Are you a guitar player, or a guitar enthusiast?

Mar 10, 2013
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There seems to be a new breed of musician that are obsessed with tinkering with their gear and are constantly buying and selling gear and they seem to spend a lot of time on the internet looking at gear and buying and selling stuff and less time actually playing and learning songs and getting better..I'm in a band with a guitar player that is a good player but he seems more interested with the latest guitar, amp, speaker, pedal, etc.. than learning the songs we're doing. We're just a bar band playing gigs for beer money, but it shouldn't take months to learn simple tunes. It's never been easier to learn songs, there is so much content available of songs being played in hi def making it easy to see how to play them, how do you come to rehearsal not knowing your part? Am I asking for too much?
 
You are not asking too much.

For guys like this, being in a band is an excuse to buy more gear. They don't get, or don't care, that getting a band to the point of playing out is hard work and not about gear. Keeping your set list fresh is more of the same, but should be easier the more you do it.

Since we don't know the personalities involved, I'm not sure what the best approach would be to light a fire under his butt. It helps if the rest of the band is on the same page.
 
I'm an enthusiast, no doubt. Started way back in the day when Guitar Player magazine was the only place you could get bass content in the 70's. Guitars were the obvious focus of the mag and that stated the GAS for anything with strings on it and the gear surrounding it. As for your guitar player, his condition is nothing new.
 
For 50 years....within 6 months or so of when I took up the bass....I have been,
Guitar adjacent .
I bought my first acoustic guitar, an Epiphone 12 string no less...not long after getting my first bass.
Then, I bought a Yamaha 6 string acoustic and started a jug band .
Then I got a Gibson Melody Maker sunburst and repainted it white.
Then I traded a Gibson Grabber for a late 60s cream and tort Fender Mustang.
That was the last electric guitar I owned until the lockdown, when I broke down and purchased somthin I've always wanted. ..... A butterscotch and black pickguard tele.
Its a Squier ....but its more guitar than I am guitarist.
My old Yamaha acoustic mostly has been pressed into duty for funerals and weddings.
My guitar playing skills, are just like my piano skills.
If you're not a player. I'll make you think I know what I'm doing. 😁
 
I’m definitely both. I play everyday, but I’m not currently too focused on learning new material since I don’t have a band. I also greatly enjoy watching gear reviews and stopping by my local GCs to try gear.
 
I've probably been both.

I started on bass from a strictly utilitarian approach. Then I went back to guitar with the same approach, basically a guitar plugged straight into any cranked tube amp.

Then something changed over the next 50 years and slowly, I became more gear obsessed, collecting vintage amps, pedals, one-of-everything-guitars. I still gigged pretty steady for the most part, always taking time to woodshed tunes and improve overall, but I was afflicted with Gear Acquisition Syndrome.

In recent years, I've downsized and simplified again. While the vast majority of my 3 gigs a week are on bass, I'll do an occasional guitar date and keep it simple; While I've got an awesome sounding early prototype Fuchs ODS head an cab at home, I usually just grab a 335 or Tele and plug straight in to a Blues Jr.

Am I still enthusiastic about guitar gear? Sure. Though I'm not obsessed with it like I once was.

Am I a player?

Maybe:





 
On a similar note... I was a mechanic for most of my early career, and every week or so the Snap On truck would come by the shop, usually on payday (imagine that). It was a traveling candy store for gearheads. Some of us shopped cautiously, buying the occasional specialty tool, while others had accounts with payment plans to support full Snap On tool sets and rolling locker chests. Whether you were using Sears Craftsman wrenches or Snap On you still had to be able to do the work...

At the end of the day, gear doesn't make the player (or mechanic). I've been playing since the early 70's and at this point can afford to buy gear (and still keep a basic setup). That said, a cool rig doesn't compensate for showing up to practice or a gig and not knowing the material. The OP say's he's a good player, is that worth a member showing up unprepared... Does it cause issues with the other band members? If so, it might be time for a discussion about priorities...

Cheers
 
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I am no doubt both. I am always well prepared and know all songs when/if in a cover band. I do practice. At the same I am currently obsessed with gear; buying and selling stuff all the time. It's not a healthy habit :p
 
I've been both: always wanted to improve and interested in gear. But at one point, after a long time swaping gear, effects, etc, i've found my personal way into that and GAS has disappeared. I mean really disappeared. Today I'm happy with my gear and don't need and want anything else. I still like looking for all your NBD, but more as i like looking beautifull objects. But it doesn't open any desire to have a new bass, to come back to effects rabbit hole, amp or so.
And if my electric bass #3 was not my 40th birthday from my lady, it would already have gone and i would be back to only #1 (50th birdthay gift from the same lady) and #2 (bass i've build during a luthier course 20 years ago) as backup, plus my acoustic one for home.
Last year i've started to fall in home studio rabbit hole with VST plugins (a really good sax one, amplitube big version, running after free ones without knowing exactly what i'm looking for...), softwares, etc. I've even bought a nice Fender Strat to use it as a keyboard through jamorigin software for home studio purpose, as an ex-guitarist which totally sucks on real keyboard.
But to be honest, i've used it to write and record one tune, and half a second one, in more than one year and a half... I've found myself more interested in working on my reading skill, transcribe music and writing sheets of it, and always improve my playing and musicality. So more i go further on my musical path, less i'm interested by gear, as i already have more that i need.
 
