How do stop yourself buying guitars/basses/amps.....

Ravenous

Garthy said:

Where would the guitar industry be though if all those with 6 guitars decided they'd only have one guitar? If demand dropped by 80%  many in the industry would go to the wall.

That wouldn't be a bad thing.

Anyway most guitar sales are probably beginners' models, being sold to beginners.  Not that many people own multiples.

Business greed for ever more sales is the real problem - stupid over hyped models nobody really wants.  (Just my opinion.)

Blueingreen

My preferences have developed in a way that now makes it hard for me to find anything I'm seriously tempted by.  Specifically I like guitars that are:

light weight
have flattish radius
have big frets, 6100 or 6000
Gibson scale
have a no fuss but reliable trem (no Floyds, Bigsbys etc)
have a single coil in the neck position
aesthetically fairly traditional looking

I have some other less crucial prefs that also narrow things down like:

Locking tuners
Single volume control

It's very rare for any model to meet all or even nearly all my specs.  It's frustrating because I can't find exactly what I want, but it does mean I don't buy loads of guitars. 

Phil_aka_Pip

ICBM said:

Garthy said:

Where would the guitar industry be though if all those with 6 guitars decided they'd only have one guitar? If demand dropped by 80%  many in the industry would go to the wall.

That's unfortunately true, and the industry has now trapped itself into a marketing model which is unsustainable in the long term. A finite number of players can't all go on buying more guitars indefinitely.

... but don't we wish we could

ICBM

Phil_aka_Pip said:

... but don't we wish we could

I don't - even if I was super-rich, I don't think I would want one of every guitar there is - I've lost interest in that, to be honest. If I could afford a 50s Les Paul Custom I would buy it, I admit... but more than a handful of guitars would be too many.

mbe

Musicman20 said:

What do you do to try stop yourself just getting more?

Unsubscribe!

axisus

I've mentioned a few times before, but I cured my Guitar GAS totally by building my own guitar. I have no desires to buy someone else's guitar ever again. On the downside I'm currently building my 4th guitar and I have two others being planned ....

Teetonetal

timhulio said:

Have kids.

See, doesn't work.

Kids = less time. Harder to gig. Harder to commit to a band. Buy gear to compensate until you realise you have become a collector.

I'm happily in the buy gear and pretend that 1000000 delay options matter at the moment.

adamm82

if you really struggle to stop buying gear. say to yourself I won't buy this guitar until I master a certain song or solo, style, full album (difficult ones) then reward yourself.

if you stick to it you will end up great. 

Strat54

I'd recommend a nice protracted and expensive divorce, that stops the GAS in its tracks. Mine took the best part of five years and the amount I paid in legal fees to the solicitor and barrister could have bought six new custom shop type guitars...lol. During that time your spending comes under scrutiny and buying a guitar goes out the window. You do your best to look poor and dropping £4k on a guitar doesn't look good.
 This helps break the cycle, believe me. Okay so I did have a dozen or three guitars at that time but nevertheless it works. Guitars are then great things to sell off for cash and all of this goes under everyone's radar during the legal battle. I wasn't even made to declare mine despite the opposing legal teams efforts and having unbeknown to them  a six figure sum invested in them....lol. The downside is that half of everything else you own is given away but that in itself can be a blessing and one to keep future GAS in check. 
Post divorce I cut down my collection to some really special guitars, I now have more time to play and less time restringing, cleaning and deciding which one to play...happy days

OnTheRopes

Daved756 said:

Another option is to chop off your fingers

A mate of mine did that, it certainly cured his GAS 

Bellycaster

ICBM said:

I just remind myself of every time I see a musician with multiple guitars at a tiny gig, or at a big gig and they have a different one for every song, or on TV where they're being interviewed and there's a rack of dozens of them behind him.

It's become a disease among (mostly, but not exclusively) guitarists. Obsession over largely irrelevant differences in tone for no reason other than because it's somehow become accepted that you "need" different guitars for different sounds...

You don't see a classical violinist with a dozen different violins. "But they all sound basically the same" - yes they do, to a non-violinist. So do electric guitars to a non-guitarist.

Sorry, bit of a pet peeve I know .

It's not for different tones, it's for different tunings










Phew! I think that might actually be believable.

  

Voxman

Musicman20 said:

I went into a serious loop of researching, ordering, waiting, enjoying, then doing the whole process again. I did this with high end basses for years.

I then wanted to get into guitar and did the same thing. I added two to my collection last year, purely because the prices of both for USA guitars was excellent.

I still want more, but I've decided the only way to stop this is to look at what you have and realise you might not get better unless you spend serious money. Like sell a few and spend £2-3 k. I just don't need to and don't want to.

I also look at the prices over the past 1.5-2 years and just think they are getting silly.

It's also a case of what room you have, and whether it's just investing for the sake of it any barely using it considering how busy life can be.

