I think most of you guys are getting way too worked up over this, I would not be insulted by it at all.
Have most of you not been in a band that auditioned new people? Then have the singer show up and not even have a mic or a stand?
Or a guitar player with no tuner? Or a drummer whose hardware was so janky he kept having to adjust his tom holders in the middle of songs?
So you schedule an audition, everybody is on point for it (because when you get right down to it an audition goes two ways; the player for the band and the player deciding if he wants to join the band) and some idiot shows up who wastes your time?
THEN it takes like forever to get rid of the idiot, they just want to hang around and play some more songs, even though by the second song you have no interest.
I will say the phrase is not really all that effective because the people with crap gear think their gear is great, just like they often think they are great when they suck.
My first "pro rig" was a Rickenbacker 4001, an Acoustic 220 head and two JBL E-130's I had mounted in my own cabinets.
Prior to that my rig was a Kustom 100 combo (woefully underpowered) and a Gibson SB-250. The SB-250 was a poor man's EB3 but it sounded like @zz, had a u-shape in the neck and would not intonate for ****.
I was actually a very good player for that stage of my experience, but my gear sucked....so it made me sound like I sucked.
Now it never held me back from getting in a band but I knew my gear sucked, but could not afford to upgrade it until later.
But I can guarantee you had I auditioned for a really professional band (as in gigs lined up, touring clubs, playing shows every week) my crap gear would have made me fail the audition.
Others have said this already but the key concept I read from "must have pro gear" is don't be that guy with a 40 watt Fender Rumble as his only amp who shows up and can't even get over the drumkit.
It's not so much has to be a pro brand (I seriously doubt someone would disparage a good Squier bass, in fact they might not even notice it was a Squier and not a Fender) but good enough and loud enough to work in a band.
Analogeezer
p.s. Someone brought up Geddy only paid $200 for his Jazz bass. Well in the era he bought that bass that was around the going rate for a Jazz. So it wasn't a $200 used bass from today, it would be a $1,000 used bass from today.
Have most of you not been in a band that auditioned new people? Then have the singer show up and not even have a mic or a stand?
Or a guitar player with no tuner? Or a drummer whose hardware was so janky he kept having to adjust his tom holders in the middle of songs?
So you schedule an audition, everybody is on point for it (because when you get right down to it an audition goes two ways; the player for the band and the player deciding if he wants to join the band) and some idiot shows up who wastes your time?
THEN it takes like forever to get rid of the idiot, they just want to hang around and play some more songs, even though by the second song you have no interest.
I will say the phrase is not really all that effective because the people with crap gear think their gear is great, just like they often think they are great when they suck.
My first "pro rig" was a Rickenbacker 4001, an Acoustic 220 head and two JBL E-130's I had mounted in my own cabinets.
Prior to that my rig was a Kustom 100 combo (woefully underpowered) and a Gibson SB-250. The SB-250 was a poor man's EB3 but it sounded like @zz, had a u-shape in the neck and would not intonate for ****.
I was actually a very good player for that stage of my experience, but my gear sucked....so it made me sound like I sucked.
Now it never held me back from getting in a band but I knew my gear sucked, but could not afford to upgrade it until later.
But I can guarantee you had I auditioned for a really professional band (as in gigs lined up, touring clubs, playing shows every week) my crap gear would have made me fail the audition.
Others have said this already but the key concept I read from "must have pro gear" is don't be that guy with a 40 watt Fender Rumble as his only amp who shows up and can't even get over the drumkit.
It's not so much has to be a pro brand (I seriously doubt someone would disparage a good Squier bass, in fact they might not even notice it was a Squier and not a Fender) but good enough and loud enough to work in a band.
Analogeezer
p.s. Someone brought up Geddy only paid $200 for his Jazz bass. Well in the era he bought that bass that was around the going rate for a Jazz. So it wasn't a $200 used bass from today, it would be a $1,000 used bass from today.
