Equipboard's YouTube Channel

Hey everyone,

We're trying to get our YouTube channel going and before we get too deep into videos, I’d love to hear your opinions to see if we're on the right track.

Here are 3 sample pedal reviews:

• Jackson Audio Broken Arrow
• Boss RC-1
• MXR Carbon Copy

If you've got a moment let me know what you think. Are they useful? Is the gear selection good? Too much talking (or too little)? Overall format and vibe?

I know it’s a crowded space but we're hoping to make useful videos! Thanks a million for taking the time.

My is will this be instruction about the use of each piece of musical equipment

It is A LOT of work to make a Youtube video, and anyone who can write and then perform their way through a script while squinting into an LED loop light deserves my respect, and more importantly, they HAVE my respect.

That said, you could remove the few mentions of Equipboard from the start of these videos, and they could 100% be added to anyone's musical instrument channel.

However good they may be, why produce videos that anyone could make, about products that already have a dozen such videos each already on Youtube?

I'd love to see some videos that leaned on these 2 things:

1. They reenforce the Equipboard brand and ooze a strong sense of self.

2. Even if they are covering topics already covered on YT, they do so from a unique angle that only Equipboard could credibly pull off.

I don't mean to imply that executing on any of that would be easy... this stuff is hard... really hard.

I would tend to agree with Kenneth. Your videos are very much like all demo videos. Why not go another route like the guys from That Pedal Show and do a very personal, branded video series where you tackle topics of interest to EB members rather than review single products? Like, "on this month's Equipboard show we're going to talk about delay." Then you go on to talk about the history of delay, demonstrate a few currebrly popular options, ome classics, demonstrate where it can go in various guitar chains and how that sounds, how to use it in a mix as both an insert and aux send, talk about plugin options for daw use and also how to patch hardware in and out if an interface;)

Ambitious? Yeah but it would be stand out.

It is A LOT of work to make a Youtube video, and anyone who can write and then perform their way through a script while squinting into an LED loop light deserves my respect, and more importantly, they HAVE my respect.

That said, you could remove the few mentions of Equipboard from the start of these videos, and they could 100% be added to anyone's musical instrument channel.

However good they may be, why produce videos that anyone could make, about products that already have a dozen such videos each already on Youtube?

Just watched the Electro-Harmonix Soul Food review. While its atmosphere is admittedly not very distinct from most other review channels (as per pkennethk)—the "Like, Click, Subscribe" graphic at the end doesn't help, to be honest—I'm loving how awake Kevin sounds; he not only sounds professional, but he actually sounds enthused! Unfortunately, his video briefly cuts out mid-sentence at 9:33 and I do find it odd that he doesn't seem to have an Equipboard link on his author page.

Also, why is only the Universal Audio UAFX Dream '65 Reverb Amplifier Pedal listed under the "Gear used" section of the video description? Feels like a missed opportunity to list his guitar, his amp, his microphone and/or interface... heck, even his cables!

I don't mean to imply that executing on any of that would be easy... this stuff is hard... really hard.

Seconded.

what if we had an animated mascot as the reviewer, maybe named Strings E. Quipboy? Maybe he's a music producing penguin or something? nah

what if we had an animated mascot as the reviewer, maybe named Strings E. Quipboy? Maybe he's a music producing penguin or something? nah

"Hello! I'm Picky the Plectrum! I'm guessing you're a pretty picky buyer, eh? Look no further than Equipboard!"

a music producing penguin

cough Ephixa cough

Someone outran me... although I'm not down with the assault rifle

First off, thanks for the compliments! My enthusiasm stems from the fact that guitar and music are just awesome in general and that I get to tinker with a lot of fun little toys. I'm also a gear nerd and love talking about this.

You're welcome! It shines through!

Also, to clarify, the UA Dream was the only gear used! While I love a good tube amp, I went all digital over a year ago and really haven't used an amp (unless it was backlined) since!

Ah.

As for the rest, I use an Aston Origin microphone, my iPhone 14 as my main camera, a Focusrite Scarlett Interface, Reaper as my DAW to record the tracks and voice-over, a variety of plugins from Slate and Plugin Alliance, DaVinci Resolve for editing, Affinity Photo for the graphics, all done on an M1 Mac Mini. The "pedal cam" was a generic GoPro camera off of Amazon, though I've recently switched over to an older iPhone for that view (which you will see starting with the next review.)

An impressive rig!

