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Choosing Gear As A Guitar Enthusiast

Because the quality of your gear reflects directly into your progress as a musician, if you don't choose the right equipment, you won't only be set back a few hundred dollars, but your playing, your attitude towards practice and your general progress will all have to suffer. There are a lot of little obstacles down the road. I won't go into very specific details about each equipment category, instead, I will give you guidelines on what to look for and what to watch out for when you're shopping.

The process of choosing your tools begins with a bit of research, which I most oftenly do online. You search a certain type of amplifier or guitar, you compare the results and you narrow it down. At this step, there are several problems:

(1) not going through research at all because you were influenced by someone with radical opinions on different brands etc.: you should really avoid these people. You can miss out on a lot of good gear and more importantly incapacitate yourself in going through the next step - listening.

(2) choosing gear based on how it looks: this sounds really stupid, and while you're reading this you're probably telling yourself "You have to be really dumb to do this; this surely doesn't apply to me" the truth being that you do this a lot involuntarily. Solving this can only be done by asking yourself if the looks are giving up you're original specifications and admitting what you involuntarily think: "Sure this Gibson Les Paul Studio looks better on wine red than alpine white, but I really need that ebony fretboard on the latter."

(3) magically and mentally compensating the absence of some features you need through other more fancy ones. For example, you'd be looking to buy a tube combo and you'd find a solid state combo that coincidentally has a Celestion Vintage 30 inside, for example. You really love the sound of that speaker, but you're forgetting that it doesn't meet one of your basic criteria: it doesn't operate on tubes.

(4) overestimating equipment because it's a certain brand. In our days, most prestigious brands have both budget stuff and high-end stuff. In the long run it's very inefficient to lie to yourself: you may be very happy that your amp is a certain brand, or your guitar is a certain color... but if the tone coming out of them sucks, you'll lose your enthusiasm quickly. However, if you tell yourself "Eh, maybe I bought the least attractive guitar from the least known brand - but it sounds better than all my other choices and it plays like a dream", you'll see that your enthusiasm will build up and last a lot longer.

Finally, when doing your research you should have a clear plan of what you want. Yes, you can get good results by mistake, but the point is to minimise trial and error so that you don't waste any of your resources. To make this plan, you have to write down all the necessary features of what you want to buy. There are things like an effects loop, multiple channels and footswitching that, depending on the guitarist, cannot be overlooked. Again, you have to ask yourself some questions: what will you do at a gig when you have to change from that clean intro to that really distorted verse? what will you do when you need a really bright single coil sound, or a really fat, dark sound? what will you do when you have to go directly into the mixer with your amp in those barebone clubs from your town? You should always go by this list of mandatory features for your future gear.

The second step is LISTENING or TRYING-OUT. Worst-case scenario here is that you don't have a store where you can listen the gear you want in your city or country... which isn't a problem if you're in the US, but can be a problem for a lot of people living in countries with an emerging economy. Listening is probably more important than research, because it can be the sole reason for buying a piece of gear. You have to leave your ignorance behind and decide whether you like or dislike what you're testing. The Marshall you're trying isn't going to sound better tomorrow, it's going to sound exactly the same, no matter how much you'd fancy the idea of owning it... the Orange Tiny Terror that you didn't consider because of it's minimalistic appearance may be just the right thing for you. Although a certain device may meet your exact criteria and specifications, you may just not like the sound of it. Only then you can say that it's a good decision to look at something with less than what you wanted, but that sounds or plays a lot better.

The third step is the actual acquisition of the object. It'd be better if you could buy it from a real store, but that doesn't mean that the internet or eBay is evil. A lot of times, I've heard people questioning the honesty of internet stores, eBayers and such. If, for example, you're buying off of eBay, you need to know the condition of the product: used - mint condition, new - new in box, used - minor wear and so forth. Then, it's smart to ask all the questions you could possibly have about the product: the shipping rate (very important if you're outside US), the serial number, the year it was made perhaps the tremolo system on a guitar or the age of the tubes inside a preamp.

Do a lot of research, listen to a lot of gear, be honest with yourself and don't rush.

About the Author

My name is Andrei Popa, I've been playing electric guitar for about 6 years, and I want other people to learn from my mistakes. If you want to read more stuff like this and see my other articles, I maintain a website at http://guitar-gear-demos.blogspot.com

I need recording software.. i have a guitar,... something with effects?

i was looking for something like garage band.. i have a m-audio fasttrack usb.. i need a program that has effects.. and can record multiple tracks.. and has loops i can add.. i say m-audio micro session... but its been hard to find.. any other more popular suggestions.. i am running a pc
.. nd lol.. to the guitarist are gay comment.. i love how it is comming form some1 called mommas boy

I say yes to the Session software and I'm thinking your best bet is to look for it at Best Buy:

http://shopping.yahoo.com/p:M-Audio%20Session%20Music%20Producer%20Software:1995078507

You may also want to check here:

http://www.crunchgear.com/2006/08/15/m-audio-session-music-creation-software/

Kabum (gay guitarist, in fact!)

Using TC Electronic effects processors in guitar amplifier loops - part 1