Do You Really Need Great Gear to Make Great Music?

So do you really need great gear to make Great Music? Lets see what professional musicians have to say.

There are many who spend a lot of money in order to achieve a compelling sound, and by all means do it if you can afford it. While there’s no doubt that you need better music gear as you become a better musician, lot of experience musicians give undue importance to the gear part.

In the past, lots of great music has been created using basic music instruments, guitars, amps and effects available, and it can work well for you too.

• Link Wray’s Rumble: Link Wray used a Supro or Danelectro-type guitar through a Premier amp (with the speakers perforated by tiny pencil holes to increase its distortion) for his 1958 hit “Rumble”.
• The recording could have sounded more refined with more expensive gear, but it probably may not have captured the raw, edgy sound that made “Rumble” such a huge hit.
• Jimmy Page frequently used a Danelectro with lipstick-tube pickups for slide work and more, both in the studio and live with Led Zeppelin.
• Americana supremo David Lindley has long been a fan of Silvertone, Teisco, and National guitars. Mudhoney guitarists Mark Arm and Steve Turner routinely registered mammoth sounds on a Hagstrom and a Fender Mustang in the early days of grunge (ooh, a real Fender!).
• Kurt Cobain reignited mass-market guitar fury on a bevy of cheapos and, occasionally, a hacked-up Fender Mustang (ooh, another real Fender!).
• Jack White of the White Stripes and beyond used ’60s Airline model (before it started becoming expensive).
• Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys created some cool grooves on fuzzed-up Harmony, Supro and National guitars (similarly sending the prices for these soaring).

It doesn’t have to be the most expensive gear
I guess the above examples give you an idea of what can be done with decent (inexpensive) gears, and these are just a few examples.

There are a lot of musicians who feel that even the low-end vintage gear have good sound and setting (whereas modern low-end gear fail to inspire them.) So you need to acknowledge that you don’t need great gear to make great music.

Heard about ninety-nine percent Perspiration? So get better
Heard the adage “winning is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration”? That’s what applies here too, and its not just about money (expensive gear) here.

As long as you’ve got a good song to begin with, your music is likely to do well (even without expensive guitars and amps).

So do you really don’t need expensive music gear?
High-end gear certainly have their place, and that is for creating pure, rich, aurally titillating music (that is where having the best of the vintage or boutique-grade guitars and amps help).

Expensive musical instruments are also a must for genres like classical music, jazz music, especially for live playing.

However, most experience musicians would tell you that, when it comes to creating great music (and for certain kinds of music), sound from the gear doesn’t contribute much to the music (at times it just adds an unwelcome refinement to the recording and performing efforts.)

Source: reverb.com

Here’s a question that many have raised to us regarding investing in better music gear & equipment.

The other day I was talking to one of the guys in a fairly successful band in town, who have been around for a few years now, and he told me that in addition to playing great songs, you also need to having great equipment. He advised us to invest in better music gear.

Apparently, they got away with their used solid-state combo amps and budget drums, and bought Mesa/Boogie half stacks and got a custom made drum kit. The result – their fan base tripled, even by playing the same songs.

So what do you guys think? Does investing in quality/branded equipment make you look more professional and make you a more likeable band?