Bored of GAS

[awel]

Since few years now, I am buying and selling all the new stuff I get. I think because after a short time I compare to my 'will never sell' guitars, the 2010 Black Beauty, a 2010 Fender Vintage Hot Rod 62 Strat modified with a Di Marzio Chopper in the bridge position, and a 2013 Fender American Special Tele.

 

This can be splitted in different step:

 

1- first, when I feel bored, I spend my time on guitars gears web sites;

2- I am really conviced that I NEED this or that guitar to have some kind of live backup for my other guitars, so I spend even more times on youtube and on Forum to see all kind of test about it;

3- I buy the guitars, feel accomplished;

4- I play it and love it, convinced it will be part of my 'to keep' gears;

5- I find something that annoy me about this guitar and start to only focus on that;

6- I compare with my loved guitars and think what I have is the best (for me);

7- I sell this guitar (with money loss);

8- I regret having sold it.

 

But now, I think I am done, I mean what's the purpose of trying to find something else instead of enjoy and learn to get the best I can with what I have.

I feel fortunate to have what I can call, good guitars.

 

Perhaps I am slowly healing of GAS. Perhaps I am just crazy.

 

Don't know but just wanted to know if someone already felt the same?

[btoth76]

Hello Awel!

 

I know this. I wanted to collect all the main Les Paul variations. Then, sometimes, - out of sudden - comes a guitar that I feel it`s a must have.

 

It all went crazy after a while. So, I sat down and started thinking what is that I really need. Started to focus on the practical side of the story.

 

First, I gave up the idea of owning all the Les Paul variation (2PU, 3PU, mini-bucker, P90s, etc.)

 

As far as sudden GAS is concerned, I found that waiting a week or two instead of pulling the trigger immediately, helps.

 

My approach for a while now, is to - first - have my two vintage amps rebuilt in the way I want them. I also have a custom pedalboard project going. When I am done with these, I will setup a recording environment: mics for amps, monitors.

 

The instruments on my imaginary list are arranged in a practical way too: I need a basic bass for recording my own backing tracks, and a MIDI keyboard. One day, I'd like to buy a hollow-body Gibson too and the 7-string LP (My playing is mostly scale-based riffs).

 

The guitars in my signature below, - mostly - keepers. I might replace the Studio with a similiar P90s Traditional - but not necessarily. The Tele is the one that is not needed since I own the L6S - it will be sold.

 

These would cover my sonic needs. To sum up: planning Your equipment helps overcoming GAS.

 

Cheers... Bence

[ReGuitar]

Nevermind the GAS and treat your OCD.

 

Regards

[awel]

Hello Awel!

 

I know this. I wanted to collect all the main Les Paul variations. Then, sometimes, - out of sudden - comes a guitar that I feel it`s a must have.

 

It all went crazy after a while. So, I sat down and started thinking what is that I really need. Started to focus on the practical side of the story.

 

First, I gave up the idea of owning all the Les Paul variation (2PU, 3PU, mini-bucker, P90s, etc.)

 

As far as sudden GAS is concerned, I found that waiting a week or two instead of pulling the trigger immediately, helps.

 

My approach for a while now, is to - first - have a my two vintage amps rebuilt in the way I want them. I also have a custom pedalboard project going. When I am done with these, I will setup a recording environment: mics for amps, monitors.

 

The instruments on my imaginary list are arranged in a practical way too: I need a basic bass for recording my own backing tracks, and a MIDI keyboard. One day, I'd like to buy a hollow-body Gibson too and the 7-string LP (My playing is mostly scale-based riffs).

 

The guitars in my signature below, - mostly - keepers. I might replace the Studio with a similiar P90s Traditional - but not necessarily. The Tele is the one that is not needed since I own the L6S - it will be sold.

 

These would cover my sonic needs. To sum up: planning Your equipment helps overcoming GAS.

 

Cheers... Bence

 

I have noticed this as well, that instead of directly click on 'order it now' or to take out my credit card in a local music store, taking a week to think about it ends most of the time by not buying it.

