The lure of new stuff vs. the stuff you've already got...

De_Batz

I find myself constantly looking on here, on eBay and Reverb for potential purchases, especially amps and pedals. I was thinking of putting my Cornell Explorer up for sale earlier tonight because it's worth a few quid and I don't have any money at the moment, and then I sat thinking to myself: 
"Nothing you can get for the money will beat that for what you want it to do..."
"But it doesn't get much use..."
"None of my gear gets much use because of the kids in the house..."
"It'll be great for the next record..."
"Yeah, in about eight years..."

And on and on. 

I know already that most of my stuff is great, because if nothing else it's been filtered by my own processes earlier on. It's not like there's a £500 lunchbox head out there that will out-do the Cornell for me. It's as though my brain can't settle on a decision and is constantly second-guessing itself. 

I wish I could have back that version of me that used to play for four hours at a time to get better rather than piss about on the internet looking at gear (and - with the best will in the world - reading and contributing to gear forums!).

Anyway, I'm done ranting and going to make a conscious decision to pick up the guitar and try a new lick.

munckee

The thrill of the chase. Always better. 

Power-Beef

Your Explorer 10 is a lovely bit of kit. I have used one before and because of its rarity there is a mystique about it. And that built in attenuator? Why pay extra when it comes as standard : )

blobb

Don't EVER buy yourself an entry level hi-fi.

De_Batz

Power-Beef said:

Your Explorer 10 is a lovely bit of kit. I have used one before and because of its rarity there is a mystique about it. And that built in attenuator? Why pay extra when it comes as standard : )

Absolutely. It gets use at home, but that's limited by small people marauding about the place. On the odd occasion I've had it running full bore at the rehearsal place, it's a really great sound and one that I can get a lot of use and pleasure out of. 

One thing it does for me which is different to some of my other kit is that it stops my arsing about with sounds. I get a sound going with it and just play. That's worth a few hundred quid in itself!

De_Batz

I just wish I could divert that thrill to the chase of actually being good at playing. Honestly, my gear is so much better than my playing, it's borderline embarrassing. 

Actually, it's worse than that - I'm not far off deserving my other handle, 'all the gear, no idea'...

 munckee said:

The thrill of the chase. Always better. 

tone1

I’m not worthy to even be in the same room as my gear…

Cirrus

Looking for new stuff, you imagine all the cool things you could do with it.

Thinking about your existing stuff, you just think about how you haven't.

Stevepage

I’ve given in to the urge of new stuff too many times. I’ve sold off some incredible guitars which I should have just appreciated at the time. But now, prices of said stuff have more than doubled so I’d struggle to buy some of it back now.

you live and learn

Sassafras

Guitarists Anonymous.
A support group that with the help of fellow sufferers can help curb your GAS addiction.

Grumpyrocker

I do this a lot and partly it ties into my OCD tendencies and anxiety. The least little thing can bother me. And I've realise the gear I'm happiest with isn't necessarily the very best, but the gear that I stop thinking about and kind of disappears from my thoughts. 

For example my HT5 MK2 is an amp that sounds fantastic but there are little things that bothered me about if right from the start. Recently I bought an Orange Super Crush 100 combo and there's nothing that bothers me about it. Does it sound much better than the Blackstar? It's pretty even. But as there's nothing that niggles about it, I don't find myself looking at other amps since I bought it. I don't think about the Orange, I just use it. 

My LTD EC1000FR is similar. I've been looking at other guitars much less since I got it. Because it just feels right and sort of slots into the background of my thoughts. 

It's not 100%, the perfect guitar for me. But it's really close. 

Jetfire

I do the whole "I really need an amp, but I've got the helix so I don't...but I do...but I don't"

noisepolluter

I find the only thing that ‘resets’ this for me is getting together and playing with people. Then it’s black and white whether an item of gear works for me or not, and I can stop second guessing… for a while…

57Deluxe

De_Batz said:

I just wish I could divert that thrill to the chase of actually being good at playing. Honestly, my gear is so much better than my playing, it's borderline embarrassing. 

Actually, it's worse than that - I'm not far off deserving my other handle, 'all the gear, no idea'...

 munckee said:

The thrill of the chase. Always better. 

Think of your playing like handwriting: even the messiest scrawl can write the most intriguing verse...

HAL9000

noisepolluter said:

I find the only thing that ‘resets’ this for me is getting together and playing with people. Then it’s black and white whether an item of gear works for me or not, and I can stop second guessing… for a while…

So true. Playing live forced me to concentrate on music rather than on gear. I found that I was only using two (out of about half a dozen) guitars. I’m slowly selling off the ones I’m not using, and am in no hurry to replace them. Also gradually sorting which of my amps work for me in a band situation and which don’t. Those which don’t will be moved on.

RaymondLin

I don’t chase anymore in the tube amp front, there’s always a new amp out but I don’t think anything out is better than what I have, only different.

on the digital side, I just like small amps so the spark mini is the only thing I bought lately.

Dave_Mc

Sassafras said:

Guitarists Anonymous.
A support group that with the help of fellow sufferers can help curb your GAS addiction.

Assuming you mean here (or anywhere else on the web related to guitar), it's more like:

Guitarists Anonymous.
A support group that with the help of fellow sufferers can help exacerbate your GAS addiction.

Voxman

Just had that experience. I appreciate this is in the amp section but the theme still fits, so here goes. 

I have a Line 6 Pod Go, a Vox Tonelab SE and LE. My key needs are for gigging. The TLs are old tech but still great sounding units, built like tanks and with great gigability. I got Pod Go during lockdown largely because the TLs weren't great through headphones. 

On Friday I had the opportunity to buy a two week old Boss GX100 with flight case for £400 with original receipt, albeit 3hr tube round trip. Terrific price, as these sell on thir own for £499 and the case is over £100, genuine reason for sale, really nice guy. 

It was a real head v heart tug of war. But for all the GX100 charms and features, greater power, up to 15 blocks, dual routing, touch screen etc, it also had, relevant to my needs, disadvantages as against my Pod Go.  I could have bought it to play with, compare sonically to Pod Go with IRs, and likely sell it at a profit. But that would involve a lot of faffing around that I could do without. 

The seller was a pro gigging musician who already had a Helix Stomp and a Mooer MFX, and he was totally upfront saying that the tonal differences were negligible, each sounded really good and did the job. The GX100 was larger than he expected and he had limited space and weight limits to take gear as hand luggage on aircraft. 

Chatted to loads of folk, watched vids, read the manuals, and even Glenn DeLaune who is a digital tone creator and sells GX100 patches was very honest and said if I was happy with Pod Go and it met my needs 'don't tone chase'. 

So reluctantly, but I think (or at least hope!) sensibly, I very nicely declined the opportunity which the seller completely understood. 

Still not 100% sure but as good as the GX100 is I think on balance I made the right call.

 

allen

I also suffer with this continuous gear chasing GAS.

One thing that helps with it is to buy the absolute best gear you can rather than going for the budget option. When you go for the budget option you end up chasing the next thing, when you are playing a two rock £4k amp (just for example) you are probably very satisfied every time you play and even if it goes badly you have nowhere to go apart from 'I need to practice more'.

My real example of this is my tone king imperial amp - every time I play it it just sounds delicious.

bertie

allen said:

My real example of this is my tone king imperial amp - every time I play it it just sounds delicious.

until you hear something "better"

which you will,  that's how this f*cking GAS  works.......................     

stickyfiddle

allen said:

...when you are playing a two rock £4k amp (just for example) you are probably very satisfied every time you play...

...and even if it goes badly you have nowhere to go apart from 'I need to practice more'.

First bit - sadly I don't think that's how it works. Everyone has off days regardless of their gear 

Second bit - absolutely. There are no excuses if your gear is all good