Guitarists and gear obsession

BCnSTL

BCnSTL

Inspired
Having idle thoughts:

- What is it about modern styles of music that seems to support gear obsession?
- Do classical/traditional musicians obsess about cellos and violins and bows and rosin and the like?
-What about other creative types. Do you hear about authors discussing how different word-processors or a new thesaurus effects what they create?
 
- What is it about modern styles of music that seems to support gear obsession?

modern styles are soundscapey.

- Do classical/traditional musicians obsess about cellos and violins and bows and rosin and the like?

yes they would. its about the number of elements though. violinist has 3 elements (violin, bow, different strings), pianist has 1 element (piano), electric guitarist has... (guitar, amp (separable pre and power), speaker, cabinet, effects pedals and countless more separable entities of the above for e.g. pickups, new bridge) - i've lost count, how many variable elements here? very many

-What about other creative types. Do you hear about authors discussing how different word-processors or a new thesaurus effects what they create?

no.

what have we learnt here? "rig videos" like rebecca dirks for premierguitar.com videos are evil because they make hapless guitarists want to buy shit they do not need
 
The classical musicians do not obsess about their instruments.

They find ONE and work it in and then pretty much use it forever. My grandfather was a classical violinist for the Romania Philharmonic in the 1940s and 50s and still has the ONE violin he played to learn on and through out his musical career.
 
i definitely could not imagine many gear sluts being amongst the common folk in the WWII days
 
BCnSTL said:
Having idle thoughts:

- What is it about modern styles of music that seems to support gear obsession?
- Do classical/traditional musicians obsess about cellos and violins and bows and rosin and the like?
-What about other creative types. Do you hear about authors discussing how different word-processors or a new thesaurus effects what they create?
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I play in a band with a violin and a double bass. The bass player a bit less so, but yes they're picky about their instruments. Always on about how the new brand of strings they're trying doesn't feel right, or the new hair on the bow doesn't feel right, or this rosin's rubbish, or this new pickup doesn't sound right, or this new bridge isn't right, etc. The bassist's endpin is custom made from carbon fibre, because apparently wooden ones don't sound right. The bow is carbon fibre too.

BUT, they don't have a whole bunch of instruments like guitarists often do. The bassist has one double bass, and a couple of electrics (a 4 and a 6 from memory) in the cupboard from years ago. The violinist has her main one, and then a 5-string electric that never really gets played coz she basically doesn't like it. One amp each. They think my collection of guitars is stupid, especially considering they only ever see me using the same two.
 
haha i must admit ive collected 1000 000 software synths looking for sounds that i need and really 2-3 good ones does the job the rest lie dormant

but yeh all genres and styles obsess over gear, i talk to them everyday.

regarding 'guitar gear' fark ive spent way too much time and money on shit i didnt need
 
i was a sucker for marketing, thats what it was .. marketing = making people believe they need something they dont,, imo
 
it might be a gen y thing. Theyre all pretty obsessed with phones and tablets, and the newest technology and yolo and whatever. Like they know when the next iphone is scheduled for release...

Take my bro in law for example, 24 yrs old and has owned more guitars than me (i have 5), has hardly played any of them. Just keeps buying and selling.

so maybe young guys = gear sluts and old guys = hoarders?
 
There are more guitar players or wannabe guitar players than any other type of musician except singers. So we are a good target for marketing. There are some great products around but a lot of snake oil, myth and tradition thrown in.
We know that equipment/gear can improve our tone or sound so we hoard..... And sometimes it's competition with each other, not many violinist' pianist etc... know 25 others personally that do the same thing they do like us guitar players.
Let's face it, if we put half the amount of time into learning and practice as we do collecting, reading and obsessing over gear, our tone and playing would improve far beyond where the latest piece of hi-tech or vintage gizmo could take us.
 
aleclee said:
On the other hand, some violinists pay more for bows than I did for my entire rig.
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Yeah, that's the other thing. Pretty much everything is significantly more expensive, from the instrument to the bow right down to the strings. I could restring my entire guitar collection for less than what our violinist pays for one set. :lol
 
The other guitarist in my original band doesn't give two shits about gear. He doesn't even change strings unless one breaks... I wish I could be that happy with gear/tone. The last week I've actually been auditioning some Splawn amps as a backup rig. WHO DOES THAT?! I think I'm going to get a second axe fx instead, but damn that 40w Street Rod sounds good!
 
Classical guys definitely DO obsess over their instruments. Yes will easily spend upwards of $30k, sometimes as much as $100 on an instrument. But then that's generally their instrument for life. But they very often will have one or two spare, ALOSO VERY EXPENSIVE instruments so they won't have to take the priceless one out with them all the time.

Jazz upright bassists often talk about the fact that you can't find a good bass violin that's not at least 200 years and will spend $50 on one. Classical violinists and cellists can be far worse. And the bow and hair that goes with it is another obsession. Reeds and mouthpieces is another one.

Modern rock guitarists DID NOT invent GAS. Believe me.
 
Sidivan said:
The other guitarist in my original band doesn't give two shits about gear. He doesn't even change strings unless one breaks... I wish I could be that happy with gear/tone. The last week I've actually been auditioning some Splawn amps as a backup rig. WHO DOES THAT?! I think I'm going to get a second axe fx instead, but damn that 40w Street Rod sounds good!
Click to expand...

Yeah. That's kind of me too.
 
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