 

so reflexion is definitivly a way to wisdom.

[btoth76]

Nevermind the GAS and treat your OCD.

 

Regards

 

Hello!

 

G.A.S. is a form of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

 

Cheers... Bence

[ReGuitar]

Hello!

 

G.A.S. is a form of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

 

Cheers... Bence

 

Indeed. LOL

[ksdaddy]

I can only speak for myself but to paraphrase, the definition of stupid is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

 

Taking that sentiment into account, I ask myself how many Strats have I owned? (for example). Granted they all have their own personalities but after 15 or 20 I would think I'd come to the realization that Strats don't work for me. Nor do any of the 335 family. Or many others for that matter. Yet I get GAS. And I do go through the same steps as awel with the exception that I seldom lose money. Right place, right time kinda thing maybe.

 

I especially go through those steps with an electric archtops and I now see a pattern. Let's say I buy an ES-175:

 

1. It comes with 10s. Wimpy, won't stay in tune.

2. I put 12-52 roundwounds on it. To stiff, too much finger noise.

3. I put 12-52 flats on it. Quieter but even stiffer.

4. I am lucky to find 10-46 or 11-48 flats. Ahhhh, perfect.

5. These pickups are a little weak. Time to swap them out.

6. Kick butt! Now I need a Bigsby.

7. I feel bad for modifying it and change everything back to stock.

8. I find an excuse to sell it.

 

Nothing matters, I am going back to my Telecaster I've owned for 36 years. Not spoken as a Tele nut; it's THAT guitar, like Willie has his Trigger.

 

Acoustics, same deal. There's two Bozeman J200s hanging on the wall. They can rot for all I care. If the house catches fire I'm grabbing the '64 Southern Jumbo.

 

I'm currently shopping for an archtop. I've owned too many to count and the one lesson I've learned is that just because you go to fatter and fatter price tags, the enjoyment level doesn't necessarily increase with it. I've had my most fun on old L50s. I may just buy an L48 just to out-cheap myself.

 

Yeah, I have archtop GAS again. But the difference THIS time is that I've been to the top and realize where I should have stayed. I'm sure there's a Martin freak somewhere that has worked his way up through the ranks (like we all do in one way or another) and ended up with a D45 and a big credit card bill, only to realize he was happier with the old cracked 00-18 his aunt gave him in '71.

 

GAS will never go away and I'm sure in spite of what I've said here, there will come a time when I will want another Strat but THIS time I want _____ color with _____ pickups yadda yadda.... Know the difference between a whim and "This next guitar will make me whole". Whims are easier to deal with, and they are honest.

[Versatile]

GAS is a gas, as mentioned in a certain nameless song... <_<

 

A 'cooling off' period is certainly advisable...unless money/space is in excess... :blink:

 

Personal approach is to make any purchase as 'different' as possible...

 

Luckily I do not share some peoples' desire for dozens of Les Pauls... :blink:

 

And Strats/Teles can be kept down to 2 or 3 of each...

 

V

 

 

PS...Some people can benefit from surgical fitment of a rubber hose with a tap on the end

 

Unsure where this is actually fitted... :unsure:

[SteveFord]

Collecting guitars is a lot of fun but when you find them just sitting in the case all of the time because you really prefer one guitar over all of the others, well, what's the point?

 

Do I really NEED another electric guitar? Well, no but it sure would be cool to own that one and then it ends up sitting in the case because you really just prefer that one guitar after all.

 

I guess it's a sickness of some sort or maybe just stupidity but a Firebird VII sure would be pretty damned cool!!!

[awel]

You know perhaps I will change my mind but honestly except hollow-body guitars I have owned so many guitars, 6 Les Paul (classic, std, Trad, Custom Shop), 5 Strato (Custom Shop, Std, Vintage Hot Rods, MIM), 3 SGs(Std, Studio, Reissue 61), 3 Tele (Std, American Special, Richie Kotzen Signature) and so many super strat (EVH, Robin, Ibanez, Jackson), there was a time I owned around 10 of them at the same time ...