Record a full song at home from drums up approx every 2 weeks for a long time now. Being a bass player first has provided the foundation to learn drums & then guitar. Getting over not being a singer but singing anyways to always be able to make a new original !As time goes by learning the 'art" of recording. It has me always thinking, capturing life in 3-4 minute audio capsules & sorta documented my life without knowing it. Plus have 3 5150's & SVT's that just rule in a mix !! How can you not play these..also available for my friends bands as needed on Bass or Guitar & we serious jam at my place for hours-pure playing all genres very little talking..love it all, here is yesterdays HomeBrew recording "Found out What I'm made of"



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I’ve been playing with a guitarist for four decades in a few different bands. For most of that time, he built a large collection of vintage Fender amps, two tweeds, mostly blackfaces, a couple of piggybacks. His concept was to bring the one most appropriate for the size of the venue, anything from a tweed Champ to a Twin Reverb. About 10 or 15 years he got himself a Marshall 50 watt half stack, which he only used on outdoor gigs.

Then a few years ago he fell into the speaker cab rabbit hole. He bought an impedance matching box and a variety of boutique or custom cabs, mainly Marshall style with Celestions and keeps mixing and matching them gig after gig mainly with his stock Deluxe Reverb (he also has a modified one fitted with 6L6 tubes and an Altec Lansing 12”). I find it pretty hilarious myself, as I don't hear a huge difference between these new rigs and what he's used for so long. He’s also deep into the pedalboard thing.

Oddly enough, he still uses the same two pre-CBS Fender guitars he’s had since I met him, a Jazzmaster and a Strat, both with RW boards and stripped finishes.

+++++++++++++++=

There’s another guy I know who used to come faithfully for 20+ years to the local blues jam where I was house bassist. He always owned nice guitars, mainly various Les Pauls but some Strats now and then. His older brother is a great blues/rock player but this guy despite all the time he’s been playing is barely competent playing rhythm and as a soloist forget it. Plus he likes to really crank the amp, many nights at the jam he’d be right next to me with a cranked Super Reverb and I couldn’t even hear myself, but wasn’t about to get into a volume war by turning up. One night I was talking with another jammer who’s a working pro. He said “He’s not a guitar player, he’s just a guitar operator.” Ouch :wideyed: Too bad, because he’s a really nice guy, constantly going to live shows and hipping me to a lot of great music.
 
I'm a guitar enthusiast. And a bass enthusiast too for that matter. Which is fine, because I'm not in a band. When I have been in bands, I've definitely shifted to player mode. And in general, the more I'm actually playing and focusing on improving my technique, learning songs, etc..., the less I'm worried about gear.
 
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I like great gear as much as the next guy (I build my own instruments, which makes it slightly different, but not THAT different),but I am definitely a player.

My gigs are church services - admittedly big churches, but I've also played smaller ones, and thing's aren't all that different. Sometimes we have Thursday evening rehearsals, but often it's a "show and go" situation. Either way, you show up with every tune well practiced - the rehearsal is for fitting things together, not for you to learn the songs. The show and go ones are particularly strict that way - you get there at 6 or 6:30 AM, and at 9 AM there WILL be an audience there, and if you suck, well......don't expect to be called again.

Most of the time, "new" players are vetted - they have played for JR High or High School services, or are referred from another church or by another musician - I have played at a dozen churches in the last decade, and only had two auditions - the rest I was referred as a "known" quantity. The point is, if you are good, you get known, and opportunities happen. If not, you have very few opportunities to go elsewhere.

Musicians that show up prepared are not rare - in my world, everyone puts in the work. Yes, there are decent players, really good players, and some spectacular ones, but there are no players that "phone it in".
 
Funny how GAS & playing are often at odds.
I once quit a band because the BL wouldn't stop buying more & more PA gear that didn't make us sound any better.
The best guitarist I know uses one beat up import Epiphone hollowbody, a Strat someone gifted him that badly needs a new nut and various loaner amps (because his own has been on the fritz for months).
He also lost his driver's license. It's definitely a hassle to work with him sometimes, but he plays like he sold his soul to the devil.
'll take that over the other guy who always has some shiny new gear & can barely make it through a song.
 
I would expect a gearhead "enthusiast" would come to rehearsal with his sht wired tight and ready to rock. If he is more interested in gear than learning the songs, i'd tell him to take a hike, discuss with rest of band first of course..

i like guitars, just dont play them...I like looking at them, geeking out on makes, models, hardware etc.....Always thought i wanted to play guitar until 2 strings broke off my ovation acoustic and started playing that like a bass all those yrs ago. Some are so beautiful i wish i kept at it.
 
I started out as a guitar head 50 years ago, but I didn’t have the means to indulge myself back then. I was a poor college student putting myself through school. After about five years I switched to bass, but still didn’t have the means to indulge. Then about 15 years ago I got into mandolins. Now I have the means, and I have a Telecaster that I never play, a nice acoustic guitar that I play often, a couple of mandolins that I play the most. and a handful of basses. But I’ll always be a bass player at heart.

I’m not a gear head at all. I own zero pedals, three bass amps, one guitar practice amp, and enough mics, stands, and cables to play a small show with my acoustic trio. I’m okay with that. I only buy certain types of basses that make me happy. If after I buy them, they don’t make me happy, I sell them. I’ve sold a few pieces—less than I can count on one hand—that I regret selling. But for the most part, I’m happy. If a nice vintage piece was made available at a crazy good price, I wouldn’t hesitate to jump on it, but I’m not lusting after anything. I’m actually thinking about how my wife (or my heirs) are going to liquidate the pieces I have.