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If you want your band to sound good. . .


cought*offguard

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Over time, I'm seeing more and more people saying "yeah, i just need something to learn on and be in my band with." or "i just want something cheap to hold me over for a while."

a lot of kids work their asses off for hours writing music trying to make it the best they possibly can, but then they play them, at a show or something, and people hate them. This is a hard point to make so bear with me. But basically, the better equipment you have, the better your going to sound. Your equipment is half of what makes the band. the other half is the music and stage performance itself. but whether or not a band has good equipment is what can make them, or break them. think of a local band in your area that everyone loves, isn't their equipment pretty good? or why local bands sound so good on recording, because they use good equipment on the recordings. why do you think people like hyler have such good equipment, and he tells you people to buy good equipment when you say "i just need something like a marshall avt" right now and he says to save up for a mesa. there's a reason he says to save up for a better amp. same with other musicians and guys at guitar center. because, if your going to want to be in a good, solid, tight (and i dont mean tight as in cool, i mean tight as in how well you know your songs, as a band, not just personally) band, then your going to have to have good equipment. the shittier the equipment, the shittier and more ammateur the band will sound. people are going to watch you and say "wow, these guys don't even work hard enough to have good equipment, what makes them think i should like them?". or, wouldnt you rather have them say "wow, they sounded so good tonight, they have their set as tight as it could be and you can actually hear the guitar and bass over the drums". it's whats going to make you or break you. and most people don't realize this.

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ill disagree.

ever heard of a band called operation ivy?

they were so broke that they couldnt afford a pa, and instead ran the vocals through the bass amp.

they went from nothing, to huge in under a year.

another example is the used.

they were homeless for a time being, befor ever getting anywhere.

if theres talent and drive, it can overplay equipment easily.

thats my opinion anyways.

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plus i think some of your quotes are rediculous.

"wow, these guys don't even work hard enough to have good equipment, what makes them think i should like them?"

are you kidding me?

music is music. i think some people have to realize that.

plus, dont bring hyler into this. he has tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment.

the majority of kids have to save for post secondary, and cant even dream of dropping 3000 on a mesa boogie rig, instead they'll put it towards school, or a car.

sorry, i just think this was way off.

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your example of operation ivy

they are a punk band

how good of equipment does a PUNK band need? hell, i could sound as good as the ramones on a little squier amp. you don't need good shit for straight up punk music.

2, the used, how do u know they didnt use good equipment for shows? hell, my band some kind of wonderful, we have the shittiest equipement ever for practice. well not the shittiest, but its just combo amps and half priced guitars, but for shows, we know people that are generous enough to let us use their nice equipment, therefor, people like us better. and i've had from personal experience, when i've played shows with ok equipment, shit thats just "ok", and then i've played shows with top of the line equipment, and the shows that i played with really good shit, we got a lot better response from that show. i've played at least somewhere around 20 - 30 shows, so i know what im talking about. i'm really not trying to sound like king know it all here either, i'm just sharing what i've experienced through PERSONAL EXPERIENCE, this is not just some hypothesis.

and also, i think you misunderstood, i said the equipment is somewhat HALF of what makes the band good. the other half or more is ... what you said... talent and drive. motivation. stage performance. etc.

good day mate.

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ill disagree.

ever heard of a band called operation ivy?

they were so broke that they couldnt afford a pa' date=' and instead ran the vocals through the bass amp.

they went from nothing, to huge in under a year.

another example is the used.

they were homeless for a time being, befor ever getting anywhere.

if theres talent and drive, it can overplay equipment easily.

thats my opinion anyways.[/quote']

ya well theres the point where any money you make goes rite to what you need musically

if you practice enough on shit equipment and you are good enoguh it will get to the point where u need better stuff to play shows

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your example of operation ivy

they are a punk band

how good of equipment does a PUNK band need? hell' date=' i could sound as good as the ramones on a little squier amp. you don't need good shit for straight up punk music.[/quote']

Hmmmmm, while I more or less agreed with you in the other topic, however I may have to disagree with you on that particular statement.

Modern Punk (sometimes what I call Pop) and any form of music that uses high levels of distortion to convey emotion (rather than writing the music to convey the emotion) or maybe just to get people focused into the music need to have good tonality to some extent.

They usually achieve this by creating a powerful wall of sound that can usually only exist in a high volume enviornment where the power sections of high quality amps flourish and just milk the tone of any signal to create that saturated powerful wall of sound.

For an example of this just go to any concert where there are, let's say on the spot dynamics. How about a Green Day concert? Billy Joe may have just picked up his guitar, his amps are warmed up, tubes glowing. He strums one power chord and that wall shoots out to the audience. Practically every person in that crowd feels it, not just hears it. That wall of power that just emmited from those speakers shot out at them and got them in the mood for the song. It sure as hell wasn't the notes that conveyed emotion there, a powerchord usually wont do that by itself. Explanation? Pure tonality and the drive/power behind it. Powerful tone = powerful emotions.