 

And you know what, I was spending more time to stare at the shelf were I put them all, thinking about which one I will play than actually playing.

 

So now I am selling my Custom Shop Strat and perhaps will look for an ES-335 or ES-339, like that I will have all different guitars.

 

I remember being a kid reading magazines and dreaming about all these commercials about Gibson, Fender etc... and went back to work on my cheap guitar so hard!

 

But the main point is I will work my tone and try to get the best of all the gears I owned (guitars, amps, pedals, fingers and ...soul)

 

 

back to basics

[BobF_]

I'm reminded of this great tune:

 

[capmaster]

In my case it always has been about backlog demand. There never was GAS as such here, it is about our music only.

 

The very sense of any instrument of mine is matching the ideas of my pals and me without swapping guitars within a song. Indeed I succeed doing so again and again with every new song we create. I think now I have what I wanted for a long, long time, in particular piezo'd solidbody hybrids and some common, some very special solidbody electrics.

[Riffster]

 

1- first, when I feel bored, I spend my time on guitars gears web sites;

2- I am really conviced that I NEED this or that guitar to have some kind of live backup for my other guitars, so I spend even more times on youtube and on Forum to see all kind of test about it;

3- I buy the guitars, feel accomplished;

4- I play it and love it, convinced it will be part of my 'to keep' gears;

5- I find something that annoy me about this guitar and start to only focus on that;

6- I compare with my loved guitars and think what I have is the best (for me);

7- I sell this guitar (with money loss);

8- I regret having sold it.

 

But now, I think I am done, I mean what's the purpose of trying to find something else instead of enjoy and learn to get the best I can with what I have.

I feel fortunate to have what I can call, good guitars.

 

Perhaps I am slowly healing of GAS. Perhaps I am just crazy.

 

Don't know but just wanted to know if someone already felt the same?

 

I feel the same way, I have now 14 guitars and should have stopped at 10 (one being a bass), I have sold a couple of guitars and never regretted it and I will sell two more and be happy when they are gone. Same with pedals and amplifiers, I will be making some space in my guitar room soon. I am planning to relic the guitars I do keep by playing the hell out of them.

 

This week I bought something I should have bought a year ago instead of the last two guitars and last two pedals, an electronic drum set to have 3 different drummer friends to stop by and jam and record. Now that should provide me development as a bedroom guitar player.

[Rabs]

For me its been a little different...

 

I had just one guitar for like 11-12 years or so.. First a Studio then my Classic.. I sold the studio as it had a 50s neck and I wasn't playing it any more.... And at that time the idea of having more than one guitar seemed excessive to me.

 

Then one day I decided I needed a cheaper and lighter Gibby to play and got my DC Special... Now this opened the flood gates for me and within like 3-4 years or so I had 8 Gibsons :o lol talk about bad GAS..

 

What annoyed me was I loved having them but came to the conclusion that I just had too many guitars to play and I hated having some just sitting in their cases doing nothing for months on end.. So I thinned them down and now have 4 great guitars that I love and display..

 

Ever since then I now only get "fantasy" GAS.. so I will perve over nice guitars I see on the web or when I visit a store but never have any intentions on buying them... All I am missing that I will get one day is a 336.. Then that's it for me...

 

As for modding them.... All of mine are stock apart from the DC which was modded slightly before I bought it. For me if I wont buy a guitar unless im happy with everything.... I bought my 2008 Standard on a bit of a love at first sight thing but don't regret it all :)

[Resigned]

.

[awel]

I feel the same way, I have now 14 guitars and should have stopped at 10 (one being a bass), I have sold a couple of guitars and never regretted it and I will sell two more and be happy when they are gone. Same with pedals and amplifiers, I will be making some space in my guitar room soon. I am planning to relic the guitars I do keep by playing the hell out of them.

 

This week I bought something I should have bought a year ago instead of the last two guitars and last two pedals, an electronic drum set to have 3 different drummer friends to stop by and jam and record. Now that should provide me development as a bedroom guitar player.

