Being a guitarist is climbing Via Dolorosa
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
(How to fork out a lot of bread while finding your way through oblivion)
Remember secondary school days? That girl you were secretly in love with but you never managed to get close enough? That bar that was claimed to be crammed with ready-to-pick women - except when you were there? That friend you had who could seemingly get any girl he wanted but his seducing skills somehow never rubbed off on you no matter how many beers you treated him?
People can all potentially be happy, once they're graduated (or expelled) from secondary school. Guitarists however, got life sentence. It's not about girls for them, or not primarily anyway (or is it?). To them, it's about the most perfect torturing device man has ever invented: the guitar.
The Path of Agony, followed by every guitarist:
- Learning the elementals of playing
- Getting enough cash to get a better instrument
- Play faster than that guy you know
- Getting enough cash to get better equipment
- Temporarily giving up in frustration after seeing Allan Holdsworth
This is not a Path that runs straight from A to B, it's one of those orbital Paths that do your head in: when you think you're there you start all over again. Because your axe, your amps and your sound, they're just not good enough. And, last but most definitely not least, you are not good enough, and not fast enough - basically the same thing anyway. After about 30 years, I think I've found a way out of this misery without giving up entirely. Keep it simple, solve your problems, don't be tempted by looks and make sure you're loaded.
My gear:
Electric guitars:
Paul Reed Smith Standard
Blade R4 single coiled
Gibson Gothic Les Paul Studio
Ibanez JS 1000
Accoustic guitars:
Takamine accoustic
Suzuki classical concert
Core hardware:
Peavey Classic power tube amps
Hughes & Kettner Attax MIDI tube pre-amp
TC Electronic G-Force effects unit
4 x Celestion Vintage, separately cased by H&K
2 x Bag End S12D.
Peripherals:
Mesa Boogie DC 50 combo tube amp
Behringer Intelligate noise gate
Marshall JMP-1 tube pre-amp
Roland FC 200 MIDI controller
Carl Martin Chorus
Peavey 600 6 channel power mixed PA
CONSIDERATIONS AND DECISIONS:
Combos suck big time sound-wise, but they're easily carried in and set up. The DC 50 was the first combo I've heard that didn't piss me off within 5 seconds, which is why I have it. Others use it more than me.
Stacks sound great, Peavey's 5150 being my fave. Do you know what a hernia feels like? Not an option until I can afford a roadie. Maybe after my next CD.
Go modular and have the best of both worlds. My amps and effects are all 19" rackmounted. My speakers are not bundled in a bulky cabinet but separately cased in lightweight cabinets. Granted, it's a few more walks from the car to the venue and back but at least you can still have a JD without trembling, leaving everybody thinking you're an alcoholic, which has a depreciating effect on your pay.
Power supply adapters always break down on me for God knows what reason. The Carl Martin Chorus is lined up with the DC 50. It sounds nice and comes just with a wire and a plug that goes into the power socket: a stomp box with a built-in transformer - a Nobel prize nominee.
The SOYD (Sound Of Your Dreams) is the aggregate of instrument, amps and speakers. The only one way to amplify electric guitar is tube technology. Forget about semi conductors, save it for your hi-fi (dubious statement, ok, your daughter's hi-fi). Tube amps weigh more, cost more, take more space and need more maintenance and care. But they produce an incomparable sound from a solid state perspective. MOS-FET equipped solid state amps are the only non-valved alternative (still not half as good though) but you can almost buy a real tube amp for that kind of money. The rest is a total waste, regardless of what the leaflet says about soft circuitry, tube emulation, active filtering and so on.
I employ MIDI to relay program changes to my back line, being a firm disbeliever in proprietary stuff with way too expensive cabling and compatibility impediments. Roland's FC 200 does the job neatly - not cheap but a heavy-duty stomp board and it's simply yet amply programmable.
There are many guitar FX units. Lots of them are ok, but only few are really good. The G-Force has a high-end reputation and price, which are both wholeheartedly sustained by me. It has a built-in noise gate that really works, which is verily an achievement considering my 'Clay Turkey' mode (lead gain yanked to 12 on a scale running to 10).
As for the axes, active electronics like built-in pre-pre amps, power steered tone control and stuff like that are not for me. They only produce noise uncalled for. I want silence to be silent without having to tweak in panic to regain control over my sound. Humbucking pick-ups produce enough gain to grind your guts and there's plenty of headroom in a tube pre-amp anyway. The Blade axe is my exception to this rule as it's all single coiled.
Sound is captured by ear, not by eye, so let your ear be the judge. Good quality gear is expensive, there are no cheap deals on true quality. Find out what it is that you really want and go for it. Insufficient funds are a reason to be patient, not to settle for less. You'll end up spending more than you can afford anyway. But most important of all: don't try to be someone else!
A few well meant advises that you may already know so I'll keep it brief:
Case your instruments and gear, unless you're running a museum.
Never leave your stuff unattended, unless you're sure to hit jackpot in the State Lottery. This warning includes your car parked near the venue while you're having your after-gig JD!
Never lend out your cables unless you get a deposit. A JD would do, as you'll never see the cable(s) back anyway.
Check your insurance. Most of the policies will cover your guitar gear (check the insured value) provided that it belongs to your domestic inventory, which means that it physically has to be in your house at least once every 3 months. So be careful when it's conveniently stacked in a rehearsal room for a while, it may not be covered!
