Equipboard Improvement Ideas

What distinction? Most drum machines are categorized as Studio Equipment at the moment. There is no category for drum machines, right?

why is that? I wouldn't really call that a piece of studio equipment.... some commercial studios have a machine or 2 but most don't, the artist would bring their machine. Is the drummer a piece of studio gear? If so that recolors a lot of my previous band dynamics.

And what about grooveboxes like the MPC Live, MPC One, or larger Force / MPC-X ? None of these, particularly the MPC-X is exactly portable and I can imagine those are devices that people would have in their home studio... or are you saying only commercial studios count ? 😉

What distinction? Most drum machines are categorized as Studio Equipment at the moment. There is no category for drum machines, right?

why is that? I wouldn't really call that a piece of studio equipment.... some commercial studios have a machine or 2 but most don't, the artist would bring their machine. Is the drummer a piece of studio gear? If so that recolors a lot of my previous band dynamics.

The first thing I did, when we got the ability to make categories for our personal EBs, was to make a Drum Machine category. I hear PofM's point that there's a lot of x-over between synths and drum machines in the last 15 or so years, but I'm not opposed to having Drum Machine as a category for artist EBs... even if things like MPCs, MonoMachines, and whatnot could arguably fit elsewhere...

...but priority-wise: the fact that some artists have 50+ items under one category is a real challenge to discoverability/site-navigation, as PofM points out. I don't know if more categories is a complete solution to the problem, but certainly having some of the most important/desirable/iconic items in an artist's EB be below the fold is an issue.

Searching within an artist's EB would be helpful for the minority of us who contribute to the database, for sure, but for the casual-browsing majority of site traffic, the fact that there are no Stratocasters visible on Jimi Hendrix's EB (without clicking "show more") seems like a more pressing concern, personally.

Searching within an artist's EB would be helpful for the minority of us who contribute to the database, for sure, but for the casual-browsing majority of site traffic, the fact that there are no Stratocasters visible on Jimi Hendrix's EB (without clicking "show more") seems like a more pressing concern, personally.

that is pretty weird

or are you saying only commercial studios count ? 😉

I come from the tape era so I'm.... biased **drum roll, cymbal crash***

people's home studios are SO variable being personalized.... I would describe studio equipment that's fairly common to most studios with an emphasis on commercial analog or hybrid operations, I don't even think a drummachine is that common to home studios, there's a still a lot of headbangers recording in the basement who wouldn't want or know what to do with a 909.... if that makes sense

as to grooveboxes I kinda think that anything in that synth or sample pattern sequencer mold of the good ol mc303 and 505 could have its own category, they're really distinct almost workstation type instruments with a distinctive interface style.

Searching within an artist's EB would be helpful for the minority of us who contribute to the database, for sure, but for the casual-browsing majority of site traffic, the fact that there are no Stratocasters visible on Jimi Hendrix's EB (without clicking "show more") seems like a more pressing concern, personally.

Yeah, good point. The experience should be optimized for browsing and viewing, not for doing occasional submissions.

I come from the tape era so I'm.... biased **drum roll, cymbal crash***

I laughed. FWIW.

I knew someone would get it. I am moving at a snails pace rewiring here.... homestudios are hell

Another suggestion to help submitting gear to artists:

After typing the name of the gear in the Gear - What gear does the artist use? box, I'd like to get a link to that piece of gear (or at least a larger preview of its main image) so I can double check I picked the right one. Currently let's say I type in "Korg wavestation A" and get two options appear, I can't check which one is correct without going to a new browser tab and searching for that gear and comparing the two.

After selecting the gear the name that appears under the box as Currently selected: Korg Wavestation A/D could be a link, so I can open it in a new browser tab, check it, and then return to the submission tab.

After typing the name of the gear in the Gear - What gear does the artist use? box, I'd like to get a link to that piece of gear (or at least a larger preview of its main image) so I can double check I picked the right one. Currently let's say I type in "Korg wavestation A" and get two options appear, I can't check which one is correct without going to a new browser tab and searching for that gear and comparing the two.

I have to do the two-tab thing a lot too. A way to check which one you're grabbing within the same tab/action would be great.

I can't seem to add Höfner to the brand list - Is it the ö that's the issue?

I can't seem to add Höfner to the brand list - Is it the ö that's the issue?

umlauts ain't easy, bro

I can't seem to add Höfner to the brand list - Is it the ö that's the issue?

I'll look into it, just added it to our bugs list. Good catch!

You can read about submission guidelines here. An example is provided.

