michael's forum posts 561

By the way, this works now, right?

Contact Music just published a piece that highlights Equipboard.

It’s a great read, and especially cool to see them recognize the work this community has done in documenting gear and building a credible, lasting resource for music history.

I wanted to share this with all of you because none of it happens without the community. What we’re building together is genuinely special, and I feel lucky to be a part of it with you all.

Thanks for everything you’ve contributed so far. This is just the beginning!

We just fixed this bug! You should be able to add the items through the search process on your Equipboard page now.

Sorry for the inconvenience. Let me know if you run into any issues!

We just fixed this bug! Can you give it another go?

So you'd suggest rephrasing it as "Gear Value by Category" or something clearer?

We've leveled up gear photos to make exploring setups way more interesting. On any photo with tagged gear, you'll now see:

• Pro artists with overlapping gear - see which Equipboard artists own the same gear as the uploader, ranked by how distinctive the matches are
• Rig breakdown - total rig value, where the spend goes by category and brand, plus a price-tier mix so you can tell at a glance whether it's mostly budget, mid, or boutique
  
• Boldest pick - when there's a sleeper item in the rig (well-regarded but few pro artists own it), we call it out
  
• Better matching for similar gear photos - the "More gear photos" slider now finds setups that share actual gear with you, not just the same hashtags
  

See it on a real one: https://equipboard.com/gear_photos/26354

Anything else missing that'd make this page essential? Drop your thoughts below.

They have reached out and tried to claim it, and I’ve been working with them on that. We’re currently updating how claimed pages are managed, so I’ve let them know that the brand dashboard is not quite ready yet.

Soon, brands will have a way to manage their catalog and engage with the community in a way that clearly indicates they represent a brand or retailer.

Yeah, fair point.

I think that belongs in the product description on the item page, not in the artist submission notes.

That is the brand, but because they are submitting evidence that ties the products to specific artists and demonstrates actual usage, they fall within our community guidelines.

Our position at Equipboard is simple: if artist usage can be substantiated, then it can factually be included on the site.

Equipboard now tracks prices across retailers over time and shows that history directly on product pages.

This is one piece of a bigger effort to make Equipboard more useful for pricing and deals. Our hope is that price history gives you better context, so it’s easier to tell when something is actually well priced.

https://images.equipboard.com/blog_content/Screenshot-2026-04-22-at-1.44.19-PM-l.png

We just launched this, so it should become more useful over time as we gather more historical data and keep improving the experience.

We’d love your feedback on what you’d want to see from us in the future as we get more focused on pricing and deals.

The issue is with the image, so as a short-term workaround, you can save it and upload it.

Here’s the page: https://equipboard.com/items/diamond-phase-small-box

Thanks, I was able to replicate this bug.

We'll look into it!

Agreed, but it took an embarrassing long time for me to learn that lesson.

Honestly? EQ pedal with a boost. In my opinion the easiest and cheapest way to drastically alter your sound and add versatility.

This looks like it's been done and all is well?

Thanks, fixed!

Deleted.

Done!

Can you expand on that a bit? Perhaps a screen shot of the screen you're talking about?

What additional roles would you like?

Is that a duplicate with this page? https://equipboard.com/pros/michael-kelly-smith

Done!

Hmm, that's interesting. Musicbrainz (what we key off of when adding new artists) has two different entries.

I'll combine and add "aka King Buzzo" to the name so people should see it in search going forward.

Everything back to normal now?

Sorry for the slow reply. I was under the weather and am just getting back to things.

This looks really promising, thanks for sharing!

Done!

Done!

https://equipboard.com/items/bode-model-7702-vocoder

I'm not sure what the issue is. I was able to replicate it with the upload. Looking into it.

Looks great to me!

Not yet. It’s on my to-do list, but over the past couple of weeks we’ve been focused on backend improvements, specifically improving product links and tying artist submissions to albums.

We’ll be at NAMM for the rest of the week, but I’ll make sure we discuss it and come up with a plan shortly after.

Anyone heading to NAMM this year? We'll be there walking around the convention center floor meeting our brand and merchant partners and such. If you spot us come say hi! (we'll be rocking Equipboard tees)

Updated!

Claimed, thanks!

Yes, I like this idea. Having products tied to multiple brands makes sense.

We also have the ability to list gear in multiple categories on the roadmap. For example, my Strymon Flint should appear in both the reverb and tremolo categories, rather than being treated only as a multi-FX unit, as it is now.

Done!

Yes, looks great!

PS- Sorry for the delay, missed this somehow.

Fixed!

Yes, option A, please.

For the first pass, we’ll follow Reverb’s structure since it provides enough differentiation for a standalone page. Anything beyond that would require building a custom taxonomy for every individual guitar model, which is something we can tackle later. This approach should still eliminate most of the duplicates and give users a solid way to find the specific model they’re looking for.

should we also keep a general "Gibson Les Paul Studio" entry that doesn't list a year range?

Yes, I think so. At the very least, I see this as a use case for the "representative" tag, where people can choose it if they spot someone using a Les Paul Studio, but can't identify specifics beyond that.

Should mods and EB Allstars just steer clear of tackling any dupes that may be related to this kind of fundamental re-org, and let you and Giulio tackle it holistically and programmatically?

No need to hold back. Continue using the site as usual. We already rolled out the year and finish options for submissions, and are moving quickly through the color queue to surface and consolidate duplicates. From there, we’ll rely on additional signals like link collisions and overlapping products on partner pages to catch others.

Yes, exactly. This approach gives us the strongest canonical reference for identifying models, especially on the used market.

We’re already moving in this direction by letting you include year and finish in artist submissions, and we’re actively cleaning up duplicate items that differ only by finish. We’re about halfway through solid-body guitars at this point and reviewed roughly 5,000 pages last month.

Giulio is also developing additional methods to identify duplicates systematically.

It’s a large project, but the progress has been steady.