For those saving for nice gear...

[rottingcorpse]

In most cases I'd rather save and wait for what I want,than settle for something that will do.

 

[Red_Label]

In most cases I'd rather save and wait for what I want,than settle for something that will do.

Having had a lot of hobbies/interests... and being a man of limited means... I've spent most of my life trying to get by with things that were lower-medium tier products. Invariably, if the hobby sticks with me, I always eventually end-up getting the good stuff... having paid for it a couple times over stepping-up through the lower-end stuff. Finally, I'm learning more and more to "buy once, cry once". Even my wife got with the program a couple of years ago and started saying "you might as well buy the good stuff now, so you don't have to piss away your money on the cheap stuff and immediately want to upgrade".

 

[Racerxrated]

I just like to try all the gear. Some of it stays, some goes.

+100 on this.

Yup. I find that its harder to settle on an amp, and that has been my revolving door issue. Some I've had twice, three times..only to realize that damn...should a kept that one! Lol. But I can find a guitar in the 5-700 range that I like as much as any Suhr(tried 2) or Anderson(1). With the right pickups. Its the amp carousel that I fight....

I was the same way... until I took home my first Anderson. That changed everything for me and my third is on its way. No more dumping expensive guitars to go back to sub-$1K axes for me. I've found the right guitars for me. Amp-wise, I'm pretty damn happy with my Smallbox and QuickRod. But who knows where I'll be in five years. Still... it's not like I'm gonna find anything "better".

Don't get me wrong, those Andersons and Suhrs are amazing instruments. But I don't feel I sound/play better with them vs a used Charvel. Not all 5-700 guitars compete mind you but I've found a couple, and they are staying. Mark 2C+ is staying..the only question is do I mod my mint 82 2204??

 

[Racerxrated]

In most cases I'd rather save and wait for what I want,than settle for something that will do.

Having had a lot of hobbies/interests... and being a man of limited means... I've spent most of my life trying to get by with things that were lower-medium tier products. Invariably, if the hobby sticks with me, I always eventually end-up getting the good stuff... having paid for it a couple times over stepping-up through the lower-end stuff. Finally, I'm learning more and more to "buy once, cry once". Even my wife got with the program a couple of years ago and started saying "you might as well buy the good stuff now, so you don't have to piss away your money on the cheap stuff and immediately want to upgrade".

Smart girl!

 

[Chubtone]

Anecdote #1
I bought my first boutique guitar in probably 2007. I liked it so much I put my original Charvel San Dimas made guitars and my luck of the draw/freak of nature Warmoth build into their cases and put them under the bed. The owner of that boutique guitar company read that I liked that guitar so much and he saw that I was a Mojave amp dealer. He contacted me. Would I like another guitar made exactly to my specs in exchange for a Mojave Coyote amp? Well yes, yes I would. We hashed out a deal and I received my new, better than the first boutique guitar about 4 months later. I went down to the factory to pick it up and the owner was doing the final set up himself. Man was it beautiful and it played great. I didn't touch another guitar for probably the next year. I finished the 2nd half of my CD with that guitar.

One day, for a goof, I pulled my main old Charvel out from under the bed. I brought it into my studio and plugged it in. Holy shit. I then dug out the Warmoth. Now I have built probably a dozen Warmoths in an attempt to catch lightning twice and duplicate this one build but I have never been able to build one that competes. Anyway, my Charvel, my Warmoth and the boutique started duking it out and I was a little disappointed in the boutique guitar tone-wise. There was no way that phenomenal guitar wasn't going to sound better than these other guitars I had. I started installing pickups in it left and right over the next few weeks. After about the 10th or 11th pickup, it set in. Neither of my boutique guitars sounded as good as my #1 Charvel or my fluke Warmoth.

To shorten this a little, the difference was enough that after installing all those pickups, I gave up. Both boutique guitars went up for sale and I re-recorded the half of my CD that had them on it.

