The image of a band is greatly affected by the gear they use.

[Connor]

This is more an open ended discussion about things I've observed over the past few years. In the end, this is coming from someone who, in reality, is no one. I'm not in a well known band and I don't have a huge standing in the music business.

Lately I've been thinking about bands who "make it" to the level that it consumes most of their lives. The gear that these bands use have a huge impact upon other musicians and their perception of the band ie. "They play a stock low-end Ibanez RG, they must be shit." This kind of thing occurs more with guitarists than anybody else. It is assumed that a good guitarist automatically has good gear, in the contrary, an average guitarist has average gear. With this idea, any bands who do not have decent gear will not be that highly regarded. Sure, the gear they use will have an impact on the sound of their live performance but when it comes to recording and songwriting, not so much considering studios these days carry a substantial amount of gear.

I guess the issue has started to arise even further with the whole "djent" movement and Misha, Nolly, Tosin etc. getting all of these sweet looking custom guitars along with the huge amount of new luthiers coming into the scene. Obviously this would vary by genre, but the same idea applies across the board.

In the end, if we dont give these smaller local bands a shot, they wont have enough of a following to get signed.

To exaggerate my point, here is Erick of Chon playing a $300 guitar better than most people would assume a person with a $3000 guitar would.


Any thoughts/experiences feel free to comment below.

[dbrozz]

I'd have to disagree.

Let's assume 50% of the audience at a gig are musicians. The other 50% being music fans. Of that 50% of musicians, assume maybe 20% are guitarists.

The guitarists and other musicians most likely already thoroughly know and support the bands they are hearing. Perhaps in the case of a no-name opening act or a local concert these people haven't heard a couple of the bands. I would assume they would use their ears to judge whether the band is good or not. Not their eyes.

In the case of the music fans, why do they care what the band is playing through? Any one of my friends who doesn't care about music to the same degree as I do couldn't even begin to explain the difference between guitar A versus guitar B, let alone give a shit

It's nice to have good gear, and those flashy lights look really cool, but it certainly isn't mandatory.
I'd prefer to see an act play with really average/shitty gear and still blow me away. Then I'd be impressed.

[Connor]

Originally Posted by dbrozz

I'd prefer to see an act play with really average/shitty gear and still blow me away. Then I'd be impressed.

That was the main thing I was getting at, hence the video.

[dbrozz]

Originally Posted by Connor

That was the main thing I was getting at, hence the video.

I realize that. My point was that for any musician to watch another musician make an inexpensive instrument sound way out of its league is impressive.
So worrying about the image that lesser quality gear might bring you is invalid, so long as you can actually play your instrument well

[Stealthdjentstic]

When I saw Origin, Paul Ryan was just using some shitty $500 Jackson that was beat to shit and he outplays every other person. I never judge people based on their gear.

[GSingleton]

sadly, even though we are guitarists/musicians, I have to agree that a lot of people think this way. even just in my percussion studio, there are a lot of idiots that believe this. -_-

[Chromaticity]

You could have a 5000$ rig or a 3000$ custom-made guitar and still be a shitty ....ing guitarist. It's like some people buy a shit-ton of expensive gear to try to seem better, or simply cover the fact that they're actually terrible.

Oh, and pretentious musicians who judge other musicians because of their "inferior" gear are ....ing morons. If you have the chops and play good music, nothing else should matter.

[3074326]

The first impression might be greatly affected by the gear, but after the music starts, gear doesn't mean much. But, there will always be pretentious gearheads. I get judged negatively every day because I use a Single Rectifier instead of a Dual or Triple. It's stupid as hell, but so are some people.

I will say that generally, gear can maybe be used as a hint about what to expect from a player.. people don't usually invest the money into it if they haven't invested the time. There are obviously exceptions. But sometimes people don't invest the money even though they've invested the time.

My post basically says nothing.

[broj15]

I don't know how many times I've been to a local show and seen someone with less than quality gear play better than the bands which show up with $2000+ rigs. I've grown to understand that looks can be deceiving and to never judge a book by its cover

[GSingleton]

Guys, I believe what he is saying is about the 70-80% of people who are younger or inexperienced and believe that. Us as musicians recognize that, but I believe he is talking about those people and believe it or not, that group outnumbers us by a lot. I mean, just look at the musical trends in america.

[silverabyss]

Originally Posted by GSingleton

Guys, I believe what he is saying is about the 70-80% of people who are younger or inexperienced and believe that. Us as musicians recognize that, but I believe he is talking about those people and believe it or not, that group outnumbers us by a lot. I mean, just look at the musical trends in america.

Those 70-80 percent wouldn't know good gear from bad gear anyways.

People just like looking at neat shiny stuff and want to live vicariously through the musicians they follow.

Also I think the story with Chon is that they have a really good tech/setup guy.

[exo]

the gear used by someone DEFINITELY has an effecton what the first impression is, although it's not where I'd draw my ultimate judgement on a band from.

Biggest thing I can think of is a show I caught locally from whatever the tour was that hade Neuraxis, Abigail Williams, Decrepit Birth, The Faceless, and Veil of Maya on it about 3 and a half years ago. there were 3 or 4 local openers, and another act the I'd never heard of, but wasn't attatched to the headlners. Teh locals were all deathcore type stuff, playing low/mid range RGs or shecters into Crate and peavey solidstate halfstacks, a couple of 5150's present......and I will admit that about 95% of the music was not to my liking, though that had nothing to do with the gear.

