Avoid these 7 Guitar Gear Mistakes I Made!
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- Опубліковано 3 чер 2024
- Today I discuss 7 things I have learned about guitar gear in the last 21 years. This list was designed to be educational and helpful for guitarists of all levels and experience. This covers some of the mistakes I made and how I look at things now, as opposed to many years ago.
I have tested thousands of guitar products over the years and this list is a combination of the points I think that get overlooked a lot by guitarists.
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Just a quick heads up, the Rode Mic wasn't recording so it's shotgun room mic only on this video 🤣. If you have something to add to the list please comment below. Thanks again! 😀
Omg your right marshall lead 12 solid state is amazing!!! Appreciate all your content been watching you for years keep it up!!
Sound is great.
@KC completely agree!!
intheblues I was going to mention it but glad you got it figured out.
the unbiased solid state claim is not accurate; most solid state amps are not junk; the guy that handle it is the junk part of it. Learning to use the EQ knobs to timbre the sound is something that takes time. Also, not everyone likes or needs the tones of blues.
Someone once asked me, " I suck at guitar. Should I get a delay?" I responded, "Sure, then you can have two of you that suck at guitar."
That's great XD
words of wisdom from my wife... Don't buy another guitar, buy some guitar lessons!
LOL!!!! This can be the case. So much of tone is what you can get out of something when you play.
One of my students swore my 22 year old Godin LG was better than his Godin Summit CT until we swapped guitars in lessons. "Hey, my guitar sounds great too."
Hahahahaha.
Whenever I think I "need" a more expensive guitar, I ask myself the following: Which would be more enjoyable to listen to: a) Richard Thompson playing my guitar, or b) me playing Richard Thompson's guitar? Until the answer is b (it never will be!) I'm not going to worry about "needing" a more expensive guitar!
ouuucchhhhh
Lesson 1: next time heed your wifes warning about bringing home another guitar. Or, instead, buy a large double gun case and put the guitar in that and sneak it in and hide it amongst your collection she's lost count on.
Up to number twelve. They look nice hanging on the wall.
"All in the hands"............my sex-life the last 4 years.
You don't use it, you lose it. 🤣
69 likes lmao
Let me guess, “Your Married”? Lol
Damn 4 years is a while
@@mma1st105 Better than nothing
Only seven mistakes? I've made way more than that.
Problem is, I have made some of these mistakes lots of times 🤣
...in the last 6 months :D
I started playing in 1981, and put down the Guitar several times over the years. But now, with all the RESOURCES available now I'm hooked like I've never been before. "In my day" we got a chord book, and listened to our favorite songs on records, over and over. WHAT A TIME WE LIVE IN!!!!
It was a mistake to keep my guitars in their case in the closet. I got a rack and put my six guitars on it and now I play them all more.
Yes! I always leave my guitars out and plugged into amps. Easy to grab when inspiration hits!
I’ve done the same but gone one step further, each even has its own strap which is left on (with strap locks)!
They all get played now!
yep... keep them where you can almost pick them up absent mindedly.
I would have to disagree. Until recently, my home was right on the ocean. That said, I can tell you for a fact that ocean air will wreck a guitar fairly quickly. In that environment, guitars come out of their case, get played, get cleaned and all wiped down and then put back in their case.
I live in a different environment now with the guitars and amps having their own room and I still keep the guitars in cases and all of my amps, cabs and combos have their own covers as well. A fair amount of the gear around me is 50+ years old and I have an obligation to keep it in the best possible condition for the next generation of players.
Last time I put all my guitars on a stand, my house got broken into and they all got stolen. Now I put them all away in their cases and hide them throughout the house.
About three weeks ago, I sold a guitar for the first time ever. Why? I helped a friend make bail. A small price to pay for a mans freedom. Plus, it was just so Rock n Roll....on the way to the jailhouse to get him out, my local was playing some hardcore blues tunes. I felt like Elwood Blues going to get Jake.
Been a year but thanks dude.. 😂
@@ksekhose8933 buy your friend a guitar!