Just my theory anyways. If that proves to be untrue then I'm wasting quite a bit of money on my next purchase.

EDIT: And while I just spent quite a bit of text ranting on why I think tonality is important, in the end the old saying of "you can't polish a turd" rings more or less true. If the material is bad, the tonality may help, but it will be far from polished. If the material is good, it will thrive with or without tonality, but good tonality will definetly help it thrive sooner and larger.

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  • 1 month later...

I think it's kind of a no-brainer that if you have good equipment, you'll sound good. but not everyone has that much money to dish out on gear like that. I think if you're really that good, you can make "cheap equipment" sound good. I think it's more about the ability and skill you have than what you're using. but that's just me. and also I think the dumbest thing in the world to say is "oh this band doesn't have good equipment, so I'm not going to like them", that just makes you look like the biggest dumbass in the world and shows you don't know shit about anything. but I'm also speaking from the "poor-musicians side" not the "I have a shitload of money to waste on big ass amps and 3 thousand dollar guitars so I can look badass side"

again.... that's just me...

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  • 1 month later...
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  • 1 month later...
Over time' date=' I'm seeing more and more people saying "yeah, i just need something to learn on and be in my band with." or "i just want something cheap to hold me over for a while."

a lot of kids work their asses off for hours writing music trying to make it the best they possibly can, but then they play them, at a show or something, and people hate them. This is a hard point to make so bear with me. But basically, the better equipment you have, the better your going to sound. Your equipment is half of what makes the band. the other half is the music and stage performance itself. but whether or not a band has good equipment is what can make them, or break them. think of a local band in your area that everyone loves, isn't their equipment pretty good? or why local bands sound so good on recording, because they use good equipment on the recordings. why do you think people like hyler have such good equipment, and he tells you people to buy good equipment when you say "i just need something like a marshall avt" right now and he says to save up for a mesa. there's a reason he says to save up for a better amp. same with other musicians and guys at guitar center. because, if your going to want to be in a good, solid, tight (and i dont mean tight as in cool, i mean tight as in how well you know your songs, as a band, not just personally) band, then your going to have to have good equipment. the shittier the equipment, the shittier and more ammateur the band will sound. people are going to watch you and say "wow, these guys don't even work hard enough to have good equipment, what makes them think i should like them?". or, wouldnt you rather have them say "wow, they sounded so good tonight, they have their set as tight as it could be and you can actually hear the guitar and bass over the drums". it's whats going to make you or break you. and most people don't realize this.[/quote']

this is so untrue stop posting it everywhere

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I think it's kind of a no-brainer that if you have good equipment' date=' you'll sound good. but not everyone has that much money to dish out on gear like that. I think if you're really that good, you can make "cheap equipment" sound good. I think it's more about the ability and skill you have than what you're using. but that's just me. and also I think the dumbest thing in the world to say is "oh this band doesn't have good equipment, so I'm not going to like them", that just makes you look like the biggest dumbass in the world and shows you don't know shit about anything. but I'm also speaking from the "poor-musicians side" not the "I have a shitload of money to waste on big ass amps and 3 thousand dollar guitars so I can [i']look badass side"

again.... that's just me...

Ive seen people with great equipment and they still sounded like shit

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  • 3 months later...
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Wow, I just came back years after posting this and it's still up and people are still replying to it. I can't believe it. It's so funny reading how everyone completely misunderstood what I was trying to say in this post. Not trying to say that good equipment will automatically make you a good band and get you a good fan base. BUT! Good equipment will make you a BETTER band, and good equipment will make your band play BETTER TOGETHER, as a band, the sound will be WHOLE, as one, instead of with shitty-er equipment, all the instruments will sound seperate, and will not blend together as one large sound - vibe. You want to be able to FEEL the music, not just hear it. feel the warmth, the depth, the significance of every note. AND your drummer has to be able to hear you to stay on time! And no, the instruments aren't EVERYTHING. Of course you have to write good music too. But what good musician wants to sound and look like an amateur?

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  • 11 months later...

thats not all true. sure, your going to sound awesome with a full stack but just a regular cab with a good head will do. even if you have a piece of shit peavey for gods sakes. i guess your partially right.

Peavy is a very underrated brand. Their low line stuff is shit, but their high line amps and Guitars are better than Fenders that I've played.

Their Squires that sound amazing. You have to remember that. Less Than Jake uses Epiphone Guitars. Paul McCartney used a shit Hofner and Epiphones!

Thats proof that your system is flawed. But I do agree with you. Never settle. I'm saving for an ampeg bass amp. I'm not settling for a Acousitc. I'm going all the way till I either get that Ampeg or a find a steal. A steal includes buying a mexican strat that needed a wire to be fixed for a 100 and reselling for 250.

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