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For the "my wife will kill me" crowd
- Thread starter Pudge Fish
- Start date
A great recommendation for shielding : slug tape (bought on amazon for 9 bucks vice StewMac's fancy stuff)
I had 2 HRRs. The keeper got a wenge Pbass neck. It hurt to ditch the matching headstock, but for the feel of wenge, it was worth it! Fralin split coil pups, shielding (redundant with split-coils), babicz bridge, HS ultra-lite tuners, new white pickguard (rather than the 'aged white')... She's a true hot rod now!
Started with a sanded neck and shielding. Loved it, but I'm not a Jazz-neck dude. The slim P neck in wenge is a thing of beauty, but doubled the cost of the bass! Warmoth neck with binding, blocks, graphite rods, pau ferro board, all the trimmings. This bass is one of my favorites, it deserved to be something perfect for my playing style. Tuners and new neck keep it from feeling "divey" but i didn't mind it stock with a good strap. Its just so versatile, with an undeniably "surf-rock" image! It's been a long, slow evolution, but that bass (which started as a $650 axe) has stood up to basses 10x the cost.
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What has "the wife" ACTUALLY done in response to your G.A.S? (not because you gave her the dutch-oven)
I say that sometimes in jest. In reality I can buy whatever I want as long as it's not out of the household budget.
I used some savings to make sure I got a good deal on a bass one time. My wife was OK with it as I had talked to her beforehand. I just had to replenish the amount by the end of the month which I did by selling a bunch of gear.
what has my wife done in response to my GAS .. ?? she has learned to deal with it ...
and realizes that basses/guitars/equipment ... is cheaper than new sports cars ... !!
just like we've learned to live with ;... hair styling , finger nail crap , clothes , shoes , new drapes , towels , bedding , rugs , lamps , furniture , silverware , plates , pots/pans , etc , etc .... when all the current items are working just fine ... !!
and realizes that basses/guitars/equipment ... is cheaper than new sports cars ... !!
just like we've learned to live with ;... hair styling , finger nail crap , clothes , shoes , new drapes , towels , bedding , rugs , lamps , furniture , silverware , plates , pots/pans , etc , etc .... when all the current items are working just fine ... !!
I find its better to ask for forgiveness than permission!
To keep things peaceful I usually unload one piece of gear for another to keep expenses low.
To keep things peaceful I usually unload one piece of gear for another to keep expenses low.
My wife and I talk about any purchase over $100. Below that it's up to trust and individual discretion. That said, it's the accumulation of "small" expenses that kills you. Building my own Ric clone has turned out to be a very expensive little hobby, but at least I can spread it out over time. I don't buy new basses, she doesn't buy new clothes. Kinda sucks for both, but that's our economic reality. Truth be told, she needs new clothes a lot more than I need another bass, so I f I had a windfall, I'd spend it on her in a heartbeat.
What has "the wife" ACTUALLY done in response to your G.A.S? (not because you gave her the dutch-oven
Left me.
I want to say "we have a winner" without sounding insensitive!
These other chaps with loving wives who encourage / buy gear seem like winners too...
- Oct 18, 2012
- 6,683
- 5,538
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist: Fender, Spector, Ampeg, Curt Mangan, Nordstrand Pickups, Korg , Conquest Sound
My wife has never objected to me buying anything as long as the mortgage and other bills are paid. In fact, she has purchased gear for me and encouraged me to buy more. It might be because I usually play higher paying gigs such as casinos and festivals and I also do a fair amount of work for television and commercial jingles so she sees that I am making money with music.
That's awesome - I drove past a hunting/fishing place last year that had a big sign "Your wife says it's OK to buy a new gun!"
I've been pretty lucky. I do get the occasional "did you need it?" but I've been getting better about (at least trying) to sell stuff I don't need to fund new purchases for any given hobby. Considering I pay all the bills and she chips in when she can, I didn't let her get too bossy with what I do with my extra funds - however, we did just get married last month and we're buying our first house next month, so any stance I had on extra $ before seems not to count as much anymore, and she is taking a more active role with regards to where the money goes... but that's a good thing! I'm admittedly a spend-aholic and truly already have everything I NEED (a 5, a P, a J, a fretless, a big amp and a small amp) so a reality check is nice once in a while, just before I buy something I'd later regret and have to try to sell.
