NOT all about the Benjamins

Some people use the pursuit of "perfection" as an excuse for inaction...

Dear ask a punk-
I’ve been playing guitar long enough so that I can play ok punk and
rock stuff, I’m no expert but I know what I like and don’t like, but
the equipment I really need to get the right sound is so expensive
that it seems impossible to really get a band going. What’s a broke
punk to do? -guitar player

Dear GP-
When I played in my first punk rock gig, I showed up at the venue with
a guitar I had picked up at a pawn shop for $45 (with no case) –
which, by the way, was a righty guitar I had to re-string “upside
down” so I could play it as a lefty… actually putting the same strings
back on the guitar… except the High E which had broken… so I had a 5
string guitar, but that was ok because I only knew how to make barre
chords anyway (and even those, only sorta.) I had a strap I had made
out of a leather belt and duct tape, a 10 foot long guitar cord, and
NO AMP… at that point I didn’t even completely grasp the concept that
you really had to have your own amp. I figured there would be
SOMEthing I could plug into at the gig.

Sounds pretty clueless doesn’t it? …well, it was. I did get to plug
into someone other guy’s amp, but of course, we all sounded awful… by
any sort of artistic, musical or sonic measure we sounded deeply,
distressingly awful. But we were on stage and we were having our say –
THAT is what mattered. Of course as time marched on I learned some
chords and picked up the amps and effects boxes I thought were
increasingly ‘necessary’ to “personalize my sound.” such as it was…
But in the end, 99 times out of 100 it all boiled down to a whole lot
of volume and distortion, which was then coated with a generous layer
of reverb. That was pretty much it.

You’re just starting out, right? …and if we’re really talking about
PUNK here, then the most important thing to do is to get on stage and
play with your band. Now. Before you know any better. Before you start
obsessing over “tone” and effects boxes and racks of equipment and all
that other stuff. Trust me, you do NOT want to be part of that club of
guys who wait until everything is ‘perfect’ or wait until you have
every little piece of equipment and musical bric-a-brac available
…because it’ll never be perfect, and you’ll never collect it all. I
know guys with garages full of amps and guitars etc – still on the
quest for “the right tone.” They are haunted shells of men, with a lot
of great equipment and nearly zero hours of stage time to speak of.

Look, the truth is, at this point, the most you should be hoping for
at a live show is that people will be able to even hear the chord
changes, the snare drum and, if you’re really lucky, the singer’s
voice howling over the din.

Basically what I’m saying is: Look around at all the stuff you already
have… IS it possible, could you, if necessary, play some sort of gig
with the equipment you and your band have right now? I can promise you
that people have made amazing and arresting music with one tenth of
the equipment you probably already have. They didn’t let economics or
gear-envy distract them from the most important issue: You. Must.
Rock. By any means necessary. Besides, you sure as hell don’t want to
be the band with $20,000 worth of gear and ten cents worth of music.
Get out there.