What is it with GAS???!!?

I ran out of space

 

Hasn't stopped me.

 

I just posted a thread about the guitar bodies and parts I have laying around here, because I just can't turn that part of my brain off. I have amp parts too, a box of pedals, there is no hope.

 

I've basically acquired everything guitar related that I ever wanted. There are still a few small items (though not cheap) that I want, but guitars and amps are pretty well handled now.

 

So what helps people get over GAS? Or should I just accept it?

The simple answer is quit buying stuff. Let me go over the symptoms that you will experience one or more of. You see an actual guitar at a music store, or you could just play a friend's guitar, or even just see them play it. You start thinking I would like to have one like it. Then you say, you know I really need one of those. Then the fever kicks in, you start shopping for one, you look every where. By now it's just about all you can think of you are in full rut for the guitar. Your nostrils flair at the mere thought of it. THEN you find one and buy it. Your lust is satiated. (for now)

Here's the odd part, after playing the guitar a few days you muse to yourself. Maybe this thing needs some different pickups? The tone control definitely needs a cap change. What's wrong with this thing, I can't do volume swells? Finally; Why did I buy this POS anyway?

The only real cure for this is to realize most guitars will sound about the same to you about a month after you acquire them, there is no SECRET guitar formula. If Marty Stuart gave you Clarence, you'd still sound like you, and not Marty, or the guitars predecessor Clarence White. I can't almost guarantee this to be true, I can most definitely, bet the farm guarandamnedtee you this is true. Don't buy a guitar for a year. You'll be amazed. I haven't bought a guitar in seven years. Previously on TD's life, I have driven all over the state, in some cases out of state to buy guitars, I'm cured. I have a Tele and a couple of acoustics, if I can't get by with one of them, I don't need to have a guitar anyway. Maybe an accordion, or banjo? No thank you, I already had that banjo disease.

 

What really helped reduce my GAS is that before I buy a guitar I think, what am I going to use it for, what does it do that none of my other guitars do, and what am I going to stop playing so that I play this. The answers to those questions usually stop me.

 

Don't get me wrong, I love getting new gear, but I think what really made my GAS subside was getting exquisitely close to "the tone" I've been hunting. I still love surfing gear porn but nothing really jumps out at me. Pedals may be the lone exception to this but, again, unless it's a very specific effect I'm looking for, nothing really fires up the GAS like it used to. Only thing on my radar right now is a possible backup for my #1, in the form of a duplicate guitar, but I have instruments that fill the backup role nicely, so it's going to have to be a perfect match for me to press that button.

 

GAS. For some reason, we use this acronym to justify what is essentially a behaviour of compulsive consumption. You go online, see something you've never thought about before, and suddenly it's like your whole life depends on you getting it. You obsessively read and watch videos about, scout the different sale sites for what seems like a good price, just to realize time and time again that you spent all that time and money on another toy that could be replaced by something you already own.

I honestly think we should stop talking about it in such a jokingly, lighthearted way. As I said, it looks very similair to compulsive obsessive behaviour, or psychological addiction, and more often than not, forum people acts as enablers of that behaviour.

/ a guy that's bought 2 botique pedals and one d.i box in 4 weeks.

 

It is tough and irrational. I did go about 5 years without buying anything, getting down to 2 electrics and one acoustic and one amp. And I was fine with my setup for what I was doing. And when I started back up playing with others, all I wanted at first was the right dirt pedal and maybe a louder version of my amp. That started me down a rabbit hole from which I am hopefully starting to escape, having just gone through yet another burst of acquisitions. I actually think being on TDPRI was the biggest factor in out of control GAS for me. For the most part the people I play with own minimal gear and it is rarely fancy or boutique, and they have no interest in even talking about it at all, and it has nothing to do with their skill sets or their desirability as bandmates. In fact a few of the best players have some of most completely cheap, average gear and some of the worst players have seriously high end, large collections that they make a point of playing at a show.

 

...she left.

 

Yeah, and no one at the corner bar is gonna tell you you not to order a beer.

Sorta goes with the territory. Just sayin

 

Well, I celebrate my 20th anniversary as a player this year, and let me tell you, it will never get better. I don't believe the guys that are saying they're not feeling it anymore for one minute. You might think you're fine and just wish for minor stuff, but sooner or later, GAS will hit again, as hard as always. Of course, already having good gear and recognizing you have what you need is a good way of playing it down when it hits, but you can never out buy it. Just look at all the guitar greats. If they've got money, they will have an insane amount of stuff. It's not like having the best stuff imaginable keeps them from aquiring even more.

 

It's ok tho...I got 2 more guitars since

 

I have had worse GAS since the pandemic. Maybe getting to do stuff will steer me away from shopping as much. I don’t know. I don’t have a 26 scale flame top Strat and I’m sure I need one. I also don’t have a single desktop handmade tube amp, not 1.
How can I be a good family man without this? How?

 

We've all been trained from birth to think we're incomplete and that spending money on the next thing will complete us. We are trained to suffer. We have to train ourselves not to suffer but to see that we're already complete and we always were.

 

Same here... I have got any guitar I have ever wanted... played it, sold it and just keep those you find special... But the really good ones are keepers. I got my tele in 1988 and used it since then. Is my #1. I had more teles but none of them is like my #1... got Les pauls, SGs, 335, teles... buy sell, trade and in 2001 I got my SG... she is my #2... and again start the wheel... les pauls, teles, bog boxes, Guilds, Gretsch until last year I got my Gretsch 6120 and now is my #3...

For me is enough. I know that since 1988 I could't find a better tele ( TO ME) that my #1, since the same time and 2001 no better SG (TO ME) that my #2 and no better 6120 (TO ME) than my #3. So, I have no GAS for teles, SGs and Gretsches. I really don't like other kind of guitars, maybe a P90s Les Paul I had but I like more my SG

Regarding amps is quite the same

AND having no money also helps

 

For me it is sports, road cycling that is. It makes me calm - I am outside, I watch the surrounding landscape, meditate a bit, have a chat with somebody I meet. It helps me get away from internet because I have less time for it and after 50 - 60 km (31 - 37 miles) I am too tired to be searching for stuff on internet to be honest
Plus I live in an appartment and have limited space. Right now I know that if I buy something, I have to sell something else - and I dont wanna do that, because I love my current set of guitars and pedals.