Do other “artist’s”/creators of “art” fixate on the tools with which they create, as much as musicians (especially guitarists) do ?

trapdoor2

Friend of Leo's
Joined
Feb 23, 2018
Posts
4,175
Age
66
Location
Sauth Carolina
Og, the Paleolithic guy, spent simply ages sorting through flint shards to get the sharpest ones. Eventually, he learned to make them himself. Gronk, next door, recognized some shapes did a nicer job, so he became a specialist Og collector. Dave was a gatherer, but a wanna-be hunter, so he bartered his way into an Og collection based on what Gronk said.

Dave died of sepsis after cutting himself in the kitchen. His son uses Dave's Og tools on today's Mammoth. He fondly remembers him and waxes eloquent over the virtues of Og tools. Frank, on the other side of the mammoth, is thinking about how much he'd like to hit Dave's son over the head and have his own collector's toolset...
 

Kandinskyesque

Friend of Leo's
Joined
Dec 6, 2021
Posts
2,783
Location
Scotland
And btw, I consider abstract expressionist art comparable to improvisation in music.
I'm an avid viewer of art in the same way that there are non musician avid listeners of music. In fact, I'm probably better read on the background of artists than most musicians I listen to.

I understand your statement in the way that the first time I saw a Kandinsky painting, I thought I was looking at a moment in a Miles Davis tune frozen in time.
Malevich has a John Cage feel to him and Jackson Pollock's work looks like the sounds of Steve Reich.
 

telemnemonics

Telefied
Ad Free Member
Joined
Mar 2, 2010
Posts
36,283
Age
63
Location
Maine
Well- cooks tend to buy a lot of doodads, but most often end up using the good old standards.
Do they?
I see doodads marketed to cooks, but IDK how many really shop and buy such stuff?
Depends on what they cook, and if they cook every possible thing (like playing in a covers wedding band) or if they only cook savory dishes in their own style.
I have cooked professionally and am known as a good or great cook by friends and family who I have cooked for.
Aside from pots and pans which I might refularly use eight of, I have a cutting board, two knives, and a garlic press I use daily.
They are all closer to boutique quality, though not like showoff display oriented.
The knives are German and the garlic press is Swiss.
I would never have paid the boutique price of the garlic press but when my old one broke after 12-15 years my wife demanded I allow her to buy me "the best"!
$54.00, more than I would spend but still just a workmanlike tool.
The knives are different brands, 4.5”&10” blades.

1B709AC9-2420-4E19-8D8F-4C0F749D4DA7.jpeg


 

oldunc

Friend of Leo's
Joined
Jan 31, 2014
Posts
3,493
Location
California
Do they?
I see doodads marketed to cooks, but IDK how many really shop and buy such stuff?
Depends on what they cook, and if they cook every possible thing (like playing in a covers wedding band) or if they only cook savory dishes in their own style.
I have cooked professionally and am known as a good or great cook by friends and family who I have cooked for.
Aside from pots and pans which I might refularly use eight of, I have a cutting board, two knives, and a garlic press I use daily.
They are all closer to boutique quality, though not like showoff display oriented.
The knives are German and the garlic press is Swiss.
I would never have paid the boutique price of the garlic press but when my old one broke after 12-15 years my wife demanded I allow her to buy me "the best"!
$54.00, more than I would spend but still just a workmanlike tool.
The knives are different brands, 4.5”&10” blades.

View attachment 1077564

In my experience, yes they (we) do. I'm not really much of a shopper but I have a fair share of garlic rockers, microplane box graters and the like that seemed like great ideas but have seen little use. This is a consumer society and becoming more so as corporate America continues to assert its dominance. Web sites and newspaper sections that a mere decade or two back were full of recipes, how to articles, specialist writing on subjects such as produce or meat, have disappeared to be replaced with endless restaurant promotion, with a minor in thinly disguised ads for pop cookbooks from "celebrity" chefs and the latest miracle devices, and people do respond to the constant marketing pressure.

ps- I've known a lot of musicians, including most of my family, and other than guitarists- mainly electric guitarists interested in rock- they do not do a lot of equipment shopping.
 