Also, to clarify, the UA Dream was the only gear used! While I love a good tube amp, I went all digital over a year ago and really haven't used an amp (unless it was backlined) since!

Traitor... J/k

As for the rest, I use an Aston Origin microphone, my iPhone 14 as my main camera, a Focusrite Scarlett Interface, Reaper as my DAW to record the tracks and voice-over,

Thise Astons look interesting. Is the origin fixed or multipattern?

Alright everyone, here’s an update on our YouTube channel.

We just hit 1,000 subscribers! Huge shoutout to Kevin for his great work on our videos. He’s wrapped up the initial batch of pedal reviews we wanted to include in our guides and product pages, and it’s been great to see how they performed. One big takeaway: people really responded well to our more tutorial-style videos, like how to use loopers, so we’re thinking about focusing more on instructional content moving forward.

Some potential topics include:

• The best way to learn guitar
• Basic music theory lessons
• How to build your first pedalboard
• Recommended effect order in your signal chain

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Any suggestions or recommendations? Let me know what you think.

Thanks in advance for your feedback!

music theory is a great idea, but ricky beato has that cornered guys... the rest are great ideas for lemmings... what about "here's how things actually work, now use that info to be creative in your own way!" The best fx order for example is what wets you your own sound. Van Halen ran phasers into distortion. In the 90s we ran distortion into all our modulation usually, both fine. Do you. But, if you boost a dirtbox into modulation you need to know you can't boost a lot, modulation pedals lack headroom usually, better to boost after with a dedicated vlean boost, always on.... if you know how it works then anything can work. I digress.

I'm not sure what my timeframe would be on this, but I might wanna violate my self-imposed prohibition against speaking bon camera and do some production and maintenance videos if you guys will host them. I could do music theory lessons but my version of teaching is "WHY CAN'T YOU DO THIS!!! WHAT ARE YOU WORTHLESS!!! GRAAAAAAHHHH!!!!" so not that. I'm a little calmer explaining technology. I also might want to do videos in character, like as Yanosh the eastern block sound guy.

I know I said be like that pedal show, but they don't do "this is the best way to do things" they explore many ways of skinning a cat and explore the topic from a real tech standpoint that unlocks creativity.... they also spread some misinformation, but its unavoidable in music.... headed in the right direction

The Origin is fixed cardioid (though it has a pad and hi-pass). The Spirit is the one with the multiple polar patterns.

no figure 8, no deal.... I'll have to score a couple spirits to test out, I wonder if I can get demos

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Any suggestions or recommendations? Let me know what you think.

Thanks in advance for your feedback!

Is there any way to use the YT channel to send people to Equipboard(dot)com with a higher purchase intent?

A thought:

• If I search YT for "rainger fx reverb x" I get videos with 10s of thousands of views.

• BUT, if I search YT for "sound like Mk.gee", I get videos that are well beyond 100k+ views... all of which will sell the #$%^ out of the Rainger FX Reverb X.

Rather than doing yet another video review or tutorial that's only about the Rainger Reverb X (for example), why not lean on what is unique about EB, and do a video about helping people get a specific artist's tone, using Equipboard(dot)com as a foundation/guide?

Content like this feels well-aligned to the EB brand, to me at least, because I could easily see the host talking about how they learned of these tricks on EB, and encouraging people to visit the Mk.gee EB profile, or a gear landing page to learn more.

The "3 levels of Mk.gee" thing seems like it would be a good fit too, as you could do:

1. What gear & methods did the artist actually use? (as verified on EB, which is often discontinued/Reverb.com-only gear)

2. Get this sound on a budget (recommend new, affordable, popular gear that's available at Sweetwater and/or free plugins that are popular on EB)

3. Get that sound for a few $$$ more (recommend new, more upscale gear that's also available at Sweetwater and/or software on plugin boutique, etc)

A video like this is more complex to make, of course, and takes more research and production time, but there's probably a way to dramatically streamline things to a point where you can still credibly mention a specific artist's tone in the title, but keep the info really concise and practical for a broad/new-to-guitar audience. "3 levels of Mk.gee tone" is totally doable as a YT short that still references the EB platform and several popular, still-for-sale pieces of gear.

Also, I love music theory channels on YT, and consume that kind of content on YT nearly everyday, but it is an incredibly saturated space, and I don't see how learning about secondary dominants or "why you should care about the circle of 4ths/5ths" is going to drive people to EB.

Also, I love music theory channels on YT, and consume that kind of content on YT nearly everyday, but it is an incredibly saturated space, and I don't see how learning about secondary dominants or "why you should care about the circle of 4ths/5ths" is going to drive people to EB.

