Interested in a pedal, sir?
The very definition of envy and frustration combined.
I went into Sound Control the other day to buy an effects pedal for my electric guitar. The shop have an entire desk of them all connected up and ready to be played. Through a cheap plastic electric guitar that makes you look like an extremely poor man's White Snake.
More to the point, the amplifier was no bigger than an abnormally large ice cube, meaning that whatever sound I got out of each pedal wasn't characteristic of what it would sound like on a reasonably good amplifier like my own.
My only basis of comparison was a pedal I've played through before that was available to try. I tried it, and sure enough it sounded beyond dreadful and made comparisons incredibly difficult.
So anyway, while I was struggling through trying to find a pedal that agreed with me, I couldn't help but notice a chap in the corner. He was in his forties, and was wearing a full and quite tidy suit.
He was also holding my dream guitar. A Gibson Les Paul Standard, albeit without that white scratchplate in the picture here. It's also worth noting that he was holding it like he'd never held a guitar in his entire life. He was holding it like a gardener would hold a spade, ready to turn it to a big pile of sand.
I could only look on as he then plugged £1,300's worth of equipment into an Orange amplifier, something that I've also always wanted. So a complete novice was just about to play equipment totalling no less than around £2,500.
Great. I've been playing guitar in some shape or form for five years, and I've got Spandex Rock's dirty bit on the side.
He then proceeded to play it badly.
It was akin to an RSPCA officer standing by while someone skinned a live cat.
Okay, maybe not that bad, but it was pretty painful. Not his playing ability, because playing anything in a shop deserves credit because the world's full of critics. What was painful however, was that I was in absolute awe of the sound that guitar could make in the right hands, and how close I was to touching it.
It will be mine. Oh yes. It will be mine.
I went into Sound Control the other day to buy an effects pedal for my electric guitar. The shop have an entire desk of them all connected up and ready to be played. Through a cheap plastic electric guitar that makes you look like an extremely poor man's White Snake.
More to the point, the amplifier was no bigger than an abnormally large ice cube, meaning that whatever sound I got out of each pedal wasn't characteristic of what it would sound like on a reasonably good amplifier like my own.
My only basis of comparison was a pedal I've played through before that was available to try. I tried it, and sure enough it sounded beyond dreadful and made comparisons incredibly difficult.
So anyway, while I was struggling through trying to find a pedal that agreed with me, I couldn't help but notice a chap in the corner. He was in his forties, and was wearing a full and quite tidy suit.
He was also holding my dream guitar. A Gibson Les Paul Standard, albeit without that white scratchplate in the picture here. It's also worth noting that he was holding it like he'd never held a guitar in his entire life. He was holding it like a gardener would hold a spade, ready to turn it to a big pile of sand.
I could only look on as he then plugged £1,300's worth of equipment into an Orange amplifier, something that I've also always wanted. So a complete novice was just about to play equipment totalling no less than around £2,500.
Great. I've been playing guitar in some shape or form for five years, and I've got Spandex Rock's dirty bit on the side.
He then proceeded to play it badly.
It was akin to an RSPCA officer standing by while someone skinned a live cat.
Okay, maybe not that bad, but it was pretty painful. Not his playing ability, because playing anything in a shop deserves credit because the world's full of critics. What was painful however, was that I was in absolute awe of the sound that guitar could make in the right hands, and how close I was to touching it.
It will be mine. Oh yes. It will be mine.
Labels: amplifier, envy, gibson, guitar, jealousy, les, orange, paul, suit
posted by Karl at
8:17 am
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