Builder <===> Player; where do you fall?

[mudfinger]

Been playin to the pay the bills for over 20 years now, but there's been some side jobs too. Up until a few months ago, I would never have considered doing the builds I've done recently, like modding my vintage amp, building a TS clone, engineering a 4-coil humbucker; it's something I've always thrown money at, or known someone who could do it for me.

All the while, I was repairing and modifying vintage jeeps as a hobby, and applying that knowledge to my music gear over the past few months has been a great experience so far; no more wondering about the quality of someone else's work, and no more substandard parts in my signal chain.

Plus I end up with "handcrafted, American-made" stuff when I'm all done! 

[eniacmike]

I play drums for a living and studied jazz drumset at north texas. I have always played guitar on the side but I have always been into building things.

My dad was an electrical engineer in the royal navy for 15 years and my grandfather worked for sylvania making tubes and crt's as well as working for eastman kodak for 25 years in all kinds of positions. I definatley feel building is in my blood. It is also really cool to be able to call my dad up any time of day and ask him whatever questions I have. I "borrowed" all his tools permanently now that he is retired.

I have never played guitar outside of the bedroom but I do like learning about effects/amps/guitars and I really enjoy building pedals.

[pauloman80]

'Nother player here.  Primarily the church world, I've been a worship pastor by vocation for the past several years.  I also do lots of gigging outside the church, and have worked in vintage stores from time to time.  That's where I got my repair/building experience, and building these stomps has seriously accelerated my abilities as far as diagnosing and repairing busted stuff. 

[maysink]

Guess that makes me a builder as I started my first BYOC kit 2 months after (finally) buying a guitar. I'm a painter by desire/education and an IT systems admin by trade but once I realized stompboxes were needed to make the interesting noises I found my latest addiction.

For some reason I'm really enjoying the left-brained process of building a stomp-box--kind of like building a painting frame and stretching/priming the canvas myself.

And then this madbean comes along to enable my addiction and I hear echos of "and the first one's free..."

[madbean]

I put in an ad on the Nashville Craigslist a few weeks back, because I've been itching to play. Here are the responses I got:

Reply#1: "You're too fucking picky."
Reply#2: cheesy/off-key singer with porn 'stache
Reply#3: a band of 50's something rockers for Jesus (not that there's anything wrong with that...just not for me)
Reply#4: a band who might have been very popular in the LA Scene during late 80's hair metal...esp. at Gazzari's

Meh

[pigyboy]

I put in an ad on the Nashville Craigslist a few weeks back, because I've been itching to play. Here are the responses I got:

Reply#1: "You're too fucking picky."
Reply#2: cheesy/off-key singer with porn 'stache
Reply#3: a band of 50's something rockers for Jesus (not that there's anything wrong with that...just not for me)
Reply#4: a band who might have been very popular in the LA Scene during late 80's hair metal...esp. at Gazzari's

Meh

Hang in there Bro. I had to move to Spain to find a new band!
Friend us up on my space and enjoy the punk rock!
http://www.myspace.com/therockweilersmusic

Ps. I lived in LA in the Gazzarri's days and I remember an ad in the Bam Magazine looking for a singer
"who must be willing to undergo facial reconstructive surgery."
Missed my chance