Last edited:

61fury

Friend of Leo's
Joined
Aug 28, 2009
Posts
3,150
Location
knoxville, TN
I always wonder about singers, it's their own voice, no strings, no keyboards. Other than microphones how do they satisfy their need for gear? I know some in the pop world strap on a guitar, maybe if even only as something to hold on to and hide behind.
Tell us about singers, working guitarists. Thanks
 

1955

Doctor of Teleocity
Joined
Apr 10, 2010
Posts
11,799
Location
.
I always wonder about singers, it's their own voice, no strings, no keyboards. Other than microphones how do they satisfy their need for gear? I know some in the pop world strap on a guitar, maybe if even only as something to hold on to and hide behind.
Tell us about singers, working guitarists. Thanks
When I was young I preferred to use an SM57 because it didn’t feed back as much with loud stage volume. Then I went to a Beta58, but the grills get rusty and dented pretty quick. There were a ton of smoky bars and little clubs that had the regular 58 mics, they were almost indestructible, but they stunk to high heaven of beer and cigarettes. I broke a few of those even. Sound guys did not like me. I was too young and stupid, but I was off the chain. Guess it was good because it was before all of the phones with cameras that helped neuter R&R.

Other than the Shure mics, I liked a straight chrome plated stand with a round black base, and would put a small strip of duct tape over the mic so it wouldn’t get easily knocked out of the stand during the show. I hated the rubbery adapters that flexed a lot because the mic would not stay in them. I liked to use the rigid plastic adapters. Every now and then I’d get a shot of Wild Turkey before the show and orange juice afterwards. That is really all there was to what I needed, other than get out of the way, haha. I’m old now, but in my prime there was nobody like me. Nobody.

Now I try to be respectable I guess and have behaved for over twenty years. I am appalled to think back on what I used to be, in the name of entertainment. But I did just that, and nobody did it with more passion than I did, I can guarantee that.

I am so thankful I was able to make music with really creative and brilliant people that didn’t sound like anybody else, and I’m proud of the fact that we set our bar high, we didn’t cheat on our girlfriends, and we didn’t do drugs. We laughed a lot, we read a lot, but when it came time for us to hit the stage, it was take no prisoners and we did everything in our power to blow the roof off.

I never have to go to sleep thinking I could have done more in that regard. Only I wish I had done much less, and found out how to make a real difference in people’s lives much earlier.
 

telemnemonics

Telefied
Ad Free Member
Joined
Mar 2, 2010
Posts
36,283
Age
63
Location
Maine
When I was young I preferred to use an SM57 because it didn’t feed back as much with loud stage volume. Then I went to a Beta58, but the grills get rusty and dented pretty quick. There were a ton of smoky bars and little clubs that had the regular 58 mics, they were almost indestructible, but they stunk to high heaven of beer and cigarettes. I broke a few of those even. Sound guys did not like me. I was too young and stupid, but I was off the chain. Guess it was good because it was before all of the phones with cameras that helped neuter R&R.

Other than the Shure mics, I liked a straight chrome plated stand with a round black base, and would put a small strip of duct tape over the mic so it wouldn’t get easily knocked out of the stand during the show. I hated the rubbery adapters that flexed a lot because the mic would not stay in them. I liked to use the rigid plastic adapters. Every now and then I’d get a shot of Wild Turkey before the show and orange juice afterwards. That is really all there was to what I needed, other than get out of the way, haha. I’m old now, but in my prime there was nobody like me. Nobody.

Now I try to be respectable I guess and have behaved for over twenty years. I am appalled to think back on what I used to be, in the name of entertainment. But I did just that, and nobody did it with more passion than I did, I can guarantee that.

I am so thankful I was able to make music with really creative and brilliant people that didn’t sound like anybody else, and I’m proud of the fact that we set our bar high, we didn’t cheat on our girlfriends, and we didn’t do drugs. We laughed a lot, we read a lot, but when it came time for us to hit the stage, it was take no prisoners and we did everything in our power to blow the roof off.

