high school battle of the bands - holy expensive gear batman!

[eryque]

I'm teaching for a few weeks at the high school in a town called Guilderland, as in the Dutch guilder. There is indeed a reason it's called Guilderland. The $$ these kids have dropped on gear would rival some of the collectors on the TDPRI. Darn near every one of the kids had a JCM2000 half stack (which they cranked). Lots of actual Les Pauls, lost of expensive drum kits.

It was a really cool show. The younger bands were all playing drop-D metal complete with demonic screaming in lieu of vocals, but for the most part were doing it pretty well.

The two senior bands were really good pop rock bands steeped in both classic rock and power pop. The singer of the winning band was playing a Tele and a Taylor acoustic. I'm quite convinced that's why they won ;-) I don't think it had anything to do with being able to do a pretty decent cover of Ziggy Stardust and Daytripper in addition to two really good originals.

It was a really a fun time for the kids. I like supporting the kids in things like this, so it was a bonus that the show turned out to be good.

[getbent]

That sounds like big fun! I used to love the yearly battle of the bands and sponsoring the coffee house nights... there'd always be a few kids who were really good!

[Cam]

Gearhead Dads and Moms I'd bet some of them are

[toadman]

my wife is a teacher and we always go to the annuall Battle o' the Bands. there are somr really talented kids doing stuff i never dreamed of when i was that age, on equipment that was WAY beyond my financial grasp at the time!
one band we liked went on and is continuing to this day. if you like ska music check out www.tipthevan.com. great kids too

[eryque]

Originally Posted by Cam

Gearhead Dads and Moms I'd bet some of them are

It's quite possible. One of them was playing an older Les Paul. I'm not sure how old, but old enough to have a big belt buckle rash on the back and you could see the finish sinking in to the grain. It's also possible it was a relic, which would also be big $$

[Pesty]

I've always enjoyed battle of the bands, There's not many in the city I live in, but they're a lot of fun.

When I was in my Grade 11 year, my school hosted one, and there was a decent number of bands. It was open to any bands in Rural Manitoba, and one group showed up that were neo-**** skin heads. It was found out before they were at smokers corner smoking up and drinking before a Battle of the Bands at 2 in the afternoon. They got through two songs before the football team and a couple teachers decided to remove them from the school. They also pressed charges.

The funny part, was they phoned in their audition, and played covers of Nickelback songs for their audition.

[Tedecaster]

A friend of mine is a teacher at one of the regional high schools & he organized a B-o-t-B at his school last year as a fund-raiser. He's a great guitar player, so us old guys played the break between sets (we were really popular with all the parents!) & I had the same experience.

Theses kids were playing metal with the "cookie monster" vocals, but most of them could really play!

They too had the Marshall stacks, LP's & Strats, fancy pedal boards, mega drum racks.......

Gone are the days of three guitars & a mic into something the size of a Princeton.

[sax4blues]

My son played in a HS talent show Thursday with a mix of bands and singers with backing tracks. The act that brought down the house was a brother duo playing instrumental version of Stairway To Heaven with acoustic guitar and violin. The violinist NAILED the entire song, vocal lines and guitar solo. He played with such confidence, feel, tone.

I always think it's cool when a couple acoustic instruments blows away a wall of amps.

[thekillingjoke]

I went to a battle of the bands a little more than a year ago. Pretty much all of them played metal, except for one band where the guitarist was playing a Strat. I thought they all sucked, but the best band was the one with the Strat because I could actually hear the singer -- their guitarist was using a combo amp, which was more than enough to fill the auditorium. The rest of the bands were using full Marshall stacks, and it was total overkill.

[Charlie Bernstein]

And I'll bet they were micing the Marshalls...

[goldtopper]

Yep gearhead parents are great. My daughter is 11 and owns a beautiful tele. When she's ready, it's waiting for her to pick up.

[eryque]

Originally Posted by Charlie Bernstein

And I'll bet they were micing the Marshalls...

Yep. Not sure why, it certainly wasn't necessary. The guy running sound was on the school staff, so he might have known better.

It was a pretty small auditorium too. I think it holds about 500 people.

[usc96]

I would have stuck with it as a kid if my gear wasn't so crappy. My amp shorted out all the time, but that was all I could afford. Other kids on the other hand had $500 - $1,000 set ups, and that was in 1982 dollars. To add insult to injury, my parents standard reply was "little Johnny has a paper route, and that's why he can afford all that nice stuff," or "little Johnny has a BMW because he saved his paper route money." BULLSH!T!!!

