How A Simple Gift Reminded Me Why I Love Guitar Gear

Sometimes the sheer volume of gear to review and the deadlines make it hard to really enjoy new gear.

The sad truth about reviewing a lot of gear is that it can sometimes chip away at your enthusiasm for new guitars and pedals. This is definitely more true of pedals than guitars, as they can start to sound and look so repetitive after hundreds of 3 knob overdrives pass through your hands. It’s a very privileged problem to have, I fully understand that. I’m not really complaining, but more making a statement about some of the realities behind the curtains of gear reviewing.

However, a recent birthday gift led to a shift in my thinking about guitar pedals overall. One thing that stops happening when you get into this industry is getting gifted a guitar pedal by those close to you. No more friends or siblings or girlfriend asking if you want one for the holidays or your birthday. So while I am incredibly lucky to get a lot of gear as part of my job, that gear is always attached to a transaction.

I have to film a demo, edit the video, post it, write an article, and then do my best to promote that around the web to get enough clicks to make everyone happy. It’s a good job, but it is still a job. And sometimes I see the boxes stack up and think “how many negative comments is this one going to generate on YouTube” or “how is the Instagram algorithm gonna hide this post from my followers”.

That’s a cynical way to feel about something that started as a hobby, so it is fair to say I’ve been a bit burned out after 5 years of maximum gear reviews.

A Surprise Gift

So when my birthday rolled around and I got a surprise box from my girlfriend, I was shocked to open it up and find the gift of an EQD The Depths pedal. No review attached, no demo needed, no deadline to meet. Even better, it was ocean themed, and a fun, versatile modulation pedal that I had never really experimented with before. Despite a stack of boxes full of pedals to review and demo, all I wanted to play was The Depths pedal. It’s a great pedal, but that didn’t even matter, it was just a breath of fresh air to play a new pedal purely for fun. A gift that I rarely get these days unless I buy one myself, which is a pointless endeavor because I have too many already.

Just noodling around with the pedal and trying it on different songs of mine definitely made me realize it’s time for a change. I’m going to try to do more demos on this website that feature me playing the pedals as part of songs, and not just trying to nail a clip that will look good on Instagram. Afterall, the Instagram algorithm makes it so that having over 2000 followers doesn’t matter, only about 20 of them seem to be seeing my posts at a time…

So with a new direction to take for the second half of 2024, I’m definitely going to focus on hitting fewer deadlines, taking more time with gear, and not rushing content out.