bandGeek

When I first decided to write a gear… tutorial (I suppose that would be the right word for it) I thought that distortion would be a good place to start. It’s a very common effect that almost every guitar player will use at one point or another. Upon further consideration, I realized that distortion is a very complex topic, and I’d like to spend the proper amount of time to do it justice. Instead, I think it would be good to go over some basic rules of thumb for buying new equipment. So I will start there, and in the future I will branch off into specific gear “genres”, if you will.

So, you’re looking for some new gear. Where do you start? Well, no matter what kind of equipment you’re buying, it’s important to do some research.

#1: Know what you want before you buy it.

You don’t want to walk into your local music shop or warehouse type equipment barn without having a good base knowledge of what it is you want. Just saying “I want a new guitar” or “I’m going to buy a drum machine” is not enough. Generally, the people that are selling you music equipment either don’t really know what they’re talking about, or are working on commission. This means that you’ll end up with something that they want you to buy. Which may not necessarily be something you want.

#2: How do I know what I want?

There are a couple of ways to figure out exactly what it is you wish to purchase. A good starting point is to listen to some of your favorite bands. Find a sound you like, do some detective work, and find out what kind of gear they’re using.

www.guitargeek.com is a decent database of the guitars, basses, amps, and effects the pro’s are using.

From there, check out the guitar center website or the musician’s friend website or go to the actual manufacturer’s website and start browsing. There are decent product descriptions, specs, pictures, and some basic user reviews. This makes it pretty easy to compare different products.

Once you’ve narrowed it down to a reasonable number of options a great website for in depth gear reviews is www.Harmony-Central.com/user_reviews

#3: Try it out.

Most music shops will have no objection to you bringing in your equipment, plugging in, and testing out something you’re interested in buying. There’s no better way to get a feel for something than to actually pick it up and play with with it. Bring a friend along for a second opinion.

#4: Holy Crap, Mike! This stuff is expensive!

Well, I hate to say it, but good. If the gear you’re looking at seems like it’s really expensive, there’s probably a reason for it. This isn’t necessarily a blanket rule, but 95% of the time, professional sounding equipment is going to cost you a bit of money. Occasionally, you can find a nice piece of equipment for a good price, but if it comes down to something that sounds great or something that sounds okay for less money, suck it up and throw down the extra cash. If you cut corners, chances are you’ll end up replacing it down the line, so it may be cheaper to invest in something nice from the start. If you’re short on cash, Dave wrote a nice article about getting gear off of Ebay. Second hand equipment is always a viable option. It doesn’t hurt to shop around.

#5: Less is more.

One of the hardest lessons I had to learn about gear is that versatility is not a virtue. There’s a lot of gear out there designed to give you a wide range of sounds, but I’ve found that you end up getting a wide range of mediocre sounds. It’s better to decide what you’re looking for and then buy the gear that will give you that sound. Something designed to provide one quality tone will always sound better than something designed to give you a lot of options. Another bonus to buying simple equipment is that it’s easier to set up when you’re at a gig, recording, or just practicing. Something that only has one or two knobs will be easier to set up properly than something with a bunch of knobs and sliders and buttons.

So, lets recap…

• Know what you want: Explore some options, listen to sound clips, decide what you want out of your gear.
• Try it out: You won’t know what it actually sounds like until you plug it in or hit it or strum it or do whatever it is you do with it.
• Be prepared to spend some cash: Not all expensive gear is good and not all cheap gear is bad. Unfortunately, you get what you pay for and most good gear is expensive. If a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably it.
• “Versatile” gear tends to be complex, and generally it sacrifices quality of tone for quantity of tones.

As a final thought, I’d like to point out that tone is completely subjective. What’s right for one person may not be right for someone else. You’ll probably end up trying out a lot of gear before finding what you’re looking for. Hopefully, if you put enough time and effort into it, you can save yourself some cash when all is said and done.

Yet another geek has joined our staff here at bandGeek. Welcome, Mike. I know Mike from when Captain Supreme used to play shows with his old band, Quarters Only as well as from work (he was an electrical engineer at Motorola with when I was doing software engineering). Mike is a guitar guru and knows more about amps and guitars than anyone I’ve ever talked to. He is a welcome addition to the bandGeek family.

