Every live musician I know loves to buy new music equipment. If you’re like me then you want to get the absolute best value for the dollar as well. I don’t mind paying for the best equipment available because I’ve found that if you play the best equipment then you’re skills aren’t being held back by a poor instrument or amplifier. One of the most valuable tools on the Internet for finding the best equipment is the availability of customer reviews. I always read customer reviews before I purchase any piece of music gear. When you’ve read enough user equipment reviews it’s easy to spot the reviews that are written during moments of ‘new gear euphoria’. Any review that begins “I’ve had this guitar all weekend and I love it!” isn’t really going to all that valuable. I personally like reading reviews written by people that have lived with the instrument or piece of equipment they’re reviewing for a while. That’s why the equipment I review on Live Musician Central is equipment that I’ve owned and used onstage with me for some time. It’s for this reason that I find the Music123 Customer Review Contest to be so intriguing.
Music123 is currently soliciting user equipment reviews from anyone that owns a piece of gear that they sell. They are giving away $250 a week to the top review as chosen by Music123. I like this idea for a couple of reasons. First, they are working to get reviews from people that have had the equipment for a while. It doesn’t matter if it’s a microphone or guitar that you’ve had for years. They want you to come to Music123 and give a user review on it. Second, someone is going to be screening these reviews to choose a winner. Hopefully that will weed out a lot of the lame reviews you usually have to read through on a product that you’re considering buying. I think that by doing this Music123 will be able to get a better quality of review than other online music stores.
So what makes a great user review? Don’t just say that you love the piece of gear you’re reviewing. Tell people what you love about it and why. It’s always bonus points to tell what you don’t like about a piece of equipment. This shows people that you’ve really had some experience with the product that you’re talking about. I like to hear how the instrument has held up over time. I like to read about the falls the gear has survived or how many hours it’s been played without a problem. It’s things like these that will make a review valuable.
Make sure you start writing those equipment reviews. There is no obligation to buy anything and you just may walk away with $250 that you can spend on a sweet new piece of music gear. So get online and get reviewing today!
