Everyone of us at one point, made a blind following when choosing gear for ourselves. It could have been the first guitar (where Mommy and you were unsuspectingly being duped by the music store salesman, who pitched you into buying a cheap guitar) or your friends who own a fly-by-night business of selling gear.
Some people with the moolah, like you know who, asks the trusted people in the US, who according to him, have decades of experience in gear - people who have the guts to say "I have 1959 Gibson Les Paul and I think it sucks..."
Sa Tagalog, "Paano kayo pumipili ng taong pipili ng gear para sa iyo?"