Those of you who don't know how your equipment works - why?

[nexion218]

Re: Those of you who don't know how your equipment works - why?

Sounds logical that you would be curious to want to know, until I think of many of the best guitar players in the world who have no idea how any of it works -guitar or amp -they spend their time playing more not thinking about electronics, acoustics and transduction

I recall a Q&A section from Marty Friedman's website from like 15 years ago, where he totally dodged any questions regarding his gear, especially the stuff used on Rust in Peace, saying that he went into the studio to play the insturment, not to play around with gear (or something along those lines). He might have been on to something, right?

[Powdered Toast Man]

Re: Those of you who don't know how your equipment works - why?

I think some of you guys have overshot the point. I don't think you need to understand how to rebuild a guitar or the theory of how pickups work. I'm talking about BASIC maintenance like how to adjust a truss rod, or checking and setting the intonation. You know, the basics of making it playable?

Someone compared it to a vehicle. No, most people don't know how to change their oil, but they do need to know how to adjust their seat and set the mirrors.

As for amps, continuing with the car analogy, imagine you get into the car with someone and they've got the heat on in the middle of summer. When you mention it and suggest turning on the A/C they say, "Oh I'm not really sure what any of those knobs or buttons does so I don't want to mess it up by changing them. I know the key goes in this thingy here and when I turn it the car turns on. That's all I know about how this car works."

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Those of you who don't know how your equipment works - why?

I recall a Q&A section from Marty Friedman's website from like 15 years ago, where he totally dodged any questions regarding his gear, especially the stuff used on Rust in Peace, saying that he went into the studio to play the insturment, not to play around with gear (or something along those lines). He might have been on to something, right?

Marty also says he’s skeptical of any sort of technique with a name, then utilizes many of those techniques. I take what he says with a pretty big grain of salt.

[Mincer]

Re: Those of you who don't know how your equipment works - why?

I know several players that can't even change their own strings. I offer to teach them, they don't care. They don't care about pedal order, what a good amp is, etc. Some of them are good players, some have stumbled onto good tone. Still, I don't know how you can be surrounded with guitar in most of your free time and not be the slightest bit curious about how it all works or come together. But I've seen it.

[GuitarStv]

Re: Those of you who don't know how your equipment works - why?

If I had spent all the time tinkering around with stuff to try to sound better in my life just playing my instrument more, I'd sound better. Absolutely, guaranteed. :P

[nexion218]

Re: Those of you who don't know how your equipment works - why?

Marty also says he’s skeptical of any sort of technique with a name, then utilizes many of those techniques. I take what he says with a pretty big grain of salt.

Yeah, in more recent interviews he seemed rather particular about the stuff he uses. I can imagine Angry Dave having a word or two about the sound and Marty just giving up on it to keep the gig. Afterall, Dave already had to sing him all the solos that he played, so trying to setup his own rig might've been a bit too much...

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: Those of you who don't know how your equipment works - why?

I’m always puzzled by this. I assume the same people can’t set the clock on their microwaves.

I always see these people complain when a guitar has too many controls. But do they treat the rest of life that way? There’s lots of knobs and buttons in your car too!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well, I have built some of my own guitars and amps, and do all my own maintenance, wrote books on scientific and engineering subjects, but the microwave? Forget it.

[LLL]

Re: Those of you who don't know how your equipment works - why?

These are the same people who plummet, willingly, into the Suck Tone® Vicious Circle.



"What is the Suck Tone® Vicious Circle", you say?

Well, I'm glad you asked...

This is a humorous dissertation on a real phenomenon; as follows:

The Suck Tone® Vicious Circle is a circle of perpetual suckage that sucks you in with its new gear smell, novelty, fad appeal and empty tone promises - but your tone never actually improves and you essentially wind up losing $$$ because you sell the Suck Tone® gear that you once thought was great but realize it wasn't... only to purchase newer Suck Tone® gear.

And of course, the Suck Tone® Vicious Circle really takes advantage of the inexperienced.

Here are the 6 Stages of the Suck Tone® Vicious Circle:

1) sucked in by new gear smell, novelty, fad appeal and (empty) tone promises
2) purchase of Suck Tone® gear
3) new gear smell, novelty and fad appeal wear off; tone promises are found to be empty
4) disillusionment with Suck Tone® gear sets in
5) the selling off of Suck Tone® gear begins
6) use proceeds from aforementioned selling off of Suck Tone® gear to get (go back to step 1)

You get nowhere because you keep going through a revolving door of gear that never hits the mark. At any point in the Suck Tone® Vicious Circle, you can easily discern three things: sucky tone, a revolving door of gear and loss of $$$.

[uOpt]

Re: Those of you who don't know how your equipment works - why?

There is always more depth.

One person's considered decent knowledge of how his/her chain works can be quite shallow compared to the next person.

For me, it is a bit like what was mentioned on the first page. Not being a great player I partially compensated with technical knowledge to at least sound good. (also, owning the PA is always a plus).

[nexion218]

Re: Those of you who don't know how your equipment works - why?

I can’t really picture Marty geeking out about some new “mouth-watering reverb” or a set of NOS power tubes.

Yeah, but don't forget that he was the one saying that he only plays "cool shaped " guitars. Look at him now. Times are a-changin'.

[Mincer]

Re: Those of you who don't know how your equipment works - why?

I've never built an amp yet, but have built a handful of pedal kits, and built a few guitars from parts. I always want to learn new things, even if I am not great at them right away. But, hey, I also love a well-written manual.

[NegativeEase]

Re: Those of you who don't know how your equipment works - why?

I know lots of players with signature guitars and signature amps and I'd say the majority don't know or care how things work -they know what they like though

Last September I was a party in NYC, and a player everyone on this board knows but I don't want to embarass him and I were talking about Premier League and I diverted and asked him about his signature humbucker pickups -and he said "honestly man, I don't even know what a humbucker is"

[Clint 55]

Re: Those of you who don't know how your equipment works - why?

I can't deal unless everything in my guitar is specd out. Pickups, mags, wood, board radius, fret work, custom string set etc. But ya, what's with people who can't adjust string length, or even height? Lol!

[NoOnesFang13]

Re: Those of you who don't know how your equipment works - why?

If I spent half as much time playing as I do with research I would be a much much better guitarist. I have a lot of gear (by normal people standards, not people on this forum) but none of it is worth a whole lot. I don't have any Gibsons or even Fenders, but i do have a lot of guitar that are less sought after (Yamaha, Ibanez, Samick). I have always been of the camp that think upgrading a cheap guitar and setting it up right can make it better than a way more expensive one off the shelf.

[dystrust]

Re: Those of you who don't know how your equipment works - why?

For me, it was always a necessity. I couldn't afford to take my gear to someone else, so I had to learn to work on stuff.

For things like electronics and simple hardware swaps ie no fretwork or drilling holes in things, I started doing my own so that I wouldn't have to wait a week or two for someone to work on my guitar. It probably started around the time I wanted my Explorer wired a certain way and it took the tech 3 tries despite my sending a wiring diagram with the guitar.