Squier Mustang: How I learned to stop being a gear snob

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GUITAR INFO
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[peterrebhahn]

This video is ostensibly about guitar gear, but it is actually about personal growth. Nothing is ever enough until you are.

[worksbydandeprez]

A friend of mine who's been a working pro for decades once told me, "The best guitar in the world is the one you can't wait to pick up and play. No brand name or aftermarket upgrades can beat that."

[garageman_]

What i learned from videos like this is to NEVER sell your first starting instrument, you will almost always end up regretting it.

[custerranch]

After playing acoustic guitar since '89, even professionally for over a decade, I had wanted an electric but I'm too cheap to get myself one. But back during quarantine, my teenager totally surprised me for my birthday by presenting me with a classic butterscotch Tele Squier with maple neck and black pickguard (and a cosmetic ding in the finish that I actually love because it's one of a kind). He had gone to the music store by himself and bought it to surprise me. And boy, did he! I cried. I'm getting teary just typing this. Even sweeter, it's the exact guitar I had been planning to buy for his birthday. I've learned a ton by working on it to improve the playability, lower the action, smooth the fret ends, dialing in the intonation, etc. And had a blast performing with it. Is it a "real" Fender? Doesn't matter. My BOY gave it to me. I will never sell it!

[randomchannel]

I'm going to be honest, I love the look of the punk guitar and it looks awesome. I know that this will be buried in the comments, but if I were to see it listed anywhere, I'll attempt to buy it and send it back to you

[koketsok]

not gonna lie the painters taped version kind of had big indie DIY aesthetics that really made it its own thing. I like whenever I see an owned object with these defects/adjustment imperfections as, it gives it character and a story.I love it when an object is miss painted, or fixed as they always come with the best stories as only people who love it would bother trying to save/modify it.

Edit:
thanks to everyone in the comments for the reply especially the ones telling their on stories of misadventures with their own stuff, this is what I am talking about repaired/altered stuff always have interesting stories, having a working object come out of the box fully formed is cool, but my heart urns for the stories of a broken cup from your childhood repaired with melted gold etc.reminds me of the time I tried to repaint my art portfolio case in yellow, but did not know how to properly layer the coat and it came of looking ugly, still my main case for holding my art/project stuff, looks ugly af, but alteast I know it wont get stolen.

[avalost]

It's incredible how every video he does is incredibly well built together and with extremely high quality

[dabanjo]

My first guitar I got when I was 12 was a white 80's Vista electric. It has a small body, one pickup, cheap construction, etc. I had a Gorilla amp. My dad showed me how to play a few notes, but he didn't know how to tune it. A family friend tuned it for me, and showed me a few chords. My dad said that this guitar was "just a starter guitar, Eddie Van Halen (my idol) probably wouldn't play it, but if you practice, I'll get you a better one some day." So I started guitar lessons a few weeks later, joined a band with my friends. I was in one of my first lessons, when I asked my teacher about what my dad said. "Is my guitar good? Could Eddie Van Halen play this guitar?" My teacher said "It's a guitar, as long as it stays in tune, sounds good, and it's easy to play, they are all the same. Eddie could easily play it, better than both of us." Then he took it from me, cranked his amp, and just shred the shit out of it. I sat there with my jaw dropped, goosebumps all over my body.

Sometimes when I think about buying a new guitar, or needing a new piece of gear, I think back to my first guitar teacher. As long as it play well, sounds good, and stays in tune, it's a good guitar.

[southeastarmory]

Some of the most iconic pieces of guitar music were originally recorded on guitars and gear that would be in the league of "budget" guitars and gear today. Especially Kurt Cobain's original gear. Technology closed the gap years ago...Major retailers would rather most people not know that.

[Matthiason-]

"All the people in your work life, somehow they just got no clue" - that's a great chorus you wrote. You should make that into a full song if you haven't already.

[LDN_MZK]

I am a proud Squier Player. I am not afraid to modify the whole instrument as they don't cost that much to begin with, then you have the guitar exactly how you want it.

