I've meant to come back to this. Most of these dudes on tour are not super motivated by 'convenience' nor by the cost/benefit of sponsorship. Hell, I'm pushing around vaults full of $10-20k instruments and doing mid-song guitar changes. Not unlike the Steven Levitt observation, wherein he asked a professional golfer about expensive golf clubs, to which they responded 'a non-pro probably gets more out of a fancy set of clubs, while a pro can probably play pretty well with just about anything'penningtron wrote: Thu Jun 15, 2023 12:23 pmEh.. a lot of grey area there. Sure.. I got acquainted with Vic Firth 5As and the most basic singly ply drum heads when I toured, because I knew stores anywhere would have them. That doesn't mean I won't try other things on recordings, or just for my own curiosity/amusement at home. I'm sure players in those touring bands are doing the same thing when they're at home or have the time to experiment.c jury wrote: Thu Jun 15, 2023 12:04 pm This is really interesting to me as someone who works (part time) in a guitar shop, and as someone who has teched for 'guitar god' types.
The typical hobby player worries a lot about strings, they use oddball gauges, expensive brands, odd windings, etc. They seem very motivated around this.
The work boxes out on big tours are full of Ernie Ball regular slinky and D'addario 10's. No one at that level uses anything but the most standard, stock strings. Part of this is because strings are getting swapped out every 1-2 shows, part is because they need to be able to find/buy/order their strings no matter where they happen to be. The biggest part is that these things really don't matter.
Plus, how does sponsorship factor into all that? I'd use boring ass Super Slinkys exclusively too if they were paying me.
Re: Guitar string recommendations?
52Do people spend a bunch on guitar strings? Flatwounds are higher on average, but those are pretty niche. The Curt Mangan strings I mentioned I buy for about $6.66 a pack.
I always thought bassists had it much worse.
I always thought bassists had it much worse.
Re: Guitar string recommendations?
53Yeah, I pay $30 for a pack of strings, but I only change them twice a year, maybe. I've had the same set of flats on my p-bass for probably 15 years.
Re: Guitar string recommendations?
54Agreed, bass strings are way more expensive but usually changed less often so it ends up being a wash. Finger players may never need to change strings, but I've also known guitar players who will swear they have guitars they have had and used for years and NEVER changed the stringsNate Dort wrote: Thu Jul 13, 2023 9:11 pmYeah, I pay $30 for a pack of strings, but I only change them twice a year, maybe. I've had the same set of flats on my p-bass for probably 15 years.
Re: Guitar string recommendations?
56Thumbs up for that guy. I always found the change multiple guitars' strings for every single show thing (drumheads too) to be wasteful and gross. The worst story I heard on here was the bass player for Tool getting a new set for his backup basses every single show (but at least the FM who posted that got to take home the unused sets).
Re: Guitar string recommendations?
57and I think Leezy has had the same set of flats on her SX bass since they bought it. Reminds me of Bernard Edwards when he was asked what kind of strings he used - "I don't know, whatever the bass came with."