You starting out vs. You now

[Operator]

I was thinking the other day about how much my goals for music have changed vs. when I first started playing. When I first started in 1998 ( ), I loved metal and surf rock and just wanted to slug out chuggy, heavy riffs. I thought that dudes obsessing over vintage {censored} and idolizing classic rock guitar sounds were boring nostalgists. I was interested mostly in what was possible with new and bizarre stuff. If I knew anything about equipment at the time, this is probably what my rig would have looked like:

 

 

I would have used anything that sounded disgusting, basically. I still love that {censored}, but these days I love fuzzy 50s amps, spring reverb, tape delay, and all the vintagey stuff I used to make fun of dinosaur rockers for getting boners for. I want to record stuff live to tape instead of overdub a universe of futuristic textures. I still want to make music that sounds new and creative, but I like the idea of using an old school palette to do it. An ideal "rig" 12 years later would probably look something like this:

 

 

 

I think that my ethos for making music hasn't changed, but my predilection for what I like to use to make that happen seems dramastically different.

 

How have you changed as a guitarist? As a musician?

[Guest Guest]

I'm slightly less repetitive in my improvising than I was in high school. I could do interesting things when I was younger, but it took like, six iterations of the same bull{censored} lick in order for me to break out of the box. Ugh. A better understanding of modal relationships/more exposure to non-Anglo music changed how I play a great deal.

 

As far as gear goes, I still use clean Fenders, full-hollows, and lots of fuzz.

[Loobs]

I started out playing a Fender and listening to a lot of Pink Floyd, not much has changed. I did go through a pretty horrendous metal exodus in the middle though.

[tronus]

I started in 1998 too. I was in 8th grade and listening to whatever was on MTV and the radio. Personally, I knew I liked Satriani and Metallica a lot so I listened to those guys a bunch back then. I started taking lessons about half a year in so I learned all my scales and chords then. I started forming bands asap and started to get into improv on my own with the help of a Tascam Portastudio 788. The discovery of Phish/Keller Williams/Umphrey's McGee/Grateful Dead/Jimi Hendrix/and many more, kinda changed they way I thought about music. Eventually I caught on to modes, phrasing, rhythm, tone, etc... In the last 4 years I've caught on to all these jazz/funk/groove bands a long with a bunch of fusion bands. Started doing a lot of improv with a group and I've been working on that path ever since. The whole groove/jam band thang. I work a lone and collaborate with people a lot to write "regular" songs sometimes too. I'm working on it... I've always been serious about improving but have really tried to push myself the past few years.

[Fender&EHX4ever]

I still have my first guitar, and it's still my favorite guitar... a 1983 USA Fender S-3 Bullet. I was 13 when I bought it.

 

At 13 I was listening to a lot of U2, Prince, Bowie, Police, Billy Idol, The Cars, Tom Petty, New Wave, Power Pop, Synth Pop, etc. I still love the same things I loved at the age of 13, but I just love a whole more in addition to it. I suppose the same goes for gear. I wanted to use Fender guitars and amps, and the same effects that my heroes were using... which meant a lot of EHX and Boss, I just didn't know it then.

 

So not much has changed, but a whole lot has been added on.

[Aaron SS]

I turned up the mids, turned down the gain, and added delay.

[JRBain]

When I first started playing I was a huge RHCP and RATM fan (and other popular rock and metal stuff). I never really identified with the music, though. Frusciante and Morello are both great players (though JF's playing has stayed with me much more than Morello's), but it was much later that I started to notice any kind of influence that they had on my playing (and even that isn't all that strong).

 

In other words, they just didn't change the way I think about music, whereas players that I've got into since (John Petrucci, Pat Metheny, David Gilmour, Guthrie Govan, Allan Holdsworth, Rick Graham, Mark Tremonti and others) have done that abundantly.

 

Rig wise, I don't have a lot of money now, but I had even less when I was 15. My choice Squier Strat and Marshall MG amp were both influenced by Mr. Frusciante, though.

 

In terms of where I am now? I'm now a sort of prog-influenced rock player who wishes he could play jazz, so very similar.

 

Rig wise very different as well; I still use the Ibanez RG which I bought aged 17, but one of my favourite amps is my old Peavey Bandit - I'm pretty sure that my 16 year old self would have scoffed at the idea of actually enjoying playing through a solidstate.

[bluehuricane]

i thought teles were the ugliest guitars in the world. now i own one and want a million more

[mr benn]

I started out with a dodgy LP copy with a broken pickup selector so only the bridge pickup worked,but you coul do stuttery guitar sounds on it pretty good

 

using just about every horrible sound a zoom 505 could produce,plugging a crybaby in backwards for {censored}ed up sounds

 

all through a Laney Linebacker 30 watt solid state that had a penchant for picking up stray french radio stations

 

I was actually pretty decent at making noise!