BUT

the aforementioned band I was unfamiliar with started setting up. The name of the act was Dreaming Dead ( go check them out on youtube, formerly known as Manslaughter, 2 discs out now.."Within one" and "Midnightmares"), and I was wondering if i was indeed going to have to endure another 25 minutes of generic, breakdown heavy local deathcore screaming, when I saw what was going on stage:Stage R guitar was a jackson Kelly, don't remember the amp, honestly, other than it was the first Marshall I'd seen all night.....stage L was a Fernandes Vortex w/ sustainer, and a Boogie Mark IV stack, and that gear was THE ONLY thing that kept me from heading out to grab a sandwich before the nationals started. That's where the "first impression" thing comes in. I just "knew" that based on that gear compared to everything else i'd seen, that I needed to check the band out, because it was most likely going to be different. this was confirmed when the "hot chick" singer/guitar player and her crew rolled thru a 25 minute set of blisteringly awesome doomy blackened thrash. If I'd seen more gear hit the stage along the lines of what the other 3 or 4 bands, I would have missed a killer band...( but been a whole lot less hungry for the next 3 hours )

The reverse is also true, though. Saw Rings of Saturn, Decrepit Birth, and Cattle Decapitation a few weeks ago. Never listened to Rigns before, but saw the gear , noticed no cabs, but a pair of Axe FX units.....so I hung around to check 'em out. My mistake, because they may be talented players, but what they do is NOt my thing.

"First impressions" can be misleading......

[sojorel]

The suit makes the man.

Also, now checking out Chon

[Severance]

I find that most good bands around my area have fairly decent gear. Nothing special or amazing. They make it work, but at the same time there are good bands around here playing shitty guitars and crates. I think personally it hurts there sound. As a guitarist I've always been looking for the right tone and by god thank the stars I've been able to pay for nice guitars and a powerball. I think though if you are truly dedicated you will find your tone no matter what amp you get, because you will make it happen.

[Connor]

GSingleton is right, I'm against it, I hate the fact that people do think that. As Severance said above, you do what you can with the gear you have.
The materialistic values that younger kids have is ridiculous, if something doesn't cost a lot, its not good. However I chose a Sterling JP60 over an EBMM JPX on the basis that the Sterling played close to as well, for $2000 less. I went in with the mindset that the JPX was what I was going to get, the cash was ready.

[slowro]

I agree with some of the points here but I also think that when a lot of musicians see someone turn up with a an custom shop fender/gibson or private stock prs thru boutique gear they think ah this guy is going to suck playing some guitar shop blues.

Gear doesn't make the player but if you are playing a Dime signature Dean thru 3 Randall stacks people will be a bit shocked if you start playing country music but that is irrelevant after a minute if the playing and music is good. People are image driven these days I had some weird looks when I pull out my beater "work" moblie phone like I am a freak transported through time from 2001 and thats just a cheap phone that gets that reaction.

[BucketheadRules]

Mathieu from Gorod used to use a Squier Telecaster on stage.





What, you want me to keep talking?

[eventhetrees]

Been a fan of Chon for awhile. They've videos and song writing style/playing never ceases to amaze me. I'm currently full of an odd mix of inspiration/rage quit guitar time feelings at the moment haha.

[SamSam]

Being an average player with good gear I have to agree. I tell people what I play on and they assume I must be a beast on the guitar. Couldn't be further from the truth

[Polythoral]

Originally Posted by SamSam

Being an average player with good gear I have to agree. I tell people what I play on and they assume I must be a beast on the guitar. Couldn't be further from the truth

I get this, too, haha. 'You have a EBMM and an Axe FX? AND YOU PLAY WITH JAZZ PICKS? Holy shit you must be amazing.'

actuallyamthesloppiestguitaristever.

[Ckackley]

Good gear doesn't make the player at all. I've seen bands with the cheapest guitars and budget line amps sound GREAT. But, unfortunately the look/image of a band is pretty important these days. So a lot of people are going to judge a band based on the way their gear looks. I use pretty decent stuff but my favorite guitar is an old Schecter BlackJack that I paid $250 for. It just feels "right". So I keep it polished up, free of rust and looking pretty all the time.

[Demiurge]

I'm a cheap guitar-lover. If I see someone on stage sounding great with low-end gear, I dig.

There are some, though, that fear judgment from the non-musicians in the crowd. A friend of mine will only gig with his LP or Tele because at least non-musicians know Gibson and Fender, so anything else will look 2nd tier. Not implausible, as there's a large contingent of guitarists out there that think the same!

[Marv Attaxx]

I always get weird looks when I enter the stage with my 8 string and start playing quite peaceful prog/post rock

[larry]

nah, cheap gear doesn't really make or break as long as you can
play the holy-shit out of it and are very tight/professional
over all. from experience, i will say that the hype and inspiration
derrived from having a killer rig and decent guitar has helped to
push my playing. crust of bread is nice but not a necessity.

misha, tosin and all them boys started out on the cheap stuff
and came a long way to where we see 'em now. mark my words
man, them homeboys were developing their industry clout the
old fashioned way, via woodsheddin' and kicking ass on stage.
what we're seeing now is the by-product of all their hard work.
though, they're just as human as all of us. so, some of their
nice shit was accumulated the normal way.

[SenorDingDong]

Originally Posted by Chromaticity

You could have a 5000$ rig or a 3000$ custom-made guitar and still be a shitty ....ing guitarist. It's like some people buy a shit-ton of expensive gear to try to seem better, or simply cover the fact that they're actually terrible.

I have to disagree--some musicians just have more money than others. It doesn't mean all of them are compensating if they have nice gear and aren't very good

I think you're reading a little too much into why people buy gear. If a guy works hard for his money but isn't very good at guitar, it doesn't mean he shouldn't be able to spend his hard earned money the way he wants. In fact, most $3000 custom guitars (unless made by some big brand name like Jackson or ESP or PRS) are so obscure that most people in the audience, unless they are avid gear researchers, won't even know what the .... they're worth.

And some good guitarists simply don't have the cash for nice gear.