Or tell him to not be a piece of crap and get arrested to begin with
@@firemarshal2629 lol
Me with a Squier, soul food, and a Peavey modeler amp seeing the thumbnail 😟
😂 It was a little misleading, at first.
I think you & your equipment are safe. 😉
keep your head up bud and rock with what you have.
@shallnotbeinfringed unlessuvotedem can confirm. i have a modded one with germanium sounds amazing.
Some good advice here. I couldn’t play that well when I bought myself an American Deluxe Telecaster. Part of me said ‘you’re not a good enough player for that guitar’. But I’ve still got it.......still love it. Bought it more than 20 years ago
good insight.
i’ve always thought its better to have a great instrument that doesnt fight you when youre learning.
My logic for buying a fender over like a squire classic vibe or something like that was I could just sell it for about what I paid for it
@@leo._.vincent Well... closer to 60% of what you paid, but the squier would be close to worthless too.
@@watersnortmoment3734 not really, if you have a good squire. Squire is probably better than a $15,000 guitar.
It's all in your mind.
You gotta learn to burn, and the squire is the best one to do it in.
@@luismangiaterra1031 Hi there
''you gotta learn to burn ''
Do you mean.. learn to express your feelings with your playing?
Namm Spam - Well said 😆
Based on the thumbnail, I was worried he was going to put down my beloved Soul Food pedal. Glad to see that wasn't the case :-)
Glad you mentioned the Roland Jazz Chorus. I have a JC77 that was a hand-me-down from my older brother who taught me how to play. Any praise for the JC always makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.
been eyeing the JC 40. These amps are supposedly the cleanest around, perfect for a pedal platform too....and the chorus!!!!!
@@DrunkenRhinoceros The chorus makes everything sound like Enter Sandman. Lol.
My 59 Gretsch Jet is my biggest regret everytime I look at the invoice price - then I plug it in and figure I can always eat 2min Noodles.
Gretsches love 2 minute noodles, as well ... as do most guitars.
Throw away the invoice.
Shane! You are my new favorite guitar channel. You’re such a straight shooter and tell it how it is that I don’t have the urge to double check or filter everything you say. And just like other comments I see here, your recommendations are always spot on. Keep doing what you do and I’ll keep watching!
As a guitarist who’s been through a lot of different gear in the past, almost 40 years, I say great video! I still have the Peavy Studio pro combo I started learning in. Just had it fixed up. But! I’ve also put a modest home studio together with vintage gear, Marshall JMP-1 preamp, Alesis quadraverb, TCElectronics Gmajor… new crown power amp. Loving it! The quest for “your perfect tone” , never stops. But I think I have it now.
One of the greatest dirt bike riders of all time was Roger Decoster. An interviewer asked one of the other competitors after the race if Roger's win was because he had a better ride. The fellow responded by saying that Roger was so pumped up, he could have been riding a tricycle and he would have won.
Good point about the “sound in your head” mantra. I have multiple plugins from free to downright expensive in my DAW and no matter which one I use or which combination of amps, mics, speakers, pedals I still seem to gravitate towards the same sound I like. The same between my Valve Marshall and my Bandit. It helps when you need a good sound out of someone else’s backline gear that’s unfamiliar.
Every aussie has the "tell it like it is gene" coming through loud 'n clear. Good areas Shaney! 👍
This is a good reality check! I realized recently that so many gain pedals that sound night-and-day different on a track sound almost the same live in the room, and it was quite a wakeup! Ya just gotta get what works and then go play!
My guitars are like my kids...I can't sell them...I won't even lend them to anyone. Still, a very sobering and true video, Shane.
I definitely believe in getting what you want the first time and not making concession for price or versatility. Doesn't mean get the 2k dollar guitar vs a 500 dollar one necessarily, staying in budget is important! It also applies to pedals and amps too. Just spend the extra up front to buy what you want and bypass the re-selling part!
My mistake with solid state amps was the opposite: I was too loyal to them. Everything I seemed to read/hear about tube amps when I was starting out was that tube amps were maintenance-intensive and unreliable, so I was solid state all the way. I didn't get my first true tube amp until a few years ago. I missed out on a lot of tonal fun.
funny about the tube thing,i hear it all the time.ive owned 15+ tube amps and have changed 1 tube in 30 years
I hear you. Same here. Nothing beats personal experience.
