The never ending useless gear rant.

[bonzoboy]

One thing that I noticed in Back To The Future was that Marty McFly went back to 1955 when he met Chuck Berry and that Chuck was playing a Gibson 335 that didn't come on the market until 3 years later in 1958,I guess the 335 got into time travel too somehow.

[Valeriy]

oh good point about 'niche' markets ... how many buyers are there that can afford a twenty thousand dollar reissue? that's a small high end market, like the porsche dealer ... but there are buyer's out there aren't there?

 

I looked and listened to some videos as regards that FirebirdX guitar of worth about $5000. As matter of fact, despite the diversity in sound all these sounds are usual, standard, in my opinion, not better sounds of other usual guitars of $1000-2000 and less. I.e. the sense to pay still additionally $3000-4000 for additional frills is not absolutely clear. I have also seen some patents on digital systems for guitars by Henry Juszkiewicz. All this is certainly useful things to match the guitar to the computer etc. But this work and expenses for such guitars can be risky while the guitar cardinally doesn't sound better. Here have already noted in the next thread that, for example, it is hard to get acoustic guitar sound (while even impossible) by electric one. And EQs as it is in FirebirdX guitar, they can tint, even distort the guitar sound. Generally, sound engineers at studios try to use EQs as little as possible. In fact, it seemed to me that usual guitars of $800-2000 sound more natural.

[Valeriy]

Then also, some people are waiting for more light in weight guitars .

[Rock and Reel]

OK... here's my newest piece of truly unique gear. This is the new Marshall mini-fridge!

 

No man cave is complete without one!

 

 

[Valeriy]

Yes, it looks great! But let's wait new developments of the year .

[milod]

Actually I think the idea of the FirebirdX was to do more or less what other guitar companies were trying to do, but to do it more successfully and in conjunction with computer tech.

 

I think it did that fairly well - although not as one might find, in theory at least, with use of the guitar instead of a keyboard as a driver for a synthesizer.

 

Electric guitars, I think, unless run through some sort of synthesizer, have even with stomp boxes a general range of sounds and tones when run through an amplifier.

 

Even individual piezos on a bridge can't entirely make a solidbody sound like a J45.

 

A really good picker like a onetime bandmate can make a whammy-equipped guitar with a master volume sound like a pedal steel. Attack and delay can be messed with, etc. - but again, unless a fretboard is functionally a replacement for a synth keyboard, I don't expect much difference in sound of a guitar.

 

What I do expect in the future electric guitar is more emphasis on computer interfacing.

 

Some of that already has been available on smartphones, laptops and it appears also on "pads," for practice and perhaps performance.

 

I think it'd be neat as a mostly solo performer to have a laptop or pad that takes the guitar signal into a program that has a songlist that combines with guitar/amp/stompbox settings for each piece along with a lyric cheat sheet. It even could add backing tracks if that's what's desired.

 

Don't get me wrong. I think there's always a place for just an old fashioned wood acoustic.

 

And yet... I wouldn't have believed 50 years ago when I graduated from high school that I'd be carrying a little cigarette case that acted as a telephone, mail and note messenger, pocketwatch and calendar, movie and still camera, tape recorder and music playback machine, dictionary, encyclopedia - and could be a guitar tuner and a bunch of other stuff.

 

m

[Rock and Reel]

I'm old and old school too. As regards the guitar, if it ain't broke...don't break it.

[LPguitarman]

OK... here's my newest piece of truly unique gear. This is the new Marshall mini-fridge!

 

No man cave is complete without one!

 

 

Nice. Do the knobs do anything? BTW, beautiful LP.

[Cú Chulainn]

if Steve Vai were playing a LP, that's what he would play

[kaleb]

Most of the problem is those pedal makers that just copy old circuits, as well as amp builders, and Gibson and Fender coming out with a gazillion variations of the same guitar.

 

 

 

And people chasing tones. Back in the day, you played with what you had, but you took the time to learn the song BY EAR and it would come close (and while doing that, you found your own tone). Now, it's the opposite.

[milod]

Kaleb...

 

I'm with you 99 percent.

 

The other 1 percent?

 

In the old days we also had "piano bars" where a piano player would have a batch of "fake books" with chords and lyrics to a thousand or more half-remembered songs. In a sense it was kinda a cross of pre-digital karaoke and a live jukebox.