 

This exactly what I talking about, instead of buying new guitars, I have started a PA 'cause even if in my actual classic rock band we have a PA, I know as soon as I will have a bit more time, I will start a blues rock band and so I will need a PA.

 

I am thinking as well to buy a cheap bass and a midi keyboard to make some kind of home studio.

[AndyK]

Collecting guitars is a lot of fun but when you find them just sitting in the case all of the time because you really prefer one guitar over all of the others, well, what's the point?

 

Do I really NEED another electric guitar? Well, no but it sure would be cool to own that one and then it ends up sitting in the case because you really just prefer that one guitar after all.

 

Yes, agreed. I just sold my LP Classic, which was my number one for over 10 years. Why? Well, since I got my SG, I preferred it. Better pickups (57 classics), nice and light, double cut access to the top frets - all in all, a better gigging guitar. In addition, when my custom guitar arrives, that will be my number one (it had better bloomin' be, after the amount it cost!), thus relegating the LP to number 3. I do so hate to see guitars sitting there unused, so I sold it. It still had the best neck I've ever played, but... such is life.

[RowdyMoon]

Since few years now, I am buying and selling all the new stuff I get. I think because after a short time I compare to my 'will never sell' guitars, the 2010 Black Beauty, a 2010 Fender Vintage Hot Rod 62 Strat modified with a Di Marzio Chopper in the bridge position, and a 2013 Fender American Special Tele.

 

This can be splitted in different step:

 

1- first, when I feel bored, I spend my time on guitars gears web sites;

2- I am really conviced that I NEED this or that guitar to have some kind of live backup for my other guitars, so I spend even more times on youtube and on Forum to see all kind of test about it;

3- I buy the guitars, feel accomplished;

4- I play it and love it, convinced it will be part of my 'to keep' gears;

5- I find something that annoy me about this guitar and start to only focus on that;

6- I compare with my loved guitars and think what I have is the best (for me);

7- I sell this guitar (with money loss);

8- I regret having sold it.

 

But now, I think I am done, I mean what's the purpose of trying to find something else instead of enjoy and learn to get the best I can with what I have.

I feel fortunate to have what I can call, good guitars.

 

Perhaps I am slowly healing of GAS. Perhaps I am just crazy.

 

Don't know but just wanted to know if someone already felt the same?

 

you forgot number 9.......I mistakenly watch a you tube video of a 7 year old that kicks my azz at guitar then feel like I should sell everything I own.

[capmaster]

Most infant prodigies seem to shoot their wad during younger years. Very few make it to the top as adults like Joe Bonamassa or Derek Trucks.

[awel]

you forgot number 9.......I mistakenly watch a you tube video of a 7 year old that kicks my azz at guitar then feel like I should sell everything I own.

 

indeed I forgot the #9 the most important one! :)

[capmaster]

you forgot number 9.......I mistakenly watch a you tube video of a 7 year old that kicks my azz at guitar then feel like I should sell everything I own.

As far as I get it, #9 would possibly cause GSS aka Gear Selling Syndrome.

[Starpeve]

GAS is a gas, as mentioned in a certain nameless song... <_<

 

A 'cooling off' period is certainly advisable...unless money/space is in excess... :blink:

 

Personal approach is to make any purchase as 'different' as possible...

 

Luckily I do not share some peoples' desire for dozens of Les Pauls... :blink:

 

And Strats/Teles can be kept down to 2 or 3 of each...

 

V

 

:-(

 

 

PS...Some people can benefit from surgical fitment of a rubber hose with a tap on the en

 

Unsure where this is actually fitted... :unsure:

Perhaps one end should be to a bottle of nitrous oxide?

[milod]

I think KS hit things pretty well too...

 

But here's the deal on the 175 comments...

 

I kinda went the same way with a reeeeally nice one - albeit a "patent infringement" model when Gibson wasn't doing so well and had no nearby dealers.

 

I tried 12 round, 12 flats, 13 flats, 12 tapewound... I really hated the instrument by that point. It just didn't "play."