I did the opposite, started with a tube amp, a Sound City 50+ but could never get the tones I wanted and because it wasn’t a “master volume” amp everything was always way too loud!
Switched to an H H IC100s combo, then Award Session Sessionette and now a Blackstar ID60 TVP, got the tones I wanted at the volumes I need!
Every once and a while I think about wanting a tube amp but then plug into the Blackstar, get the tone in my head and think, what’s the point!
I moved to solid state after getting ripped off by an amp tech. He charged $130 non-refundable deposit, kept the amp for a couple of months before calling me to collect it and saying it couldn't be fixed. Another tech fixed it later. I have found a few great solid state bargains secondhand after that.
@@ces69 A lot of older tub amps were totally NON-versatile, and had no way to attenuate power, so it was either loud or not. At least most of the older Marshall
heads or Fender Twins or Reverbs had two channels or more, so you had some control over output and gain. My new Vox VX50 actually has a power level selector so you can
literally dial in any kind of power level you want. And it works very well indeed.
I haven’t been subscribed the whole time , but I remember watching you way back then! And Rick! Always enjoyed you guys for sure.
Thanks, Shane. I especially liked the one about tone in the hands and the head. I wish more gear channels gave this topic it's due emphasis.
Oh man! Tip #7 helped me so much! It made me appreciate my #1 and #2 guitars even more so.
Cheers from Anchorage Alaska!
Great content, mate! Thank you for this 😊
It's all about the relationship you have to your gear and not whether it's budget or high end. I've had a yamaha pacifica 112v for the past 18 years I always go back to even if it stays in the case for certain stretches of time. I've got lots of guitars in my flat and I play all of them on and off. Recently, I took out an old epiphone wes montgomery style model I hadn't touched in years because I've started working with a sax player and it has renewed my love of the instrument. The music it makes sounds wonderful.Thank god I didn't sell it to buy pina coladas at some vacation resort!
Give your gear time to work for you...
There’s a lot I can agree with here but I’ll just say my kemper is the best purchase I’ve ever made. I know it’s not for everyone but I love how it works and being able to save performances and not worrying about knocking knobs out of place. But, to each their own!
I appreciate the time it takes to complete these videos, Shane. I love your honesty and agree with all the points you make. Buy a good guitar once and save the heartache of going thru multiple axes, I have done this as well. cheers T.
Buy the best squire strat you can find, have it set up. if you can't play that, your not a guitar player your a poser.
Your channel feeds my gas, but your focus on usable blues/classic rock tones helps me to better buy with my ears. VERY helpful! Thanks!
Great video! I struggle with the "Dr-cluttering" thing-but I AM currently actively working on that-again great video. Cheers-Chris
I love your pac man ghost!! Thanks for the great advice Shane! You are pretty spot on.
Great, sound tips Shane! Nice job.
Love your vids,mate. Good honest opinions and a funny guy! Keep em coming!🇬🇧
Looking great in this fashionable Tee ;) Very helpful video, as usual!
#3 resonates with me I played through a fender twin and an orange rockerverb 5 recently and it didn’t sound all that different than when I play through my two solid state combos
This helped me alot. Especially the selling what you don’t use and thinking long term when buying a guitar. Thanks!
Much love from Austria, love your vids
Love the artwork on the wall behind you. 🎸🎸🎸😍
Excellent video shane !!
That's great content Shane. Surelly that's wisdom and it doesn't come for free. Not so good decisions makes us wiser. This video has some priceless advices. Cheers from Brasil.
I have been playing 50 years and I agree your tone is in your head and hands. I can play a Squier Bullet Telecaster and get a similar tone as a Fender American Standard Telcaster. Happy with the full range of Squier and Fender Guitars.