 

I always had super respect for the ability of a cupla piano players who could take those fake books and "fake it" night after night with class and style.

 

In fact, that's kinda where my head goes for my own playing. If I can sorta remember the tune... maybe a little unsure of the bridge... could I take chords and lyrics and perform it credibly with my guitar alone? Regardless that I've done bands and stuff... that's kinda a major personal guitar goal.

 

m

[kaleb]

Kaleb...

 

I'm with you 99 percent.

 

The other 1 percent?

 

In the old days we also had "piano bars" where a piano player would have a batch of "fake books" with chords and lyrics to a thousand or more half-remembered songs. In a sense it was kinda a cross of pre-digital karaoke and a live jukebox.

 

I always had super respect for the ability of a cupla piano players who could take those fake books and "fake it" night after night with class and style.

 

In fact, that's kinda where my head goes for my own playing. If I can sorta remember the tune... maybe a little unsure of the bridge... could I take chords and lyrics and perform it credibly with my guitar alone? Regardless that I've done bands and stuff... that's kinda a major personal guitar goal.

 

m

 

Well, it's different for rock, blues, and metal guitar. I learned by other players showing me where the notes are, and by playing along to records, thus, developing my ear. I learned full songs by playing along to AC/DC If You Want Blood...

 

Not trying to gloat, but I learned Rush's "La Villa Strangiato" pretty much by ear. It took me a while, and I still struggle with some of the parts, but I never approached it technical-wise.

[milod]

Kaleb...

 

Yup. If one's ear is developed, as one grows and changes in life, one can figure out about any sorta pickin' one wishes.

 

Learning off records is a great way for that development; learning from vids is even better - but perhaps not much toward in ear development.

 

Except for some classical and flamenco stuff, almost all my personal learning has been by ear too. I think even for figuring "fake book" work that's largely accompaniment/improv, ear training, along with basic theory that makes ear training easier, is perhaps more important for the guitar player (excluding classical perhaps) than other types of training. That may or may not be true for other instruments.

 

m

[bonzoboy]

I learned everything that I played by sitting down with the record and playing it until I knew every nuance of it,and that was before I'd even consider picking up the guitar to figure out the chords.To this day I can't read music or tab yet I have been able to write songs-or more accurately"compose" songs-and do arrangements for running medleys of songs together.Learning from listening to the recordings really does help immensely develop your ear for music and sharpens your ability to pick out chords the more you do it.Tab may be a boon to many guitarists but I have grown so accustomed to playing by ear,I could probably figure out the chords faster by listening than by learning and picking out the songs from tab.

[kaleb]

Kaleb...

 

Yup. If one's ear is developed, as one grows and changes in life, one can figure out about any sorta pickin' one wishes.

 

Learning off records is a great way for that development; learning from vids is even better - but perhaps not much toward in ear development.

 

Except for some classical and flamenco stuff, almost all my personal learning has been by ear too. I think even for figuring "fake book" work that's largely accompaniment/improv, ear training, along with basic theory that makes ear training easier, is perhaps more important for the guitar player (excluding classical perhaps) than other types of training. That may or may not be true for other instruments.

 

m

 

A classical musician studies and goes to school. A rocker plays along to the records and just goes for it. That's how I view it.

 

Not implying that rockers shouldn't get formal training, but in rock n' roll, it's better to be completely ear trained and have a natural sense of rhythm than no sense of rhythm, no ear, and all the formal training in the world.

[Sgt.]

I learned everything that I played by sitting down with the record and playing it until I knew every nuance of it,and that was before I'd even consider picking up the guitar to figure out the chords.To this day I can't read music or tab yet I have been able to write songs-or more accurately"compose" songs-and do arrangements for running medleys of songs together.Learning from listening to the recordings really does help immensely develop your ear for music and sharpens your ability to pick out chords the more you do it.Tab may be a boon to many guitarists but I have grown so accustomed to playing by ear,I could probably figure out the chords faster by listening than by learning and picking out the songs from tab.

 

apparently before the dawn of the internet that's how 'rockers' learned, by listening to the record. ear training. there wasn't any tablature or cheats. so if you couldn't identify a chord on the record i guess you faked it.

nowdays it takes only a little homework to get a dozen opinions on the correct way to play an album cut, tablature is great! cheats that make our lives easier are not bad.