Gear snobbery and stereotypes

mwalluk

mwalluk

New member
Admit it. It crossed your mind before. We judge people before we know anything about him. Some dust on the fretboard and between the pickups, rugged/rundown strings about to snap, maybe a lil rust on the hardware, that guitarist is lazy.

I fell into this judgmental category last night.

So I'm in the process of starting a new group being that my current group is about to separate. So I'm searching through CL (which sucks nowadays and hasn't been the same for a few years) trying to find some musicians to either jam with or start a project with. I throw up an ad and got a response from a guitarist who lives near me.

Location is good, commitment level is perfect (has a family so doesn't want to be a rockstar but rather wants to write good songs and play some shows).

He sends me some samples which were decent. I took em for what they were: concepts, idea, composition. Tone was ehhhh, but I chalked it up to crappy demo recordings (just laying down the general idea).

I asked him what gear he uses, said a strat, gibson lp and an amo with pedals. I could care less about the brands of guitar(s) he uses. Some midrange guitars are really great guitars.

I asked him more about his amp. He said it was some 75 watt Randall solid state that he runs a Boss Amp modeler through. My excitement drops and gear snobbery kicks in.

I think to myself.... well this is going suck.

1st, my amp will eat his amp alive. I'm not even talking about quality/price/etc. I'm talking voicings, power and levels. Last time I jammed with a different band who's guitarist had a Marshall MG halfstack, I had my amp on 2.5 and it destroyed his cranked.


2nd, it's a Randall. I owned a Randall before (granted it was the RM though) and Randalls don't do good cleans. Solid state randalls are good for one thing, METAL distortion (which isn't the dude's style).

3rd, if you're going invest on guitars (gibson) why not invest in your amp?!?!?! If you are just using pedals for your sound (like he is) why not a midrange Fender? Hot Rod Deville? Get em used around $300-400 range.

I still plan on jamming with the guys, but not keeping my hopes up.
 
Re: Gear snobbery and stereotypes

Yep. My band has a new guitar player and he plays through some kind of 212 Crate combo. It may be tube, but I don't know. He runs some kind of digital Boss multi effect stomp box, too.

Thing is, he is a great guitar player with a great ear and great work ethic. Did I say great? Yep...

Give the dude a chance, it may work out.
 
Re: Gear snobbery and stereotypes

play with him first. if there's a good musical feeling then you can start to taking care about 'his' gear.

btw, why you current band is about to separate?
 
Re: Gear snobbery and stereotypes

I'd be dubious too. But he's got a family so maybe not too much cash to spare and if he's not used to playing gigs maybe that stuff sounds good at home. I've used a cheap tube amp with a couple of pedals for gigs and it sounded great when I could crank the amp a little but not so great for playing at kitchen level. Our band had another guitarist for while who had a horrible amp so he used my back up stuff which was ten times better.
 
Re: Gear snobbery and stereotypes

If I answered your ad, I would have told you that my amp is a Polytone and I play through a Line 6 modeler.

I would have probably left my '65 Super Reverb and '65 Princeton Reverb out of the discussion because I don't schlep them around for just anything. You would have been even more snobbish about the Polytone I'll bet...
 
Re: Gear snobbery and stereotypes

I play thru a Randall Rg75 as well. Granted its not the best sounding amp and sure there are many that can eat it alive. I play thru it because Im poor and I am not currently playing live gigs so I see no need for a tube amp at the moment. Which would need an hot box to be able to crank it up and get good tones. That is a bit much at bedroom volume. At some point I want to get a better amp.(when I find a band to gig with) Until then Ill be playing thru a Randall. I do the best with what I have to work with. Maybe his choice was to get a Great guitar (gibson) to play first then save for an amp. Play with the dude. See what happens. It could turn out you find an excellent player and guitarist to compose with. It could turn out he sucks. but unless you keep an open mind to it ....its gonna suck regardless because you have already made up ur mind it will.
 
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Re: Gear snobbery and stereotypes

musicians are flakey, I would rather have a solid friend, than a monster musician that is flakey in my band

dont care if he plays solid state or not.

also, if he can get people to show up and get gigs

I would trade either of those things for solid state any day. also for bass I play solid state/modeler only, so I may be impartial :)
 
Re: Gear snobbery and stereotypes

I would think you should offer to jam with him and if it goes well and you find he has issues with his Randall compared with your tube amps just simply tell him your concerns and see if he is willing to fix it. After jamming with you I am sure he will notice the same problems and agree to fix it.
 
Re: Gear snobbery and stereotypes

I am all good with people who have sh!tty gear.

