One thing I’m noticing lately with local bands is that a lot of them use the same gear at their gigs. They use the same guitar and amplifiers at all of their shows. Pretty much the same equipment, all the time. Is this a good idea? Nothing wrong with it. I understand a local musician can’t afford a lot of gear but if you wanna perform live all the time, you gotta have more gear and instruments. The thing is, you wanna experiment with different sounds. You want to learn how to take tone a little more seriously.

For example, if you look at all of these professional musicians who work for the independent labels and the music industry, they would use more than one guitars on stage and different amps to experiment with different sounds. On stage, the more professional bands don’t like to sound the same at every song. They usually find the right gear to find the right fit for the right tone on each song they play live. A lot of the bigger bands take guitar tone very seriously. The guys in the major labels who play on stage would have a collection of way over 20 guitars or more. They use different amps and guitars to get the right tone and stuff. Hard to explain but I think you get the point by now.

For a local band, you don’t need a very large collection of gear on stage but you should have at least 3 or 4 guitars.

I’m gonna wanna get more gear myself at some point. I already have a few professional sounding amplifiers, a few guitars, and a P.A. system. I have one acoustic/electric and one Hollow body electric guitar. I’m also gonna wanna get myself a solid body electric and a regular acoustic guitar sometime down the road.

You should also try experimenting with different effects. There are all kinds of cool pedals out there. I don’t have a lot of pedals. I have a few of them. I would like to get more of those someday as well.

You want to discover your tone and sound. That’s what it’s all about. Do some research on tone and sound. There are all kinds of gear and guitar magazines out there. I’m no genius at tone and sound yet but I would like to learn more about it myself. That’s the thing with a lot of musicians. A lot of them don’t take tone seriously. They just plug in and play. Not caring about their sound.

I take tone pretty seriously when it comes to guitar playing. That’s why I stick with Ibanez guitars ’cause they have a sound that fit me perfectly. I do plan on trying other brands of guitars someday. I wanna try Takamine or Washburn sometime. I would also like to try a Fender Strat and a Gibson Les Paul if I can ever afford those someday, ha ha!

I’m kind of having trouble with cash right now but when I start working again, I’ll start saving for more music gear. You wanna make your studio recordings and live shows as best sounding as possible so you should take tone and sound more seriously. When you want to play gigs on a professional level, you gotta have more gear. It’s good to sound fresh and different. Sound more interesting.

Kev