Guitar Snobbery
Guitar Snobbery
Agreed.
I not saying don’t buy nice things, but the blatant, obnoxious snobbery on some sites is almost unbelievable.
I'm 4 months into learning to play and I haven't noticed any gate keeping so far but I'm not looking beyond artists and content creators just yet.
any time a hobby has a large buy in people with money want to buy clout and people without want to defend their choices.
I will fight you over how good my Orange micro crush sounds ...
Brother, the Orange is awesome.
You’ll run into the jerks I described, eventually.
Guitar snobbery What say you?
…tabs.
exits quietly
Until your ear gets good.
And then, still some tabs.
🤘
This is an interesting bit of snobbery too.
I’ve been a musician for over 25 years. I can read sheet music, tabs, chord charts (including Jazz), and learn most stuff by ear. I still use tabs to learn new songs because it gives an idea of the fingerings, even if it’s just a starting point. Tabs are a specific arrangement of a given piece that at least one person found to be playable. It cuts out unnecessary time considering “how” to play something.
If you gave me sheet music, I would come up with an arrangement and annotate it with tabs to specify.
It’s important to develop your ear, don’t get me wrong, but tabs are a useful tool even for professionals. They’re not just for beginners.
And then, still some tabs.
Did you miss that part?
But what about the tooooan.
Seriously, fuck the snobbery. Its bad for the allround conversation.
Let me see the weird homegrown mods on your 20 euro used Harley Benton!
True.
I’m old enough where it just amuses me now.
Still annoying, slightly, though.
I’m in my mid 50’s.
I’ve owned more guitars than I can remember, but I remember owning 2 real Alpine White Les Paul Customs.
And I remember buying a Korean Epiphone Les Paul Standard from the late 80’s/early 90’s that ate both of the real Gibsons.
Now, I have a Yamaha Revstar 2, and a $200 Yamaha Pacifica 112V.
I learned to set up, level frets, etc., and I’ll never part with either of them.
I had played Line6 gear since the mid-00’s because that was in my budget as a new father in my 20’s (the clichés write themselves here) and was mainly in I guess what became deathcore bands. Anyways, the amount of shit talk was insane. My tone wasn’t Sunn stack deep but I was always able to fit it to the band I was with and find where I belonged in the mix.
Fast forward to being old enough and far enough in my life of upgrade to AxeFX / Poweramp 2x12 land and I honestly am not as into the tones as I was with my old, crusty line6/bogner head.
This is in addition to playing custom shop guitars through all the gear I’ve acquired since the 90’s.
I’ve always felt that tone is 90% in the hands and the rest is just a series of obstacles getting that to come out loud enough to be heard over the drums.
Play what you have and never stop trying new gear, but don’t be afraid to like what you like.
Ive been on an acoustic bender for the last 12-18 months. Last year, I passed through Nashville three times on business trips, and spent an extra day each time, just to spend it in the guitar shops, and play as many guitars as as I could. I probably played over 250 different high end guitars, new and vintage, every major maker, and many custom makers, with prices up to over $20K. With very few exceptions (like $15K+ MacPhersons), none played or sounded better than my vintage Yamaha FG730S. Even those that were better, were only very slightly better, with the improvement not worth the difference in price from my $102 Yammy.
Whoever set up my Yammy was a Wizard, because it plays so smootly that it actually makes me a better player. I’ve never played another guitar like that.
I’ve got some other Yamhas that are also terrific, and I’ve become convinced that quality and price are not necessarily correlated.
Yamaha FG730S
I’ve got an old used Yamaha F-325 I bought for $100 that sounds as good, and plays better than my friend’s Martin SC13E.
I’ve owned dozens of guitars over the last 40 years, including real Les Paul Customs, and high end Stratocasters. My very favorite one is a Yamaha Pacifica 112v that I bought used for $200. I leveled the frets, adjusted the relief, put some cheap Oripure single sized humbuckers wired parallel in the neck and middle, and a Oripure PAF clone in the bridge. Add Graphtech XL nut, string trees, saddles, and Hipshot locking tuners.
It plays and sounds great, and stays in tune like a rock. I can play any genre with it. I’ll never part with it. My Yamaha Revstar MK2 is a very close 2nd. I adore them both.