Queen Nathan of Equipmentdom

It’s sort of funny to me in some ways that Nathan is sort of kind of on his way to being an Equipment Queen. Could that last sentence be anymore passive? Sheesh.

To hear Miguel and Nathan talk, when you’re out of the loop of technical crap, is daunting. I recently wrote about the technical commentary on Clerks 2, and I was lost listening to that as well. I know that all it would take is for me to pay attention, and learn one little thing at a time. I also mentioned in a recent post about the guard I relieve, and how he doesn’t know anything about his cell phone, while I know more than I should about mine. It’s like that. I didn’t learn it all in one day, but I did learn it.

But I don’t know the model number of my phone, heck I only barely know the model of my car. I don’t know about cell phone aficionados, but there are people out there who could see my car and tell me all sorts of factoids about it, and probably be right.

I saw this happen with my bass guitar at a JAKT show. I bought a bass from a pawn shop in February of 2006 for the purposes of recording. I chose it because it was solid wood, and it was in good shape. Most of the basses I looked at prior to finding this one looked like they had been left in someone’s pocket and run through the washing machine a few times. I’m not even sure if I noticed it was a Peavey when I bought it.

In August of 2006, I made it a point to join a band. I went to Guitar Center and wrote down every number on the bulletin board for a band needing one of the following: a guitarist, a vocalist, a bassist, or a keyboardist. While not great at any of these, I can at least do them. This was how I became a bassist. By this point I knew that my bass was a Peavey.

So at the JAKT show, we finished playing and the singer of the Trinity River Band approached me with his bassist, and said, “I was wondering if you’d let my bassist check out your T-40. I was telling him how it was made of solid wood…” and some other stuff that he knew, and I don’t remember now. At that point I didn’t even know that the model number was a T-40, and this guy knew it by sight, and knew factual information about it.

Pat, the guitarist of JAKT, looked it up for me and told me a whole slew of information. The only thing I remember is that because of its weight you should buy a sturdy guitar strap or you’ll go through them like crazy.

Reading Nathan’s recent article about cameras, I realized he could get to this level if he wanted. He’d probably have to hang out at Six Flags and stuff like that to show off.

NATHAN: Excuse me sir, I noticed that you are video taping your child with a post-consumer model Panasonic 867-5309. Did you know that the bit rate divided by the compression equals E=mc2 when held in consequence and in lieu of 120 degree reverse compromised gravity molecular condendum at a ration of 5 and a ratio of 95.774.

FRIGHTENED PARENT: Billy, go hide in the bathroom until the police arrive.

The point is that he’s well on his way. I don’t know how many liters it takes to run the horsepower in my car, or what kind of pickup my guitar drives, but Nathan with a little bit of effort could eventually tell you what every button on his Jedi Cannon does. I have faith in him.