There was a knock at the front door. ‘I’ve come about the guitar for sale?’. I showed the young couple into the front room. We made small talk for a few moments and it turned out the guitar was for the female half of the duo. She lifted it off the stand and played a few chords, then nodded to the male who pulled out a small bundle of banknotes. Just before they left, he turned and pointed at the Boss BR864 on the table in the corner. ‘Do you get on with that thing?, he asked, pointing at the device. “Yes’, I said, ‘Up to a point’. The girl laughed, ‘We had one for a week. He got so frustrated with it, he threw it against the wall!’

Things are dramatically different from just a few years ago. There was a time when all we had were effects pedals, a simple little box that you plugged into and turned a dial and off you went. Now we have gargantuan racks of effects, great leviathans of all-in-one floor processors, modelling amps and guitars, drum machines, recorders, you name it. I admit it, I absolutely love all that stuff, but today was a turning point for me;

I have piles of associated guitar ‘stuff’. I remember reading about the new Boss multi-track recorders and I ordered one before they were in stock. I rocked up at the store on the day of delivery and asked for a demo before parting with the cash. Apparently the rep had been at the store a week or two before and had given the guys a tutorial. The assisant selling me mine had been off on that day and had convinced himself that a quick whiz through the manual and he’d be up to speed. Two hours of head scratching later should really have warned me of things to come.

There is no question that I have spent countless weeks reading instruction books and it has been more by trial and error than well-written tutorials that have helped me muddle through. The Boss BR864 multi-tracker was a complete nightmare, I learnt just enough to do what I wanted and never picked up the manual again, but nothing like the ‘easy and intuitive’ way it was described. The Boss GT6 multi-effects processor was somewhat easier, but the Boss DR670 drum machine, well, I have to look at the book literally every time I use it. I have a full electric kit now which is so much easier – I sit and play the part, no fiddling with dials or menus. I can’t even begin to get into what sleepless nights I have had over the Korg D3200 32 track recorder I have in the basement, it must have been designed by a woman.

Of course the other thing I learnt is to have a dymo label maker to hand. This morning I counted the mains adapters I have that just power my guitar kit = fourteen. I have every one clearly marked with what it is for.

So why exactly was today a turning point?

Well, I wanted a small notebook style recorder for my attic office. I have a few guitars up there and very often get a riff, in my head or a line, or something that just gently wanders through and off in the ether, so I needed something to get it down quickly. I ordered a Korg D4 four track and I opened the box and was confronted with by another instruction manual seemingly written by Dostoevsky. After two hours of flicking first one way, then another, pressing buttons and turning dials, I was really no further than when I started. Bear in mind, I was building and programming computers in the eighties, I’m not a complete numpty. I’m simply not going to buy another damn box of tricks.

Of course, you can’t beat the basic combination of a guitar plugged straight into a good old valve amp, but the stuff that can be achieved with that AND a GT6/8 in between that combination is astonishing.

The point here is this, there must be loads of you who have stories to tell about getting to grips with certain bits of kit, what you hate, what you love, what you could never understand and get to work, your favourite items you’d never be without.