Are you addicted to gear? I sure as hell am and I never really understood this until I came across the Premier Guitar Magazine's Gear Addiction Recovery series online.
So far the series is great and trying to bring you back to your roots; to add perspective to your unusual desire to buy more gear! I guess I have to be honest, I began to worry about why I couldn't be content after completing my Warmoth custom Strat. As I said before, it took me two years to plan, buy parts and have the Orange Beast built. You'd think after that type of dedication, I'd lose all desire to buy another guitar, but guess what? Yep, I didn't. So the question I began to ask myself is this, "what the hell am I looking for?" ANSWER: technique. The gear isn't the issue, it is the player.
A solid player, who has great chops, will sound good on any guitar. Why? Because a solid player will sound the same on any rig. For example, take Steve Vai - if he was over at your house, using your rig, he'd still sound like ... STEVE VAI! That means that gear is (nearly) irrelevant in what is actually the source of the sound and tone all of us are pursuing.
The Gear Addiction Recovery series is a great read, that may get you to think twice before dropping hundreds of dollars on the next piece of gear for your rig. The simple rule is to look at all the gear you have and dump all non-sentimental/rare gear that you haven't touched in the last six months. Well, I have a number of things that come to mind already: numerous pedals, a couple amps and a couple guitars.
Check out the series by Steve Ouimette and Premier Guitar Magazine:
- Are You a Gear Addict?
- Gear Addiction Recovery, Step 1: Your First Guitar
- Gear Addiction Recovery, Step 2: Your First Amp
- Gear Addiction Recovery, Step 3: What You Value
Song of the day: "Your Decision" - Alice In Chains
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