Flavor change

[The_Active_Conundrum]

I don't know if I'm growing up or getting boring, or just unsatisfied with my investments but I'm about to be able to play guitar again after a fret-hand injury. And I have fuzz pedals and stuff....but not really anything timeless or classic, jus stuff that I bought to make Guitar sound bad. And it is a success, I sound worse than ever but its not fun or inspiring, just bad.

has anyone else had such a severe change in preference? What do you do? Sell/trade your way out of it? Try to find reason behind choices you made? how do you cope when pedals you've been buying don't match anytthing you want to hear coming out of your amp?

[antennafarm]

why not post some clips of you playing, and then find some contrasting youtube videos? then the good folks here can weigh in.

personally, i think it's a matter of buying what you need... start from zero (guitar into amp), and see if anything that you have works towards what you want. if it doesn't, what's the point in keeping it? the beauty of a forum like this is that you can possibly find someone to trade for something that might work (after getting that advice!), or at least sell it for a mutually beneficial price that doesn't bleed dollars to ebay.

maybe the difference in sound isn't a matter of the pedals, it's a matter of technique?

also, where are you in NC?

[rfurtkamp]

If you're playing again after an injury or enforced time off, don't sell a thing.

Don't change a thing if you can help it - you can use less of what you have.

Just play.

Rediscover what it is that makes you happy, and go in that direction.

After an injury you're not going to sound great. Things change and take time to come back, and sometimes come back in different ways.

I could barely walk, let alone play, after getting out of the hospital.

Didn't let it stop me, I made myself do it as often as I could that was safe, kept what I had, and reconnected the instrument to the muse who never left.

[Pepe]

Now that's a good advice from someone with first hand experience.

I work in a small music shop since 2000 (part time only since my kids are there) and I have met a few customers who were kicking their butt for having sold their stuff during such a period in their life, be it injury, illness, partnership-related, work-related or simply loss of interest in making music. Some of those who are about to get rid of their gear ask me what to do. I recommend them to keep calm and to store the stuff safely away for a while. In many cases the life situation changes after a few months or years. May it be stressful and tense now - you don't know where you will be standing in a few years. "Who knows what tomorrow may bring"!

[Ben79]

Having to learn to do things differently encourages creativity. I think whatever wants to come out of you will find its way if you experiment enough. Alter some variables.

[Gone Fission]

I started enjoying my playing when I stopped trying to sound "good" in a conventional sense, or at least a sense that I had built up in my own head. Figure out what you sound like, and then figure out how to deploy that musically. Forget "I don't like how I sound"--listen for what you sound like and what/who else sounds like that and mine that for inspiration. Open mind--listen to new players, non-guitar instruments, genres, eras, parts of the world. And think about maybe being a different player than before, maybe changing string and setup preferences, pick type (or go fingerstyle), tuning, or maybe specialize in what's an occasional color for most, like Nashville tuning, slide, or lap-steel. That list spins a bit out, but basics can be powerful, like for me discovering that lighter strings aren't worse sounding but different sounding with a slippery feel that let me play differently. Get a bit out of your zone and see if you were shutting yourself out of another good zone.

Oh, and hold onto your stuff at least until you've figured out who you are and if it has a place. A lot of fuzz and dirt does interesting stuff at lower gains and you may find your new sound hidden there. Work the knobs on everything with your ears, not your eyes, especially as you're in your rediscovery phase. For me, I used to hate mids on amps and now my mids are generally cranked. Oh, and I hated my Rat until I got over wanting a big, buttery Eric Johnson-ish sound a couple decades ago. Love the thing now, and I'm glad the used market was so soft then that I kept it since I would have ditched it otherwise.

[goroth]

Jrmy is smartest.

Good posts were good.

Edited for increased truth.

[jrmy]

start from zero (guitar into amp), and see if anything that you have works towards what you want.

Figure out what you sound like, and then figure out how to deploy that musically.

Rediscover what it is that makes you happy, and go in that direction.

ILF is smart.

Good post was good.

[frigid midget]

Yeah, my taste in gear changes with my taste in music, wich along the years took a couple of big turns.

Pretty fucked up to find out that I'm back at where I started, but now the gear I used to own has become pricey and/or rare

[rfurtkamp]

Imagine that twenty years out.

I still remember beating off '64 and '65 Mustangs and refinned whatever Fender that you couldn't give away for $100 and white-knob BF Bassman heads selling for < $150.

Of course, everything else was stupidly expensive and your options were Boss or garbage and a 2 second delay was a month's paycheck.

[The_Active_Conundrum]

There's some equipment that's irreplacable...

or it'd be impossible for me to replace.

Those aren't going anywhere.

Mesa Roadking is too much amp to not play out and even if I did, it'd probably have to be on lower wattage. There's about 3 instruments I can't replace. A few pedals. One I got from Mars Music.

I'm slowly replaying every amp, every instrument, every pedal, every pick. Combinations, contortions. Thanks for all the advice. I will not be rash.