I never have to go to sleep thinking I could have done more in that regard. Only I wish I had done much less, and found out how to make a real difference in people’s lives much earlier.
 

telemnemonics

Telefied
Ad Free Member
Joined
Mar 2, 2010
Posts
36,283
Age
63
Location
Maine
In my experience, yes they (we) do. I'm not really much of a shopper but I have a fair share of garlic rockers, microplane box graters and the like that seemed like great ideas but have seen little use. This is a consumer society and becoming more so as corporate America continues to assert its dominance. Web sites and newspaper sections that a mere decade or two back were full of recipes, how to articles, specialist writing on subjects such as produce or meat, have disappeared to be replaced with endless restaurant promotion, with a minor in thinly disguised ads for pop cookbooks from "celebrity" chefs and the latest miracle devices, and people do respond to the constant marketing pressure.

ps- I've known a lot of musicians, including most of my family, and other than guitarists- mainly electric guitarists interested in rock- they do not do a lot of equipment shopping.
Well yes, this is a consumer society.
Very sad.
Food can and often is an art, maybe even more that we realize if just a traditional mom tries to make a special meal each night for the family to connect and fill them with love and joy.
I certainly use cooking as a form of self expression, as an act of love, as a method of communication, and as an extension of my soul to others.

So if we have self expression on the one hand and destructive addictive greed and manipulation based consumerism on the other hand, do we have a choice?
As a guitar player musician I need to resist the temptation to shop.
As a cook or photographer or multi media user, same thing, resist that mass con being played on us.

Hell half the purpose of art is to resist whatever mass con is in play on society.
So just stop shopping!
 
Last edited:

telemnemonics

Telefied
Ad Free Member
Joined
Mar 2, 2010
Posts
36,283
Age
63
Location
Maine
A sort of funny but really serious problem I have is where I get music from, as in when I "write" music, I have no clue where it "came from" and in that not-knowing state, I think I may be repeating something I heard before.
Its not like designing a house with two bedrooms one bath a LR and a kitchen. Music just arrives. Not often enough though.

Fairly often I think I may have stolen a bit of melody from Rite of Spring, which at times is true.
Last Saturday I was playing a melody I go back to now and then but have never figured out if it is "mine" or if I stole it.

So last night I listened to Rite of Spring and did not hear it.
But this is maybe an antidote to shopping?
Or maybe not?
Over the years I have bought and learned to play more of the instruments in the orchestra than the ones I did not buy and learn to play. Boston used to have mountains of used orchestra instruments cheap and in need of a little fixing.
Yes even bassoon.
That I returned within the week because the fingering of woodwinds is quite logical, but the bassoon reverses it for the right hand. My brain could not flip like that.
I never got any tympani or kettle drum but I may yet do so!
The rest I got too old to keep up on.
Anyhow, skip the shopping and gear chat, listen to Igor.

 

mfguitar

Friend of Leo's
Joined
Aug 12, 2008
Posts
2,314
Age
62
Location
Buffalo
My wife is a knitter and we have yarn, spinning wheels, and various "special" needles all over the place. Hell, we even have special sheep that donate their wool. Music is my chosen profession but also my hobby, some are happy just being a musician and are not collectors of gear.
 

O- Fender

Friend of Leo's
Joined
Mar 25, 2003
Posts
2,357
Location
Canada
I was at an artist get together and listened a bit to two filmmakers discussing which is better between different digital video cameras followed by a detailed argument over the best lenses. It was surprisingly intense. It was very reminiscent of the "maple vs rosewood" or "poly vs nitro" discussions we know too well.

I was talking with some writers and the subject of handwriting came up. Each used different fancy pens with brand names I probably can't afford, purchased from art supplies stores I'm not cool enough to have heard of. They turned to me. I told them where I got mine. I was checking out late from the Comfort Inn in Owen Sound and scooped a few off the maids' cart in the hallway.

Now, since you are here, let me tell you in detail why jumbo frets are best.
 

SuprHtr

Friend of Leo's
Silver Supporter
Joined
Feb 1, 2019
Posts
2,411
Age
66
Location
Rocket City
I'm a rank amateur with a guitar and recognize my gear obsession as a distraction from learning to play better. By contrast, as nearly as I can tell from looking at forty years worth of videos, Dave Alvin owns one Strat that he's played forever. I also love photography but I am far less gear-obsessed since I acquired some skill. I need one or two good cameras and a small number of lenses, but still get great shots with a digital point-and-shoot if I'm paying attention to what I'm doing. I think that the more proficient you become, the less you need to find that "something else."
 
Top