[thezeng]

Four years ago when I started I was into 'metalcore'. Cringe. I know.

 

 

into

 

 

Now:

 

 

HOG, Phaser, Fuzz, Delay, Verb, Trem

 

 

couldn't be happier!

[Coach]

Then:

 

 

 

 

 

Now:

 

 

In general not much different on the gear front, but my music tastes have certainly broadened.

[ChrisTUFFer]

Four years ago when I started I was into 'metalcore'. Cringe. I know. into Now: HOG, Phaser, Fuzz, Delay, Verb, Trem couldn't be happier!

 

Pretty much this! Except I played LTDs...love metalcore (still) hate A7x though, I do get some really nice heavy tones out of my vox ac30

[cryptosonic]

Past: humbuckers, distortion, chorus

Present: single coils, fuzz, reverb, trem, delay

[TomCTC]

When I was starting out, I didn't even know what I wanted to do. Played a bunch of cover songs and wrote metal songs with my friends in their basements, and it was fun. Used a Laney 1x12 combo amp, a grey 7 string with a clunky black Floyd Rose and a DOD Supra Distortion. Totally different ball game now, I'm more well versed in my own playing and know what I like to hear out of it, so I think my gear these days reflects that.

[humancertainty]

More mids, less gain(although I'm starting to like too much of it again) and much better gear.

[Pascal]

Late 80's: Played a modded Strat (bridge hum, Kahler) into a 100W CarvinXV112 and (occasionally) a Zoom multiFX ()

 

2010: I now mostly listen to Avant/Jazz/World stuff, and mostly play acoustic guitars (classical, Djangobox) or archtops into clean amps. I am a much more adventurous listener than player.

[Zappa74]

before: humbuckers into a 2 channel amp, no effects

 

now: humbuckers into a single channel amp, fuzz/od/reverb used

[Killing Nevada]

sucked with sucky gear, suck with gear.

[Crxsh]

I started in '99 playing an Epiphone SG Junior into a Peavy Rage 158. Wasn't very good, wasn't very committed... didn't get serious until 2002. Played my way through a couple of Marshall Valvestate amps and kinda got into effects with a Zoom 505 and later a Digitech RP200, but then got into a band, got a lot better as a rhythm player, came into some money and bought some nice {censored}

[goaway]

when i started put i didnt even now pedals existed. i bought an ibanez rg321 (actually a great guitar for $250) and a marshall mg10. got me by for a good while.

 

then i started hanging out in my local music store that had a display rack for boss pedals. i started messing around with them and just made noises all the time. that was about the same time i was really into old pink floyd and the mars volta.

 

more recently, i more into death cab and copeland type sounds. so delay, reverb, and dirt pretty much do it for me.

[V]

Since when does a JCM 800 sound disgusting?

 

Well, anyway, I don't think my goals have changed an incredible amount. I've just gotten better at achieving them.

 

Started with a lot of gain trying to get fuzzed out heavy sounds. Now I have maybe even more gain and even fuzzier sounds but not quite as heavy overall, somehow.

 

Well, if you really want to go back, I started out on a flute and wrote general midi files in cakewalk.

 

Now I mainly play guitar, but I still program midi to control soft synths in Sonar.

[TheKrabsman]

I don't give a {censored}. I just slam hard these days and hope it turns out ok.

[ZeppelinPie792]

I went from the whole classic rock thing to (eventually) "mathcore" and things like it. I guess I am kind of opposite of most people, in that respect.

[NBarnes21]

I just rocked my MIM Strat that I still own into my Fender Bullet Reverb Amp. If I wanted distortion I had to get up and press the little gray button for the dirty channel. Always wanted a Boss DS-1 but never saved up the dough. Somehow having to buy another cable seemed daunting too.

 

I'd mostly grab tab off the internet (back in the AOL dial up days) and learn all my fav band's tunes but didn't have much patience to learn all the scales and stuff till later in life.

 

My gear has evolved more in the past couple years than it did in the first 10 years I played, mostly on the fx side. I've had my AVRI Jazzmaster for 3 years and play that 95% of the time. I'm on my 4th amp if you count the Bullet, but had a Twin, then a Blues Jr, and now an AC15C1 all within the past couple years. I run a simple setup that changes but is usually something like wah-od-delay-looper.

[seifukusha]

i actually am the same, but i like gibbie stuff more than fender.

 

but when i started out, i had some 60s mij gtr into some oddball pedals (and a homemade tremolo I sold to buy my mom a Christmas present), a pn2, a dunlop wah, a boss cs2, and like that. I still like gaze and the cure and 80s stuff, so its the same.

oh and now i make alot more money