[absenteechild]

I had a similar experience when I started playing. I came from jazz, mostly playing saxophone and other woodwinds. I decided to get into bass, as it was the only jazz instrument I didn't know how to play and my mom had found a "shitty" bass at the thrift store. She bought a lot of instruments there, to this day she has about 50 instruments at her place. For her it was more about the joy of playing music than the actual quality, something for the kids to try out to see if they want to do more with it. I got the thing, and while I appreciated it it looked scuffed. It had random stickers all over it, some lyrics from psychosocial on the back, some transformers stickers, and the remnants of a super model sticker that the thrift store employee or my mom had tried to scrape off. And worst of all? I thought it was a Squier knock off. I thought it was supposed to be Squire, like the actual word. Anyways, when I first got it I wasn't too jazzed.

Flash forward a few months, I decide to actually give it a shot. I had a rough breakup, my grandpa died, and I just needed something to do that wasn't league of legends or smoking weed. I looked up how to properly remove the stickers without ruining the finish, I replaced the strings (looking back they prolly hadn't been replaced in 3 or more years), I treated the fretboard, I put on new tuners, I put on a new pickguard (the old one wasn't set properly after a repair so it was warped). Turns out, it was a really solid bass. Once I got it to a playable state, it sounded amazing. It sounded better than all the fancy ones at the Guitar Center. Then I noticed something weird. It sounded better than the Fender P basses. At the time I figured I was just biased because of all the blood sweat and tears I put into it. I even took it to some gigs, and got really really into bass. I even ended up selling my Saxophone, my pride and joy, to get a nice amp and some recording gear.

Flash forward 5 years. I moved across the country and was going to school, didn't have all my tools with me, and one of the soldering connections goes out. I take it to the jazz professor, as we're pretty cool and he's a godlike luthier. He never actually saw my bass up close and personal as I wasn't a music major, I just showed up to jam sessions and whatnot. He flipped out. Apparently, this shitty abused bass my mom got me was an honest to god MIJ P-bass. It's not the fanciest MIJ, but between the sheer quality and the personal connection I have to it I don't think I'd trade it for anything. I will gig on this thing until one of us literally crumbles to dust. And even past how fun it is to play, I genuinely think it changed my life for the better.

[picassotrigger]

My wake-up moment out of snobbery was after watching an interview with Josh Homme (I think it was GuitarMoves). He comes across as pretty apathetic towards gear -- progressing his art, and helping him create weird and unique sounds is more important than brand or quality. It made me realize that I should not care either, and if a certain piece of gear helps me create my sound, then it is a great piece of gear.

[Molotov_Milkshake]

How I learned to stop being a gear snob: being poor.

[transfiguration]

This vid randomly came up in my feed and I decided to click on it. I was bizarrely hooked throughout the entire vid. The way it was shot, the pace, your voiceover, everything was perfect. This may be one of the best YT vids I’ve ever seen. I’m shocked by how much I loved this vid. I have a feeling I’m going to come back to this for years to come. I’m thoroughly impressed. 👍

[chowder]

When I was in college, I didn't join a single band because I was too insecure for not having the right gear. I only have a cheap strat and 1 distortion pedal. Little that I know, some local musicians in my town played gigs without even owning an instrument. Most of them just borrow instruments from other musicians who are also playing in the same show. And right now, most of them are far better than me and can play along with other musicians well. Leason learned, never ever let you gear be the reason to not play a show or not play with others. Playing a show is far better than playing a scale up and down in your room over and over. Time will come you will own the gears that you wanted when you were younger. Go play what you have, and you will be 1000x better than those who only played their instrument in their room.

[richharris]

I left my first guitar (an Odessa- a 1970s Japanese Les Paul copy) in a basement of an apartment I lived in as a teen. A few years back, I heard the building was being razed so I went back and (luckily) got it. It played as badly as I remembered. I thought about upgrading it, but there is something so comforting about playing it like I did as a teen, warts and all - it’s almost like going back in a time machine.

[jtshannon]

If there were awards given for YouTube videos this would be a top contender. By all means finish that song, it is great. Your skill as a film maker are top notch. This is story telling at its finest.

[NoBandwidthHere]

David, your videos are a breath of fresh air in todays ‘stay indoors’ climate. Thank you for sharing your kindness and love. Keep discovering!

[blairblainethepsychicmiscr]

Your videos are always such a treat. I love your narration and story telling abilities, you add such a wonderful humanity to the shared exploration of gear and unique tones.