Anecdote #2

In about 1995, I had a friend who wanted to know if I wanted to buy his Bogner Ecstasy from him for $1500. You read the date right. Yes, it was the holy grail of Bogner Ecstasy amps, the 100B! That amp was so much fun to play through. I LOVED it. I brought it into my home studio but could just never capture the sound I was hearing (and feeling) on to my recordings. You want to talk about flipping gear? I bought so many different mics and different microphone preamps. I moved those mics a mm here or an inch there 100's of times, trying to find that sweet spot on the speaker. I could never find it. I hired a really good, heavy rock recording engineer to come to my house and help me capture that sound onto my recordings. He did his best. I still wasn't happy. Mark Cameron came over to my house and helped me try and try to get it to sound the way I felt it should on tape. Now 8 months has gone by and all I have done is bought vintage mics and preamps and moved those mics around on speakers. I haven't recorded a single keeper guitar track in all that time. Just frustration after frustration with what was believed to be the best amp ever made and the best version ever made of that amp.

Finally, one day I had had enough. I was going to record guitars and keep those tracks and get on with life. I plugged in the Bogner and started recording rhythm tracks. I doubled them. Alright! Finally recording guitars again. I was having fun!

Then for the hell of it, I pulled an old Super Lead out of the closet. I hoped it still worked. It hadn't been plugged in since I got the Bogner. I threw the Marshall up on a spare 4x12 I had. I grabbed an SM57 and put it in the general area where the speaker should sound good. I plugged that mic directly into my Mackie mixer. I didn't move the mic once to find any sweet spot. I didn't plug that mic into a vintage mic preamp. No. I set that amp up to fail. So I cued up the track and pressed the red button. I recorded a rhythm track and then recorded another to double it. I listened back with the Bogner panned left and the Marshall right. Now we were getting somewhere. It sounded pretty darn good!

So, then came the time to start singling out the guitars. I singled out the Bogner. It sounded how it always had. I listened to Bogner tracks left and right. It was pretty good. I listened to Bogner left and now the Super Lead right. Whoa! Now we were getting somewhere. Then I took the Bogner out completely and had Super Leads left and right. Holy shit. That was it. DAMN IT! I had wasted almost a year trying to get the hippest amp available in the world to sound great on tape and failed, but with zero preparation and effort got the old Marshall to sound killer immediately.

I sold the Bogner for $2k and haven't missed it once. About 5 years ago, a Bogner 101B came into the shop and I thought maybe I just wasn't that good at recording back when I had the 100B so I brought this other one home. After a few days it went back to the shop and up for sale and that was for a reason.

So yeah, I believe in buying gear that sounds killer. I don't believe for one second that you can just throw money at the hippest, most exclusive, expensive gear around and have that guarantee stellar sounds. Oh, I KNOW that you and I will buy in completely with our hearts at first to that really cool gear we just spent a ton on. But that honeymoon period wears off and can slap you down hard.

To some, guitars like I had and Bogners are as good as it gets. To my ear, the ONES I OWNED were not and if they were only 1/3 the price they actually are, I still wouldn't own them.

Obviously, YMMV.

 

[Red_Label]

I've done similar things (and no longer own my XTC Classic or Shiva). I like what I like, regardless of forum cred or opinions. Having said that, when I don't get along with gear that's supposed to be "all that"... I know that it's usually because my ears are looking to hear something else or I'm seeking a different feel, rather than it being any indication of there being any serious shortcomings with the gear. I just traded-off my beloved LP Standard for another Anderson strat. It's not like there was anything objectively lacking in the LP. But it just wasn't the tool that I reached-for anymore. Whereas the Andersons are for me. Hopefully I'll still be reaching for those five years from now. But who knows... I've been thru enough gear to know that nothing is a guarantee. So i just try to ride the wave of inspiration and use what's inspiring me at the moment.

 

[billsbigego]

I have more fun with this cheap $700 guitar than my other ones.