Why buy new gear? It’s just going get beaten up while you’re playing, anyways. If you buy used gear from people who treated it well, you can save yourself a lot of money. eBay is a fantastic resource for doing just this.

I’ve personally bought several nice pieces of musical equipment (Ampeg bass amp, Line 6 guitar amp, Washburn bass, Epiphone Flamekat guitar) from eBay and I’ve had good experiences with all of them. The only piece of equipment I had trouble with was the guitar amp which showed up damaged due to shipping, but I was able to return it and get a full refund on my purchase (and later bought a bigger amp).

One of the most important features of eBay’s system is theseller rating. This tells you how many people have rated this seller positively. You can also read people’s comments about their interaction with this seller. Some sellers are actually “stores” on eBay and these people make their living selling their stuff online, so it’s in their best interest not to screw people over.

Pay careful attention to whether the seller is showing a stock photo of the piece of gear or an actual picture of the gear that they took. It’s always better to see the actual picture because then you can get some idea of the kind of wear and tear the equipment has.

Make sure to look into how much shipping will cost you, when figuring out the cost of the piece of equipment you’re buying. Especially for something large like an amp, shipping can be pretty expensive, if its not included in the sale. Fragile things like musical equipment do sometimes get damage in shipping, so its always good to find out from the seller and the shipping company (FexEx, UPS, etc.) what will happen and how you will be reimbursed in case of damage.

The obvious disadvantage of buying gear online is that you can’t hold it and play it before you buy it, so I’d recommend going into your local music store and finding the piece of gear you’re looking to buy and trying it out before you fork out the cash and wait for it to show up in the mail.

In my experience most people on eBay aren’t trying to cheat you. If you’re smart and do your research you can save a good chunk of money buying your gear this way.

While this site mainly tries to focus on the nerdy aspects of being in a band, there are a few common sense things that might be helpful to things. When playing a gig, how many times have you driven two hours to some venue only to realize you have no extra guitar strings or the venue doesn’t have enough mic stands for your horn section. Here’s a list of things, other than your instruments (if you forget those, you have bigger problems), that bands should try to bring to all shows….

• extra strings (extra guitars if you can)
• tuner (and extra batteries)
• extra picks
• extra guitar cables
• extra mic stands (especially if you’re a ska band!)
• notebook and pens (for mailing lists, writing set lists, etc.)
• your merch!
• some cash to make change when selling merch
• power cables (for amps, keyboards, etc.)
• power strip
• band-aids (some of us tear our fingers up while playing)
• finger nail clippers
• duct tape
• demos/one sheet (to give to other people who might want to book you)

If you want the draw the attention of a label or promoter, there are a few specific ways to publicize yourself that will really get results. Let’s face it; e-mailing venues three times a day or scrawling shameless plugs on a label’s MySpace page is not self-promotion.

One such way to acquire attention is to submit your music to print and online magazines for review. Now, it’s important to note that this is, by no means, an easy way to promote yourself. Submitting a CD will, however, expose you to new audiences and will give you more ammunition for self-promotion; I mean, having a magazine say that your lyrics are “poignant and well-spoken” is an effective way to make an impression.

Step One: Record Something Good—You might have to drop a dollar or two, but get yourself recorded in a way that represents your band. Don’t skimp out on this step; if you want reviewers to take you seriously, construct a clean recording that doesn’t compromise your talent and songwriting ability because you wanted to get it done quickly and cheaply. Also remember that it’s better to showcase your four or five best songs than to cram as much as you can onto an eighty-minute disc.

Step Two: Put It Together Professionally—Nothing screams “amateur” more than a CD-R with your band’s name scribbled on it in Sharpie, shoved into a plastic sleeve. Again, you might have to spend a few hundred, but get your disc duped by a company who does this sort of stuff professionally; they are easy enough to find on the internet (google “CD Duplication”). Slap some album art together (here, simpler is always better than complicated and cluttered) and get it printed on a two-panel insert and tray card. Foot for some on-disk printing and have it all crammed into a jewel case. Trust me when I say that your album’s artwork will make some kind of impression on your reviewer.

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