Should You Buy That Piece of Gear?

twocorgis

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Great flowchart from the folks at Guitarsquid.com (again). Bears repeating though. 8)

flowchart_buygear.png
 

cjd-player

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adorshki said:
Does anybody ever really use the "no" option on "Will it make you sound better?" :lol:
Actually, I do.

I'm quite happy with my current stable: three good acoustics and an inexpensive Recording King for work lunchtime, outdoors, etc. I find that even three is almost one too many. I keep one in DADGAD, but of the other two, one for fingerstyle and one for strumming, the strummer sits unplayed a lot.

Yes, there are lots of great sounding guitars out there, but I would not buy one unless it was to replace something that I already have.

My two Guild Bluesbird electrics (with split humbuckers for the single coil option) fill all of my needs for the church band.

So I'm happily GASless.

Plus, I learned long ago that equipment does not make you sound better. Only practice does that.
 

davismanLV

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Sometimes it's "yes" and sometimes it's "no", but whenever I get to "skip it" I retrace my steps to see where I went wrong......
 

fronobulax

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cjd-player said:
Plus, I learned long ago that equipment does not make you sound better. Only practice does that.

I'm in violent agreement and I think the reason the quest for gear is such a cliche is that there are a lot of people who have not learned or accepted that lesson yet. (Of course, there are collectors who are not buying things for their functionality, but they would never use this decision making process).

But I have noticed several cases where the equipment keeps me from sounding as bad as I really am. These are cases where the wrong notes, by the standards of Western harmony, are coming out, and the equipment can be used to change the sound so much that the pitch is difficult to discern. The rhythmic thump definitely sounds better than the wrong note. I've been told that I would not have the problem if I learned to tune my bass and/or played jazz. Practice is another solution. :wink:
 
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