Here's something I've learned
I've bought a TON of gear in my 15 years as a guitarist. If I listed it out, I'm not exaggerating, I think it'd be more than 200 pedals, and I know it's about 15 amps and 10 guitars total. Just listing amps alone I've owned two Dr. Z's, a Matchless, an Orange, a couple of AC-30s and AC-30 clones, five Deluxes/Deluxe clones, and two Kempers. To me, gear buying and selling has become a fun hobby. It's like Pokemon, you gotta catch 'em all. I'm trying to try out all the gear I can. When someone comes out with an echo pedal that does something I've never heard of before, I want to try it. Prime example is the Caroline Kilobyte—such a unique delay. Before the Kilobyte, I had never tried a delay that has a built-in overdrive circuit or run-off oscillation on a footswitch.
So gear-buying is fun to me. It's an enjoyable hobby. I'll never go back into debt to buy gear, but I still enjoy the hustle. Save up, buy, try, compare, sell. And it's given me the ability to share what I've learned with others along the way, which has lent the entire endeavor a sense of purpose. But I don't want to encourage you to buy gear in this blog post. I want to encourage you to stop buying gear, at least for a season. And here's why.
One thing that I've learned over 15 years as a guitarist is that an exceptional guitarist will sound exceptional on really any piece of gear. Look up videos of the kid playing Stevie Ray Vaughn licks on a Pixar's Cars-themed toy guitar. Little out of tune, sure, and probably a pretty uncomfortable playing experience, but what a performance! Totally spot-on guitar playing and awesome vocals garnering over seven million views (that's about $400 per month in ad revenue according to a couple of Youtube calculators I used). Maybe SRV on a toy guitar isn't your bag, look up Lincoln Brewster and watch any live performance. His guitar rig? A Strat and a Line 6 POD HD500. Here's a guy who played with Journey's Steve Perry before starting his solo career, and now he has traded his Marshall stacks for a $500 unit that receives a lot of hate online. My friend Britton fired a POD up tonight to use at church this Sunday, he said he dug it out of a closet! Does it sound like garbage when you pull it out of a Rubbermaid marked "Easter 2013" in a closet full of Wise Men costumes beside the choir room at your church and you just fire it up cold? Absolutely it will sound like hot garbage every single time. But does the POD sound like garbage when Lincoln Brewster spends time to get it dialed in just right? No. No, it sounds phenomenal.
I'm trying to say: Practice, effort, experience, and the time it takes to get things dialed in just right, THAT'S what makes a phenomenal guitarist. Not the amount spent.
Early on, my friends from a band called Atrium were headlining a show, and pulled me aside during the opening act. Eric said, "Watch this guy," pointing to the stage, "he's using Squier guitars and a solid state amp, but watch him. Really listen." As the band launched into their first song, this guy opened up the volume knob on his Squier Strat and completely blew my mind. Incredible tone, taste, and feel. I mean—guys—we're talking Mateus level skills coming from a redneck dude in a small opening act, playing no more than $350 worth of gear.
Watch the guys like that. Watch the guys who aren't compensating for anything, if you know what I mean. Really listen. Tune into those guys. Me: I enjoy the hobby of trying out new gear and talking about it. Those guys are real musicians, real artists. I'm a blogger. I'm a Curtis Kent (no offense buddy). Watch the Dillan Witherow's of the world who are totally slaying on an American Strat and a Vox AC-15 (I think he's upgraded to a Benson now, but you get my point). I would love to think on that level and play on that level, and I promise you I'm practicing my ass off to do so. I used to think guys like that possessed some super power—something magic, something ineffable, something spiritual that charms glory out of circuits and wire. But it's not magic. It's hard work. It's dedication. It's time, talent, effort, industriousness, good stewardship. And it's the ability to float above the hype about gear, not letting themselves be influenced by the barrage of ads and social media messages saying "Your gear is not good enough." You can't buy time, talent, effort. You can't buy contentment.
Watch those guys.
If you're still watching me, though, know this. Although I think I'm a decent guitarist (I can hang with anyone in almost any genre, I'm never the best guitarist onstage unless I'm the only guitarist onstage, but I'm always able to carry on a musical conversation with my fellow musicians), although I think I'm alright, I still need a ton of practice. I had an eye-opening experience when I listened back to last Sunday's worship service. I was alone as the only guitarist onstage Sunday and I hate that, and it was my first Sunday back, first Sunday playing worship in a little while, and it was songs I had memorized—but all stuff I haven't performed in over 4 years (lot of oldies in last Sunday's set, their worship pastor was out and they had a guy filling in and he was great, but he did the comfortable songs. And that's totally fine). I also didn't rehearse with the band and I hate it when I'm not able to make a rehearsal. I rushed tempos, I didn't manage dynamics well, I overplayed, my effected signal was drier than I had hoped it would be in the mix (I sent two signals to front of house, dry and wet) so I sounded sterile and could hear literally everything I was playing in that mix, it was scary naked. I say all that to say this: Yes, I was standing on stage with $7,000 worth of gear. And yes, I was making music—I did my job. I did an OK job. But would I give myself a passing grade as a guitarist for that morning? No. Not at all.
It's not like I naively thought buying all this stuff would make me awesome. What I'm saying is FUNDAMENTALS FIRST if you want to be a passing grade guitarist. You don't need the Veritas Guitars Portlander. You do need to listen to your drummer. You don't need the Strymon Trinity. You do need to manage dynamics and mix your effected signal properly—get your gain stages right, get your delay and reverb mix right, send good strong signal to front of house. Maybe what you and I should do is make a push to focus on fundamentals. Play through your back pickup into a clean amp for a little while and focus on nailing the part.