The brand of your instrument does NOT matter

Price of your instrument

Recently today, I found a post on Reddit under r/Guitar (http://www.reddit.com/r/Guitar/comments/1l2d2z/im_sick_of_being_judged_for_the_name_on_my/), and thought I'd share my thoughts on it.

First and foremost, I understand that each musician likes different types of instrument brands, body shapes, wood type and more. For example, my friend Fil loves the look and feel of a Jackson Warrior guitar while I am not terribly fond of it. My drummer friend cannot stand the sight of my Neon Orange Charvette by Charvel, but I personally love it. The type of instrument a musician uses should not categorize them or diminish their value as a musician. Tom Morello from Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave uses guitars he buys from pawnshops in his recordings. If I'm not mistaken, David Grohl from the Foo Fighters uses a cheap version of the Gibson ES-335 for the studio recordings of the Foo Fighters albums, while on tour he uses an actual Gibson DG-335, his signature model.

I understand that more expensive instruments TENDS to mean quality hardware and woods used, but that isn't everything. Companies like Squier and Sterling are increasing the quality of their products, thus making them extremely good instruments for their price range. The Sterling by Music Man S.U.B. Ray4  Bass Guitar sounded stunning when I played it a couple of weeks ago through a small Fender practice amp with the bass and treble knobs turned to neutral on the pedal. The Squire Vintage Modified Jazz Bass also sounded great to the tune of $299.99. I would certainly not be ashamed to walk the stage with those instruments at my disposal, and I don't think anyone else should either.

With all of that being said, it shouldn't matter what other people say about your instrument or the brand you use; it should be whether you like how like it. Do you like the tone you get out of it? Do you like the feel of the neck, the color of the body, the type of pickups in the guitar (or bass)? If so, then who the hell cares whether it's a Squier, Sterling, Fender, or Gibson? In my opinion, the ones who judge what instrument brand you use are the ones that are insecure about their own instrument and playing. Sure you could buy the Alex Lifeson Gibson model for $3000 dollars, and run it through a Marshall JCM 800 whilst using a Boss Distortion medal, a MXR Carbon Copy Delay and a MXR Phase 90 pedal, it doesn't mean you'll sound good. It just means you money to blow. It doesn't show that you have any real talent, other than picking out decent musical gear. You can spend ten thousand dollars on musical gear, but it doesn't mean you know how to play the instrument.

What should REALLY matter is if you can play the instrument to its fullest . Can you play your band's full setlist in one take without making any mistakes? Can you play a variation of it if your guitar string (or bass string) breaks on stage? Do you know what key to solo in if you are improvising? That's the stuff that truly matters, your musical prowess and technical ability. And most importantly, are you having fun playing your instrument. If so, then don't worry about what anyone else says, they don't know you, your instrument, or your musical tastes as well as you do. Play whatever brand of instrument you want to play, because at the end of the day, you make the final call on whether you like it or not, not anyone else.