Daft assumptions you've had for years about guitars/bass/gear ?

TTBZ

Hahah I remember those HCAF days, forums just aren't like that any more. The boOosted mids club, the piping hot fart thread, the various amp brand posse's, Renoir/Renoir1/Mave Dustaine. Wasted so many evenings chatting absolute shit on that forum because none of my real life friends played guitar or liked good music.

Nerine

TTBZ said:

Hahah I remember those HCAF days, forums just aren't like that any more. The boOosted mids club, the piping hot fart thread, the various amp brand posse's, Renoir/Renoir1/Mave Dustaine. Wasted so many evenings chatting absolute shit on that forum because none of my real life friends played guitar or liked good music.

Renoir1 - “oh” thread. That little red emoji used to get me. Classic. 

Dr Tweedbucket/Bluesaholick - I tour all over, son. 
Zachman - used to get absolutely shelled. 

Steel Kage - used to stick up for him (he took particular offence to the “Boosts are pointless” thread. 

Klops Drums. That was just mental. 

Indeed, the piping hot farts thread. Haha. 

The thread dedicated to the server message saying you’d tried to post too quickly after your last post. 

“Teh”
Br00talz
All the clubs and affiliations. 

A2M/Gape
Tag Knows Tone/Politician tone - video still on YouTube. 

I could go on and on. 

A veritable treasure trove of mid 00’s internet culture. 

thegummy

Nerine said:

Back in my younger days myself and another poster by the handle of Chudanez got into a massive argument on the Harmony Central Amp Forum (man I miss that place, haha!) because we were arguing that boost pedals were pointless. We were both on the same side bear in mind. 

This was back when Nu Metal was prevalent and everyone was playing Framus Cobras and Madison Divinity’s and the such like. It was all about “teh br00talz gainz”. 

That spawned quite a rift. The Americans didn’t like it. We argued that it didn’t “tighten” an amp and it was just a crutch. Some of the more serious posters were absolutely triggered by it. We were half trolling to be fair but literally anything went on that forum and it was just a vaguely amp related troll meme forum. Some of the threads were absolute gold. Some of the characters, personas and posters there were hilarious. Some of the trolling was top tier. Most of the threads were pointless or parodies, some were massive, long running scandals, a lot of the posters were mocked beyond belief. 

The Gear Page used to get constantly shelled by HCAF members. We all used to absolutely rip the whole “Tag knows tone” line. But it was all quite well natured and I think everyone sort of bought in. I literally skived off work a few times to read that forum and listen to American radio station WJRR all day. I can remember some of the threads and their content like they were yesterday back in the infancy of the internet. 

In any case, boost pedals are probably my most bought these days and the term HCAF can now be seen on Urban Dictionary as a result of the implosion of that thread. I think I may have been the thread starter of “Boosts are pointless” and I remember seeing the Goatse post Chudanez eventually made in that thread committing forum suicide which got him “pwnt with teh bant stick” which is referenced on Urban Dictionary.  

As an aside, Josh from JHS pedals occasionally wears a T-shirt with “Haunting Mids” on it. JHS also made a pedal called Haunting Mids. 

My HCAF forum avatar for the longest time was a chicken head knob with “Haunting Mid” above it. Whilst I don’t think I quite invented the term, I think I was one of the very early proponents of that particular meme. I was definitely about or involved in its growth and spread. 

Dunno what happened to Chudanez after that. He was some English dude with a black Ibanez. He even made a YouTube video of him demoing the boost vs non boost argument. Dunno if it’s still there. Cool guy. Hope he’s doing ok. Was a good player if I remember rightly. 

I can remember sooooo many of those old forum handles too. Good times. Remember that forum very fondly. 

You had to be there. 

Cool Story, Bro. 

 

Sounds like you got a lot of chicks back in those days! :P 

Kent747

guitarjack66 said:

I thought that joining various guitar themed forums and watching endless youtube videos that I'd know exactly the correct type and style of guitar I'd like to purchase when able. 
The whirlpool is never ending!

This will be a homily in later years. 

“And do not enter the path of the forum, for it leads to confusion and destruction.”
- Guitarist 23:4

TTBZ

Teacherphil said:

I think strats are easier to play than Les Pauls but I can't bring myself to buy a strat. None of the music I like is played on one. 

I have the opposite problem! I think Les Pauls/Gibsons are much easier to play than Fenders, but a lot of my favourite guitarists seem to end up being either tele or strat/superstrat players. I can't make the normal strat sound work for me at all, I need a bridge humbucker at the very least. And I'd rather they were 24.75" scale. I just find Fender guitars boring and generic, I'd rather have a Charvel.

@Nerine haha that all takes me back! Good times.

Nerine

thegummy said:

Nerine said:

You had to be there. 

Cool Story, Bro. 

 

Sounds like you got a lot of chicks back in those days! :P 

Total poon magnet me, mate. haha

pluckbuddy

I used to think playing a good solo would be more satisfying than playing a good song. Can't do either so never found out if I was right or not. 

