Stuck in a revolving door of gear? Go on Reverb  - buy guitar, play the same ol stuff, sell guitar repeat?

I was trapped. I was searching for rut busting new gear and instead of getting inspired I spent (and lost) a lot of money trying new guitars. Rosewood. Mahogany. Different rosewood. Small body. Larger body. Lower output pickups, higher output pickups. Magnets. All bought and sold because I kept playing the same stuff. Why wasn’t it working? Then I saw Michael Daves play with Chris Thile. Mr. Daves beat the ever loving heck out of an old Harmony guitar that looked like it maybe cost $300.  But I was audibly intrigued the whole set. T

Then I saw Kelly Joe Phelps play a brass bodied resonator guitar for the first time. Same deal. It was completely captivating. These were the rut busting sounds I was looking for. What was the similarity between an old Harmony and a modern metal bodied guitar?

“Inspiration” isn’t a random musical entity that decides to descend upon the chosen few in fewer moments that we would like.  Inspiration can be built.  Musical inspiration is a situation that creates unique musical choices.  Unique musical choices. That’s it. 

So what did hearing Michael Daves and Kelly Joe teach me?  Swing it wide!  If your guitars are too similar your brain will miss opportunities for new musical choices.  You’ve got to have a little discomfort with your inspiration.   A rut is “comfortable”. We know what we are doing and we know what to expect and that feels comfortable.  But if we are looking to get our brain to make different musical choices it’s going to feel a little uncomfortable.   Like mixing a record our ears can get used to what we are hearing and start missing musical opportunities. 

And that’s the value of having an instrument like a resonator.  It may not be your every song guitar but it wakes up your ear like nothing else. And after getting a little more comfortable with it and going back to your dreadnought or tele with a few new tricks now that guitar offers so new musical choices and becomes more inspirational.

Instead of a revolving door of similar gear you’ve got a revolving door of inspiration.  That’s built-in inspiration. That’s a beautiful thing.

Matt