Talking to myself

There is a lot of hype and there are a lot of hype chasers.
When people should be reading up on basic signal flow, they are concerned with being told which magic little box they need to make them sound ______(insert whatever you want here).
Instead of always being on the hunt for the most sensationalized whizbang gadget, people need to focus on what is inside. What kind of transformers? What kind of circuit? What kind of tubes? What other tubes will work? What is the signal path?etc....
Not "some respected guy told me I need this to sound like this..." blah... That is just being a lemming fallowing the current trend right off another cliff with other lemmings.

Instead of asking "what brand of gadget gets this sound," observe what exactly the sum of the ingredients are that are needed to get what you are after.
Most of the time "that sound" you hear is the artist, not the gear.

The gear I choose to use has little to do with the sound,
Obviously it has something to do with sound because we are talking about musical instruments, but what I am getting at is that there are lots of choices out there and I find inspiration in the smaller companies like Trogotronic, Metasonix, blacet, Malekko.

The saturated market(and shoppers) of Guitar Center aren't getting my support when there are others out there that are less parasitic.
I hate the "one size fits all for really cheap" market, I would rather spend a little more on a rare artifact, supporting an individual instead of supporting a fat greedy monster corporation.

Stop being lazy and experiment with what you have.
When the time comes to get new gear, get the best you can afford that works the best for your situation, just because it doesn't work for someone else doesn't mean it won't work for you and vice versa.
Stop looking for presets. Stop looking for that ________ sound on ________,
If your making your own music, doesn't it make sense that you should be trying to create your own sound and not mimicking someone else?

I do find it very fascinating to study the production techniques of others and discuss with others what they like to use, everyone should do that.
But when it gets to the point where people just want to be told what to do and how to do it so they can be like their "trusted respected bro in the biz that makes cool records", that's disgusting.(to me)

When you finally do go out on a limb and try out some strange piece of gear that isn't sold in guitar center and isn't written about in guitar world and the others,
Give it some time to understand and explore before writing it off as "crap" and selling it.
The Buy/Sell/Trade addiction of countless golden carrot chasers is getting depressing.

conclusion: Use what you got and use it well. Build what you can and learn something in the process.