In response to alot of people asking me the same question in store of.. Just how important is buying high end gear? Id thought Id share my thoughts on the situation! (Its a long read so pop the kettle on haha) The leap in quality from a £100 instrument to a £600 is pretty steep. The leap from £600-£1000 guitars is noticeable but various normally from one company to the next.. £2000+ Guitars (high-end, professional models) is much more a matter of nuance and player preference. Im pretty sure you could play in mid size clubs/pubs your whole life and never want more than a trusty Epiphone LP with a Blackstar HT20. However, In a studio setting where you might be blasting through 10 completely different tunes moving from jazz to metal to funk to RnB to Gospel; the limitations of that same guitar might start to become clear... The Epi might sound okay on some tracks but flat and lifeless on others, whereas a Standard LP will have sustain and overtones and a much wider vocal range tonally. The average person doing 40mph in a Ferrari might think, This feels a lot like a Fiat but its not until you push the performance of it that you realise the difference, especially when you push your playing and your guitar to the limit. Lesser guitars, (and I use that term only for lack of a better one) are geared more to mass appeal where your Higher-end stuff is specialized more. There are various ways to make a MOTR guitar (~£1000) sound better. New caps, better pickups, switches, input jacks, new strings and the setup you have on it all effect the way you play and sound, and for the most part that ends up being better! Ive done this with all my guitars as I cant afford a VOS Les Paul.. :( SO to cure this problem, Ive always personally used NRG Effects / Neil Grimes to set all my instruments up as I like his work and his effects pedals are second to none and I know will last being taken from gig to session and back again. He has set up my Gibson LP, Fender Strat and Epiphone Sheraton - and rewired all of them, and Ill be honest the difference is phenomenal - Ive played some vintage strats and LPs that my guitars now match! I often pick his brains about various bits and bobs and well hes always come back with a detailed and helpful answer about pretty much anything guitar / tech wise.. Not to mention hes a top bloke! ;D But lets face it, 99% of guitar players, even touring ones, wont require a £3000 SG. The £1000 studio equivalent with the aforementioned upgrades could probably do everything ever asked from it and even more. Even guys who get regular work in studios might not be required to push even a highly modded Stagg to its limits :P (^ IM JOKING - NOTE THE SARCASM ^) So in conclusion imo, most high-end stuff is engineered for 1% of consumers. If your playing clubs, recording in a home studio or doing hourly studio sessions for a demo, high-end gear probably wont be worth the expense... That doesnt mean you wouldnt appreciate it more - I just personally think the really high-end stuff is really more suited to guys who are house musicians and/or session players who have really specific needs from a single instrument. With that though, I will however say this; The only thing that will make any guitar sound bad is the schmuck holding it.. ;)
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 11:03:26 +0000
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