Guitar Gear

I was on a forum recently where a longtime professional musician reached out to the community as he was looking to get a new guitar after decades of playing. He asked a question I’ve heard many times: What’s the difference between a $500 guitar and a $5000? In other words, why is the $5000 guitar considered better? And he admitted he had no clue about woods or pickup specs.

But he did back all his questions with his experience as a player, and that he has been playing professionally – live and in the studio – for over 20 years with the same guitar and amp. And not just part-time. That was how he made his living.

Most people who responded were very helpful, but one snarky person jumped all over his shit about not knowing about guitars. In reply, I said something to the effect that while the rest of us spent time and money chasing the tone unicorn, the original poster obviously found his tone with the gear he had and didn’t feel a need to look any further. The fact that he had made a successful career out of that original gear is a testament to that.

And that got me thinking that as we all see the world through the lens of our own experience, it’s very easy to try to apply our lens to others’ experiences. And in the case of the person jumping on the original poster, that’s a perfect example of that.

With gear sluts like us, we absolutely obsess over the minutiae of our gear. But there’s a whole sector of people, like the original poster, whose only concern is that it sounds and plays good.

It’s like my wife with wine. She has a very binary sense of wine: She either likes it or she doesn’t. Me? I’m a bit of a connoisseur. I love discovering the nuances. But the uncanny thing is that my wife actually great taste in wine. The wines she likes are what I’d rate in the 90+ range. In other words, she knows what’s good, but she doesn’t fuss over the details.

So if you’re one of those people, it’s not a big deal. If it works for you, that’s all that matters!