We live in the information age. I think this is a terrible state of affairs. Online forums etc make choices harder, not easier. We could learn to trust our gut and save alot of time and money. I know few musicians who don't chase the perfect instrument around and settle.
I went insane in the mid part of the last decade. I was buying and selling and trading saxophones. I went through over 40 tenors. Underneath all of that was this insane drive to sound like someone else. I was on Sax On the Web forum constantly and once I started clocking my hours spent i forced myself off that addiction. What was I chasing?
I have some terrific instruments. My guitars are first rate. I can play my ass off. I toured Europe in 2002 with a busted Peavey Bandit. I got my sound, no problem. Every night at midnight it would die. I'd kick it and it would get me through the end of the set. Not once did I miss my super awesome amps I have at home cause I was focused on making the best music I could and sharing that with the audience. That's what it's all about, doing service. Music ain't about me!
When I first started on guitar my purchase was this easy: I like Jimi Hendrix. He played a Strat, I want one. My only choices were new or used (I wanted used, it was much cheaper), and the color (black like the one on Band of Gypsys!).
My father loaned me the $389 I needed to buy a horrific used '78 stratocaster with the stipulation that I had a year to learn it or pay him back.
I went to town on that guitar, in a year I got pretty damned good.
2 years ago I worked at GIANT GUITAR STORE. I had a customer, a well dressed lawyer type who wanted an Epiphone Les Paul. It was to be his first guitar. He was around 40 and wanted to learn something to relax with. Trouble was there are about 40 different models of the Epiphone Les Paul to choose from. He came to me completely sad and frustrated. He spent hours 'researching' his purchase and came no closer. The poor fellow started crying. There was little I can do but empathize. Who the fuck needs 40 different models of anything? The saddest part was he bought nothing and he perhaps forgot how to trust his gut.
I work at Southside Guitars now. It's amazing how much I see people try a guitar, really connect with it, start making music then go home to 'research' on gear crap .com. You know when one falls in love. they go home then someone who goes with their inherent feelings, the gut, comes in and buys it. Customer #1 comes back with all the information and it's too late. Why do we do this?
When I had my amplifier shop I'd notice this trend. People would drop in with some crappy vintage amp that is supposed to be the ticket to Hollywood according to gearcrapwastetime.com. I'd see the same type of amp 3 times in 2 months and they got the info from researching the internet. Bad information. I know they had that streak of doubt but didn't listen. There goes another $500.
Some of my best paying customers would have me put 1 capacitor in their amp per week following some 'tone gurus' trend. It would make a difference, yeah, but I'd sometimes ask "do you really think John Lennon gave a crap about what capacitor was in his amp? No, he was too busy writing and sharing music!"
Sad state of affairs. Weapons of Mass Distraction.
My sax teacher, WC Cage had one horn he bought in 1948 and played until he left planet Earth in 2009.
He encouraged me to find the tool I need and stick to it like a stamp till the damned letter arrives. You'll have a much harder time making music if you're constantly looking outside for that perfect sound.
As a horn player last summer I stopped caring about my sound. I surrendered. And then I started to sound good like I knew I could.
JB
I went insane in the mid part of the last decade. I was buying and selling and trading saxophones. I went through over 40 tenors. Underneath all of that was this insane drive to sound like someone else. I was on Sax On the Web forum constantly and once I started clocking my hours spent i forced myself off that addiction. What was I chasing?
I have some terrific instruments. My guitars are first rate. I can play my ass off. I toured Europe in 2002 with a busted Peavey Bandit. I got my sound, no problem. Every night at midnight it would die. I'd kick it and it would get me through the end of the set. Not once did I miss my super awesome amps I have at home cause I was focused on making the best music I could and sharing that with the audience. That's what it's all about, doing service. Music ain't about me!
When I first started on guitar my purchase was this easy: I like Jimi Hendrix. He played a Strat, I want one. My only choices were new or used (I wanted used, it was much cheaper), and the color (black like the one on Band of Gypsys!).
My father loaned me the $389 I needed to buy a horrific used '78 stratocaster with the stipulation that I had a year to learn it or pay him back.
I went to town on that guitar, in a year I got pretty damned good.
2 years ago I worked at GIANT GUITAR STORE. I had a customer, a well dressed lawyer type who wanted an Epiphone Les Paul. It was to be his first guitar. He was around 40 and wanted to learn something to relax with. Trouble was there are about 40 different models of the Epiphone Les Paul to choose from. He came to me completely sad and frustrated. He spent hours 'researching' his purchase and came no closer. The poor fellow started crying. There was little I can do but empathize. Who the fuck needs 40 different models of anything? The saddest part was he bought nothing and he perhaps forgot how to trust his gut.
I work at Southside Guitars now. It's amazing how much I see people try a guitar, really connect with it, start making music then go home to 'research' on gear crap .com. You know when one falls in love. they go home then someone who goes with their inherent feelings, the gut, comes in and buys it. Customer #1 comes back with all the information and it's too late. Why do we do this?
When I had my amplifier shop I'd notice this trend. People would drop in with some crappy vintage amp that is supposed to be the ticket to Hollywood according to gearcrapwastetime.com. I'd see the same type of amp 3 times in 2 months and they got the info from researching the internet. Bad information. I know they had that streak of doubt but didn't listen. There goes another $500.
Some of my best paying customers would have me put 1 capacitor in their amp per week following some 'tone gurus' trend. It would make a difference, yeah, but I'd sometimes ask "do you really think John Lennon gave a crap about what capacitor was in his amp? No, he was too busy writing and sharing music!"
Sad state of affairs. Weapons of Mass Distraction.
My sax teacher, WC Cage had one horn he bought in 1948 and played until he left planet Earth in 2009.
He encouraged me to find the tool I need and stick to it like a stamp till the damned letter arrives. You'll have a much harder time making music if you're constantly looking outside for that perfect sound.
As a horn player last summer I stopped caring about my sound. I surrendered. And then I started to sound good like I knew I could.
JB
No comments:
Post a Comment