions, and try out several if you can. You never know what you might turn up.
  Last year, a couple of weeks after I got my Yamaha APX900 acoustic/electric, I realized that I needed a chorus pedal. So I went down to my favorite store and tried out four pedals from different manufacturers, and lined them all up in a row so I could make a comparison. Mind you, I didn’t look at the prices, I just lined them up to see how they worked with the guitar through an acoustic amp. I tried the MXR, BOSS CE-5, Homebrew THC, and Red Witch Empress.I immediately dismissed the MXR, kind of liked the CE-5, but could only get a couple of good tones, loved the THC for its simplicity, yet wide range of tones, and really dug the Red Witch. I ended up getting the THC because it was so smooth. The Empress was out of the ballpark with respect to price for me, and though the THC was pushing it price-wise, I went with it because I really bonded with its tone. The point to all this is that I had a few to try out. I originally was just going to get a CE-5, but after doing my comparison, it was clear that it wasn’t going to work for me. And to be honest, I had never heard of the THC before I tried it out. But I’m glad I did as I’ve never tired of it, and it has stayed on my acoustic board since.
• If it ain’t broke, TRY not to fix it…
  People who suffer from GAS can never stop trying and buying gear, so I’m not even going to say “don’t fix it.” It’s futile. However, I will say this: Take some time to bond with your gear before you make any snap decisions. For me, buying gear is all about how I’ll use it on stage and in the studio. I control my urges by keeping those in context, and always asking myself, “Will this work for me when I’m performing or in the studio? And have I explored the possibilities of the gear that I have?” I suppose anything can be rationalized. But I’ve found that my rate of acquisition has really reduced since I started adding context to my gear evaluations.For instance, until I got the Timmy, I hadn’t purchased an overdrive for well over a year – probably almost two years. I evaluated them, yes, but didn’t purchase them. The primary reason is that I got a great attenuator, and mostly used tube overdrive from my amps. So I stopped using many of my OD pedals except for my Tone Freak Effects Abunai 2. I actually removed the other two from my board (the KASHA, and Doodad Check-a-bord), and just went with a single for a long time. Now the Timmy sits on my board with the Abunai, and the two will stay.
• Finally, don’t ever be embarrassed by the gear that you have…
  Way back when I played nothing but acoustic guitar, and occasional electric, I used to worry about the “cheapness” of my gear. I actually felt embarrassed that my acoustic was a cheapo Yamaha, and the electric I was using was a hand-me-down, beat up Ibanez Strat. I one time expressed that to a close friend whom I worked for in several theatrical orchestras (he was a conductor). His reply to me was, “Dude, who cares? You sound awesome. You could probably spend on some great equipment, but you sound great and are obviously comfortable with your gear, so why be embarrassed?” This was backed up by the drummer who was playing in the show who told me to keep on using the Ibanez because it had such a great dirty, ratty tone. I wasn’t even half as good as I am now, but I learned a great lesson that it’s what you do with your gear that matters, not necessarily how “good” that gear is.

In all honesty, this article took me about a month to finish. I originally thought it would be a slam dunk to write, but I realized after the first couple of points that I wanted it mean something, and hopefully it does. ROCK ON!!!