Stupid Things You Used to Believe About Music/Guitars

[groverj3]

I remember I used to think that Ed Roman was a credible and reliable source of guitar information. Back in the day, there weren't many guitar websites that were quite as impressive as his in terms of the sheer amount of pictures and variety.

Used to think his custom brands were the cream of the crop for custom luthiers.

I visited his store in the early 00s when I was in high school. I will say, they did have some cool stuff there, even though it was highly apparent that their in-house builds were iffy at best. The amount of shit-talking of brands he did to me, a 14 year old who he didn't even know, was kind of silly.

 

[Nightside]

80s metallica > 80s megadeth
90s megadeth > 90s metallica
00s-present just sucks

 

[Bandersnatch]

That I'd never want to own a Fender anything because I thought all Fenders sounded the same. And to be fair, they all did up until 7 or so years ago when they started putting out things that were actually different.

Now I own a Special Edition tele and a bassbreaker 112. Also want to buy an American Elite tele.

 

[iamaom]

A stupid thing that I used to believe about guitar is that the type of wood it is made from significantly affects the tone.

Ah the bygone days of 2005 when a middle school me was trying to decide which metal $200 guitar to buy, crossing one off the list because KirkHammer69420 on ultimate guitar said to never buy a guitar with a basswood body with a maple fretboard or it would sound too bright.

 

[coreysMonster]

Ah the bygone days of 2005 when a middle school me was trying to decide which metal $200 guitar to buy, crossing one off the list because KirkHammer69420 on ultimate guitar said to never buy a guitar with a basswood body with a maple fretboard or it would sound too bright.

The amount of stupid shit about guitars and music I believed because I read it online as a teen is staggering.

 

[Dooky]

Ah the bygone days of 2005 when a middle school me was trying to decide which metal $200 guitar to buy, crossing one off the list because KirkHammer69420 on ultimate guitar said to never buy a guitar with a basswood body with a maple fretboard or it would sound too bright.

Haha! Yeah, cause that maple fretboard makes all the difference
It still pains me when I hear professional metal guitarists (who use high-end amps, pedals and pickups) talk about how their maple fretboard gives them a much more "snappy, bright tone" or that a mahogany body creates a "rich, warm tone". Such a load of BS.

 

[spudmunkey]

That turning the gain, bass and treble all the way up and the mids all the way down was the "best" sound for everything.

[edit: ha, caught my typo mid-edit]

 

[TedEH]

tremble

I always dial my amps for MAXIMUM TREMBLE.

 

[DrakkarTyrannis]

Not sure if I mentioned it, but I thought baritone just inherently sounded heavier. If you tune a standard guitar and a baritone guitar to the same tuning, somehow the baritone would be like an octave lower or some shit

This is exactly why I thought so.

I thought the heavier guitar on the intro to these songs were a baritone and the second guitar was a normal one. I was convinced the guitarist in the band used a baritone and that the other guitarist used a Gibson Gothic Flying V, which obviously isn't a baritone.

So for a while I played ESP F baritones trying to get that heavy sound because in my head the 27 inch scale automatically meant it'd be heavier than a standard scale.

 

[Big Dumb Bitch]

Guitar is a better instrument than bass.

 

[Mboogie7]

Fenders and Gibson are stupid because all the non musicians know them and I want to be my “own” dude.

fast forward a few years and I hear a strat through a Vox AC30 (clean tonez of course) and was mind boggled. I ended up getting an American standard shortly after and still have it. It doesn’t get nearly as much playing time now as my AZ prestige covers cleans and a great distortion pretty well- perhaps I’ll mod it at some point and give it a new lease on life.

 

[Fenriswolf]

That as many people love super strats, I should try one. I have a Custom Shop ESP & Charvel, another import Chavel, a hot rodded Strat, and I play (up until one of the wires came loose and I haven't fixed it) the same Les Paul I always have, and an Epi Wilshire, because it feels like a Les Paul, but a lot lighter.

Vox AC30 (clean tonez of course) and was mind boggled.

