5 Tips on How to Buy the Right Gear 

The 5th one is really important and not discussed enough.

All great tips, Aaron! The only thing I might refute a little is that it's so easy to resell gear nowadays that it's difficult to make a "wrong" choice. It's also why buying on sale (or used) is the way to go. Sure you might lose a little money on a pedal but I consider it a rental cost.

I live 30 minutes from Sweetwater Music. I always spend time researching gear before I impulse buy. I play contemporary worship music at church. The Boss GX100 has been the best piece of gear I have ever purchased. $600 new, and it sounds great. I bought a QC, and ended up returning it. The Boss units amp models sounds just as good but with less amp options. I have the Eventide H90 also. It does everything else I could ever need. As well as free up some dsp on the GX100. Stay blessed.

Research, bookmark, wait, cool down, set a budget, revisit research, and record your monthly spend. Accountability is everything. With clear data you might choose to spend more this month, and pull back the next 3 months. Keeping a conscious relationship between means and priorities has had an impact on how I view and revisit my research on the 2nd or 3rd pass. Do the qualities I first liked still stand up to scrutiny? Given my budget? Given my spend? Only by holding all of the metrics in relation to each other have I made sustainable decisions, and found peace with my choice to not buy the thing. Yet.

Brilliant assessment!. . .you and i are on the same page. I can’t handle menu driven FX boxes and is the main reason i will never have anything like the 2 new Meris pedals. I can’t stand tweaking, it pulls me down too many rabbit holes and in the end hardly any music comes out of it. I’ve been leery of the TimeLine for the same reason. I can only handle one level of tweakness as it were LOL. .which is why i’s sticking with my first generation of Meris: Mercury 7/Polymoon & Hedra. The deepest machine i have is the Microcosm which I’ve had for two years and i never ever fails to inspire and make my ears smile. So far my only possible mistake has been the Volante but I’m still working on it. btw . . for gonzo fun try a Vongon Polyphrase. Honorable mention for.scrambling your brains goes to my Boomerang III. Unintuitive to say the least. I’d go for a TC Ditto 4 but i’m skeptical of the build quality. Great video Aaron! Thank you very much.

Never thought about it before but I would agree 100% on the elCapistan. As always great vid.

Very good video Aaron 👍👍 👏👏 I loved it so much to listen to you. 🙌 It reminds me parts of my own journey with gear. I'm not really a guitar player, never really learned it, started too late in my life. About tip 4 I had a similar experience. I sold many pedals to get an Axe Fx II XL+ and was so excited about the sound and all the features. But soon I got annoyed by having to program everything on the screen/computer and sold it again. I finally realized, that I am a pedal player who loves to turn and twist the knobs real time. This is just for my personal preference of making ambient noise at home. About tip 5: if you get a 5K heavy relic Fender master built guitar you don't have to worry about any scratches. 😂🤣

I am writing and producing for our band and buying gear is something I really need advice for. This video certantly helped and there is also some things I came across as well and maybe it helps someone else out: - I figured out that for me, if cheaper gear is good enough for the level we're at, it should be good enough to buy it. We can always sell it and buy better when we'll have a bigger budget. However, I am currently selling a MIDI keyboard, because I didn't figure it out and am now on a lookout for a hardware synthesizer. Also, if a cheap analog delay works for me, I try not to stress about more expensive analog delay units, since I can't afford it and can always borrow it for the studio. I do think it doesn't matter that much for a live performance. - They say buy nice or buy twice and that can be true, however. There is too much ov everything in my opinion, so I am trying to buy as much used gear as possible and am turning my head towards B-stock gear as well. - We have a band with a good number of members and I always have to think about the context. Like you pointed out in the 5th tip, somethings get lost in the live mix. I still haven't figured out this one yet though. Also, I really love JHS RU-vid channel as they always show us more affordable gear and are trying to beatdown the "expensive is better" concept. That being said, maybe you can help me out! I would like to get my hands on a micro looper device for the "Warren Ellis" inspired loops. I am comparing Red Panda's Tensor, Chase Biss' Mood MKII and Montreal Assembly's Count to 5. I know they are different devices in the different price ranges as well but I can't figure out which one I should go with. I cannot test them and I don't have the budget to afford them all.

Good tips!

I feel like expensive reverbs are def better. Not always.. But the cheap ones always seem to suck.

Hello Aaron I'm not sure if you are the same person, BUT I ended up getting a hold of a CD here the band's name was HERE WE BURN and the album's name is FALL released in 1995 and it says that Aaron Rush isthe guitarist is this you? if so what happened to the band?

I'd add one more tip: do you really need it? Because quite often we're drawn to to gear because of slick advertising and YT demos and reviews.