Everything you know about: blahbity blah blah...

[Darin]

I was looking at the classified on the Jemsite here. And I started thinking and wondering. There was a day, oh, it started back in high school I suppose. When I believed pretty much what other people said about guitars and amps. So I'd pass that information on to other unsuspecting dupes like myself. I didn't have alot of experience with different guitars and amps when I was a mere teen. And I sorta lived in the country so there was no Guitar Center ANYwhere. And of course there was no internet then, so no forums or sharing of audio files to compare tones of different gear with fellow rockers like you very cool guys across the globe. What an amazing time we live in. There wasn't digital recording. If you were way cool, you had a 1/2 inch reel to real 8 track. But most of us bedroom hacks were lucky just to get our hands on a Fostex or Tascam 4 track cassette recorder for home recording. And of course no direct recording then either.
Anyways, where was I? Oh yeah. Much of what I believed about gear was all by word of mouth, and usually from guys that didn't own pieces of gear they said stunk. I was, and still am a bit of a sucker for rockstar endorsements. I still buy GHS Boomers because Brad Gillis from Night Ranger used them, and I had to buy Boogie gear for years. I had the Vai Legacy, the Jem, the Satch JS1000, the DS-1, the Bad Horsie, Little Alligator etc. All because my favorite players had them. And now I got my sights on an AT-300. *sucker*
So I don't know if I'm maturing, becoming a better player, or just don't care what other people think anymore of my gear. But I was mere moments away from buying not just a Squire tele the other day, but an Affinity Squire! I think thats like the under-squire. But it sounded and played just fine to me. And a little sticker removal and no one has to know. Truth is. No one cares other than other players. And if you're playing a Squire Affinity and taking cares of biz on the stage, heck, you look all the more cool. One reason I wont play a Jem on stage. There just might be that one guitar player in the audience that knows what a Jem is, and expects you to lay down some major chops, mistake free of course. And if you don't then you suck. But get up there with a Squire (or equivalent) and play well, and it's darn cool.
I'm not opposed to spending money on a "fine" guitar of the highest quality. But for years I have been overlooking ALOT of very playable guitars, for no good reason, other than some stupid misconception that they were junk. I'm rather sad about it now actually. Does it REALLY matter that the guitar isn't J-Custom quality? Not really. Especially since alot of guys that spent that kind of money on theire guitar don't gig with them. You may have seen my post that I'm looking for an RG-Paint. When I find a mint one, I'll probably spend a couple grand on it if I need to. Just because I really want one collector, and that's on the top of my list.
Does anyone other than me have a misconception about Cort guitars, Or Samick? Ricky Garcia is tearin it up on Corts I believe. And I saw a guy last week blow me away with a Samick hollow body electric.
I guess I'm going though this whole "speech" to get to this point. You younger guys may be overlooking great gear. I'm not sure about todays perception of Crates with younger guys. But I grew up with Crate being junk amps. I own a little 15 watt Crate RFX15, I plug it into my 2x12 and it rips and shreds. I was at GC and they had a Crate 30W tube combo, it sounded great. But I would have walked right by it years ago with out even giving it a demo.

Am I the only one that has overlooked guitars and gear based on what others told me, only to find out.....they were idiots?

Later, Darin


By the way, the JSX is the only amp you should ever buy!!


I'm kidding.
But to hear the JSX in action, and not just a biased remark:
http://www.youtube.com/profile_video...=MrDarinWarren

[jemplayer55]

Darin.... "ain't" that all the truth! About those Crate amps..... awhile back I plugged into an all tube (I think) Crate.... man, that thing had some sweet tone. In all honesty I was shocked. I too thought Crate "sucked", what a surprise. But I have to disagree..... The Komet Concorde is the amp you should buy!
My brother just ordered me an amp kit from brown-note..... http://www.bnamp.com/
It's a Dumble clone called the D-Lite. So now I'm getting interested in "building" tone as opposed to just "buying" it.

P.S. nice clips..... but ya gotta kill that room (your practice hall) verb/echo! Try restaurant egg crates or carpet....

[Distantshore]

I think you can liken that to just about anything. Remember how you had to have a certain name brand clothes or shoes.
Be friends with the popular people etc...

Kudos to you for finding your own identity and style in your gear !

