The Premiere E-Zine of Low End Gear

The reality of making music and being compensated for doing it is an issue all players must grapple with. Stars make the big bucks; musicians make a living if they are fortunate, diligent and flexible. Week end warriors have day jobs to help offset the rising costs of acquiring and maintaining gear and subsidize skyrocketing transportation expenses. What about students and accomplished no-label bands just striking out on the endless road?

All players have at one time or another struggled with the money issues of purchasing gear. Public schools, once a proud supporter of music and arts have had many if not all of their programs severely restricted or eliminated by budget cuts over the last ten years.

This has cut off access to inexpensive rental and purchase programs and the associations and networks gained by music instructors and their years of work.

At the same time overseas production of low end instruments has improved tremendously as the Far East churns out more and more instruments. There is a cost to this of course. Cheap labor and less stringent environmental regulations cause human suffering and further planetary damage. With the glut of inexpensive overseas product, how does one find the gems among the mediocre and the poor?

Enter one very cool online magazine: The Frugal Guitarist. Premiering in Feb.-March of this year the magazine’s Editor in Chief, Will Chen has covered an ambitious range in his well-written explorations of low cost, alternative and highly playable guitars. Let’s face it, not everyone can afford a “dream instrument.” In addition to this economic fact, not everyone who has done any internal reflection thinks the sandbox snobbery that still permeates our crazed consumer-driven culture is a true, good or necessary thing. Playing and creating music, okay and getting noticed by other human beings, specifically of the opposite gender if you are a heterosexual are the real motivators here. Easy to forget this sometimes when one is constantly bombarded by bigger, better, more expensive, more prestigious-governed advertising.

Three cheers to Mr. Chen and his Band of Merry Men for helping us to tell the forest from the trees.

Hawaii Kamaina please sign up for your discount code at www.GuitarsKauai.com as gear is arriving daily. Until next time,

Tyle "T.Dogg J. Barnes