cost in $$$$$$s

Ernest Cawby · Post by **Ernest Cawby** » 9 May 2008 4:34 am

Have you ever give it a thought how much money you are playing thru to get your sound.

When Jack sets up to play he has more than $10,000
in his rig.
A zum with 8x!0 cost ?, Sidecar pack seat? BJS bars?
Walker stereo, with Revalation, tuner Plus $200.00, Volume pedal $349.00, hours of practice .
How much did it cost you to get where you are. It is stagering how much time and money we have put into what we do. I LOVE IT HOW ABOUT YOU ??????????????

ernie

Roger Francis · Post by **Roger Francis** » 9 May 2008 5:36 am

On stage equipment= aprox 6500.00 With sd10 Rains.

Eric Philippsen · Post by **Eric Philippsen** » 9 May 2008 6:15 am

I don't even want to start calculating.

Dick Wood · Post by **Dick Wood** » 9 May 2008 7:39 am

Pretty close to $5500.00

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 9 May 2008 11:58 am

With my whole setup (steel, keyboards, etc..) I would estimate about $7000+.

Edit:

After using a calculator, and only my major stuff (no picks, bar, cords, keyboard pedals, stands), It comes to more than $10,675. No wonder I'm bankrupt.

Steel $3700
NV 400 $400 (can't remember what I paid for it new in '83)
Goodrich LDR2 vol pedal $250
Damage Control Liquid Blues $200
Bo-Bro $250
VSAM Tuner $225 (?)
Korg Triton LE 88 $1800
Korg Kontrol 49 Keyboard Controller $400
Yamaha Motif rack synth $1000
Roland Fantom rack synth $1400
Roland Vk8m Organ sound module $900
Roland KC550C Keybaord amp #600

This doesn't include misc other amps, my Tut Taylor resonator (don't use on stage), another keybord controller

Andy Sandoval · Post by **Andy Sandoval** » 9 May 2008 12:06 pm

Can we delete this thread before my wife reads it?

Fred Thompson · Post by **Fred Thompson** » 9 May 2008 12:22 pm

Well, my wife knows we bought the Mullen, seat and stereo set-up, but I told her that Dana Flood gave me the Emmons and Steel King cause he liked me $:\$
If she finds out the truth, it's 57 years of marriage down the tube

ERNIE! It's all your fault for starting this!! I should have listened when the guys in the club said you were a TROUBLE-MAKER

Fred

Michael Pierce · Post by **Michael Pierce** » 9 May 2008 1:15 pm

If you include the money I've lost buying and selling stuff here on the Forum (following my patented "buy high, sell low" formula), it approaches the GDP of Uruguay!

Daniel Davis · Post by **Daniel Davis** » 9 May 2008 1:36 pm

I've always been a very frugal musician. I've learned to get the most out of crappy equipment.

My first analog synth, an Arp Odyssey, I got for only $50. I got by using a $100 Casio keyboard for years - even recorded whole songs with it. I still use the Casio I got for Christmas when I was in fourth grade, 23 years ago!

I used a $100 4-track and a 4-track battery-powered Radioshack mixer for almost a decade.

I'm still using the same Hartke bass amp I bought about 15 years ago - think I paid $250 for it. I cannibalized the speaker from a friend's broken Fender combo bass amp. I hacked off the head, sealed it up, and glued the ripped speaker.

To this day I still haven't played through a better sounding rig.

I've got an old busted up Fender P-Bass that just sounds magical through this set up. People are always amazed at the sound I get out of this crappy-looking gear.

I once had an studio engineer laugh at me and then apologize later. It was awesome.

My guitar that I've used for the last 15 years I got for a free - it's a crappy Aria Pro Stray Cat 2. It's covered with stickers, reflector tape, both knobs are missing, the back cover is missing, and I have little scraps of paper under the strings on the nut to stop them from buzzing. I've recorded 14 albums with it!

I did recently buy an Alesis QS6.2, and a nice Line 6 guitar amp. And I do have a couple of cool drum machines, a Dr. Groove and an Alesis.

The pedal steel I'm buying, for a grand, will be the most expensive instrument I've ever purchased. It alone costs almost as much as almost everything I use in my recording set up!

I buy $10 keyboards from the Salvation Army and Goodwill and use those as well. One of them I play by removing the back cover, licking my finger, and touching the circuit board. You can make all kinds of cool noises like this.

I love my little family of freak instruments.

Ben Jones · Post by **Ben Jones** » 9 May 2008 2:52 pm

geetar-$900
seat-$10
bar-$50
volume pedal- $160 grrrr

cab-$200
amp-$100
tuner-$100
fuzz-$80
delay-$80

grand total-$1680

only thing i wanna upgrade is the amp head, looking for a cheap lightweight used tube head.
oh and I need a gig bag...thats right, I said gig bag.

this is way more than my guitar rig cost and it is far nicer but not nearly as enjoyable to play.

now when will I make all this money back?

