Beating GAS: share your stories (or pain)

midlifecrisis

playing in a band, for me cures gas. i tend to focus on what i actually need and use. i have cut down to three guitars i use and one which is of sentimental value ive had over 40 years but just 3 players. about to become just two if a sale comes off tommorow. Amps i now have just two, a katana and a recently purchased off here a peavey valveking. both giggable. i will still look at other gear but i dont get obsessive any more.

Collings

Gas is not a problem unless its impacting other areas of your life such as spending money you don,t really have, running out of space to store it and upsetting your other half etc.

I love the consistant search for that next bit of of gear i need.

Phil_aka_Pip

Collings said:

I love the consistant search for that next bit of of gear i need.

spelt "neeed"

slacker

I'm at the stage where what I want is balanced by what I ve already. I really cannot justify any more guitars, amps or overdrives. I own more than some and less than others but for me I'm at saturation. 

Mrs S doesnt really care what I have with 2 conditions a) I use it and b) the house isnt cluttered up with gear. So a large wardrobe and a music room take care of space. 

RE the OP and a Master Built Strat I was close to buying one. I ended up with something half te price and nearly as awesome. 

IMHO if you get to the point where you own a 4k Strat and gig with a Squier, shouldnt you just have the Squier? I have a friend who gigs with a 61 Jazzmaster and if it picks up dings so be it.

OK so a story at my expense. I tried a Matchless and wanted one. So I researched and they were insanely expensive. So a used Bad Cat BC30 went up at Code for silly money. I bought it. It is an early one with Matchless components but it wasnt a Matchless. So two years later I got a Matchless.  I ab'd it with the Bad Cat-it sounds exactly the same on the AX7 channel. 

So I did what any sane person would do and kept both.  

LordOxygen

I've recently been away from Guitar related youtube and this forum for a good 6 to 8 months. Mainly because I haven't been playing (which is the story of the last 20 years since I stopped being a teenager with loads of time, I play for several months get quite good and then stop....and repeat)
I've been playing again since start of March and I'm all over youtube, this forum and online shops in my spare time. 
Despite having 4 guitars that I can't make the most of, right now I have a massive urge for a guitar with EMG PUs. 
Someone shoot me. 

Roland

BANG!

tralfamadan

I convince myself that I need X for tone Y and I can't get it any other way. The truth is I already had tone Y all along, I just wanted new stuff. But hey, there are far worse things to spend money on.

builttospill

Two used K-Line guitars, a Princeton Reverb, going mostly Boss have helped with the guitar, amp, pedal GAS for me. Also rehearsing and doing the band thing has definitely helped. As @JonHosker has pointed out pedal GAS is a little harder to resist.  

Sporky

I bought a cello and started cello lessons - that pretty much did it.

In three years or so I've bought an amp for it, and a new bow 'cos the old one went a bit banana.

Alnico

Ove the course of 2017 I focused on exactly what I knew I wanted and came out of it with THE amp, Multi FX and 5 guitars that really nail everything I want out my gear.

Blackstar S1 200 and matching 2x12 V30 cab totally cured my amp GAS.

Boss GT100 is still the most awesome Multi FX I've used, COSM sounds great if you're not scared of your volume control and Helix can do one for what it costs. My GT allows me to use the amps 4 channels and switch them using MIDI so the options are almost limitless for the way I play. Pedal GAS cured.

Fender American Pro Strat is my desert island guitar. Mine was a gift from one of my best friends when I got the "All Clear" on Dec '16. There isn't a guitar on earth I'd trade it for, let alone any CS model. I don't doubt that the CS is "Better" in terms of the spec of woods etc but for me, this one is my #1 and how I got it makes it much more special than if I'd gone out and bought it.

My Tele is my #2. It's a GSP Basses built by another very close friend and it's lightweight 'Obeche' body with quartersawn maple neck and rosewood board. It was built to mimic a '66 Tele and reliced in Daphne blue and it's just sublime. Most people who pick it up find it difficult to put down and even harder to find another one that feels and plays quite like this one does.

Between the Strat and the Tele, my guitar GAS has been cured although the other 3 are nice additions which are going nowhere and are totally GAS beating keepers.

Gretsch Streamliner 2620. Black, chromatic tailpiece/no Bigsby.
PRS SE Santana Special. Antique white, P90's.
Ibanez RG870 Premium. Quilted maple, 'High Voltage' Violet.

There are guitars that still turn me on, the new Gretsch Anniversary 'Electromatic' model is one of them with its frankly stunning dark cherry top and gold dust back and sides but at £850 it's a long way out of my reach now due to my long-term relationship ending late last year and me now not having any GAS money for the foreseeable future.
What I've been "Left with" is a really good set up, none of which is cheap or rubbish and all of which makes not being able to spend any more money somehow not really a problem.

So yeah, getting dumped when I have a room full of awesome kit has cured my GAS and after meeting the Woman of my dreams last month who absolutely loves every bit of what I do and all the gear I've got, I highly recommend it.

57Deluxe

nearly took swing at this Fano Al De Facto for the colour and vibe. Then Dennis sold out and this model went out the catalogue. Also, I wanted it non relic'd so my ~£3300 is still in my pocket...

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/30/11/08/3011081f149dc3d9e68e9676a33944cb.jpg

and I was busting for the Brown Face 20th Anni Vibro~King to go with it... also gone.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a8/20/11/a8201168bab1593e67c1fe269a47b1db.jpg

Is just so sad that today you cannot have a wish list and work towards it as you used to, because the stuff just doesn't hang around long enough. Big ticket items need time (sometimes a lifetime) to attain.

