The aesthetic of Gear

[Blackened Soul]

Recently we had a good round on stupid and offensive pedal names, and we have many threads on colors.. and a coolest and ugliest gear thread..
And this forum is famous for people having custom art for pedals made based on whatever your fetish at the time is

How important is this to you?
That is the real thing. A lot of us were drawn in by some icon playing or using a thing, it looked cool to us in conjunction with what we were hearing.
As we acquire more influences our ideas would mold and change and for some that isn't enough and you start designing your own stuff, building it, having it made for you..

What maters to YOU, do YOU care, or not? Is it a sense of personal self image? or just something you like? Is there gear you WILL NOT USE because you don't like the look even if it is really what you might need?

[counttherings]

If it looks cool it will be the tiebreaker if I'm weighing it against similar things. I've held out for cool SS/BS finishes on a Fuck and a Mini. I think if the look matches your vibe it can inspire creativity. It's not a necessity but it does add something. Not everyone is like that for sure but I am.

If something is completely tasteless I won't use it no matter how useful it might be. There are enough options out there that I will never feel as if I have to settle for offensive gear.

[qersty]

I'm too cheap to care about looks but I love pedals with the weird 60s colorsound, fuzz face enclosures in bright colours, also I've always dug z.vex's fancier paintjobs. Aesthetics are important as much as i hate to admit it, I dont think it makes a boring pedal more appealing. If I made a pedal I would try to make it as awesome as possible even if design is something i suck at

[Davin]

An ascetic is someone who practices severe self-discipline and abstention ... basically the opposite of most people here.

What you meant to say was “aesthetic”

[Lurker13]

For amps, I don't care at all because they all look pretty much the same - like knobs and tolex and grill cloth. If there is a choice of colors, I will take a color that speaks (bad pun intended) to me, but I don't expect much in the way of aesthetics from amplifiers.

For guitars, I absolutely do care. I won't spend my hard-earned money on a guitar unless I love the looks, the tone, and the playability.

For pedals, it gets more complicated. I have pedals with amazing graphics (Algal Bloom, Velcrobot) and I have far more pedals that are plain, or relatively plain. The graphics on the boutique pedals are a great touch and can definitely provide some inspiration, but ultimately I'm looking for tone. However, some graphics can definitely turn me off to pedals. Bare metal boxes and cartoonish graphics just aren't my thing (YMMV).

[tremolo3]

I have always had pretty ugly gear, so for me: functionality > practicality > price > appearance.

Not gonna lie that I often drool over some gear because it looks extremely sexy (Moog, Leica, Tesla), but if it only looks good, I will just keep admiring it from a screen.


Ascetic is a nice word

[qersty]

For amps, I don't care at all because they all look pretty much the same

For amps I care but only when it comes to real amps, not guitar amps I have a crown poweramp and it embarasses me, it looks that awful; super shitty tiefighter plastic on the grille and hideous blue status lights and backlit lcd. Luckily the screen and leds can be shut off. Seriously what happened to this?

No bullshit, utilitarian amp that doesnt try to present anything other that it amplifies things. An lcd I cant complain about cause dsp can be useful but putting a screen on a plain panel won't make it look like darth vader commutes in it

/rant

[Blackened Soul]

An ascetic is someone who practices severe self-discipline and abstention ... basically the opposite of most people here.

What you meant to say was “aesthetic”

I am getting very tired of my devices trying to "think" what I am typing as I type it...

[Lurker13]

I have a crown poweramp and it embarasses me...

Oh *#%$ that's funny! Thanks qersty, I needed a good laugh.

[Lurker13]

An ascetic is someone who practices severe self-discipline and abstention ... basically the opposite of most people here.

What you meant to say was “aesthetic”

I am getting very tired of my devices trying to "think" what I am typing as I type it...

It's okay, just sit back, relax, and let the machines do all your thinking for you...everything will be okay...they promise.



BWUHUHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAA!

[Blackened Soul]

Bare metal boxes and cartoonish graphics just aren't my thing (YMMV).

Yeah.. this one.. this is my current problem... I have this pedal.. It was given to me because it went with the aesthetic of my avatar here around a decade ago.. I'm going to use it for the rig for my next project, and no it's a one-off there is no other pedal that sounds like it... do I rip off the OVERY cute anime sticker is the question....

Then i start thinking... should I repaint all the pedals on my board to look like ammo cases, or safety orange, or black...

[Lurker13]

Bare metal boxes and cartoonish graphics just aren't my thing (YMMV).

Yeah.. this one.. this is my current problem... I have this pedal.. It was given to me because it went with the aesthetic of my avatar here around a decade ago.. I'm going to use it for the rig for my next project, and no it's a one-off there is no other pedal that sounds like it... do I rip off the OVERY cute anime sticker is the question....

Then i start thinking... should I repaint all the pedals on my board to look like ammo cases, or safety orange, or black...

Can you post a pic before you rip off the anime sticker?

Here's a thought: if you are going to repaint your pedals, try using colors and symbols that symbolize what you are hoping to get out of them. The unconscious mind is the source of creativity and recognizes symbols, so every time you look at them you can make their images resonate in your unconscious to aid your creativity.

[Paul_C]

I'm ashamed to say I wouldn't buy a Bearfoot pedal because I really dislike the wobbly text on it.

[retinal orbita]

I definitely want things to look a certain way, but it also has to function properly. Like I am “a large person” and started playing a six string bass because I loved the feel of that giant neck. And I love the aesthetic of those ugly natural wood basses. It’s basically the only thing I am drawn to. And I sort of think about another bass but I would just be buying another 6. It gets some weird looks/assumptions when trying out for bands. “Oh..... that’s EXTREME dude!!!” .

Amps - I love old Peavey bass heads, crusty beat up looking cabs. I basically started buying empty cab shells and repopulating them. One of my 15” cabs I stripped the carpet off, painted it black and added my own grill cover. It looks like shit and I love it. The other one was a 410 + a 15 that didn’t work and I wired up 410s and a 15 with separate inputs that I cannibalized from other stuff I had.

Pedals - I am drawn to the old Boss/DOD aesthetic - I think a well worn Boss pedal is about the sharpest looking thing out there. I also think some “ugly pedals, are really cool like the Line 6 FM4 or the DL4 but I think those other compact pedals they make are hideous like the Verbzilla. I really love looking at effects but some like those pointy Visual Sound ones are so ugly I wouldn’t use one even if it met every need out there. And some like the Fairfield I like the aesthetic so much I like.... want to use them!

I watch rig rundown A LOT on YouTube. I don’t “hate” stuff even if it doesn’t meet my particular aesthetic but I also know instantly if I would or would not use a certain piece of gear. Basically I really appreciate when gear/setups aren’t “perfect” but I also think well organized setups are the bees knees. Like I’ve jammed with people and it takes them two hours to unwind the 14 adapters for the pedals they brought over in a backpack. My stuff looks janky but I know my signal chain is on point.

[coldbrightsunlight]

Those ugly wood basses are like, one of the things I truly couldn't play even if I loved everything else about them.

So yeah, it matters to me a bit. Pedals it's less of a bother because you don't have to look at them so much. But most of my pedals look nice I guess now I think about it so maybe I subconsciously care about that a lot. I definitely have one pedal that I got because of the cool finish, and it's a great pedal I like a lot so it worked out.

But while I suppose I have aesthetic standards for gear that set a "minimum bar" of non-ugliness... I don't think that bar is massively high (nor is it a single cohesive style) and I won't normally pay much more money for something that looks AMAZING vs something that looks OK and does the job right. On the flipside of that something that looks really great can occasionally be inspiring over and above the functional value.

/rambling