I saw a video of a dimed AC30, I think one of the old Phil X Fretted Americana videos, and I've never wanted a Vox so bad before. But then I remembered how much deafer I am after living somewhere where I could play a 212 6505 on like 6.

 

[X1X]

Master of Puppets is harder than Live Wire

 

[Fenriswolf]

Master of Puppets is harder than Live Wire

As someone who's posted about how I spent an embarrassingly long time not knowing how to alternate pick stuff, I still can't gallop to save my life. I can't do it either way nowadays, but I used to come closer to getting the rhythm right in Shortest Straw downpicking the gallops.

 

[The Mirror]

Not sure if I mentioned it, but I thought baritone just inherently sounded heavier. If you tune a standard guitar and a baritone guitar to the same tuning, somehow the baritone would be like an octave lower or some shit

Technically you were correct on that. A baritone, due to the longer scale lenght, has different sound characteristics than a regular guitar. Similar to how a Bass sounds different from a 9-String guitar even though both play the same low notes.

Not "heavier" per-se, but different. I play lead guitar (7-String) in a band, in which the rhythm player uses a 27.7 baritone because it has a somewhat "twangier" sound than a 26.5 scale 7.

Add the fact that you can put on much heavier strings on a baritone and you'll indeed get a thicker sound out of it.

There is a reason why Surf-Rock often used the combo of Regular + Baritone, to create a fatter sound.

 

[DrakkarTyrannis]

Technically you were correct on that. A baritone, due to the longer scale lenght, has different sound characteristics than a regular guitar. Similar to how a Bass sounds different from a 9-String guitar even though both play the same low notes.

Not "heavier" per-se, but different. I play lead guitar (7-String) in a band, in which the rhythm player uses a 27.7 baritone because it has a somewhat "twangier" sound than a 26.5 scale 7.

Add the fact that you can put on much heavier strings on a baritone and you'll indeed get a thicker sound out of it.

There is a reason why Surf-Rock often used the combo of Regular + Baritone, to create a fatter sound.

The two guitars in the recordings weren't playing on the same frets. I thought somehow a baritone instantly sounds lower in pitch, which they don't.

 

[Nightside]

I remember being in my 20s and single when I joined here. I blew like 40k on guitars one year. I've had all kinds of really expensive pro gear and custom shop stuff. I remember seeing guys in their 30s and 40s posting NGD threads about how awesome some cheap ass low end import guitar was. I remember thinking what kind of loser actually buys that cheap garbage and convinces themselves it's any good. Now I have a wife and kids and no money to blow and am thankful to get half an hour to noodle every other day or so. My main guitars are low end cheap imports that really surprised me how great they are for the money.

 

[70Seven]

This is me in my teens and 20's: Tone comes from the pedals, amp isn't important and any guitar can sound great with the right pedals. So I had cheap guitars, very cheap amp (like a 1x8) and great pedals and was trying to sound like the Black Album, never worked out... So I bought more pedals...

 

[bostjan]

I fell for the Monster cable nonsense. I thought that trendy cables would make me sound better. There's an atom of truth to it, but it's 99.99% bullshit.

The biggest misconception I had, though, was, as a teenager, assuming that I could find four or five like-minded musicians and form a bands, and we'd all be best buds, when, in reality, the general adage of two's company, but three's a crowd applies. If I get along great with a drummer and I get along great with a bassist, odds are ten to one that the drummer and the bassist won't get along with each other, and 100:1 that adding a singer means any two people will end up inexplicably hating each other.

Along those lines, it took forever for me to embrace the idea of a duo, then I started seeing bands like The Kills, The White Stripes, The Black Keys, etc., who did fine with just two people.

 

[Nightside]

I remember thinking the budget gear I had when I was starting out was garbage because it wasn't expensive (well it was pretty expensive for me but not ESP custom and Mesa Boogie expensive). I got rid of a lot of good gear just because I thought the price mattered. Then years later I found out most of my heroes recorded their best stuff with budget gear and some of them even with the same fucking budget gear I was using before!