Controversial gear opinions…….lets hear them.

[DanTravis62]

I absolutely love all the shit talking and hurt feelings in this thread.

I think a lot of guys here are correct, if not completely all encompassing.

A great guitarist can make any gear work. He shouldn't have to

A shitty guitarist will benefit more from practice than gear. He shouldn't have to play shitty gear just because he is bad, and will probably play more with good gear

Some of us, like myself, are pretty shitty guitarists for how long we have been doing it, but we love playing guitar with our shitty skills through our gear that we definitely dont justify skillwise.

I think tonewise, if we are getting good tone, we are still qualified to speak to tone. We aren't getting it by accident.

I am pretty sure I am correct about everything above, but if not, I welcome a debate.

As far as the other stuff, it is important for a lot of people to get great tone without pedals or post eq, whatever, and that is fine.

I personally would never use post eq for gear demonstration because it feels odd. I would try to get the most raw recording I could and just note if using a boost, etc.

You also don't have 34 amp heads and 59 high end guitars, which would obviously be overkill for your experience level though - you have nice stuff but nice stuff isn't crazy for any skill level - it's having enough nice stuff for 100 people that seems to rub people the wrong way

 

[BABMusic]

Yeah, my teacher used to say, "Don't go back and try to revise a mediocre music idea. It's like an ugly woman getting plastic surgery -- it can only help so much."

 

[Omnipotent1]

You also don't have 34 amp heads and 59 high end guitars, which would obviously be overkill for your experience level though - you have nice stuff but nice stuff isn't crazy for any skill level - it's having enough nice stuff for 100 people that seems to rub people the wrong way

Gluttony comes in many forums lol

Yeah, my teacher used to say, "Don't go back and try to revise a mediocre music idea. It's like an ugly woman getting plastic surgery -- it can only help so much."

 

[S̷͖͑m̵͎͂á̵̺s̸͚̈́h̴̬̑]

You also don't have 34 amp heads and 59 high end guitars, which would obviously be overkill for your experience level though - you have nice stuff but nice stuff isn't crazy for any skill level - it's having enough nice stuff for 100 people that seems to rub people the wrong way

I have enough trouble convincing myself to get more guitars and amps than I can/will play. I think I joined Rig-talk in 2016, or started lurking then anyway. But I did buy multiple amps and guitars to kind of find my sound.

Now I have finally figured out that I do like having a clean amp/guitar and a high gain guitar/amp. Now I can butcher any song I want without switching a bunch of stuff since I have them both ready to go.

 

[DanTravis62]

I have enough trouble convincing myself to get more guitars and amps than I can/will play. I think I joined Rig-talk in 2016, or started lurking then anyway. But I did buy multiple amps and guitars to kind of find my sound.

Now I have finally figured out that I do like having a clean amp/guitar and a high gain guitar/amp. Now I can butcher any song I want without switching a bunch of stuff since I have them both ready to go.

I don't know anyone who would find that excessive or annoying tbh

Even if you had a handful of amps and guitars, still not excessive

 

[IHateRap]

Just about everything is more important than guitar tone.

 

[S̷͖͑m̵͎͂á̵̺s̸͚̈́h̴̬̑]

I don't know anyone who would find that excessive or annoying tbh

Even if you had a handful of amps and guitars, still not excessive

The guy who told me about rig-talk and got me into using amps instead of just playing acoustic had a lot of the small minded nonsense you hear here. And it took awhile to realise how I needed to approach gear.

It wasn't necessarily his fault. There is a big herd mentality here that you need to take for what it is.

I think a lot of us get into high gain trying to cop someone else's tone. I hope most of us kind of ditch that along the way and find our own style. However, I think most of us can distinguish a horrible tone from a good one, even if it isn't the tone that we would go for.

The obsessive quest for someone else's tone is the strangest thing to me

 

[VonBonfire]

The obsessive quest for someone else's tone is the strangest thing to me

IT'S A WASTE OF LIFE.

 

[TheGreatGreen]

The obsessive quest for someone else's tone is the strangest thing to me

I can see both sides of the coin.

I get the desire to want to bottle up a favorite artist's tone so you can either pull it out once in a while when you want to mess around with it, or to use that knowledge to integrate an element or two of it into your own sound.

"How is Hetfield's tone so tight? *research* oh he uses an amp that has a built-in ability to dial out all the lows before distortion which is what keeps everything tight and crispy, ok I'll start doing that with my own non-Mark rig."

"How does Malmsteen's sound get that stringy chirp despite the gain? *research* oh he uses single coils, ok I'll see about trying some single coils with my own non-boosted-Plexi rig."


But to try and 1:1 copy somebody else's tone to use as your own instrumental voice? That feels just a bit too hero-worshipy, and it's also a bit offputting. Like there are quite a few guys who try really hard to build up an atomic-level exact copy of Eddie's early VH rig which they then use as their go-to THIS IS MY TONE type thing, and it's just... any music they record using that sound is overshadowed by this ever-present notion that they're not using their own voice, and by extension it's not really their music, but instead it's more like a facsimile of someone else's. It makes the music they create with that sound seem kinda hollow and cheap.

 

[VonBonfire]

I can see both sides of the coin.