I’ve managed to make every single mistake here!!!!🤣😆🤣😆 Guitars are my guilty pleasure and we live and learn as we continue this journey in our personal playing. The beautiful thing is now we have so many resources to help us along the way and a community of people to bounce ideas off of. Enjoying the journey is the utmost importance!!! Cheers!!🎸🎵🎼🎵
Excellent video Shane
Thanks for the mention of Gibson special w p90's - moded it and added a wcheap whammy and turned out lovely for basic rhythms and funky licks!
Solid advice, especially the point about diminishing returns as the price climbs.
So so true--in regards to so many things!
"Sound" wise advice Shane and as you said the principles apply to most other things too, like photographic gear for eg. ( it's the photographer, not the camera ! )
Great tips for those on a budget.
Some makes or certain models are well known for their great value while others have a reputation as a bit of a rip off, learning which is the case before buying makes sense,
Buying Second hand and also modding / adapting equipment can often save money.
Enjoy your channel Shane , keep up the good work and greetings from Scotland.
I wish I still had my Carvin sx100 solid state amp. They don't make them anymore but they were awesome and even got the Guitar Player pick of the month way back when!
Head and hands So true. I just decluttered 15 guitars in the past 3 months
Still have 9 .
@SonicChronos Bad case of GAS.
@SonicChronos No man but thanks for asking. I'm keeping the rest.
Number 5 - I agree! I felt kinda bad about getting the guitar I wanted straight away, but I didn’t want to go through the buying and selling.
Responding to #4 on the list about multi-effects pedals. If you want to be able to tweak your sound live, add a couple of expression pedals to your rig. That way if you want to be able to dial in more or less reverb, chorus, delay etc. you can do it without scrolling through menus.😊
I love my solid state fender side kick reverb and my vox da15 and my Marshall mg15 mini stack, and the new 2020 epiphone inspires by Gibson guitars are new and worth it to buy.
The interner convinced me i needed a tube amp on my 300 dollar budget as a teen, ended up with a all tube crate v33. Ive been buying and selling gear and my goto amp is now a solid state b52 lg100a, a much more powerful and useable amp.
Great video, mate. Thanks!!
Great advice, thanks for this.
Lol, 1st pedal I ever bought was the Joyo Gem box, demoed by you. Got me in this channel. Ya....I never use it either. I just stack pedals now. Thanks for the cool content.
I hear ya man, about collectors especially. I'm a fellow lefty, they need to release those unused critters back into the wild pawn shops!! So hard finding used lefties!
Sounds advice, Shane! I left the circuit long ago & just play/record at home now. I even left that for a while, just keeping my '69 Fender acoustic handy when I got the itch. All my gear is low dollar but it works for me. As I'm getting back into electric more I'll probably be doing a little more purchasing, especially if my old gear rotted in storage. Thanks for another great vid!!
Great video brother...lovin' it
I have Roland Jazz Chorus. My fav amp ever. Absolutely transparent and LOUD!!
Thanks so much for the good advice. Best wishes.
I'm in purge mode right now. Sold two guitars in the past two weeks. Great tips Shane. Cheers
Great video. At first I thought this was a quick and easy "get more views" type of video but your tips are obviously given from real life experience so kudos to that !!!!
Good honest advice.
I've honestly never found a full blown tube amp that I've loved, I've just always played solid state amps and I'm used to the attack that they have. The only tube amp I love is my Peavey Classic VTX, and it's still got a solid state preamp
Good advice. I enjoy your playing on your other videos.
I still have a 1994 Peavey Bandit 112 Teal Stripe and it’s my foundation amp. I use a Zoom G3x multi-effects pedal into it, and it does the job just fine.
I had a couple of bandits and i liked it more than my dsl 50
Heh! I have an old teal Peavey Special 112 on which the preamp section is completely dead. Nobody seems to know how to repair it. BUT, the power amp section works fine so I just put pedals in the effects loop return and basically use it as a huge and clean power amplifier... it sounds HUGE! I'm glad I didn't let it go for 40 $ a few years ago... I was out of my mind :)
A Custom Strat I've put together myself, into Line6 PODHD400, into an original 50Watt Peavey Bandit on an amp stand pointing up at my ears. Big gig, mic the amp into PA.
basement walls wont tell you how bad you sound
The first generation G3s are amazing
This is great - so true on all points!
