Who says you need to fork out a small fortune on gear in order to sound good?
Some of the best records ever written were recorded using budget guitars and a dusty old 4-track. Punk was basically born on a foundation of shitty gear and even worse playing.
Good Boy don’t exactly exude a sense that they record in million dollar studios, and this is part of the reason why they sound so bloody good. Their fittingly titled new single Poverty Line is a wonderful hunk of scrappy garage rock.
There’s actually quite an art to this kind of recording, and we wanted to find out exactly what kind of crappy gear they were using to get their sound. So here is it: Good Boy’s three most beloved pieces of budget gear.
Sometimes the shittiest gear has got the most soul. With this in mind we asked Good Boy to tell us the stories behind those pieces of budget gear that they wouldn’t trade for anything.
Stu – Drums
Since even before Good Boy began I’ve been using a combination of a Rian’s cheap Gretch kit he has had since high school, A snare I was given for Christmas one year, and cymbals I have slowly been collecting. It’s actually a really fun kit to play but it is a total frankenstien.
Rian – Bass
I was playing bass guitar in bands for a few years before Good Boy but I had never owned my own bass until a few months before Tom and I started writing together. Before that I was playing a beautiful Japanese Riviera bass. I still don’t own a bass amp but my roommate and bandmate in Jouk Mistrow has a really nice 70’s yamaha bass combo which I use occasionally. My favourite guitar is my “fodder” squire Strat. It was the first guitar I ever owned, given to me by my father. I have lent it to friends before and they have hated it but I love to play it over anything else.
Tom – Guitar
I think every guitarist has a soft spot for their first guitar. Mine was a horrible Fender Squier Strat that you get in one of those starter packs with the crappy fender amps. A year later when I turned 16 I finally figured out that it was a piece of shit. Instead of doing the logical thing and buy a new guitar, I decided to put 3 new pickups in it instead. It’s literally the worst to play and to some it might sound a little rough but to me, that’s the best part. I used it in a couple of songs off our next EP so listen out for a distorted, twangy sounding guitar in a few of the solos.
Check out all that crappy gear goodness below:
