Famous Guitars: Using Guitars the Pros Use

How much stock to you put in what guitars your favorite rock star plays? Obviously, guitar manufacturers think you put a whole lot of stock into it because they pay or “sponsor” musicians to use their guitars and do clinics, etc. Exactly the reason you shouldn’t put too much stock in it though. Your idol may not be playing brand X because its his favorite but because he’s payed to do so.

Also realize that a specific guitar is only one link in a long chain of variables your upper echelon star relies on. There are effect pedals, the amplifier, not to mention what the sound engineer or recording engineer might be doing to the sound. So don’t expect to sound the same even if you have the same talent level.

Probably one of the best reasons to pay attention to what your hero plays is because you like the look of his axe on stage. But realize that if this is your motivation, there are probably cheaper “look a like” guitars that you might consider. Many companies now issue knock offs of their star’s guitars. Some, right down to the exact damage of the star owned instrument. Some manufacturers have the stars design instruments for them to make as “special editions” as well.

You know that no name bass I was talking about? Turns out its an Arbor bass used by 80s “hair band” bassist Dana Strum of The Vinnie Vincent Invasion, and Slaughter. Even knowing that, I’d never heard of the bands (Well ok, I’d heard of Slaught. Don’t know their music at all.) nor the guitar brand. Hair bands… probably my least favorite sort of music because of the hype and pretension. I wonder if I should not buy this bass because of that association? On the other hand, it might just be a perfect inside joke.

Go ahead and play your hero’s guitar if it inspires you. There is nothing wrong with it. But if you are just looking for a reliable, playable, cheap guitar, know there might be cheaper ways to go.

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Tags: Arts, Audio engineering, Bassist, Guitar, Instruments, Music, Shopping, Stringed

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 7th, 2009 at 8:38 am and is filed under purchasing cheap guitars. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.