Remember secondary school days? That girl you were secretly in love with but you never managed to get close enough? That bar that was claimed to be crammed with ready-to-pick women - except when you were there? That friend you had who could seemingly get any girl he wanted but his seducing skills somehow never rubbed off on you no matter how many beers you treated him?
People can all potentially be happy, once they're graduated (or expelled) from secondary school. Guitarists however, got life sentence. It's not about girls for them, or not primarily anyway (or is it?). To them, it's about the most perfect torturing device man has ever invented: the guitar.
The Path of Agony, followed by every guitarist:
- Learning the elementals of playing
- Getting enough cash to get a better instrument
- Play faster than that guy you know
- Getting enough cash to get better equipment
- Temporarily giving up in frustration after seeing Allan Holdsworth
This is not a Path that runs straight from A to B, it's one of those orbital Paths that do your head in: when you think you're there you start all over again. Because your axe, your amps and your sound, they're just not good enough. And, last but most definitely not least, you are not good enough, and not fast enough - basically the same thing anyway. After about 30 years, I think I've found a way out of this misery without giving up entirely. Keep it simple, solve your problems, don't be tempted by looks and make sure you're loaded.
My gear:
Electric guitars:
Paul Reed Smith Standard
Blade R4 single coiled
Gibson Gothic Les Paul Studio
Ibanez JS 1000
Accoustic guitars:
Takamine accoustic
Suzuki classical concert
Core hardware:
Peavey Classic power tube amps
Hughes & Kettner Attax MIDI tube pre-amp
TC Electronic G-Force effects unit
4 x Celestion Vintage, separately cased by H&K
2 x Bag End S12D.
Peripherals:
Mesa Boogie DC 50 combo tube amp
Behringer Intelligate noise gate
Marshall JMP-1 tube pre-amp
Roland FC 200 MIDI controller
Carl Martin Chorus
Peavey 600 6 channel power mixed PA
CONSIDERATIONS AND DECISIONS:
Combos suck big time sound-wise, but they're easily carried in and set up. The DC 50 was the first combo I've heard that didn't piss me off within 5 seconds, which is why I have it. Others use it more than me.
Stacks sound great, Peavey's 5150 being my fave. Do you know what a hernia feels like? Not an option until I can afford a roadie. Maybe after my next CD.
Go modular and have the best of both worlds. My amps and effects are all 19" rackmounted. My speakers are not bundled in a bulky cabinet but separately cased in lightweight cabinets. Granted, it's a few more walks from the car to the venue and back but at least you can still have a JD without trembling, leaving everybody thinking you're an alcoholic, which has a depreciating effect on your pay.
Power supply adapters always break down on me for God knows what reason. The Carl Martin Chorus is lined up with the DC 50. It sounds nice and comes just with a wire and a plug that goes into the power socket: a stomp box with a built-in transformer - a Nobel prize nominee.
The SOYD (Sound Of Your Dreams) is the aggregate of instrument, amps and speakers. The only one way to amplify electric guitar is tube technology. Forget about semi conductors, save it for your hi-fi (dubious statement, ok, your daughter's hi-fi). Tube amps weigh more, cost more, take more space and need more maintenance and care. But they produce an incomparable sound from a solid state perspective. MOS-FET equipped solid state amps are the only non-valved alternative (still not half as good though) but you can almost buy a real tube amp for that kind of money. The rest is a total waste, regardless of what the leaflet says about soft circuitry, tube emulation, active filtering and so on.
I employ MIDI to relay program changes to my back line, being a firm disbeliever in proprietary stuff with way too expensive cabling and compatibility impediments. Roland's FC 200 does the job neatly - not cheap but a heavy-duty stomp board and it's simply yet amply programmable.
There are many guitar FX units. Lots of them are ok, but only few are really good. The G-Force has a high-end reputation and price, which are both wholeheartedly sustained by me. It has a built-in noise gate that really works, which is verily an achievement considering my 'Clay Turkey' mode (lead gain yanked to 12 on a scale running to 10).
As for the axes, active electronics like built-in pre-pre amps, power steered tone control and stuff like that are not for me. They only produce noise uncalled for. I want silence to be silent without having to tweak in panic to regain control over my sound. Humbucking pick-ups produce enough gain to grind your guts and there's plenty of headroom in a tube pre-amp anyway. The Blade axe is my exception to this rule as it's all single coiled.
Sound is captured by ear, not by eye, so let your ear be the judge. Good quality gear is expensive, there are no cheap deals on true quality. Find out what it is that you really want and go for it. Insufficient funds are a reason to be patient, not to settle for less. You'll end up spending more than you can afford anyway. But most important of all: don't try to be someone else!
A few well meant advises that you may already know so I'll keep it brief:
Case your instruments and gear, unless you're running a museum.
Never leave your stuff unattended, unless you're sure to hit jackpot in the State Lottery. This warning includes your car parked near the venue while you're having your after-gig JD!
Never lend out your cables unless you get a deposit. A JD would do, as you'll never see the cable(s) back anyway.
Check your insurance. Most of the policies will cover your guitar gear (check the insured value) provided that it belongs to your domestic inventory, which means that it physically has to be in your house at least once every 3 months. So be careful when it's conveniently stacked in a rehearsal room for a while, it may not be covered!
