I mentioned this in an earlier article, but a huge influence of rock and metal on me was how these genres made me a fan of guitar oriented music in general. At age 14, I first wanted to learn how to play bass. Until that point, music was something that I just enjoyed listening to – I’d never really considered playing it! But I was now hanging out with some friends in high school who played guitar and they all needed a bass player. I thought that would get me in bands!
But after a while, I realized my interest was in another instrument. I love bass and I appreciate how much it adds to all sorts of genres – but I was getting into Megadeth and Dave Mustaine was a huge influence on me. I wanted to play guitar like he did. Plus, I was already familiar with how instrumental Brian May’s guitar sound was to Queen, or how Brad Whitford and Joe Perry worked together in Aerosmith to create those layers of melody. So, I switched to electric guitars and I never looked back since.
My relationship with guitars have been on and off. I took lessons from 2001 to maybe 2004 and I was getting better and better but I wasn’t training to become a musician. I graduated from college, majoring in Business Administration, in 2007 and started working as a management consultant. In case you’re not familiar with the industry, it’s extremely demanding. So, guitar took a back burner. In hindsight, I could have made time for guitar, even if it was just 15-20 minutes a day, but I used how exhausted I felt at the end of each day as an excuse to not touch the guitar. I regret it a little because you forget a lot of but at the same time, that’s what I needed to do at that time. I needed to improve in my regular job to earn a living and build a future.
Then I moved to Boston (I’m originally from Istanbul) in 2010 to attend graduate school to earn my MBA. While doing that, I re-discovered guitar and bought my first guitar in the US from Guitar Center in Boston. It was a Jackson DK2S and it felt amazing! I still have that guitar and it’s an absolute workhorse – it’s still the guitar I play the most. But I was in business school, and upon graduation worked at a couple of equally demanding jobs. There still wasn’t a lot of time for guitar.
Over the years, I didn’t have a lot of time to play but I still maintained some guitar time any chance I got. I was getting a little bit discouraged by all the YouTube videos and seeing how people half my age played so much better than I did – but I’ve changed my mind and I see things differently now. I focus on my music, my sound and how I can improve myself from day to day without comparing myself to anyone. It’s liberated me, it’s reinvigorated my love for the guitar, and I feel getting better and better every day. I also have an amazing new guitar teacher who’s shown me a lot about music theory, songwriting, and home recording. It has been an encouraging journey and I am not going to abandon the guitar ever again!
With that said, here we are! I created a new category on my site called “Gear Talk” because as a guitar player, I know we all love gear. I am also a member of plenty of gear related groups on social media and I know that people are always trying their best to make the best decision with their hard-earned money when it comes to guitars, amplifiers, amp modelers, monitors, pedals etc. So, now we have another platform on here to do exactly that!
Under “Gear Talk”, I will publish articles about gear I own, how exactly I use them, new things I am excited about, and news from the industry. I am in no way claiming that I know everything about gear – but the cool thing is no one actually does! There’s just so much out there for one person to know all! Furthermore, music is highly subjective! A certain piece of gear that works well for me may not work for you. Therefore, my goal simply is to tell you about what equipment I have and how I use them in the hopes that it can give you a new idea. And through comments on the site, we can all contribute to each other’s knowledge.
I have 4 electric guitars (for now, of course!), two amp modelers, a practice amp and lots of other pieces of gear. I can’t wait to share info about all of them and hopefully we will all share “New Gear Day” posts with each other. That’s what Gear Talk is all about.