Sesh

There's a permanent merry-go-round of gas in my head. Quite possibly elsewhere too, but that's another story.
At any one time I NEED one or all of the following:

A  jaguar
A jazzmaster
A telecater
A thinline telecater
A telemaster
A thinline telemaster
An esquire
A DC junior
A Mustang
Most G&Ls
A feline or any of the other fine luthiery that appears on here
Some random vintage British built thing.
A proper valve amp
A handy mini amp
Pedals pedals pedals withholding real understanding of what they do
All of the above guitars again but with different pickups or switching or finish.

And the chance of me getting all of these? Zero. The chance of me getting any of them is low enough. I'm not a good guitarist. I only play at home. I have 3 electrics plus one in bits. My amp and three guitars live in my wardrobe. I don't have room and can't justify the expense of buying more and I'm far too sentimental to get rid of anything. I can argue I do need a handy mini amp so that will hopefully happen this year. If I can bring myself to get rid of a guitar then a cheapo mustang mod project might be on the cards. I think half the trouble is I don't have that much time to play, so instead I find myself dreaming or on here. I probably should be working, but gas is in my mind, again.

Strat54

Buying a guitar should never be about justification or worthiness. The secret with GAS is to enjoy the ride. At some point it will ease off, as a once prolific buyer I can guarantee you that.....once you've owned 'everything' With age I have found that I have become more selective and certainly less trigger happy. The younger me would click and buy in the blink of an eye, now I'm more likely to ponder and when you give yourself that xtra days of thinking then you usually  change your mind. 
All I can say is that spending £4k on a new Masterbuilt Strat would not give you any more pleasure than spending £2k on a regular custom shop one. For your £2k you can get 95% the same guitar built by the same people and I can testify that buying a Masterbuilt does not guarantee you an amazing guitar. 
When I say same people, take a look here....

https://www.instagram.com/jncolor/

...you will see plenty of pics from Jay Nelson spraying the guitars for the 'masterbuilders' along side the regular line custom shop guitars 

NickBotfield

Best cure for GAS?  Not having the time to play the guitar due to family / house / garden / work commitments.  Sarcastic yay.

All my stuff is now cased up and in the attic or wardrobe.

designerseye88

I've had serious GAS twice now. First was the purchase of a 1960 Double pickup melody maker from the US. I loved everything about it, Condition was great but in the end the whole deal didn't add up. With the added taxes and CITES stuff i decided it just wasn't worth it. 

Second was a dbl cut 1960 Junior. Id longed after this guitar for ages and has saved hard for it. Unfortunately it sold for more that i was really willing to pay for it. The good part though is in the end i found a players condition 1958 junior which sounds just as good but has had a refin and a few other changes but cost alot less. For me it usually comes down to cost, If its working out close to the top end of the market i tend to steer clear, I personally take reassurance knowing if i needed to sell my guitars i wouldn't loose much as they were bought under the market value. 

designerseye88

NickBotfield said:

Best cure for GAS?  Not having the time to play the guitar due to family / house / garden / work commitments.  Sarcastic yay.

All my stuff is now cased up and in the attic or wardrobe.

Anything you're planning on selling?

Alnico

NickBotfield said:

Best cure for GAS?  Not having the time to play the guitar due to family / house / garden / work commitments.  Sarcastic yay.

All my stuff is now cased up and in the attic or wardrobe.

This happened to me in the "Noughties".
It lasted most of the decade but I came back to it in '09 with a new USA Std Strat and it came flooding back with a vengeance.

I found myself wishing I'd never sold the kit I had in the late 90's because it wasn't easy to buy it all again so if I have any advice to anyone it's what you've done... "Put it away, don't sell it!"

Hope you find some time soon and when you do, you enjoy it all again.

TTBZ

I wouldn't say having my son cured the GAS but I can no longer act on it like I could before luckily there's so much good cheap gear available now that I can usually find a half decent alternative to the expensive stuff. If I want a boutique pedal there's a good chance there's a fuzz dogs kit available for a fraction of the cost plus I get to have fun building it. Or mooer/mosky if I can't be arsed with that. 

NickBotfield

designerseye88 said:

NickBotfield said:

Best cure for GAS?  Not having the time to play the guitar due to family / house / garden / work commitments.  Sarcastic yay.

All my stuff is now cased up and in the attic or wardrobe.

Anything you're planning on selling?

Ha ha!  No, because like Alnico says, "Put it away, don't sell it!"

kswilson89

2 things I'd suggest to be content guitarist:

 1. Work on buying (or building) a guitar that is good quality for a good price. Any guitar that you've paid a high price for is hard to love... As soon as you notice something you don't like about it you'll think you haven't got your money's worth. Conversely, a relatively cheap guitar that is good quality never owes you a thing and if there's something you don't like about it, well you haven't paid a high price for it anyway.

2. Gear hoarding/buying/selling/trading is simply a distraction from actually playing the guitar. I think many players (myself included) reach a plateau in their playing and resort to changing their gear in an attempt to revitalise their playing. This often doesn't work and leaves you feeling more empty (and often out of pocket) than you were previously. I've also find that as soon as I make a breakthrough in my playing I realise how daft the whole gear conversation is anyway. 

This is just my opinion that I've built up from years of buying, trading, selling and playing so YMMV but I hope this helps!