Thanks for a great video. It was a pleasing tick box exercise.
I have a US Fender Strat with a vintage bridge which I would never swop for a newer model. To me the newer models without a vintage bridge are just not Strats.
There again, my influence was as a kid watching Hank Marvin on a black and white telly in the 60’s.
Great advice Shane. Thx
I started playing in the mid sixties with a Mustang and a 50s Champ, years before pedals( excluding wahs and fuzz) and digital amps. I went through the new guitar thing once but learned it is all about playing and dialing in your sound. It was a huge upgrade getting a twin reverb in the 70s, and I grooved with just reverb through the decade. I'm a minimalist now with one solid state and 2 tube amps, only 10 guitars, 10 pedals, a bass and that's all I need for now. Good video man. You're observations are real close to my own.
Jonathan, 10 guitars and 10 pedals is a lot!!!
"I'm a minimalist now....only 10 guitars" hahaha
I like the new stuff at NAMM because the older models go on sale. NAMM just happened, Jackson came with a few new models, and lo and behold, the sl2q that I had been eyeballing for months dropped dramatically in price. Got it in a heartbeat. Thanks for the new stuff, NAMM!
couldn't agree more- never buy anything when it first comes out...
I just gave my 23yo son a beautiful 1989 Olympic White MIJ Strat for Christmas that I’ve owned for a couple of years. I’ve also got an equally-beautiful 1985 Olympic white Strat. I love them both (one has rosewood fretboard and the other one has a maple 1-piece neck with skunk stripe). They are so similar, but different, and I don’t use them enough. My young bloke is a better guitarist than I am and I’m confident that he will use it and look after it. My decision to pass it onto my son was largely based on your attitude to accumulating too much stuff. I’m happy that it’s going to get used and the frets will get worn out. All the best for 2021 and keep up the great work!
You are so right about solid state amps! I have a Marshall DSL and Fender Deluxe yet my main amp for the last 4 years is my old LAB L5. Highly recommend for anything you'd use a Fender amp for. Solid, reliable and has a gorgeous compressor on the power amp. If you see one cheap and have the room grab it!
I bought a highway one Tele back in '08 and to me it out played all of the other more expensive fenders they had. I still have it and it plays better than ever.
Similar - I was with a chap looking for a bass, he tried heaps, some quite expensive. The Highway 1 Jazz bass was THE one that consistently put a smile on his face. So he bought it, and that smile persists!
My friend had a really nice Roland multi effects pedal. It sounded great, and he was able to navigate it pretty well. It takes time to get used to something like that.
On my Valvetronix amp, it has two knobs that you can use to tweak the tone of all the stomp box effects. The knobs change function based on what effect is being edited.
Makes so much sense, I like buying and selling on Craigslist to find different stuff I like and purging the stuff I don't. Totally agree that when I have stuff sitting too long not getting played I usually sell it to someone who can get some use out of it.
Hey Shane! I couldn't agree more on this! 100% with you
The Orange Crush pro 120 is an awesome sounding solid state amp. I've been playing mine for a week now and I love it.
Thanks for sharing your opinions! Good advice here.
He makes a good point about pedals in a pedal board being easier to use from an instinctive POV. However, the variety of music my band plays would have me lugging around a pedal board the size of a small rug. It's just so much more convenient/easier to have my Boss GT100 have all the pedals, amp modeling, wah pedal, looper, etc. Invest a little time into learning how to use it and you can get any sound you want out of it very fast.
Thanks for the shout-out to solid state amps! I have a mid-80s Marshall 5210, and it may be the best amp I have. I had a Peavey Bandit Red Stripe-awesome! Also, with amp-in-a-box pedals these days, you can get a great tube-esque tone anyway.
A good summary of ‘things to avoid’, and led by example. I’ll be interested to see what your long term guitars are . . I tell myself I only have a small set of guitars (Tele, Strat, 6119 Gretsch), and then I remember the Maton acoustic, and the Mustang bass !
Thanks bra, solid wisdom right there!
