I also have other priorities that occupy my time and I make sure that I only buy the best guitar gear and NOT junk which are easily sold in less than a year or two in the classifieds. Buying and shopping for thrash is just such a waste. Making the most of what you have is expected, but making the most can only do so much. It reaches a threshold.
Musicians choose to be musicians for varied reasons. Some are talented and most are NOT. I believe that they have obligations and are trying to make ends meet. But if you are failing as a musician, I think you should consider a career change and stop pointing out that life is hard. If you have a family and cannot afford it, do something else other than music to make their life much better. If you have parents to take care of, spend the most time with them when they are alive and give up the gigs that don't count much. Kung minsan, mapilit lang eh hindi naman talaga iyon ang talent at opportunidad.
So what you are trying to say here is that if a musician never owned equipment like yours you were not successful as a musician? I wonder how will people like Ernie Delgado, Rey Sanchez, Boy Adan, Jondi Villacorta, Cezar Aguas react to your statement. They have pretty good gear but not as high as yours. And yet not only they were able to feed their family and send their kids to school, they produced some of the awesome guitar sounds that inspired me to this day. NO CUSTOM GEAR TO BE FOUND. Oh yeah, they have a little bit of talent too.
Making music is totally a separate issue. But Boutique equipment does make the process more fun... By the way, Bon Jovi sells more records than the bluesmen and I enjoy them more than the bluesmen. But I can appreciate the bluesmen -- so my point is that there are more people who don't like the blues than like the blues. So, they can continue making records with ever declining record sales and yet for each album they record -- they get their equipment upgraded. So, lets stop using bluesmen as cliche examples of guitarists with lousy equipment.
I don't think this is a cliche, believe me, several years from now, somebody will also agree to what I just claimed. Richie Sambora in Guitar World January 1989 issue (Robert Cray is the cover) told the magazine how he was astounded by the bluesmen in the delta. They have the cheapest guitar with two strings missing and the remaining four, one of them was tied at the headstock para lang magamit pa. And Sambora said that they produced more emotion than any other he has heard. Unless you can be better than the said bluesmen AND Richie Sambora - yaman din lamang na gusto mo ang Bon Jovi - which I like to by the way (oh diba, we have similar tastes too! Hehehehe....), that will not be cliche. It will always be a standard of some sorts.
Alex, no one doubts here that you have
way way way way way way way way way more expensive and better gear than most of us could only dream in a lifetime. And no one challenges your theory in tone because tama naman talaga. It's just that it is really not feasible for the majority of us. That being said, you cannot stop us from playing and making music no matter what our disposition in life. Hindi lang naman pang mayaman ang musika e. Tell that to Robert Johnson. Remember what I said to you about Max Rufo's pickups? Let me repeat it my friend
R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Do not insinuate others that they have bad gear or have less knowledge than you when it comes to tone.
I have a friend here in PM who has more or less the same gear as yours and yet he NEVER once told me that "ayoko yang gamit mo, pangit tunog" or "ayoko yang tube screamer, walang laban yan sa Timmy ko". In fact he appreciates that I can make the best out of what I got. In fact he always invite me for a jam session over pizza and coke.
But then again, if you cannot understand what 95% percent of us here in PM can, then I guess, Joric is right. Let Alex be Alex, or as one said - SIGE ALEX IKAW NA LANG ANG LAHAT. We will just be better versions of ourselves.