The contributer guidlines should be expanded. We need a few clearer rules as to what gear is allowed to be added to an artist or not. Right now I'm in a discussion over this contribution. This is kind of an edge case. In my opinion it should be added to the artist, because the item was clearly used by him, even tho just for promo purposes. There are other edge cases like this. For example, what if an artist uses a small practice amp for backstage warmup on tour, should it be added? What if he just takes a few photos for ads by a brand, but there is no evidence he ever played it. Should it be added? What about sets that contain a specific item. Like this. It contains this, this and this item. So do we add the set to an artist, the individual items, or both?. What about a guitar that comes stock with a specific pickup. If the artist uses the guitar stock, should we also add the pickup as a separate item? All this should be clearly explained in the guidleines, so in case of discussion we can point to something to defend our point. I get there will always be edge cases, but right now the rules are just far too vague on stuff like this.

Thank you for the thoughtful message. I completely agree. This is a good time for this, since we're in the process of redesigning artist pages and the way submissions are viewed. Let me know your thoughts on the following ideas:

• The page currently titled Contributing should probably be renamed to How to Contribute, or better yet How to Submit Gear to Artists since "contribute" is rather broad. And it should have up-to-date screenshots.
• We should add a new page alongside it called Contributor Guidelines - do you all think this should be FAQ/Q&A style?

If it is FAQ style, I can see basically compiling and answering questions about edge cases, exactly as knuschberkeks laid out. In fact let me take a stab at these:

Right now I'm in a discussion over this contribution. This is kind of an edge case. In my opinion it should be added to the artist, because the item was clearly used by him, even tho just for promo purposes.

I think this submission is solid and valid, and that is exactly why we made the demo/promo usage tag. I think what will be useful is to be able to filter items on an artist page by these tags. So if someone (like addman34555 in that example who is arguing against it) wants to filter out gear considered promotional or for demos, they can do so.

what if an artist uses a small practice amp for backstage warmup on tour, should it be added?

100% yes. In fact I would argue this is a very juicy sub, since many people are in the market for practice amps and I can see one of their heroes using it being a strong deciding factor. Seeing Tom Morello's backstage practice amp makes me really happy.

What if he just takes a few photos for ads by a brand, but there is no evidence he ever played it. Should it be added?

If it's an obvious advertisement, sure, but I could consider the sub incomplete/incorrect unless tagged with the demo/promo usage tag.

What about sets that contain a specific item. Like this. It contains this, this and this item. So do we add the set to an artist, the individual items, or both?

Hmmmm this is very tricky. I don't know I would defer to you all and go with majority opinion.

What about a guitar that comes stock with a specific pickup. If the artist uses the guitar stock, should we also add the pickup as a separate item?

Kind of a case-by-case basis. I don't see this as incorrect, it comes down to the submission notes being very good and specific. And it helps if it's a pickup in an iconic guitar. Not everyone with a Strat or Tele should have whatever standard pickups are in those as separate items.

• The page currently titled Contributing should probably be renamed to How to Contribute, or better yet How to Submit Gear to Artists since "contribute" is rather broad. And it should have up-to-date screenshots.

I don't think there is anything wrong with "Contribute", but "How to Submit Gear to Artists" would probably be clearer.

• We should add a new page alongside it called Contributor Guidelines - do you all think this should be FAQ/Q&A style?

I think an FAQ style thing would work great here. Maybe with links to good examples of edge cases.

I think this submission is solid and valid, and that is exactly why we made the demo/promo usage tag. I think what will be useful is to be able to filter items on an artist page by these tags. So if someone (like addman34555 in that example who is arguing against it) wants to filter out gear considered promotional or for demos, they can do so.

good idea. But then there must be guidlines to what is considered demo/promo adn what is considered live. For example in a clinic held hat a guitar store. Is that considered live or promo?

What about sets that contain a specific item. Like this. It contains this, this and this item. So do we add the set to an artist, the individual items, or both?

Hmmmm this is very tricky. I don't know I would defer to you all and go with majority opinion.

In my opinion it's ok to do both in most cases, if the individual components are also sold seperately. The artist might sometimes just use parts of a set. In the example I gave above Kerry King actually sometimes uses just the bridge pickup from his signature set and replaces the neck pickup with a Fernandes sustainer. so I think it's ok to add the set aswell as the individual components and I've done so in a few cases. In an ideal world the Item page of the set would list the individual components that are sold seperately and automatically add them to all the artists, but I'd imagine that's a lot of work and imho shouldn't be a priority right now.

What about a guitar that comes stock with a specific pickup. If the artist uses the guitar stock, should we also add the pickup as a separate item?

Kind of a case-by-case basis. I don't see this as incorrect, it comes down to the submission notes being very good and specific. And it helps if it's a pickup in an iconic guitar. Not everyone with a Strat or Tele should have whatever standard pickups are in those as separate items.

I agree.

These are just my opinions. I haven't even been here for half a year so maybe some of the more senior members should say what they think.

Ok we rolled the FAQ and contributing guidelines into one page. Behold, the Equipboard Contributing Guidelines and FAQ.

What do you all think? How can we improve this? Is there anything important or obvious we did not cover?

Is the new formatting bugging anyone else?