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Dealing with Gear Nazis

#84
I don't know about gear nazis, but I get the dudes who walk up, see there's nothing on my headstock, and walk away without saying anything.
What are they looking for? I assume an "inferior" brand name to scoff at, or a "superior" brand name they wish they had. If they asked me about my gear, I'd talk to them about it.

I did walk up to a bass player in Georgia once, who was playing with one other guy on guitar. I told him two things- that his tone sounded great (rack head, 210 cab- maybe TC Electronics?) and "nice Lakland." He said "Thanks, man," and that was the extent of it. THAT's the kind of interaction I feel comfortable with, just acknowledgement of good sound and a compliment.

But perhaps I digress. Suffice it to say, I'd rather talk gear than fight off some drunk cougar.
 
#86
phillipkregg said:
Almost everytime I play somewhere, I get accosted after the performance by some bass player in the audience who wants to spend hours talking about gear.

It may be about what gear I have - or should have. Or it could be about his gear (yes, it's always a guy).

It occurred to me that I could just pretend not to be a bass player and not know anything about gear.

For instance, I could say, "Well, you know, I don't really even play bass. My main instrument is <insert anything other than bass here>. I just fill in on bass every once in a while."

I mean I don't like being rude, but I just want to play (and scope out chicks mainly) - not talk about gear all night.

I've also noticed that this never happens to the guitarist, vocalist, drummer, or keyboardist. It's always me.

Anyone else have a die hard strategy for dealing with the Gear Nazis? Or does it even annoy you?
Click to expand...

What the hell's wrong with you?
 
#87
Baron Von Vik said:
I don't know about gear nazis, but I get the dudes who walk up, see there's nothing on my headstock, and walk away without saying anything.
What are they looking for? I assume an "inferior" brand name to scoff at, or a "superior" brand name they wish they had. If they asked me about my gear, I'd talk to them about it.

I did walk up to a bass player in Georgia once, who was playing with one other guy on guitar. I told him two things- that his tone sounded great (rack head, 210 cab- maybe TC Electronics?) and "nice Lakland." He said "Thanks, man," and that was the extent of it. THAT's the kind of interaction I feel comfortable with, just acknowledgement of good sound and a compliment.

But perhaps I digress. Suffice it to say, I'd rather talk gear than fight off some drunk cougar.
Click to expand...

Careful on that. I did that at a conference I was attending down in Savannah. I asked the bass player, "You like that Steinberger?" He says, "Are you a bass player?" Me, "Kinda." Him, "Get up here!" Turned out he's the lead singer and hates playing bass (big surprise ... it's a Steinberger). I ended up playing their whole last set. I didn't even suck that bad, but I was constantly afraid my left hand was going to fly off the end of the neck.
 
#89
lowfreqgeek said:
That said, I played a gig the other night with an amazing organ player who had his "portable" Hammond and a real Leslie. He got most of the gear-head attention, and it was well-deserved (he's a B3-aficionado and used to own a B3 rental company in Southern California).
Click to expand...

Was that Mike Kahrs?
 
#91
I like talking gear for a few seconds too, but it gets old fast. Although I'm kind of a tech guy, I don't need to spend hours talking about it. I've had the kind of people that try to one-up my playing with gear talk, but it's really rare and I just leave if the guy is a total wad. I see no reason to prove myself to those people.

OTOH, If I see another musician and I like their playing/tone, I will tell them exactly that. Sometimes the conversation goes longer, sometimes it's all of 5 seconds.
 
#92
bassplayer8953 said:
I've been to a bunch of gigs lately, & seen Squiers, instead of Fenders, Epiphones instead of Gibsons, and this weekend, the bass player in a well-established Chicago hard rock band played an LTD instead of ESP. My Epi Pro Tbird has become my main gigging axe also:

DSC_0534.jpg


...even though I have several top name brand basses to choose from.
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Awesome dude!

I've never played one of those Epi T-Birds before, but now I wanna check one out. Looks damn cool. Can you get one in Fiesta Red??? :bassist:
 
#93
Pretty humorous Gear Nazi story the last week:

So I'm deployed so instruments are fairly limited, I got an AEB so I could play unplugged and then just plug in when I'm at the church. The Keyboard player tells me the bass doesn't have enough low-end for a certain style(Like I'm just going to go get another one or something) when really he's just too heavy on the left hand. Go to the practice/jam a few days later and the other bass player shows up(more gear nazi than me, Ibanez BTB 6-string is about as Nazi as it gets from Ibanez), tries my bass and instantly says he needs to get one lol. Later on in the Jam session the other bass player(who is more talented than me as well) tells the KB player to lay off the left, it's his job to play the bass. Well, it was funny for me.

I like talking gear a lot as I'm learning but more on techniques and such/settings/etc. but I usually don't care to downtalk anything. But I will definitely compliment people more for some reason when they sound great and got some sort of great deal on their gear. I don't know if it's the financial side of me, but I get excited about huge savings.
 
#95
I'm all for a good gear conversation, but when I'm on break I usually only have a short time to get to the bathroom and get a drink before I have to get back onstage. Would-be gear talk suitors probably need to show me pretty quickly that they can hold up their end of the bargain or I'll politely excuse myself.

In most cases I end up talking to the drunk guy who wants to tell me about the time his brother let him play "Cocaine" on the bass at his graduation open house or the drunk guy who thinks my Stingray 5 is a "Fender." Or the drunk guy who says "I want to learn bass because I hear it's really easy."

Most of the more serious bass talk seems to come from guitarists who are using it to strike up a conversation so that they can get my number to play with them on their projects.
 
#96
bassplayer8953 said:
I've been to a bunch of gigs lately, & seen Squiers, instead of Fenders, Epiphones instead of Gibsons, and this weekend, the bass player in a well-established Chicago hard rock band played an LTD instead of ESP. My Epi Pro Tbird has become my main gigging axe also:

DSC_0534.jpg


...even though I have several top name brand basses to choose from.
Click to expand...

A UFO Band is Cool!
 
#100
StrangerDanger said:
I would love to try that line.:D Its definitely needed. But Im afraid that wouldnt go over too well.:eek:
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Haha, the bass player is senior to the rest of us, so it was almost like an honor thing where the KB player moved to stay in his "lane." I'm less confrontational and more passive/aggressive so when the keys start playing bass, I just pretend he's covering my part so I can solo and proceed to noodle up my fretboard, it sounds pretty good most of the time actually but really throws him for a loop. We all have fun though so it's not a big deal.
 

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