Good vs Bad Music Equipment: Can the Audience Tell the Difference?

The audience won’t notice the difference…

This phrase often comes up in discussions about purchasing music equipment.  Maybe you are like me, staying up too late on my phone questing for a new guitar, amplifier, or the next pedal to finalize my sound.  I spend far too much time thinking and researching all sorts of music equipment.  I am always on the hunt for something better.  I’m looking for something that’s got the thing I could be missing.  Should I stop?  Do I need professional help?  Is this a problem?

Will the Audience Recognize Good vs Bad Music Equipment?

You might ask: Will the audience even notice the difference?

This is a great question.  Will the audience really know the difference between expensive and inexpensive gear?  Is this a waste of time?  Do they care?  Can the audience even notice?  

Well, most people certainly do not consciously care about details like the type or quality of music equipment.  I don’t think any casual barfly will give a rip about the nuanced differences between two tube screamers.  I will go out on a limb to say they won’t walk away in disgust upon learning your amplifier isn’t actually hand-wired.  Why did John leave so quickly?  Was it all the buffered pedals in my chain?  Was it my third-generation noiseless pickups?  It was my post-LM308 Rat, wasn’t it?  If I only had bought that earlier version.  Now I must slowly walk away from the stage in shame.

Listeners Notice More Than We Assume

I would like to suggest that audiences actually do notice more than we might assume on the surface, but this is in very indirect ways.  This question of whether they are conscious about it is a fascinating one.  A lot of what happens in social life is unanalyzed; I’d say even unconscious.  People won’t notice any of these details previously mentioned, but they are incredibly sensitive to the artist and even more, the performance.  

Joe Satriani recently discussed this very point in an interview about guitar tone.  People are always sensitive to the energy of the performance, and instruments and associated musical gear contribute in important ways to the complex relationship found in music.  Musical gear is never in isolation.  We use these things in connection with others.  Instruments, amps, all these things, cannot be contained to some kind of closed, linear relationship.  Most of our tone (I’m mainly talking to guitarists here, but the principle works for other instruments as well) is in our hands, but this isn’t to say that the equipment is somehow irrelevant.  

Ultimately the audience will notice and respond to the energy of a performance.  Most people won’t notice or care about our vintage guitar, but they will immediately feel our inspiration when that excitement melts into the sound.  This intuitive process is quick, too.  I’ve noticed that it takes little to no time to perceive a musician’s mood.  Audiences know how we feel, perhaps even more clearly than we can even perceive ourselves.  Everything on stage is amplified.  It’s not only the instruments.  Everything—good and bad—becomes exaggerated in that environment.  

The Prized Vintage Amp vs The Trusty Backup

As an example, my prized, vintage amp went down the other day right before a gig.  I had to take my backup amp to the show, and as you would imagine, everything went well.  We played the show, and even my bandmates thought everything sounded fine. 

On paper, the backup amplifier is a better choice in many ways.  It’s much newer than my main amp.  It’s incredibly reliable.  It will never require expensive tubes, and it is most certainly much lighter and easier to haul around.  It doesn’t have that old smell of cigarettes and ozone.  It probably won’t shock or burn me if I get too curious, and I have to assume the innards are 100% lead-free.  I can even rest my drink on the thing without much worry.  I don’t imagine someone would steal it, but if they did, I could readily replace it with a newer model.  No big deal.  Like I said, the gig went fine.  Nobody seemed to care or notice, outside the one pedal hound that was sniffing my board.  Even he didn’t care about my perfectly practical amplifier.  

However, I certainly noticed the difference.  I wasn’t my usual self.  The spark was not there.  That spark must be buried somewhere under the layers of bar and nicotine patina covering this old amp, because the gig with the backup amp was just fine, and fine isn’t exactly inspiring.  Using the newer amplifier is the logical choice, but music isn’t always a rational endeavor.  Playing the thing, I couldn’t help but notice how little I was surprised. 

To put it in contrast, one thing I love about old amplifiers is the unpredictable nature of the sound.  I love that feeling when the tubes are hot and the amp catches a particular note.  The cab will resonate just right with the stage floor, and the harmonics seem to leap from the fingerboard.  It’s an electric—no pun intended—and nearly indescribable experience. 

The entire time my old amp was in the shop all I could do was play the backup and think about how vanilla I was sounding.  Nothing to complain about, but it wasn’t what I would call inspiring.  Try as I may, I could not stop thinking about my old amplifier.  It was hanging around my thoughts, clouding every tone and note on the stage.  Its magic was haunting me.  I felt disconnected.   

Inferior Equipment Distracts While Quality Gear Disappears

The best technology disappears.  This happens to the people in the audience, but maybe more importantly, it happens to the performer.  Inferior equipment always seems to complicate the process.  It becomes a distraction from the goal of making music.  It disconnects us from the moment and from each other. 

The best instruments become extensions of the self and the group.  They inspire us to play and make music.  Great music equipment connects us to each other, and it inspires us to really play.  Instruments go beyond simple tools; they serve as conduits between art, artists, and the community.  Money and resources will remain a limit for most of us, but given the sacrifices we make, the musical result can be substantive when we feel that magic. 

So yeah, the audience will actually notice.  Go ahead and shop. Get the thing you want.  I give you permission, just as long as you enjoy and use it.