Gear Acquisition Syndrome

[toymaker]

Anyone experience GAS? For the last year I've been buying guitars and I can't seem to stop. With a couple of exceptions, I just buy anything kind of cool, playable and cheap on Kijiji. Something in me craves LOTS of guitars, rather than a few really great guitars. I do find them aesthetically pleasing. Everyone I know is enabling me - nothing wrong with buying guitars, better than spending it on drugs, etc. My own rationale is that I could be spending hundreds of bucks on paintings, but I'd rather look at a guitar than a dumb old painting anyway.

 

Anyway, here's part of my music room. Should I stop? Apart from a couple of things, you won't see anything super expensive. I just love havin' 'em.

 

[Fordgalaxy]

Holy crap! If you can afford it and it makes you happy, who cares? Or, maybe you're subconsciously trying to find happiness with "things" instead of getting to the root of the issue. ;)

[toymaker]

Holy crap! If you can afford it and it makes you happy, who cares? Or, maybe you're subconsciously trying to find happiness with "things" instead of getting to the root of the issue. ;)

 

I actually do worry that it is the latter . . .

 

I do love instruments. I do sell them after a while, too, and get new things. And I try only to use money I earn from gigs to buy new stuff. . . . again with a couple of exceptions.

[Maverick]

Now you need pedals and better amps. ;)

[The Analog Cub]

I did it with pedals for about 6 months, but I simply don't have the money for that kind of vice. That setup looks badass, man!

[HemiBeers]

If you have the bucks and use the instruments, who cares. If you have problems paying for necessities...oh, like food, water, electricity...and you're hoarding gear for the sake of hoarding...well then it's more of a problem.

 

I have the exact opposite issue...every time I consider buying some new gear, the conscience gets in the way (oh you're not good enough, you'll get tired of it and not use it, you have better use for your money, etc.). Money's not an issue at all...just this curse of practical thinking. The last new guitar I bought was early 90s I think...that's f***ing sad lol.

[toymaker]

As far as effects and things go, I'm super easy to please. I have a few little modeling amps (the Line 6 and a couple of weensy Fender Mustangs) that keep me messing about, mostly - I know they are more like toys than real amps, but I can record with them and get some cool sounds. All of my old pedals are in a drawer somewhere - the chorus, overdrive, wah, and compressor. That old Yamaha bass amp in the picture suits me fine. For gigging (bass) I use my David Eden.

 

I would never compromise the needs of my kids for music stuff. It's just that I went years and years and years without really having anything (an entry level Yamaha guitar, a second-hand Ibanez bass, and one of those package cheapo strats and amp kits), and after my wife passed away something snapped. Maybe I was trying to compensate for the loss with a bunch of colorful toys, I don't know. I try to give them all some love from time to time, and a few of them seem genuinely to have inspired me to bang out some riffs and things that turned into longer songs.

 

But I have to stop buying guitars and basses sometime. I just have to learn not to go on Kijiji . . .

[Maverick]

The worst thing I did for my GAS was get a Sweetwater credit card.

[toymaker]

The worst thing I did for my GAS was get a Sweetwater credit card.

 

I had to look that up. I can see how that would be a problem . . . they're having a clearance sale right now.

 

Maybe I shouldn't have told you that.

[Lucas]

I'm right there with you Toymaker, I fully understand

 

I tend to do this with other things too -- for example, books .... With musical gear or books I don't think the pleasure is necessarily simply the act of buying or hoarding ( even though seeking 'em out and getting them is great fun ) -- it is the wonderful and free feeling of knowing that those guitars or those books will be there when you need them to escape and plunge into a world of solitude and happiness ..

 

With each guitar, you might have in your thinking all this time set aside - for that one guitar ... It's the now, and the later in looking forward to that time ( or those times )

 

TM, what is that orange guitar on the wall - the Jaguar / Jazzmaster looking one ( to the left of the classical ) ??

 

 

And I see the double neck you built !!! .. well done !!

 

 

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Edited January 16, 2018 by Lucas

[toymaker]

I'm right there with you Toymaker, I fully understand

 

I tend to do this with other things too -- for example, books .... With musical gear or books I don't think the pleasure is necessarily simply the act of buying or hoarding ( even though seeking 'em out and getting them is great fun ) -- it is the wonderful and free feeling of knowing that those guitars or those books will be there when you need them to escape and plunge into a world of solitude and happiness ..

 

With each guitar, you might have in your thinking all this time set aside - for that one guitar ... It's the now, and the later in looking forward to that time ( or those times )

 

TM, what is that orange guitar on the wall - the Jaguar / Jazzmaster looking one ( to the left of the classical ) ??

 

 

And I see the double neck you built !!! .. well done !!

 

 

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Thanks, Lucas.

 

The orange one is the Danelectro reissue of the '67 Hornet.

 

And yeah, the guitar player in the band and I finished the doubleneck, although I have to give him a lot of the credit for getting the wiring right! He's also put in a toggle switch which, strangely, the kit didn't feature. Also strange, the intonation on the 12 string is actually better than the 6 string . . . a work in progress, I guess.

[toymaker]

[Lucas]

 

I love that guitar - esp the pickguard

 

TM, the neck looks wide in that video - is it particularly wide, or is that guy's hand just small ??