[studio1087]

My nephew is 19. He has a PRS SE Tremonti and a Marshall AVT 1/2 stack and a Martin DX1E that he bought with money he made working as a cook for entire summers. He also has a nice small practice PA. He bought a plasma screen for his dorm room before leaving for college.

I think the big differance between my Nephew and I is that my sister allows him to spend every cent that he earns.

My penny pinching German dad and I had an agreement when I worked during highschool (and I always had a part time job). I had to save 1/2 of every one of my pay checks and I could spend the other half on whatever he approved of. I had a beat up Tele and a parade of crummy amps that I was proud of. I also graduated from college with a few grand in the bank to use to start my adult life.

I'm not amazed that my nephew can earn money....he's a great kid. I am amazed that my sister doesn't monitor where the money goes....she could care less. My dad would never allow me to spend every cent that I earned. Earning $1000 is easy. Keeping $1000 to blow on whatever you desire is really hard. I guess that if I had no living expenses at all and I could take every paycheck to Guitar Center, I'd be just like my nephew.

[GoldieLocks]

I've waited my whole life to be in a Battle of the Bands. Never got the chance.

I've done over a 1000 gigs...but its just not the same

[morroben]

Not to defend the kids too much, but it is possible that they have jobs and saved up for this gear. When I was in high school, I had an after school and weekend job. It didn't pay that great, but it was almost all disposable income. I had to pay for my car and insurance, and put a little into a college account, but most of the money was mine to play with. I had all kinds of cool stuff. American standard tele, Marshall, nice car with a nice stereo. I make about four times as much money now as I did then, but I have far less disposable income when all the bills and necessities of life are paid for. MIM tele, homemade amp, old truck with a broken tape deck.....
On the other hand, they might just be spoiled rich kids.

[tdu]

I'm sure it's the same in the States, but at the big chain store here in Canada (Long and Mcquade) they offer really easy financing. That is how I got my gear when I was younger and gigging, and it's how most of them get it now. On big ticket items like Gibson's, the interest is usually 0% too.

It's a great thing for younger people if they make their payments. But I am sure it has lead to many teenagers starting their adult years with bad credit lol.

[eryque]

I'm quite sure that none of these kids are using layaway. Around here that's thought of as something you do in the ghetto. Since you need to be 18 to get a credit card, I'm sure none of the kids are going that route either.

Some of them have paid for some of their gear, I'm sure. Some of them.

[J-man]

I'm saying nothing!

[Dep]

I was picking up my son from his guitar lesson last Monday and saw a young lady, probably about 15-16 years old, walk in carrying one of the new Gibson robot guitars.

She had gotten it for Christmas. She hasn't been taking lessons long.

THen I found out that another student there had one as well.

My son looked at me and I told him, no way you are getting a $2000 guitar unless you are going on tour.LOL.

He has 5 guitars, but none cost over $400. Actually, his favorite is a MIM strat that he bought from the owner of the place where he takes his music lessons. He got it for a steal, excellent shape for $100.

Dep

[superchicken_VI]

It's like sports and other pursuits...Parents shell out money for Junior to get involved in something. A lot of parents live vicariously through their children, whether it's little league, ice skating, gymnastics, or trying to create the next SRV. They'll spend whatever money and whatever time it takes to make sure that their kid becomes the next big thing.

That said, I knew one guy in high school that always had a 50 watt Marshall halfstack whenever he played out, but it wasn't his. It was his older brother's. A lot of those amps and guitars might be their parents' gear, that they're getting to use on a big stage. That is very common around here.

[CharlieO]

I don't think that things are lot different today from they way they were in the late 60's, when I was in high school. My friends and I had pretty expensive gear for the times, and a lot of us paid for the stuff ourselves. There were plenty of Twin Reverbs (how many high school bands needed that much power?) and a lot of Bandmasters and Bassmans. I spent $425 on my Rickenbacker in 1967. I worked in a music store in 1968 and '69, and there were plenty of kids buying expensive stuff. I bet that a lot of them, just like me, are wishing that they had hung on to all of that gear.

It's great that kids are still interested in performing, and that some of them actually play instruments instead of just trying to be rappers.