Finding Inspiration In A Challenging Online Gear World … And Some Ways to Help Keep Things Positive

The online gear world can be a tough place to hang. Heck, the online world in general can be a tough place to hang. Many of us have probably been on the receiving end of accusation and vitriol, and some of us have probably stepped in it with an ill-advised comment or thought at some point or another.

Two well-known guitar gear gurus recently got themselves into a jam with social media posts that had nothing to do at all with gear. One, a renowned custom guitar builder, lost his gig at a very well-known brand while the other, the owner of a pedal manufacturing company, experienced a swift backlash from regular joes and rock stars alike. We here at TheToneKing.com aren’t going to get into the details; you’ve probably heard the stories already. All we’re trying to do here is illustrate how important it can be to watch what you say and post online no matter what community you happen to run in.

All that said, we here at TheToneKing.com also think there are a lot of great reasons to jump into the online gear community head-first. Your humble writer was thinking just the other day about much different his early guitar-playing years would’ve been had things like YouTube, social media, and electricity had been around when he first popped open that Mel Bay guitar instruction book (OK, maybe I’m exaggerating a little bit on the “electricity” part).

As of this writing, TheToneKing.com has published just under 2,500 videos. We’ve got everything from live chats, to gear reviews, to interviews with the folks in the gear industry making things happen. Just doing some very, very loose math (that’s probably extremely conservative), this writer estimated it would take someone at least 26 days to watch everything on TheToneKing.com Youtube channel if you watched everything back-to-back, 24 hours a day. Start to factor in some of our favorite YouTubers like Phillip McKnight, Steve From Boston, Robert Baker, and many, many others and there are several metric tons of great gear content out there to fit any mood you might be in or any question you might have.

One thing in particular this writer has had a particular good time doing in these challenging days is online collaboration. This is something that has intimidated me greatly in the past; I could get around digital audio workstations and interfaces and those types of things good enough for home demos and that sort of thing, but actually importing other tracks, sharing finished tracks, engineering great sounds, and getting acquainted with deeper levels of editing and tone shaping in a “virtual studio” were areas I was just not comfortable moving around in. With the help of three other good friends (whom I happen to be in a band in), I was able to dive into these areas with purpose. While I’d much rather be playing in the same room with my bandmates, I was able to bend a difficult situation into a learning experience. Virtual collaboration has gone from something I got nervous to something I absolutely love now.

I can hear y’all snickering behind my back about getting excited that I can do something that really is very simple for lots of folks. But hey, that’s been one of the bright spots of the last few months for me. It also enabled me to approach the YouTube guitar community with a fresh perspective. One recent video on TheToneKing.com about the Yamaha TransAcoustic (video below) fueled new inspiration about what an acoustic guitar is capable of, and definitely has me thinking about new acoustic angles and elements I can add to my own tunes, and the video about the Eventide Rose (video below) has me thinking about ventures into new musical pastures entirely.

So even though the negative stuff sometimes grabs all the attention, it’s important to not forget that positivity is still reigning supreme in the online world and there’s plenty of it out there for everyone. Plus, you probably have some great advice or ideas to share that may make all the difference for someone.

What new paths have you been inspired to take lately? Let us know in the comments!

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