Brilliant performances with crap gear

[sondich]

Have you ever found out that a recording/performance that you've held in high esteem was made using bad/weird equipment?

John Frusciante said he played Under the Bridge on a beaten Fender Jaguar with messed up intonation. The percussion track on Heroes by David Bowie was made in part by banging an ashtray on a table.

I have to think there are tons of stories of classic performances being turned in with cheap equipment that just happened to be around.

If you know any, lay them on me.

Steve

[Wagster]

It's not the gear, it's what's between the ears.

[Teleplayer]

Originally Posted by Wagster

It's not the gear, it's what's between the ears.

Blasphemy. It's all about the $175 NOS tube in the V2 position of your $9,000 bedroom amp.

[sondich]

Originally Posted by Wagster

It's not the gear, it's what's between the ears.

Agreed.

If I had mad skills, I'd purposely use $75 guitars just to make a point. I've got to think some actual artists do this.

[Ocelot]

This thread is dangerously close to invalidating the existence of TGP! lol. You mean you can create brilliant music without a Dumble and a VOS '59 Les Paul? WTF?

[Baminated]

Originally Posted by Teleplayer

Blasphemy. It's all about the $175 NOS tube in the V2 position of your $9,000 bedroom amp.

[Baminated]

Rumored that EVH recorded the Beat It solo through a Boss distortion Pedal into the board direct

[DC1]

Happens all the time. And nice gear too.

Is there a point here?


dc

[fenderlead]

Jumpin' Jack Flash and Street Fighting Man had an Acoustic guitar (played by Keith) recorded onto a 60s lo tech cassette recorder using a mic and then replayed and put to studio tape with a studio mic on an extension speaker.

Charlie Watts also played a toy drumset on Street Fighting Man.

[sondich]

Originally Posted by Ocelot

This thread is dangerously close to invalidating the existence of TGP! lol. You mean you can create brilliant music without a Dumble and a VOS '59 Les Paul? WTF?

LOL. I have no problem with expensive gear. I just resent the implication of a meaingful correlation between quality of play and quality of gear.

Using a golf analogy... give Tiger Woods your $100 golf clubs to play with and he may shoot 2-3 strokes higher than normal. Maybe two strokes because he's not used to them, one because they're not as good. Now take Tiger's clubs to your local course and you'll probably play much worse than normal because $3000 clubs are made for people with finely tuned swings.

I digress but you get my point. $3000 clubs aren't going to help the average duffer. Cheap gear isn't going to mess up Tiger's game much.

Anyhow, rock and roll is not golf. What was my point?

[DC1]

I'm still looking for the guy who says he can play well because he has nice gear.

People talk about this mythical creature, but I have never seen one around here.

Some guys with nice gear, can't play too well, but they love gear. Others play very well indeed, and use the different sounds musically.

It's all good.


dc

[steve108819]

Speaking of percussion, a tray of silverware was used in Metal Gods by Judas Priest. I realize that's not really what this thread is about, but I thought it was interesting.

[fenderlead]

Plenty of basic Acoustics on well known songs.

Kurt Cobain, EVH, Keef etc.

EVH and his Franky and Ibanez Destroyer were not up market items either.

Clapton and his Champ.

Stones and solid state Vox's.

It should basically go

1: Songs and ideas and concepts and playing

2: ...................

149: ..................

150: Gear

[sondich]

Originally Posted by DC1

Happens all the time. And nice gear too.

Is there a point here?


dc

Just curious what kind of tones/sounds have been made by respected artists on the cheap. Talented people recording quality music on good gear is fine but probably not that unusual.

[fenderlead]

Bill Wyman used an early 60s very cheap Japanese bass that he modded a bit, on a fair few Stones recordings and he still uses it for some things and says it sounds great.