[dannymills]

The Squier Affinity Teles kick arse. I nearly bought one too!!

[Darin]

'that room' is a gym at our church with a concret floor. the walls are carpeted and padded. but the floor it the problem. when it full of people the problem is gone. the cam was 25 feet away from me. that's a lot of concrete floor from the pa the the cam to reverb.

[AlkyHauler]

Sage advice

[Dino]

Man, my first amp was this little Gorilla. That thing was basically unusable. Now my 16 years younger sibling bought a little Crate with built in effects for $75 bucks. Compared to what I had it sounds like singing angels in heaven.

I am left handed, but my first guitar was a right handed strat copy, I belive it was called a Goya. (It had a strange font you couldn't really read.) Left handed guitars were expensive and rare (no internet back then) so that is what I leaned the basics on. A goya and a horrible little amp. No instruction DVD, no online music lessons. Just my Arlen Roth book (rock guitar for future stars!) and my crappy wrong handed guitar.

I still play right handed to this day. I wonder how hard it would be for me to go back and learn to play lefty like I should have? I wonder if I would have been a better player? If only my Grandma didn't think my guitar was satanic."It's got horns like the devil!"

I bought all that stuff with my paper route money. I made $12 a week!

[buddroyce]

People will always believe stuff others say when they're uninformed themselves and will go out into the world with a biased opinion on something they've never actually experienced. I'd rather not go into specifics, but everything is just marketing. Ask any guy in marketing who's worth his salt and he'll tell you that most of the stuff you actually know about a product is pure marketing, leveraging a lot on consumer behaviour and the power of persuasion.

Darin, you're not the only person with the misconception about Cort and Samick guitars. I believe everyone who bought into the whole notion that a product is superior than another simply because it says its from a specific counry is affected by that problem. While there is some truth behind it, a lot of it is made to look that way.

[jono]

I always say that if you don't know anything, looking at what the famous people use isn't actually that bad a start. The Ibanez JEM isn't a bad rock guitar. Neither's a PRS, nor an N4

(OK I admit - I don't know what the "cool kids" play these days )

Put it this way, until you find your feet and REALLY know what to look for, it's either the morons in guitar center, the morons on MTV or the morons on the internet forums that help you choose your guitar

[buddroyce]

Originally Posted by jono

Put it this way, until you find your feet and REALLY know what to look for, it's either the morons in guitar center, the morons on MTV or the morons on the internet forums that help you choose your guitar

That's the essence of consumer behaviour all rolled up in a couple of sentences.

[jay ratkowski]

I don't know about the Squire thing... I haven't played one I'm crazy about. Then again, I haven't played many guitars but my own in the last 5-7 years. I've gotten comfortable. There are two electrics of mine that I love and everything else is judged against those. It's not that they are better (although they are of decent quality), they are just set up the way I like, the necks feel the way I like, the frets are the size I like, etc etc. Going to something else is too awkward at this point. All the knobs and levers are in the wrong spot, the necks are too skinny, too fat, too flat, too round. It just doesn't make sense. It is so awkward to the point that I become snobby about it. Something different becomes wrong. I'm okay with that.

[Holy Katana]

Originally Posted by jono

I always say that if you don't know anything, looking at what the famous people use isn't actually that bad a start. The Ibanez JEM isn't a bad rock guitar. Neither's a PRS, nor an N4

(OK I admit - I don't know what the "cool kids" play these days )

Schecters, ESPs, and Deans, also Ibanezes and Jacksons. And, of course, Gibson and Fender.

Schecters are great value for the price, especially their more high-end models.

[jemaholic]

The quality and playablility of those instruments 20 years ago was equal to firewood. The new cheap guitars today are very playable- but those were not offered when you were a kid.
Today, you can buy a guitar for a few hundred dollars that you can play Madison Square Garden with - and pull it off.

So, things have changed - back in the old days, cheap meant CRAP and yes, we did have opinions about different manufacturers for that reason.

I'm still a 'tube snob' and I was the guy that looked down my nose if it wasn't a USA custom shop limited edition,etc,etc.....but at the half-century mark I can tell you there are GREAT assembly-line guitars out there for not alot of money that'll do whatever you need to do and do it well.

....but I STILL want a John England Master-Built Strat ! hahahahaha!