Exactly! We're a gear site. The all singing all dancing king of gear sites. Let's stick to our mission.

If equipboard will host it, I'm planning on doing a video on roland space echo maintenance... I need to change my tape loop and I might as well do it on camera and also explain the mechanical stuff for the edification of the youngsters. I'm also thinking about a video covering balanced and unbalanced lines as well as the different types of inputs and outputs you'll encounter on recording gear and the best ways to connect both types of lines if you have to mix and match. I could cover sources of AC and RF noise on lines and how to remove it in a home studio with domestic electrical and lots if appliances on the breaker. I guess I could go through conditioning options and recommend different isolation transformers on the sales tip. Do you think that sounds useful Ken? Or is it waste of my limited time?

Edit: It just seems like you won't actually become the next stevie ray after seeing a video tutorial about how to sound like stevie ray, you would need TO BE the next SRV! And I think that the audience for that kind of thing is highly restricted because several newbies who are into that outgrow that mentality or quit music every hour. But man are the kids on here uninformed about basic hook up stuff they need to know. They're acting as yh er ir own engineers and guitar techs but no one taught them how. I mean Kevin can probably do the 'how yo sound just like so-&-so videos' I just think there's more to equipboard th as n that even though hero worship and the promise of wi sdd h fulfillment is a big part if our thing.

Do you think that sounds useful Ken? Or is it waste of my limited time?

Useful? of course. You are a master educator on such topics, really and truly. But I don't know how, exactly, content like this fits into Michael and Giulio's latest vision for the brand and the site, because I don't know where they want to take things, exactly. I'm just guessing.

I also don't know what they want from their YT channel, either.

The main value potential for the YT channel, as far as I can discern, is that the YT channel could help build up brand image and awareness, and funnels high-quality/high-intent traffic to the site, traffic with a high likelihood of clicking affiliate links and then returning to click on more affiliate links.

If someone gets frothed up by a video about balanced vs. unbalanced lines, then comes to EB to learn even more about essential engineering concepts for home recording, they're likely to hit a dead end at the moment... my thinking was that someone new to music/recording, who got frothed up about what kind of pedals and amps Kurt Cobain used, could then follow a link to EB and have hours more things to explore and indulge in along those lines... the expectation the video sets could be backed up by all that the site offers, currently.

Edit: It just seems like you won't actually become the next stevie ray after seeing a video tutorial about how to sound like stevie ray, you would need TO BE the next SRV! And I think that the audience for that kind of thing is highly restricted because several newbies who are into that outgrow that mentality or quit music every hour.

I very respectfully disagree. I think it's a stretch to assume anyone is dim enough to expect a YT video to make them sound like a virtuoso player... but imagine not knowing that SRV used massive strings, a Tube Screamer, certain Fender, Marshall and Dumble amps, etc. You and I take this info for granted, but there's always a new generation that needs this stuff explained, there are people that have no clue how to Tex Mex... and there are plenty of interesting tips and approaches you can glean/steal from an artist you're interested in that will help move you forward, even though you'll never imitate them outright.

Also, I combed through YT and looked at view counts on artist-flavored vs. non-artist flavored videos before I made my assertion. I stand by 'em.

Which artists and producers have used a piece of gear is everything in this industry.

Associating an artist with a topic is also shorthand for the aesthetic perspective the video will have. I can't tell you how many reviews for basses I've click on, only to find out the person doing the review only cares about heavy-handed pop-punk riffs played exclusively with a pick. If the video was titled "Squier Sonic Precision Bass, Can it Matt Freeman?" I'd have known it wasn't for me (no offense Rancid fans), and the video probably would have had a better shot of reaching those who also only care about hammering a P-bass in a certain kind of way.

But man are the kids on here uninformed about basic hook up stuff they need to know.

Agreed, but EB has not been a great place to get informed about such things, historically, and it would take a lot more purpose-built educational content on-platform to get it to a place where it could be a great place to get informed about such things, relative to other options that already exist.

Non-rhetorically: is this where Michael and Giulio want to take things?

All points taken. You m.j ake lots of sense. I don't really think like a marketing guy and I'm not a good businessman.

In my head, basic informational videos lead to people buying important stuff like conditioners etc through affiliate links but probably not. I think you're right and the glamorous stuff like mystic germanium transistor boutique fuzz pedals that claims to replicate Jimmy page's iconic stage tone are probably the best path to internet domination.