I get the desire to want to bottle up a favorite artist's tone so you can either pull it out once in a while when you want to mess around with it, or to use that knowledge to integrate an element or two of it into your own sound.

But to try and 1:1 copy somebody else's tone to use as your own instrumental voice? That feels just a bit too hero-worshipy, and it's also a bit offputting. Like there are some guys who try really hard to make an atomic-level exact copy of Eddie's early VH rig which they then use as their go-to THIS IS MY TONE type thing, and it's just... any music they write using that sound is overshadowed by this ever-present notion that they're not using their own voice, and by extension it's not really their music, but instead it's more like a facsimile of someone else's. It makes the music they create with that sound seem kinda hollow and cheap.

Buying similar gear=good starting point for your own tone ventures since you have a known quantity. 1:1 copying is cosplay 'tardedness.

 

[tjnx]

I absolutely love all the shit talking and hurt feelings in this thread.

I think a lot of guys here are correct, if not completely all encompassing.

A great guitarist can make any gear work. He shouldn't have to

A shitty guitarist will benefit more from practice than gear. He shouldn't have to play shitty gear just because he is bad, and will probably play more with good gear

Some of us, like myself, are pretty shitty guitarists for how long we have been doing it, but we love playing guitar with our shitty skills through our gear that we definitely dont justify skillwise.

I think tonewise, if we are getting good tone, we are still qualified to speak to tone. We aren't getting it by accident.

I am pretty sure I am correct about everything above, but if not, I welcome a debate.

As far as the other stuff, it is important for a lot of people to get great tone without pedals or post eq, whatever, and that is fine.

I personally would never use post eq for gear demonstration because it feels odd. I would try to get the most raw recording I could and just note if using a boost, etc.

I think I should chime in here as I said practice is worth more than gear. I don't think anyone needs to earn the ability to play certain gear or that they are less than in some way for having a lot or liking expensive things.

I mean it more as a cautionary tale from my own experience. After seeking out ways to get better I met some very good guitar players with very different priorities than I had at the time. From taking their advice and practicing consistently I've seen huge improvements but that also comes with a bit of regret for time wasted that I can't get back.

My take is buy gear that inspires you to play as quickly as possible and be done for a bit. Then even faster after that arrange your life in such a way that you can consistently practice and just do it.

 

[S̷͖͑m̵͎͂á̵̺s̸͚̈́h̴̬̑]

I think I should chime in here as I said practice is worth more than gear. I don't think anyone needs to earn the ability to play certain gear or that they are less than in some way for having a lot or liking expensive things.

I mean it more as a cautionary tale from my own experience. After seeking out ways to get better I met some very good guitar players with very different priorities than I had at the time. From taking their advice and practicing consistently I've seen huge improvements but that also comes with a bit of regret for time wasted that I can't get back.

My take is buy gear that inspires you to play as quickly as possible and be done for a bit. Then even faster after that arrange your life in such a way that you can consistently practice and just do it.

I wasn't directing it at you, I assure you. But I completely agree. I have 100% bought gear to try to fix a problem in my own development. I think a lot of us have.

 

[S̷͖͑m̵͎͂á̵̺s̸͚̈́h̴̬̑]

Buying similar gear=good starting point for your own tone ventures since you have a known quantity. 1:1 copying is cosplay 'tardedness.

Yes. This is a smart starting point. My first foray was trying to cop Adam Jones tone with a borrowed Line 6. It was depressing. So I wanted to buy a 100 watt head and a 4x12, but my buddy told me that was too much for a bedroom guitarist. It would be way too loud. This lead me down a dumb path of trying to figure out variacs and all kinds of trash and ended with me buying an amp that while cool, was more gimmicky than useful. I ended up trading a pedal for a 120 watt amp and buying a used 4x12. After playing with it for a few minutes, I decided to see how loud it would get.

I was hooked.

 

[VonBonfire]

I was hooked.

Low watt amps and modeling gear is for TGP pussies and douchebags. I refuse to accept any other explanation for it. A 15 watt tube combo is acceptable for home practice and that's it. It's a child's toy. Something for when your kid decides hEy dAd I wUnnA pLaY GiTaRd. No other excuses are valid.

 

[S̷͖͑m̵͎͂á̵̺s̸͚̈́h̴̬̑]

Low watt amps and modeling gear is for TGP pussies and douchebags. I refuse to accept any other explanation for it. A 15 watt tube combo is acceptable for home practice and that's it. It's a child's toy. Something for when your kid decides hEy dAd I wUnnA pLaY GiTaRd. No other excuses are valid.

I agree with the exception of class A. I think that a low wattage class A is pretty sexy for more clean to mean shit

 

[VonBonfire]

I agree with the exception of class A. I think that a low wattage class A is pretty sexy for more clean to mean shit

Maybe I was a little too aggressive with my opinion. A 15 watt amp can work good in the studio. But dudes who just show up to big gigs with those little lunchboxes are lazy bums. Imagine showing up to a ditch digging job with some plastic beach shovels. Same thing. They were gushing over a 2k 12 watt gibson over at jazz guitar forum and I just wanted to smash an archtop in someone's mouth. I could get three big amps and a 24 pack and still have $ left over.