I hear more and more UA-cam guys saying similar things about solid state amps ... most mention the same few, but no one ever seems to mention Orange Crush series. These solid state amps are awesome! Sound great and take pedals well. Lots of great points here! I have Joyo AC Tone, and, much like the American, sounds great! This channel and a couple of others have me convinced to get more from Joyo.
I've had my Peavey Bandit since 1991, and other than the scratches on the side of the cabinet where one of our cats decided to engrave it with her autograph, it still plays great 30 years later!
I toured with one in the late 80s, I'd just mic it and run through the mains at gigs. Great tones.
With scorpion distortion yes?
I have one. Used it for years. Sounds decent; weighs as much as a tube amp!
Very accurate list mate.. And yeah, i regreted buying a multi effect the moment i tried it.. But, good pedals are so darn expensive!
All great points!!
Peavy had solid state nailed hands down in the late 70's through the 80's, I used and still own a Peavy Heritage and my pal used the Stereo Chorus, they sounded amazing ..
TNT
I have an EHX MOD 11 on my “small board,” and it’s a great value. I pretty much only use chorus and tremolo as far as modulation goes, and it nails
Those.
Very relevant! I agree that I sound the same through just about any electric guitar (that’s worth playing) and any amp (and I actually prefer solid state [Quilter]). I used to think having a lot of pedals made me sound cooler, but it didn’t and they’re heavy to carry around. I’m scaling back to only what is absolutely necessary now.
The 40 watt Fender Princeton Chorus is a great solid state amp, it was my first Fender amp but it kept blowing up finally, after two warranty repairs we gave up and the guy at the dealership gave me my money back. I eventually bought a Vibrolux which was better for me at the time but I wish I could have another Princeton, they're great.
My first amp was a Vox Pathfinder 15r. I loved the fuzzy dirt on it and its reverb was lovely.
Grabbed a Nightrain, grabbed a twin reverb and I can honestly say, my JC120, my ss peaveys, and my ss Yamaha are just so much more fun than my tube amps.
Great tips! I have considered selling my looper, but feared I would want it a few days later 😛
Great words of wisdom. I like when you were talking about playing live with a Kemper or alternative and you said something like "no body really cares anyway". If you're talking about the audience not caring about any nuances in tone or the brand of pedals you're using I have to agree. Most of the time the audience is there to have a good time, drink beer and check out each other. The band is for atmosphere. I've played with cheap stuff and expensive gear and no one has ever come up to me and said "wow that Ric sounds great through your AC30". Of course family members might come up and say things like "why do you have to play so loud" or "can you play Freebird?". Great videos.
6:25 totally agree. I use a Joyo British Sound and it's an amazing bit of kit. It doesn't have the tactile playing response of a tube amp, but tonally it's 90% of the way there
I really dig the setup- nice and bright!
Thanks! I tried some different lighting :-)
Love your vids shane
Love your work. Always down to earth.
Buy less but buy better, and used is a legitimate option. Case in point I bought two solid state amps when I started out, new, they never satisfied the sound I had in my head. After a couple years persisting, I sold them and bought a Roland Blues Cube Artist - used - for what I got for the first two amps. That Blues cube, solid state, is a gem. I would never have bought it new, particularly earlier, but used it is heads and shoulders above the other modeling amps I had.
Multi effects - I think units like the zoom g3xn which are the cost of one medium priced pedal, have a place for buskers and beginners who want to easily experience what the different pedal types are. The zoom is laid out with physical knobs like three pedals side by side.
That said- I have one and never use it. Too easy to spend all your time effing about with effects and not playing, plus it never really sounded that great. Now I just have a looper, a quality delay, and the boost, tremolo and reverb on my Blues Cube. Sounds great and I spend all my time playing.
I sold a mint condition recent Epiphone Genesis guitar that I didn't use to a young man at work. I gave him a great deal, and he was thrilled to have it. Two days ago I gave him a mint guitar with Duncan Blackout active pickups that was just collecting dust at my house. He absolutely loves it, and it really fits his musical taste and playing style. I don't miss either guitar, and am especially thrilled that he loves and plays the Charvel Desolation DS-1 ST that I just gifted him.