 

[yngzaklynch]

I think my intitial message got misunderstood. If what works for you is inexspensive then fantastic. Rock out. But if you've found a guitar or amp that is really what does it for you then i say say hang in there and work for it. Be patient. You'll be happier in the end and spend less

 

[Steinmetzify]

Been there and done it. Cheap gear is fine for what it is and if that's what you can afford to get you making music, then by all means, do it.

Having started out on cheap no name guitars and import Deans, I know that stuff doesn't work for me anymore. It doesn't inspire me to play, so it's not bought anymore.

Same for modeling....I don't love the lower end stuff so I went top shelf and I'm happier than I've been in a long time.

4-5 years later, all my guitars are USA PRSi or Gibsons, got a couple customs built. I DO have a few imports left, but mostly they're on loan to friends, and the low end modeling is up to an Axe II that sounds fuckin fantastic every time I light it up.

If I buy a guitar anymore, it's a partscaster that I do myself.....pick out all the parts, do it a little at a time, buy the best shit I can, and really it's only for a tuning thing anymore. Do I have enough guitars? Yeah. Could I always have one more with completely different styles of pickups for a different tuning? Sure can. I'll wait and take my time with the build instead of hitting Reverb and spending $500 though...for a little less than a grand I can have the best parts and EXACTLY what I want, instead of sacrificing 'this' for the cost...

Agreed, saving for what you really want is the way to go if you can actually do it. I have friends that have 15 low end guitars and don't understand why they like my guitars that much more, especially when I bought them used and paid about the same that they did. Quality is quality, regardless if you like certain guitars/amps/modelers or not.

A $500 guitar isn't the same as a $2500 guitar, not to my hands and ears. A USA PRS isn't the same as an SE, no matter what you do to it; by the same token an LTD 400 isn't the same as an ESP. It just isn't.

Save your money.....seriously, stack it up and buy one REALLY good guitar rather than fuck around and buy 6 guitars that are all the same quality you're trying to get up from.

 

[Michi]

Been there and done it. Cheap gear is fine for what it is and if that's what you can afford to get you making music, then by all means, do it.

Having started out on cheap no name guitars and import Deans, I know that stuff doesn't work for me anymore. It doesn't inspire me to play, so it's not bought anymore.

Same for modeling....I don't love the lower end stuff so I went top shelf and I'm happier than I've been in a long time.

4-5 years later, all my guitars are USA PRSi or Gibsons, got a couple customs built. I DO have a few imports left, but mostly they're on loan to friends, and the low end modeling is up to an Axe II that sounds fuckin fantastic every time I light it up.

If I buy a guitar anymore, it's a partscaster that I do myself.....pick out all the parts, do it a little at a time, buy the best shit I can, and really it's only for a tuning thing anymore. Do I have enough guitars? Yeah. Could I always have one more with completely different styles of pickups for a different tuning? Sure can. I'll wait and take my time with the build instead of hitting Reverb and spending $500 though...for a little less than a grand I can have the best parts and EXACTLY what I want, instead of sacrificing 'this' for the cost...

Agreed, saving for what you really want is the way to go if you can actually do it. I have friends that have 15 low end guitars and don't understand why they like my guitars that much more, especially when I bought them used and paid about the same that they did. Quality is quality, regardless if you like certain guitars/amps/modelers or not.

A $500 guitar isn't the same as a $2500 guitar, not to my hands and ears. A USA PRS isn't the same as an SE, no matter what you do to it; by the same token an LTD 400 isn't the same as an ESP. It just isn't.

Save your money.....seriously, stack it up and buy one REALLY good guitar rather than fuck around and buy 6 guitars that are all the same quality you're trying to get up from.

This here is what I've been trying to go by, albeit on a slightly "lower budget scale" in the lack of a better term. I've tried to find good guitars within my price range, be it $1000+ or anything else.

