I'm sorry, but gear matters

Before you get upset, give me a chance to explain!

The Weekly Summary

I hoped to get finish the walking bass course this week, but I couldn’t for a very exciting reason. I know a lot of you really enjoy Rhythm Guitar Level 1, and as a result, I have been working on Rhythm Guitar Semesters 2, 3, and 4. I hope to have them all completed between now and November. However, the walking bass course will come first along with a whole Guitar Craft dedicated to discussing it. Until then, please check out the other courses. If there is something, in particular, you’d like to see, always reach out!

This week’s Guitar Craft and Other Stuff podcasts and youtube video had a funny symbiosis. I will be including youtube links, but the podcast is also available on every major platform.

If you would like to help me out, and you cannot afford to buy a course, please go on the Apple podcast platform and give the podcast a star rating and review. It’s a one-time action that will really help me.

The first podcast was inspired by the Gibson Rick Beato video and some of the comments I got about Youtube guitarists. I really enjoy the community we are building. We all disagree ALL THE TIME, but so far, things continue to remain civil. I never thought I’d find this outside of a university classroom, and I’m hoping we can keep the positivity going.

Following the Rick Beato guitar, I was curious to finally try Novo, another guitar popularized by a youtuber, Rhett Shull. To be completely honest, I planned to try it, and return it because of the price…but I love it so much that I’m not exactly sure what to do next.

Of course, as someone new to this style of guitar, finding one this inspiring has got me thinking about all of the similar guitars and brands. There are just too many to research on my own so I also released a second podcast where I ask for you to help me understand the price and feature break down of boutique brands.

The Practice Room

I’m sure you have all heard the advice that gear doesn’t matter and that sound is in the hands. I, of course, believe that is true to some degree, but it is a difficult way to go about learning electric guitar. Allow me to explain.

We study an instrument that is very new compared to other instruments, and our instrument is still in its developmental phase in terms of technique and possibilities. Take for example something as simple as a tremolo bridge. This bridge has been around for a long time, and yet, the fine nuances of each bridge one tries will surely impact his or her right hand. Jeff Beck of course plays a lot of different styles, but could he play his iconic style on a Bigsby? A lot of time people pick one iconic guitar player and say things like, “look he sounds like himself on any guitar he plays!” I do understand their point and I also agree to some degree, but no one goes to Jeff Beck’s different guitar eras and says, “look he clearly doesn’t need a tremolo bridge.” He sounds different with his different guitars for a reason. GEAR MATTERS. Imagine Steve Vai with a LP…

Now we can of course take this model and go to the extreme. Before you know it, we need a custom shop guitar and a Dumble amp to get our sound. That is not my intention. In fact, although I do own an AxeFx3, I bought it primarily for its use as a workstation as opposed to a special guitar amp. I use my Boss Katana almost as much. But I do think there is a time when we should look at our string gauges, setup, how much reverb or delay we are using, and ask the questions: is this gear serving me? Is this helping me reach the sound in my head? Is it holding be back? Could I do this easier with less gear? Could I do it better with different gear? And who knows, maybe you only need to ask that question once or twice a year! I certainly don’t recommend you think about it every day while having youtube tabs open, that is a recipe for disaster!

The reason this was so important for me this week was because the Novo guitar helped me play like I always wanted to play and it did so with ZERO effort. If you go back and look at the Youtube channel, you’ll see the first video was the Rhythm Guitar Level 1 course. I am a teacher above all, and I love rhythm guitar. I also believe it needs to be elevated above mindless lick lessons in the online guitar education realm. The Novo guitar, GEAR, reminded me of my proper musical trajectory. Maybe I should be taking credit for that! Maybe it was in me all along. Either way, the GEAR helped me bring it out.