What do you do to try stop yourself just getting more?

Pedals are a different thing. Smaller and usually a lot cheaper.

I have a foolproof system that automatically deters and blocks this type of thing happening - it's called the wife!  If I buy a guitar, it's perfectly OK - but then I have to buy her a new kitchen or a new car.  It's a very effective deterrent system! 

GoldenEraGuitars

ICBM said:

Phil_aka_Pip said:

... but don't we wish we could

I don't - even if I was super-rich, I don't think I would want one of every guitar there is - I've lost interest in that, to be honest. If I could afford a 50s Les Paul Custom I would buy it, I admit... but more than a handful of guitars would be too many.

Same. Give me custom shop ES with a Bigsby, a good strat, tele and a superstrat. More than 4/5 and I couldnae be arsed changing the strings

Garthy

Ravenous said:

Garthy said:

Where would the guitar industry be though if all those with 6 guitars decided they'd only have one guitar? If demand dropped by 80%  many in the industry would go to the wall.

That wouldn't be a bad thing.

Anyway most guitar sales are probably beginners' models, being sold to beginners.  Not that many people own multiples.

Business greed for ever more sales is the real problem - stupid over hyped models nobody really wants.  (Just my opinion.)

I don’t see how such a cultural shift could be anything other than absolutely terrible for players at catastrophic for workers.

Ravenous

Garthy said:

Ravenous said:

Garthy said:

Where would the guitar industry be though if all those with 6 guitars decided they'd only have one guitar? If demand dropped by 80%  many in the industry would go to the wall.

That wouldn't be a bad thing.

Anyway most guitar sales are probably beginners' models, being sold to beginners.  Not that many people own multiples.

Business greed for ever more sales is the real problem - stupid over hyped models nobody really wants.  (Just my opinion.)

I don’t see how such a cultural shift could be anything other than absolutely terrible for players at catastrophic for workers.

I admit I'm biased - I think the world would be a better place if grown up people bought fewer toys (I'm talking about less production in mid- to high- end guitars, as I assume most of the sales figures in the industry are for the mass-made entry level stuff.)

There'll always be a small market for better quality stuff.  I just get the impression Gibson in particular are over producing at the moment and may end up suffering big time.

ICBM

Garthy said:

I don’t see how such a cultural shift could be anything other than absolutely terrible for players at catastrophic for workers.

I agree it would be catastrophic for workers - although I think that catastrophe is coming sooner or later anyway, although probably slowly - but I think it would be a good thing for players.

Having one or two great, inspiring guitars which you learn to get the most out of, rather than a dozen average ones which you never really do and end up trading for something else equally average must surely be a better approach. If not, why not?

antifash

@Musicman20 Sell off all your gear, burn your remaining belongings, buy a plane ticket and go travelling. Seriously. Sounds like that’s what you want to do and are just procrastinating and wasting time on this site.

You don’t wanna be that guy on his deathbed going, “If only if spent another hour on The Fretboard and bought that 1963 ES345”. 

GO. 

antifash

OnTheRopes said:

Daved756 said:

Another option is to chop off your fingers

A mate of mine did that, it certainly cured his GAS 

Tony Iommi did that and seems to have done quite well out of it. 

UnclePsychosis

I just, erm, stopped.

Got fed up of the self-pretence that it was anything other than collecting new toys. I don't want to be a collector, I want to be a player and all that gas nonsense just distracts from that. 

Still like acquiring pedals but thats much more manageable. 

Garthy

ICBM said:

Garthy said:

I don’t see how such a cultural shift could be anything other than absolutely terrible for players at catastrophic for workers.

I agree it would be catastrophic for workers - although I think that catastrophe is coming sooner or later anyway, although probably slowly - but I think it would be a good thing for players.

Having one or two great, inspiring guitars which you learn to get the most out of, rather than a dozen average ones which you never really do and end up trading for something else equally average must surely be a better approach. If not, why not?

For the workers in manufacturing, assembly, supply chain and retail I sincerely hope that the industry continues to wind down slowly and natural wastage means that there are no mass redundancies as opposed to a huge and sudden culture shift causing a catastrophe for the workers in the chain. Apart from Gibson, there's no reason for a huge bubble to pop, and Gibson would leave an enormous vacuum for others to fill under the current trend anyway.

How long does it take to learn to get the most out of an instrument? 3 months? a year? 5 years? a lifetime? I've had a MIK guitar that many would say is mediocre for 22 years, if I haven't manged to get the best out of it by now I doubt I ever will

If someone is trading something 'average' for something else 'average' perhaps they are only comfortable at that level of expenditure or more simply do not have that kind of money anyway? Acquiring half a dozen average guitars over a number of years may have the same final cost of buying one great one but it isn't as affordable unless that person just goes without over the same time frame until that money has accumulated. Personally I'd rather just play with what I've got and if something mediocre crops up I may snaffle it up and enjoy it.