Neill

I think the worst assumption I made was that when learning from scratch you had to start with an acoustic guitar.  But I don't know anyone around my age, 60's and above, who had an electric as their first guitar.  It just seemed to be an accepted fact of musical life.  I still have the first guitar I ever bought, a dreadful cheap EKO  and I honestly don't know how on earth I managed to play anything on it.

Mind you, back then cheap electric guitars weren't much better.  Kids today have no idea how lucky they are. 

thegummy

Neill said:

I think the worst assumption I made was that when learning from scratch you had to start with an acoustic guitar.  But I don't know anyone around my age, 60's and above, who had an electric as their first guitar.  It just seemed to be an accepted fact of musical life.  I still have the first guitar I ever bought, a dreadful cheap EKO  and I honestly don't know how on earth I managed to play anything on it.

Mind you, back then cheap electric guitars weren't much better.  Kids today have no idea how lucky they are. 

It's crazy how prevalent this myth is, particularly among non-playing parents, considering how the opposite is so true.

I wonder if it comes from the idea that an electric would always be amped and be much louder so wait till they can play properly before getting the volume?

historyisjunk

In my defence this was a long time ago & there was no internet & little in the way of books about actual guitars.

I used to think any guitar with binding must be semi accoustic, including Les Pauls & even better Rickenbacker 4001 basses. I had never actually seen a Rickenbacker bass & probably not any good pictures of one, so didn't realise the body was so shallow- which might have given me a hint.

I thought Gibson EB-0,1.2 etc were "SG" bases & Fender basses (prob Jazzes) were Stratocaster Basses.

Last but not least, I thought Francis Rossi's green Tele came in that colour from the factory & when I saw an advert in a music mag for a Sherwood Green Fender (don't remember what) I thought that must be the same colour. I still actually think the Sherwood Green colour name suits F.R's Tele better than the actual colour (I like both incidentally).

koneguitarist

Hi used to do a lot of depping on guitar or bass. Trouble was for years I didn't have a bass but could always borrow a mates Precision or another mates Guild which sounded nice. However one time I was stuck for a bass and mate offered his Ricky 4003 to me. Now I always had this sound in my head of Fanfare for common man type hard middle driven sound which I hate. But needs must. I borrowed bass and was surprised how versatile and fat sounding it was. Loved the sound. Still wouldn't have one though. 

Christeafur

I was told a good long time back that the reason that 70's fenders had a bigger headstock was because the jig that fender had to cut the headstock had gradually worn out over time making the headstocks get bigger and bigger...I believed that for a time, until I noticed that there weren't any headstocks in the 'in between' state...

thegummy

Christeafur said:

I was told a good long time back that the reason that 70's fenders had a bigger headstock was because the jig that fender had to cut the headstock had gradually worn out over time making the headstocks get bigger and bigger...I believed that for a time, until I noticed that there weren't any headstocks in the 'in between' state...

Lol imagine that was true and the ones being made now were bigger than the guitar bodies 

Teetonetal

I thought the pick up selector switch on a Les Paul was correct... Rhythm /  Lead

I also thought tremolo was the effect produced by wiggling a floating bridge on a strat.

mudslide73

Not me but a very young webapp support guy at work said after accidentally hearing shredding: "those guitars must have massive processing to map all those notes accurately!"

My main one was thinking I had to be an incredible player to be in a band. 30 years later I'm still living proof you can be rubbish and be in a band  

darius

Haych said:

I used to think that to be a good guitar it had to have a super low action and sustain for days. 

I care little about either now. 

Oh man yes. 

I used to think the ONLY thing that mattered when you checked out a guitar was how low the action was. If it wasn’t low it was shit. 

thegummy

Teetonetal said:

I thought the pick up selector switch on a Les Paul was correct... Rhythm /  Lead

I also thought tremolo was the effect produced by wiggling a floating bridge on a strat.

You can't be blamed for that because Fender incorrectly swap the meanings of tremolo and vibrato when using either term on their guitars and amps.

Christeafur

Your getting tremolo and trem010 mixed up.
is that too geeky?

soma1975

That only sex offenders played Telecasters. Turns out cowboys play them too. 

AlexC

I used to admire people - many years ago - who knew the name of everything. Now I realise it's not hugely important. Turns out half the time I'm playing mixolydian or dorian or whatver the hell - am I? Just notes. If it sounds right to me then it's right to me. Had a drummer once and he said 'you realise went into 5/4 there?' And the rest of us said 'did we?' So it's all intuition for me. I'm not degrading theory, but the flipsideis I've met people who know every bit of theory under the sun and can't play for toffee.

In my 20s I was under the populay myth that some love to propagate that if you play rock and pop that you're not 'good enough' to play Jazz. That you have to go on some magical Jazz journey from the age of three... Had a good friend who was a great Jazz player and I realised it's just a different approach and technique. By my late 20s I was playing an acoustic in a performing Jazz band. It's all chords and notes. Same as all music. I detest musical snobbery.