It usually means they are focusing on music and not on ____.

You can plug that guy into a good amp, but you can't plug musicianship into a guy that's all gear and no ear™.
 
Re: Gear snobbery and stereotypes

I plan on jamming with him regardless.

He said he played gigs with that amp, I'm just worried it may not fit the overall sound I'm trying to achieve, nor do I know how much it will mesh with my tone.

Regardless, first thing first is actually jamming with the guy.

In terms of the band I'm in now, things aren't progressing. We been together for over 4 years now. There's no ambition, let alone initiative. I've wrote the basis for all of our originals minus 2. That becomes exhausting and overbearing. No one wants to go out and book the shows, i've booked about 90% of them. Lately, band practice has turned into hanging out. The singer wants to do a more pop orientated thing. He's always been flakey but wants a completely differ style and not willing to work with us. Will not learn any covers except a effing pop song (ala bieber). Not putting any effort into this. The bass player hardly shows up, maybe showed up a dozen times over the past 6 months, then on some songs doesn't real put effort rather goes through the motions. The other guitarist comes stoned, then throws back 10 beers. Has 3 ideas that he had for about a year now, keeps throwing em out, but can't finish the god damn song. The drummer is average, nothing special, really no complaints. Actually plan on bringing him with me to jam with the guitarist that ive been talking to.
 
Re: Gear snobbery and stereotypes

SS amps typically don't need as much maintenance, don't wear out tubes, and don't usually break down. Nothing wrong with that if you're depending on it.

Remember the old adage, there's no such thing as bad tone, just different*. Just because you don't like it and/or wouldn't use it doesn't mean it sucks. This dude might have an awesome individual sound that's really cool, especially when used in conjunction with yours. Judge with your ears and not with your interweb forum superiority complex.

*exception for EMG + Metal Zone + scooped mids practice amp.
 
Re: Gear snobbery and stereotypes

mwalluk said:
Admit it. It crossed your mind before. We judge people before we know anything about him. Some dust on the fretboard and between the pickups, rugged/rundown strings about to snap, maybe a lil rust on the hardware, that guitarist is lazy.

I fell into this judgmental category last night.

So I'm in the process of starting a new group being that my current group is about to separate. So I'm searching through CL (which sucks nowadays and hasn't been the same for a few years) trying to find some musicians to either jam with or start a project with. I throw up an ad and got a response from a guitarist who lives near me.

Location is good, commitment level is perfect (has a family so doesn't want to be a rockstar but rather wants to write good songs and play some shows).

He sends me some samples which were decent. I took em for what they were: concepts, idea, composition. Tone was ehhhh, but I chalked it up to crappy demo recordings (just laying down the general idea).

I asked him what gear he uses, said a strat, gibson lp and an amo with pedals. I could care less about the brands of guitar(s) he uses. Some midrange guitars are really great guitars.

I asked him more about his amp. He said it was some 75 watt Randall solid state that he runs a Boss Amp modeler through. My excitement drops and gear snobbery kicks in.

I think to myself.... well this is going suck.

1st, my amp will eat his amp alive. I'm not even talking about quality/price/etc. I'm talking voicings, power and levels. Last time I jammed with a different band who's guitarist had a Marshall MG halfstack, I had my amp on 2.5 and it destroyed his cranked.


2nd, it's a Randall. I owned a Randall before (granted it was the RM though) and Randalls don't do good cleans. Solid state randalls are good for one thing, METAL distortion (which isn't the dude's style).

3rd, if you're going invest on guitars (gibson) why not invest in your amp?!?!?! If you are just using pedals for your sound (like he is) why not a midrange Fender? Hot Rod Deville? Get em used around $300-400 range.

I still plan on jamming with the guys, but not keeping my hopes up.
Click to expand...


If I heard randall and boss in a guys gear list I would probably take of my white glove and slap the peasant in the face
 
Re: Gear snobbery and stereotypes

mwalluk, your post shows a lot of self-awareness. But give the guy a chance before judging.

Solid-state amps are cheap, loud and reliable. They have their place. Dimebag got his start on them before he went on to pretty much change the world.
 
Re: Gear snobbery and stereotypes

Unless I've missed it you haven't said what sort of music you'll be playing. I have several valve amps and love them all but I have played gigs with a Crate Power block into a 4 x 12 and using a crunchbox/ chorus/ delay and haven't embarrassed myself in the slightest. Give him a chance.
 
Re: Gear snobbery and stereotypes

It's funny cos I've got some really nice gear now, just my playing and personality suck!! :D
 
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