Aside from the shielding need (copper tape on Amazon is rather cheap), my other big beef with the bass is its weight. I'm sure I could lose some weight in the tuners and possibly the bridge, but not as much as I'd like. I really don't want to chamber the body, but it would be nice to get it closer to 8lbs instead of ~9.5-10. My thought is to buy a second one (maybe just a squier) and mod the heck out of it, but unless I get the black SS I don't think it'll have the sweet matching headstock.A great recommendation for shielding : slug tape (bought on amazon for 9 bucks vice StewMac's fancy stuff)
I had 2 HRRs. The keeper got a wenge Pbass neck. It hurt to ditch the matching headstock, but for the feel of wenge, it was worth it! Fralin split coil pups, shielding (redundant with split-coils), babicz bridge, HS ultra-lite tuners, new white pickguard (rather than the 'aged white')... She's a true hot rod now!
Started with a sanded neck and shielding. Loved it, but I'm not a Jazz-neck dude. The slim P neck in wenge is a thing of beauty, but doubled the cost of the bass! Warmoth neck with binding, blocks, graphite rods, pau ferro board, all the trimmings. This bass is one of my favorites, it deserved to be something perfect for my playing style. Tuners and new neck keep it from feeling "divey" but i didn't mind it stock with a good strap. Its just so versatile, with an undeniably "surf-rock" image! It's been a long, slow evolution, but that bass (which started as a $650 axe) has stood up to basses 10x the cost.
Are you certain she is talking about your negotiating skills?
I want to say "we have a winner" without sounding insensitive!
Please do. It was my fault entirely. I suspect there are others out there that overspend on gear to the detriment of their household needs as well but won't admit it. Or, I could have been the only one.
jdthebassman
play to live live to play
my wife used to give me grief about buying basses untill she saw what they were selling for, considering that i would buy them cheap hold on to them for the long haul. now she finds them on craigslist and other sites.
My wife and I decided before we got married to not combine our finances. Some people think it's a weird way to go, but we think having one set of combined finances is weird. Basically it works like this: I have my own accounts, she her own accounts. I do all of the bills, pay for everything up front and she pays me her half as soon as I tell her how much she owes. If I want/need to be paid immediately for something as opposed to fronting the expense I just tell her beforehand. It's really quite simple. As long as I can pay my half and she can pay hers, we don't bother each other with purchases. If I want to buy a new bass I just do it. I don't ask her permission, nor would she expect me to. Her usual response when a new piece of gear shows up is "Oh cool, what's that? Is that the thing you've been talking about getting? Awesome!"
I should mention that we don't have kids, have no plan to have kids, and our only joint asset is our house. It's not a traditional model, but it works really well for us.
I should mention that we don't have kids, have no plan to have kids, and our only joint asset is our house. It's not a traditional model, but it works really well for us.
Not married but in a LTR. She supports everything I do. Never a question. Loves that I'm a musician
That's been my situation in each relationship! Glad i'm not the only one! Even 2 shared mortgages over the years... Money was never a relationship problem for me.
Money issues happen, no reason to let them erode a marriage / relationship. We just work together to overcome, rather than play tit-for-tat.
I should note, i never had kids. No vehicle payments in years either. The current lady buys new cars way too often. I only advise when asked!
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My dad does the same thing with my stepmother and it works well for them, but all of their kids (there's 6 of us!) are grown and most of us are married. My wife and I tried it for a while, but modified it: A percentage of her paycheck goes straight to her account. That's our travel/rainy day fund. The rest goes to the joint account which pays the bills. Mine goes directly to the joint account and I remove x amount of dollars and move it to other savings accounts that are set aside for other things. It's worked out pretty well, but with the baby there hasn't been a whole lot of extra money to buy fun things for ourselves.
+1 --- Word --- What He Said --- Heard dat.I too have adopted the pay-pal system. My jazz bass has too many years of my own sweat and modifications on it to ever, ever get rid of but everything else is fair game. I usually trade + use gig money on anything that I spend, but lately she responded that my interest in trading a 5 string that I picked up (Lakland 5501 w/ mods if anyone is interested!
Usually, my wife says something like, "I thought you were gonna kinda back away from that stuff"............. HA!!!