[toymaker]

Yeah, the pickguard is hypnotic - a total pearloid trip.

 

I don't think the neck is particularly wide - I wonder if the camera they're using flattens things out a bit more?

 

The thing has a completely useless tremolo system - might as well call it the de-tune-o-matic - the guy in the video only uses it at the very end of the video . . .

Edited January 16, 2018 by toymaker

[toymaker]

Actually . . . just measured - the neck is 1 and 3/4 at the nut. So yeah, it is pretty wide!

[TFEman]

At the moment, I'm in a guitar building syndroms. It's pretty much the same thing but all I wanna do right now is build more guitars, even though I know that if I build another one, I'm not gonna play it that much

[toymaker]

At the moment, I'm in a guitar building syndroms. It's pretty much the same thing but all I wanna do right now is build more guitars, even though I know that if I build another one, I'm not gonna play it that much

 

What kinds of things are you building? My bandmate and I have done one kit guitar (electric doubleneck) and I would love to build a 4/6 bass/guitar doubleneck, but I just don't have the knack for wiring diagrams and soldering. I could easily get swept away by it, though.

[New Digital Man]

I have GAS for this and if I was in the US I would buy it, third bass down! https://www.talkbass.../#post-20854424

[EagleMoon]

I know a lot of people like to collect just to collect. Sometimes they do that and never play them. I’ve always been happy with one or maybe two instruments that are good quality and do what I need them to do.

[toymaker]

I know a lot of people like to collect just to collect. Sometimes they do that and never play them. I’ve always been happy with one or maybe two instruments that are good quality and do what I need them to do.

 

Normally I'd make that argument, too. But I got hooked on collecting. Happy to report they're not just wall hangings, but I pick them up to play at random, and I've made recordings with each instrument with the exception of one guitar I won at an auction that is super buzzy. And I do find over time that I am recognizing their different tonal qualities.

 

It could be that I am just rationalizing.

 

I was going to make a deal with myself that for every new instrument I purchase, I have to sell two. But that's so harsh...

[fraroc]

I know a lot of people like to collect just to collect. Sometimes they do that and never play them. I’ve always been happy with one or maybe two instruments that are good quality and do what I need them to do.

 

I guess when people are not only fascinated by the sounds, but also the aesthetics...Sometimes you can't help but want more variety. I know I'm guilty of it....There was a time where I was really trying to look for a PRS-like guitar....then I had my eyes on a headless superstrat, then I had my eyes on a Jackson Rhoads...Now I'm kind of eyeing up an Epiphone Les Paul and I kind of want to convert my dad's old Applause strat knockoff into a fretless guitar.

 

All of this and I'm not even past the point of practicing....

 

 

f**k I'm pathetic aren't I.

Edited January 20, 2018 by fraroc

[toymaker]

I know a lot of people like to collect just to collect. Sometimes they do that and never play them. I’ve always been happy with one or maybe two instruments that are good quality and do what I need them to do.

 

I guess when people are not only fascinated by the sounds, but also the aesthetics...Sometimes you can't help but want more variety. I know I'm guilty of it....There was a time where I was really trying to look for a PRS-like guitar....then I had my eyes on a headless superstrat, then I had my eyes on a Jackson Rhoads...Now I'm kind of eyeing up an Epiphone Les Paul and I kind of want to convert my dad's old Applause strat knockoff into a fretless guitar.

 

All of this and I'm not even past the point of practicing....

 

 

f**k I'm pathetic aren't I.

 

Not at all - keep working at it!

[EagleMoon]

I know a lot of people like to collect just to collect. Sometimes they do that and never play them. I’ve always been happy with one or maybe two instruments that are good quality and do what I need them to do.

 

Normally I'd make that argument, too. But I got hooked on collecting. Happy to report they're not just wall hangings, but I pick them up to play at random, and I've made recordings with each instrument with the exception of one guitar I won at an auction that is super buzzy. And I do find over time that I am recognizing their different tonal qualities.

 

It could be that I am just rationalizing.

 

I was going to make a deal with myself that for every new instrument I purchase, I have to sell two. But that's so harsh...

 

I have a friend that does that, if she buys a bass, she has to sell one. She has reason though, she lives in a small apartment in DC so no room.

[Geddy Jazz]

Collecting musical instruments is an investment...I would not call it a syndrome.....and if so... nothing wrong with it!! :laughing guy:

[fraroc]

I know a lot of people like to collect just to collect. Sometimes they do that and never play them. I’ve always been happy with one or maybe two instruments that are good quality and do what I need them to do.

 

I guess when people are not only fascinated by the sounds, but also the aesthetics...Sometimes you can't help but want more variety. I know I'm guilty of it....There was a time where I was really trying to look for a PRS-like guitar....then I had my eyes on a headless superstrat, then I had my eyes on a Jackson Rhoads...Now I'm kind of eyeing up an Epiphone Les Paul and I kind of want to convert my dad's old Applause strat knockoff into a fretless guitar.

 

All of this and I'm not even past the point of practicing....

 

 

f**k I'm pathetic aren't I.

 

Not at all - keep working at it!

 

Yes I am....I mean, what the hell am I thinking? What is going through my mind when I want to do these things? Wanting to convert my dad's strat copy into a fretless guitar? When I can barely play a fretted guitar?