Taking gear pics like Bulb?

There is definitely good lighting (it looks to be diffuse and fairly soft in most of the examples you've shown, but strong) and the DOF isn't as shallow as you'd think (definitely not f/1.8).

In post, I'm guessing there is some sharpening/clarity and moving the black point to be a very dark grey (curves, levels, or any of the other methods to do this) among other possible things.

 

This. It looks like he does a mild S curve with the tone curve (that's really easy to google and see what's happening) and he's also lifting the blacks (google "crushed blacks" to learn about that). I find the S curve with a lifted black point seems to really make the mid tones stick out, and since most of your colours are mid tones, it makes them pop more.

I'm guessing he's pulling the whites down in the tone curve, too (basically the same idea as lifting the black point to grey, only pulling the white point down to grey).

There's nothing fancy going on. He has a neutral coloured couch near a big window for soft light, and has what looks like a pretty standard preset he keeps going to. The only real secret here is learning how to position the guitar so the light falls on it nicely but you don't get too many reflections in the clear coat.

 

So we've reached a point that people not only want to copy his music, but also his photos? Good stuff.

 

You mean your lens? DOF depends on a number of factors and f-stop is only one component, so I really cannot answer your question.

Yes, there are plenty of tools available in Photoshop to do just this - the curves adjustment layer is probably the easiest way to go about doing this.

By the sound of it, you should really focus on getting to know your equipment and how it reacts to different situations (lighting, distance, camera/lens settings) as well as your post-production tools.

This video has an excellent tool for understanding the tools available to you in Photoshop (check the link in the description for the PSD file): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-DPJ-UuguQ

 

I wasn't actually asking (cameras don't have apertures , lenses do). You should probably shoot RAW as well to minimize the artifacts you could introduce in post-processing.

The manual isn't going to describe the nuances that go into DOF. You'll have to consider things you can control such as: camera-subject distance, subject-background distance, focal length, and aperture.

I get you're just starting out and want to take photos that have a certain look, but until you at least understand how your camera works providing information about post-processing isn't going to help much.

 

I'm just joshin ya man