The only thing I have kind of a problem with is if I get say an R7, will I ever dare take it with me when we go out and play in the local pizzeria or the like? Sure, I can get an insurance for the $3000+ guitar, but how much will it piss me off when the local King of Drinks comes and falls over my precious breaking the neck? Is it just me, or do other guys who play live think aboot this stuff as well?

 

[Chubtone]

Save your money.....seriously, stack it up and buy one REALLY good guitar rather than fuck around and buy 6 guitars that are all the same quality you're trying to get up from.

I have customers that do this all the time and I normally agree with it but the difference tone-wise between a good pro quality guitar and a very expensive boutique guitar can be totally negligible or in some cases the boutique one doesn't even sound as good. I wrote above about my Warmoth and original San Dimas Charvel throwing a beating on a couple of the most beautiful boutique guitars I ever saw. They were the kind of guitars that gave instant forum cred and they just had to be phenomenal because they cost so much, right? The fit and finish was beautiful, they played great. They were perfect. Except they didn't sound as good, so they may as well have been firewood to me.

I was talking to a guy the other day that gigs a ton and is in the top Metallica tribute on the west coast. He used to be endorsed by Brian Moore guitars and had several top of the line Brian Moore guitars. He played Cameron modded Marshalls and when he got the Brian Moore endorsement he found himself fighting with his amp and tone more than ever. He had Mark Cameron come over and help him with his rig. Mark kept telling him he needed to get rid of those shitty sounding guitars and he just laughed it off. "Yeah right, shitty guitars don't cost this much". So Mark brings over a total crap box, mutt guitar. A body he made in high school wood class, a Japanese Fender Squier neck, a vintage Duncan JB and a brass Charvel bridge. The worst paint you ever saw. So the guy starts playing his favorite Brian Moore through the amp and they mess with and mess with the sound. Finally Mark plugs his crap box in and the guy's heart freaking sank. Mark's guitar sounded killer right off the bat and within minutes the guy had decided that he was done with Brian Moore guitars and eventually sold them all off.

Don't listen to tone with your eyes or with how much of a dent something put in your wallet. I have been very guilty of that and been bitch slapped by it repeatedly.

 

[Michi]

Save your money.....seriously, stack it up and buy one REALLY good guitar rather than fuck around and buy 6 guitars that are all the same quality you're trying to get up from.

I have customers that do this all the time and I normally agree with it but the difference tone-wise between a good pro quality guitar and a very expensive boutique guitar can be totally negligible or in some cases the boutique one doesn't even sound as good. I wrote above about my Warmoth and original San Dimas Charvel throwing a beating on a couple of the most beautiful boutique guitars I ever saw. They were the kind of guitars that gave instant forum cred and they just had to be phenomenal because they cost so much, right? The fit and finish was beautiful, they played great. They were perfect. Except they didn't sound as good, so they may as well have been firewood to me.

I was talking to a guy the other day that gigs a ton and is in the top Metallica tribute on the west coast. He used to be endorsed by Brian Moore guitars and had several top of the line Brian Moore guitars. He played Cameron modded Marshalls and when he got the Brian Moore endorsement he found himself fighting with his amp and tone more than ever. He had Mark Cameron come over and help him with his rig. Mark kept telling him he needed to get rid of those shitty sounding guitars and he just laughed it off. "Yeah right, shitty guitars don't cost this much". So Mark brings over a total crap box, mutt guitar. A body he made in high school wood class, a Japanese Fender Squier neck, a vintage Duncan JB and a brass Charvel bridge. The worst paint you ever saw. So the guy starts playing his favorite Brian Moore through the amp and they mess with and mess with the sound. Finally Mark plugs his crap box in and the guy's heart freaking sank. Mark's guitar sounded killer right off the bat and within minutes the guy had decided that he was done with Brian Moore guitars and eventually sold them all off.

Don't listen to tone with your eyes or with how much of a dent something put in your wallet. I have been very guilty of that and been bitch slapped by it repeatedly.

Great post Curt, thanks for this!