When I started playing seriously ... fifty years ago (jeez I feel old) learning guitar was really difficult. If you had the money ... or rather if your folks did, you might get lessons. My parents would only pay for piano lessons, so I had to do it the hard way. Books, magazines and wearing out my LP collection by constantly setting the needle back to hear that bit again. If you were lucky a mate had learned something you wanted to learn ... and you got the low down from him. Progress was slow ... but with determination you got there. I started gigging the year I got my first good guitar ... a second hand Telecaster.
And gear was super expensive or super crap ... you took your choice. My first electric was a Maya (Teisco lookalike)... basically a Strat built by someone who'd never seen one and hadn't a clue what you did with it. Plywood body, cricket bat neck and tiny frets. Gutless pickups ... but that didn't matter as it was going through a FAL Kestrel combo ... possibly the worst guitar amplifier in the world ... ever ... from Freemans catalogue.
Fast forward to 2024,
You can get tab of pretty much everything ... you can get folks pn YouTube breaking down even the most complex solos into idiot sized pieces. You have tuners in your smartphone, and software to record at home or looper pedals for practise. You can collaborate with other musicians thousands of miles away at practically the speed of light, write with partners you may never meet,
and publish music from your own lounge ...
And as for gear ... I played a £99 Fazley Tele copy the other day ... dear lord ... lightyears ahead of the Columbus and Avon crap we had to manage with. Amps are stunning - a Boss Katana 50 ... a very gigable amp ... I know as I have ... £215 at Gear4Music.
Three hundred notes to gig with brand new equipment, that's crazy. And we have Harley Benton, Jet ... all crazy cheap for what you get.
You can get pretty much whatever amp or guitar you want/can afford bought with the click of a button and delivered to you door ... and if you don't like it ... just send it back. There's more choice than ever before ...
And yet at the moment all I see on here is the sort of continuous whining you get from a bunch Brit pensioners on a cruise ... :-)
When the economy causes you to be able to 'consume less shit' ... why not be grateful and 'enjoy the shit you've got?'
Why not start a new band, learn a new song, try a new genre you've never tried before, go to a jam session and get the adrenaline and enjoyment of bouncing musical ideas off of other folks.
It's not the seventies ... in many ways it's much, much better than the seventies.
Comments
That said, were it all to get stolen, burnt to the ground, whatever I think you're probably right, I'd go and buy a Jet JS400, maybe a Charvel if I'm feeling saucy and a Katana and that would do me.
If it was the Jet I might get a new bridge pickup for it mind you !
What is interesting about that though, is that if I recall correctly, I think I paid 99 quid for it. Fast-forward about forty years and I recently bought a Fazley Midas for 126 quid new, it being their Gold Top clone, and whilst that Fazley isn't quite a match for a top of the line Gibson, I would say it is as good as my Les Paul Studios and my Melody Makers.
These days gear is better, cheaper, more widely available and learning has never been easier thanks to the intertron. About the only thing which is worse, is that most towns used to have two or three music shops you could go in and check stuff out at, and that's not the situation these days, but as sad as that is, we are better off in pretty much every other circumstance when it comes to acquiring gear and learning. Unfortunately, with less pubs around these days, pub gig venues are also fewer and farther between, but on the plus side and again thanks to the interweb, we have other outlets for performance.
So yeah, for those starting out on guitar, it's a way better time nowadays.
But is the music being produced with them any better? I have a sneaky suspicion that the struggle with crappy equipment contributed to new and innovative musical ideas somewhat. Having imposed constraints can be a powerful tool in the creative process. So much music has been created by doing things ‘wrong’ either by necessity or design.
I'm personally not a fan on the way consumerism has enveloped our lives - particularly with regards guitar gear.
Possibly but I have reservations about talking creativity in a decade where 'Grandma We Love You' topped the charts ... and Garry Glitter was a role model!
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message
Nominations for the Worst Guitar Amp Ever deserve a whole Discussion to themselves.
Today, there is little point adopting that manifesto if there is almost nowhere for that band to play and precious little hope of making it pay.
The Flight Of The Conchords' song Inner City Pressure was right when they wrote, "You just stay home and play synthesizers."
But equally many off our hero's - Jeff Beck, Gary Moore, Rory G, SRV etc etc all started off with older/worse gear than me and you - Granted they are the geniuses of the trade, but such bad gear did not limit them and maybe it helped create their own voice/style
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message
Today all those amps are now sought after in some form or another - Not many left for sale, as @HarrySeven got there before you
You beat me to it. Maybe it's to do with hunger and determination.
Bandcamp
less venues, less interest in music generally.
Thats so true. I did a bass gig the other day - three songs to help out an old friend - on a bass I bought on here for £180 (Squier Jazz), through a Sansamp pedal into the PA. Sounded marvellous, the monitors were spot on and a good time was had by all.
Thats so far removed from early gigs on bass lunking a Carlsbro 2x15 cab and an HH head to a gig, not being able to hear a bloody thing on stage because the Shreddie Van Draylon was too busy being a cock god with his 100w Marshall flat out into a 4x12 whilst Captain Meat built a shed with Thors hammers on his Pearl Export kit. The wedges squealed each time Clint Thrust grabbed the microphone. And the crappy Westone bass I had weighed the same as the average hatchback and sounded... pants.
There is a lot of inexpensive, great sounding and playing kit available. Sadly, there's nowhere to play it unless you are doing dull covers or tribute bands - especially if you step outside of London.
But I think that there's too much choice. There are more presets than anyone could use, more pedals and tone-tweakers than your imagination can sensibly find a use for.