"They Don't know That They don't Know"

“They Don’t Know That They Don’t Know” - By Harold Longhand
I’ve been working in retail for longer than I care to admit and playing guitar for way longer than you would believe so, if nothing else, I’ve learned a few things about the average deductive reasoning abilities of musicians. I think this can be summed up in one simple sentence. “They Don’t Know That They Don’t Know.”

What does that mean? Simple. Most young musicians – and I mean “young” as the relative amount of time they have been playing their respective instruments - are clueless to just about EVERY aspect of what it takes to be successful in the music business. They come into a retail store with misconceptions about the kind of instruments they should buy, the amount of time and work it takes to be successful, and in actuality –
What it REALLY means to be a successful musician in general.

“I Gotta have a Les Paul and a Marshall stack in order to sound like……” (fill in the blank.)

I always get a kick out of this kind of a customer. Usually they have their parents, or girlfriend, or wife in tow and have convinced them to help pay for some extravagant purchase because in their mind the only way to become “famous” is to play the same gear that their heroes used. But do you realize that the most successful rock band of all time – The Beatles – used very inexpensive equipment? Paul McCartney wanted a Fender bass but couldn’t afford one so he bought a Hofner which cost 1/5th the price of a Fender Precision Bass. John’s Rickenbacher was notoriously out of tune and the pickups on it sound like garbage! Even when they had some success they – being working class lads- never bought Gibson guitars instead opting for the cheaper Epiphones. But history proves that they wrote some of the most spectacular pop music of all time! Would things have been different if they would have begun with expensive “pro” gear? I doubt it….

What the Beatles had (that differentiates them from most beginning musicians) was talent and the knowledge that nothing comes to you without a lot of hard work.