Daniel Davis · Post by **Daniel Davis** » 9 May 2008 3:07 pm

Ben Jones wrote: only thing i wanna upgrade is the amp head, looking for a cheap lightweight used tube head.
oh and I need a gig bag...thats right, I said gig bag.

I still use the gig bag I got for my bass when I bought it, a very long time ago.

What kind of amp are you using now?

Ben Jones · Post by **Ben Jones** » 9 May 2008 3:21 pm

Daniel Davis wrote:
Ben Jones wrote: only thing i wanna upgrade is the amp head, looking for a cheap lightweight used tube head.
oh and I need a gig bag...thats right, I said gig bag.
I still use the gig bag I got for my bass when I bought it, a very long time ago.

What kind of amp are you using now?

trying to find a gig bag that will hold my psg cause my back is busted and my case is very heavy. guitar gig bags wont cut it.
amp is a crate powerblock. no tone. I have much nicer guitar amps but they 're all too heavy ...I use em at home. amp i play thru most is an old musicman

Im a bit like you daniel in that Ive always gotten by on cheap gear and done very well with it. No way Im paying $200 plus for a seat for example.

James Morehead · Post by **James Morehead** » 9 May 2008 3:30 pm

Ben, Try a keyboard gig bag. A little alteration and you might have it working for your steel geetar.

Ben Jones · Post by **Ben Jones** » 9 May 2008 3:34 pm

Thanks James. Check out my thread in "steel players" called "gig bag for psg (again)". i dont wanna derail this thread with my quest for a gig bag, but the keyboard gig bag didnt work out for me.

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 9 May 2008 3:48 pm

In my case, it probably adds up to about $5k. More than most guitar players, I think. I've made more than that on gigs over the years, though. The hobby has paid for itself.

James Morehead · Post by **James Morehead** » 9 May 2008 4:03 pm

Yeah Ben, your right on. I emailed ya.

Now equipment cost:

Awe, I start adding up geetars, several amps, PA system, bass rig, band trailer, sorry Ernie, I can't count that High---to depressing!!

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 9 May 2008 4:13 pm

How much did it cost you to get where you are.

Let's just say that I've earned a heck of a lot more with my instruments than I ever had to spend on them!

What you think you need, and what you actually need, are often two vastly different things.

Antolina · Post by **Antolina** » 9 May 2008 4:39 pm

Lemee see now. One 6139 sho~bud plus the lever upgrade, one '68 Barrels and Baskets in the refurb stage, one Marrs formerly owned by Ron Elliot, one NV 112 and all the stuff that makes it work.

OMG, I don't even wanna know

Jack Dougherty · Post by **Jack Dougherty** » 9 May 2008 5:46 pm

I don't want my wife to know.

Antolina · Post by **Antolina** » 9 May 2008 5:49 pm

Donny Hinson wrote:What you think you need, and what you actually need, are often two vastly different things.

Ain't it the truth?

John Coffman · Post by **John Coffman** » 9 May 2008 5:53 pm

Total investment about 10K. Hours of enjoyable education, pratice, just plain fun. Out weight the investment 10 to 1. You just can not place a price tag on the things you live/love to do. Still much cheaper that a RV or a nice sports car.

Don Barnhardt · Post by **Don Barnhardt** » 9 May 2008 6:22 pm

Marlen S10, Steel King amp, Goodrich pedal, matchbox,digital effects board and Steelers Choice seat. About$1750

Ernest Cawby · Post by **Ernest Cawby** » 10 May 2008 5:18 am

Jack just remind her she drives a Lexus and you drive an old Mercury.

boobsie the other half of the twins 1/2 twins.

ernie

Robert Harper · Post by **Robert Harper** » 10 May 2008 7:11 pm

I spent more smoking, drinking and chasing women and that leaves out the cost of new cars and a wife when I was chasing her and she caught me and then the kids

Jim Sliff · Post by **Jim Sliff** » 10 May 2008 8:08 pm

It would depend on if you meant current equipment or the total dollars spent on instruments.effects/amps (not figuring things like strings) over a career.

Either way, I started adding and realized I need to call my insurance broker again. Current would be a lot; cumulative value of all semi-major purchases over 40 years would be...a lot more.

b0b's 5K might be high for a steel player; I really don't know. It's WAY low for a gigging 6-string player. At least half the gigging partners I had when playing 6-string had more than $5k in effects and related toys alone...average electric guitar somewhere around $1500-$8k; amps $1000 and up, and everyone had/had multiple amps for different size/configuration venues.

As with b0b, it's always paid for itself so I've never worried about the $$ spent until the last few years when my gigging stopped for a while due to health issues.

The Steel Guitar Forum

cost in $$$$$$s

cost in $$$$$$s

$$$

hi

Cost