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Is anyone image conscious about their rig?

#83
i am. i will admit if it aint fender it aint ****. and the only fender item i uses is a rt-1000 tuner. i own a jazz bass i never play out because it sounds horrible (mark hoppus model)

I'm so self conflicting. and i often scoff at other players igs, but that is just because i am a horrible person.
 
#84
youngmanhood said:
Rock n roll itself has always had a vain, self indulgent undertone to it whether it be in front of 2 or 2,000 people and anyone who says "no way man I'm just doing it for the rock!" is a liar. Obviously you're doing i for "the rock" we all are but there will always be a thought of "how do I look" it's part of the game.
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+1000000000 If wasn't important, the Beatles would have never worn matching suits, Hendrix wouldn't have had all his military inspired clothing, and Glam Rock never would have happened. Image is important, not necessarily to the musicians, but it is to the audience.


JimmyM said:
um, yeah, of course it's all about the music. sure it is. that's why lady gaga's the most popular singer right now ;)
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ZING!


I'll admit, I do care about how my gear looks. I want my gear to look sharp, not like I grabbed it from a rubbish bin out back. My gear doesn't match right now (Bassman 300+DIY 215), but it looks good, especially with a big american flag for grill. Personally, I have to have grill cloth, I can't stand seeing exposed speakers. And silver or grey grill cloth is best. I think it just looks classy. 60s Sunn, or Hiwatt, or Marshall, or Ampeg, or Fender, all have the silver/grey grill and black tolex, and it just works, aesthetically.

Of course, sound is massively important, but if I can get a rig that both sounds good and looks sharp, all the better.
 
#85
I'm sorta with JimmyM on this. If it SOUNDS good AND looks good- I'll take that over a sounding good & looking like candy rig anyday. Even if the candy rig weighs 1/8th of the weight.
I recently got a Mesa WA scout combo(awesome li'l rig BTW) & according to MESA it's a light weight - ha!!! I know they make HEAVY stuff!!! :-) But that weighs far more than my LMII > Berg AE112 rig, but for the blues gig I do with it- it SOUNDS superb, so I lug it!
As Jimmy says tho, IF I have PITA access to the stage area, then I'll either get help ;-) or take the lightest option(that SOUNDS good) I've got!
I DO love the LOOK of the SVT > NV215>NV610 tho!!!! Even the Traynor YBA200 on NV215 LOOKS & SOUNDS great & is a li'l lighter than the SVT.
 
#87
worxforme said:
People will pay more for food at a nice looking restaurant, I think it works somewhat the same at gigs.

We do get a lot of people checking us out and asking us about the band because we have good gear as well as the bar owner inviting us back... but you still have to deliver.

When we go from a cover we just nailed to one of our less than stellar originals, they suddenly could care less about our gear.

Everyone has had a bad meal at a chic restaurant and at that time you could care less about the cool looking etched stainless steel artwork.
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Nail on the head Frank. No one cares what gear your using if your blowing them away. Its when you suck that they start critisizing the gear.
 
#88
I hear all of you, but when I am spending the kind of money I am spending on a rig I not only expect it to sound good, but I expect it to look good. I love my rig. It sounds just the way I want it to and every time I walk by it I thing damn that looks good. Are you really telling me that you want to buy a Cadillac that looks like a mod 80's chevy cavalier. Are you going to stand there with a smile on your face as you pick up your date and say "Well it looks like a Cavalier but it drives like a Cadillac!"

Maybe I am being to picky but i spent a lot of time putting it together and sound is #1 but don't you want to be proud of the way it looks to.
 
#91
JimmyM said:
um, yeah, of course it's all about the music. sure it is. that's why lady gaga's the most popular singer right now ;)
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GianGian said:
As I said, TO ME, it is all about the music. It may be different for you, or for Lady Gaga. I respect that.
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Yes, Jimmy...you're just not pure enough. Time for some self examination. You probably get paid for shows too. Sell out.
 
#92
Yes I must confess I am very concerned about my image.

I could not imagine life without my Shuttle 9.0 and my 37 pound 2x10 cab not behind me on stage. I absolutely love the image of making things around me quake and having just the the small rig behind me. :hyper::bassist::bassist::hyper:;)
 
#94
I use what I like. Hiwatt, Marshall, Sound City. Sound guys are forever asking when the other guitar player is going to show up. I run any where from one head and cab to three heads six cabs all depends on the venue. I do like to put as much as possible, we are a rock band after all.
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#95
I remember seeing a band some years ago that had a 4x10 and 1x15 stacked up on both sides of the drum riser for the bass player. The image it portrayed was awesome. It really didn't serve any practical purpose, as the band was playing through a very nice JBL FOH system. Of course, it was a big stage in a big room. It would have looked lame in a corner stage in a small club. I wouldn't mind doing something like that for the look, but I'd want some permanent roadies before I tote that in and out of gigs.

I do like the look of nice gear on stage. Does the audience? I don't know. They may have noticed the visual the four bass cabs created that I talked about in the above paragraph. For me personally, I like two things. First, I always want my cabs to have a cosmetic match. For example, I probably won't pair my Aguilars with my Hartke HyDrive. The other is that I like gear that doesn't look like it's had the piss beat out of it. A few nicks and scraps come with using gear, but I hate the look of an amp that's been beat to hell. Now an old instrument with 70% of the finish wore off. That's just mojo. :D
 
#98
I remember a gig I played at a club in Vancouver back in 1990. I was actually a guitar player at the time and I had put together a rig that consisted of a Marshall 412 cab and a rack loaded with a bunch of crap including a nice Soldano preamp, effects, power conditioner and wireless unit. I had cheaped out only on the power amp which was a brand new Carvin solid state power amp at the time. Now arguably, I was shortchanging myself by having such a nice boutique pre amp and using what was basically a p.a. system power amp. Guitar players swear by tubes of course. But this rig sounded pretty good and I had spent maybe 4 or 5 hundred on the Carvin rather then over $2000 on a matching Soldano poweramp. I liked my rig at the time and was not self concious about anything.

So after the gig, which went well enough, the house sound tech of all people takes it upon himself to point out to me how pathetic my choice in power amps was. He made it very clear that I was obviously an uneducated hack who had no idea what good tone was as I had made such an error in judgement by choosing a solid state power amp.

I was actually stunned at the time and really didn't know what to say. I was about 19 or 20 years old, having the time of my life playing in an all original band where I was the sole songwriter, and this loser with nothing better to do then attack my choice of power amp managed to ruin my day.

I actually took it to heart and went out and financed an all tube power amp with this feeling that I had to have a "proper" rig to be respected as a musician. It kills me to this day that i was that impressionable and let some jerk's opinion influence me.

It wasn't long after this incident that our bass player left the band. I sold my entire guitar rig, bought bass gear and never looked back. I always had mismatched brands but always had good tone and never let anyone tell me what was acceptable gear or not.

I own some pretty nice matching rigs nowadays and quite enjoy the way they look and the feeling of having pro gear is still cool. But whenever I see a band play, I find that you are wasting your time pre judging how the bass player (or anyone else in the band) is going to sound and play before they take the stage simply by evaluating the quality of their stage rig.

But when a band sounds great and I look up and see a cool bass rig on stage, I smile!
 
#99
LiquidMidnight said:
The other is that I like gear that doesn't look like it's had the piss beat out of it. A few nicks and scraps come with using gear, but I hate the look of an amp that's been beat to hell. Now an old instrument with 70% of the finish wore off. That's just mojo. :D
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tell me this ain't mojo, my friend:

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ok, i've cleaned it up a little since then...new grillcloth, new knobs, but the tolex is the same and always will be. why? well duh!
 

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