 

But for some odd reason I didn't swap it off as I had so many others.

 

Around 10 years ago I opened the case for the first time literally in decades. It was wearing the old tapewounds that were my final attempt to make the guitar work in late 1979.

 

"What the heck," I thought. "I wear 9-42 on everything else, so... in spite of everybody telling me I've gotta wear heavy strings, let's try those."

 

The sunshine suddenly broke through the clouds as I finished doing the little hand-stretching of as set of Elixir Polyweb 9-42. The guitar told me why somehow I'd known she'd sing for me. She sang... and still sings with about any and everything I do.

 

I'm a light-handed fingerpicker. With the light strings, the 175 seems to almost perfectly "fit" my physical geometry, holding and playing style pretty much as my old classical guitars that I'd started on and loved, but swapped for a string of electrics and AEs to play in various types of gigs over the years.

 

So... we're not talking about making major mods, just thinking about how one plays, what one plays for music and style, what guitars have somehow felt most comfortable for playing, what strings... what amplification for how and where one will be playing. I guess I started thinking that way back in the '70s when I quit buying flattops that weren't AE.

 

I'm giving away a second big box flattop in the next cupla weeks - when the thermometer comes back up a bit and my young family of rancher friends can stop in. I simply don't need it. One big box is all I really am likely to play. I have one that strums quite nicely although I'd prefer - and may swap for - a short scale 'stedda the 25 1/2.

 

I've about decided to quit adding certain types. But I still get use from various types, so I'm not going to claim I'm done with GAS. OTOH, I could probably do with a better/more powerful PA.

 

m

[knucklebut]

1415712278[/url]' post='1589108']

I can only speak for myself but to paraphrase, the definition of stupid is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

 

Taking that sentiment into account, I ask myself how many Strats have I owned? (for example). Granted they all have their own personalities but after 15 or 20 I would think I'd come to the realization that Strats don't work for me. Nor do any of the 335 family. Or many others for that matter. Yet I get GAS. And I do go through the same steps as awel with the exception that I seldom lose money. Right place, right time kinda thing maybe.

 

I especially go through those steps with an electric archtops and I now see a pattern. Let's say I buy an ES-175:

 

1. It comes with 10s. Wimpy, won't stay in tune.

2. I put 12-52 roundwounds on it. To stiff, too much finger noise.

3. I put 12-52 flats on it. Quieter but even stiffer.

4. I am lucky to find 10-46 or 11-48 flats. Ahhhh, perfect.

5. These pickups are a little weak. Time to swap them out.

6. Kick butt! Now I need a Bigsby.

7. I feel bad for modifying it and change everything back to stock.

8. I find an excuse to sell it.

 

Nothing matters, I am going back to my Telecaster I've owned for 36 years. Not spoken as a Tele nut; it's THAT guitar, like Willie has his Trigger.

 

Acoustics, same deal. There's two Bozeman J200s hanging on the wall. They can rot for all I care. If the house catches fire I'm grabbing the '64 Southern Jumbo.

 

I'm currently shopping for an archtop. I've owned too many to count and the one lesson I've learned is that just because you go to fatter and fatter price tags, the enjoyment level doesn't necessarily increase with it. I've had my most fun on old L50s. I may just buy an L48 just to out-cheap myself.

 

Yeah, I have archtop GAS again. But the difference THIS time is that I've been to the top and realize where I should have stayed. I'm sure there's a Martin freak somewhere that has worked his way up through the ranks (like we all do in one way or another) and ended up with a D45 and a big credit card bill, only to realize he was happier with the old cracked 00-18 his aunt gave him in '71.

 

GAS will never go away and I'm sure in spite of what I've said here, there will come a time when I will want another Strat but THIS time I want _____ color with _____ pickups yadda yadda.... Know the difference between a whim and "This next guitar will make me whole". Whims are easier to deal with, and they are honest.

 

Using that logic..I must be genius I do the same thing every time and expect exactly what happens.