When I was played in a band, I never gave too much thought to my gear. I basically played a telecaster through a ProCo Rat and a Line 6 DL-4 into a Fender DeVille. At the time, I thought I had all that I needed.
After the band broke up, and I didn't immediately fall in with another group, and I stopped playing for over a year. Don't ask me how it happened, but it did. It might have something to do with moving to Minneapolis and trying too hard to have a girlfriend. By the time I realized that I hadn't been playing, I had completely forgotten how to altogether.
As I started relearning how to play, I also became more interested in the gear I was playing on. I learned of the stark, yet technically subtle, differences between overdrive, distortion, and fuzz; as well as the universe of options among them.
My interest in guitars, amps and effects waxes and wanes depending on how interesting I find a particular item. For instance, I became obsessed with tracking down a Greenline Overdrive from Smart People Factory because the guitar player in one of my favorite bands played one on their last record. The pedal was just modded TS-808, and I already had another, more versatile, TS clone. But I had to have that pedal. Once I obtained a Greenline, I wouldn't have to worry about another overdrive pedal for as long as I lived. Yeah right...
I love the Telecaster, and I've owned three of them. I sold one to pay for repairs and modifications to another. I sold my first telecaster because I didn't know how easily I could have repaired the parts I didn't like about it by myself.
I've flirted with the Jaguar, but it's shortened scale continues to be too small for my clumsy hands. I decided that I'd have to settle for a Jazzmaster, which was fine, I just preferred the look of the Jaguar.
Again, through all of this gear hunting, I keep telling myself that I just needed ONE more thing, and then i'd be set. I'd be able to start a band again. I'd amazingly become a better player because I had that guitar, or that pedal, and I was playing through that amp.
I've really made an effort to focus on playing and not the gear I was playing with. I'm not that serious of a player, and if I want to obsess about gear, I told myself that I had to play in a band. That worked for a couple of months until I came across this company that makes guitars right in my hometown of Des Moines.
El Hombre Deluxe, Lake Pelham Blue from BilT Guitars on Vimeo.
That sound you heard was my jaw hitting the floor. Me likey.
