Oddly enough, you don’t truly understand the value of an American dollar until you spend some time with the British pound. If you are a musician, particularly a guitarist, this understanding hits you with the weight of several thousand pounds, and yes, I mean that very literally. I have talked about my prized Gibson SG Standard in the past, and when I bought it back in my high school days in SF, it cost me exactly $1,000, and came with a hard shell case. Many people (mostly non-guitarists), would consider this expensive, but what if I were to tell you that the identical guitar sells for more than twice as much in London? Let me tell you, when you see a £1,500 price tag on a US guitar, you instantly say to yourself—”I’m am glad to be American!” (if only for the guitars… and better pronunciation of the word “aluminum”). As you may have read in one of my past blogs, I brought my trusty Gibson SG with me to the UK as my carry-on luggage. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the ability to bring along all my gear… and let me tell you—I LOVE gear.
I love Metal Gear, Britain’s Top Gear, Moth’s record Provision’s, Fiction, and Gear; but perhaps most of all, I love guitar gear. Every time I go to the local guitar shop, an online music store, or even flip open an issue of Musician’s Friend, it’s as if Q from MI6 had designed a meticulous set of Rock gadgetry to help me succeed in my [musical] mission. Something that you may not have considered is that is everything in this world has nerds associated with it. And I do mean everything! There are obvious ones like video game nerds, or computer nerds, but then there are seemingly paradoxical ones as well like wrestling nerds, romance nerds, rollerblade nerds, or people like me: guitar gear nerds! I’m so bloody nerdy about guitar gear, I needed two introductory paragraphs to emphasize the point! So, by the beard of Zeus, let’s talk some mother$%*&in gear!
There are so many awesome guitar gadgets out there but in my opinion, the ideal setup uses a simple philosophy: keep your amp clean and your effects dirty. An awesome sound is all about balance, like everything in life. With that being said, I love Fender amps (squeaky clean), Gibson guitars (dirty), and vicious distortion (just plain filthy). But the combination is awesome! I’ve used a million distortion pedals in my day, but the ones I have liked the most are the Fabtone by Dan Electro, the Metal Zone by Boss, and, interestingly enough, my Fender amp’s built-in scooped distortion. Of course, if you’re going to use Fender distortion, you’re going to need a guitar with some cajones! When I pair my Telecaster with a Fender amp, and then throw metal distortion on top, I just can’t get the fat tone, bassy palm-muting, and artificial harmonics that I need for my hard rock style of playing. Then again, there is a such thing as too dirty. I am not a huge fan of Gibson Guitars + Marshall stacks for example. However, give me a nice Mesa Boogie stack with that crystal clear pterodactyl scratch distortion and I’ll give you a killer sound that perfectly balances the clean with the ultimate in filthy technology.
There are all kinds of cool effects out there, like Flangers, Wah pedals, Phasers, Digital Delays, etc. But the worst thing you can do is mix them altogether into one gigantic multi-effect floor pedal! When you broadly focus on 500+ effects, the end product can never be as good as a single pedal which is focused entirely on one effect. Right? That’s what I used to think, but that’s the beauty of being a modern day guitarist. Nowadays you can buy a multi-effects pedal that creates amazing sounds across the board. Fairly recently I did the unthinkable and ditched nearly all of my stomp boxes for one awesome multi-headed-effects beast: The Digitech RP-1000. You can get extremely creative with this monster and dish out some trip-tastic, Tom Morello-esque sounds from this weapon of mass destruction. It gives you the ability to take your favorite guitar pedals, incorporate them with your favorite amps, and then modify the overall sound to make something truly special and unique. This is like the bi-polar swiss army knife of effects pedals… and I love it!
Now I can go on forever about guitar gear, so in the interest of keeping this short and sweet, I will stick to the gear that I love the most. Nothing is more near and dear to me than the world of Loop station gear. Why have one guitar track, when you can have hundreds playing together, using merely a foot pedal!? I currently use one of the early revolutionary loop pedals to appear on the market: The Boss RC-20 Loop Station. I love this thing! You can record 10 separate tracks, and stack each one with as many instrumental layers as you like. I remember annoying the crap out of high school bandmates, asking them to keep repeating a verse, so I could practice soloing. Loop Stations are the remedy to this age-old challenge. In addition you can lay down drums, piano, bagpipes, anything you need along with your guitar riffs, and loop them. Feeling extra creative? Take the tracks you laid down, and instantly play them in reverse with a tap of the foot switch. Some of the coolest riffs I have developed were inspired by backwards track playback. Finally, you can take all of your your inspiring creations and then throw them onto your computer in a high quality audio file. Take a look at one of the newer incarnations of this awesome toy:
Of course, acoustic guitar is also a lot of fun. Just like I said earlier, it’s all about balance! Admittedly, I’m having the most fun on guitar when I am playing with effects and coming up with trippy creations. While all these toys come at an extremely high cost, the good news is they constantly improve, and they are often well worth the money. Some people go to Mac-World and drool over Macs, some people go to E3 and drool over games, but for me when I go to Guitar Center in SF I feel like I’m at Disneyland! Being able to walk around a music store and try out all the latest gadgets for free is a luxury we have in the US, that really isn’t widely practiced anywhere else on the planet. If you’ve ever gone to a guitar shop in London and asked to try out a few guitars, you know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s like pulling teeth! By the way, if you’re British it is literally cheaper for you to fly to the US and buy an American guitar than it is to buy one in London, so come visit us! If you’re looking to add a new, unique edge to your playing, do yourself a favor and check out some of the latest gear. But be smart about it! Guitar shops (especially Mom and Pop places) are notorious for overcharging, so go in person and find what you like, and if the price is to high, shop around! I know some people have a problem with Guitar Center’s sales staff, but you can’t deny their strengths: the best selection, and the best prices. Whatever your venue of choice is, get out there and play with some new stuff. The gadgets out there are incredible, and they just might help you discover that legendary sound you have been searching for.
P.S. Blair still hasn’t beaten FFIV. Let’s not forget that the Super Nintendo was a pretty bad ass gadget as well. One that Blair uses to collect dust 😉
P.P.S. I’m afraid of Blair. Chris, protect me at once!
–M
Cute, Mike. Cute. 😛