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Serious question: is there a cure for a gas?

#81
Buzzkill yet true answer - practice time kills GAS.

Whenever I practice, I find my mind shifting away from acquiring the bass I don't have towards playing the one in my hands better. I can improve myself as a musician much more from practice than by buying another bass.
 
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#84
Matthew_84 said:
Good observation because there is some truth here…

I have never played a DB, other plucking the G string on one once (*) at a local music store two weeks ago.

Owning a DB and practicing it at home, and lugging it around (to lessons, jams, etc) is a lot less practical than bass guitar. I have this tickling at the back of my mind, as well as the fact that I know it’s going to be hard and my hands will work hard to play it.

There is definitely a part of me that thinks owning a good fretless 4 string, would be a better option… I counter those thoughts with listening to a DB and realizing a bass guitar won’t likely get me the complex sounds a DB has.

My first step is to rent a DB and take lessons, and take at least 3 months to really determine if I want an upright or if I’d rather get a new fretless… I have some things going on that prevent me from renting an upright for a few months, which gives me more time to dwell on these questions I can’t answer until I get my hands on a DB and deal with trying to play and store it at home.

(* that feels like some word game, “add a new letter to make a new word” LOL)
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Thank you for liking my post. You had a lot going on in your OP, so I kind of shotgunned it. It was in no way meant to be discouraging, so I’m glad you took the the time to respond.

I think the rental option is a great idea. You are never going to get that clear picture plucking a few notes in a music store, and certainly agree a DB for Jazz is the way to go as opposed to a fretless EB.

Sounds like you have a plan there. Best wishes!
 
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#85
dbsfgyd1 said:
Thank you for liking my post. You had a lot going on in your OP, so I kind of shotgunned it. It was in no way meant to be discouraging, so I’m glad you took the the time to respond.

I think the rental option is a great idea. You are never going to get that clear picture plucking a few notes in a music store, and certainly agree a DB for Jazz is the way to go as opposed to a fretless EB.

Sounds like you have a plan there. Best wishes!
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Thank you, and thanks for your response!
 
#89
Matthew_84 said:
I hate this place - I cannot be satisfied with what I have, and even when I think I’m certain about what my next bass will be, it is sure to change to something completely different - often multiple times a day.

I currently have two basses: a fretted 4-string PJ with rounds, and a fretless 5-string with flats and a foam mute for that thump.

I am currently studying jazz and want to be a decent jazz bassist and jam/gig with others eventually (I am currently just learning by myself, though I am looking for other jazz newbs to practice jazz standards with). The obvious next bass to get is an upright. I love how it sounds, I feel like it’d suit me perfectly, and I want to take jazz seriously - it’s a win win… The issue is that I also just really, really love bass guitars, especially fretlesses. If I could own a few really nice fretlesses (preferably an aged/worn fretless P and a slick/clean fretless J), I’d be a real happy man (with or without an upright). I really have no practical uses for the fretless P and J mind you, but I still want them to a near-desperate level…

I know what’d happen if I got them, I’d barely play them, and go “yeah… I should’ve got the upright”, but I cannot stop this itch…

And if y’all could stop posting pictures of your glorious Ps and Js (fretless or not), I’d really appreciate it. Thanks in advance!

(I’m joking btw, keep posting your beautiful basses… It’s a me problem).
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Maybe that's a problem with your lifestyle and not just specifically gear acquisition. I used to think alot that I want the newest and most awesome things and I would love to spend hundreds of € on all kinds of different things. Well, over the years I realized more and more that while it's nice to have toys, you rarely ever are able to actually justify purchasing many of these things. You'll use them for a day or a week and suddenly it's just not good enough anymore. Or even worse, you hate it now.

I sort of remidied that by becoming more of a glass half full person. I looked for reasons why the things I have are awesome. And I thought about how much I would've loved all these things when I was a child. Sure I could play three gigs and buy a whole new bass. But I just don't feel that desire anymore. Instead I think about actual dream basses, that I know I couldn't just purchase like that anyways, but maybe one day I will get to enough money to where I can justify myself something like that. I don't need something new. I don't want something new. What you have is great and you have way more, than many other people on this planet.

So, whenever you want to buy something new, just imagine what kind of impact it will have on your life and try to gauge if that is worth it. I sort of buy videogames with that mentality. If I don't plan on playing a game for more hours than it's worth in €, I will not purchase it. You could just try to apply that to a new instrument (maybe with dollars though). Thinking of new purchases like that can be a bit difficult, but maybe it makes you think a bit more about what you actually want / need.
 
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#90
Matthew_84 said:
...keep posting your beautiful basses…
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P:
front and back copy.png red P copy.png

J:
J copy.png

PJ:
BLUE PJ.png


GAS!!! :laugh: :roflmao:
 
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#94
GAS is tough to cure sometimes when you see the same folks on here getting a new bass, amp, whatever, and bragging about it every other day. You can be proud of your new bass, sure, but some of us can't even afford strings for our one bass or even can't afford a bass at all. That is plain showing off to me, like, look what I can afford and you can't. Yeah - cool bass but enough is enough. I, for one, don't look at those threads. I've made MANY NBDs, NADs purchases that I haven't posted about on here for this very reason. I'm proud and happy of my new purchases but I don't want to make those that are less fortunate but still wanting to feel bad that they don't have the funds to support their built up GAS by looking at other NBD/NAD posts. I never did like a show off.
 
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#97
Matthew_84 said:
I hate this place - I cannot be satisfied with what I have, and even when I think I’m certain about what my next bass will be, it is sure to change to something completely different - often multiple times a day.
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The trouble with GAS is that you don't want gear... you want to WANT gear. That's why GAS doesn't go away when you get a new toy.

For me its good to take a break from gear forums every now and then. Its definitely time to do that again actually, been a little too active on TGP/TB/TDPRI/SD lately just chatting and hanging out. The best scenario for me is to come to these forums when I want a wide variety of opinions on specific questions that I can't figure out myself... not to offer my opinions endlessly.

Another GAS defeating exercise is to make an itemized list of every piece of gear you have and assign a dollar value to it. Not only is this good for insurance purposes, it really puts your gear hunt in perspective when you see exactly how many items of music gear you have. And if you're lucky you'll find excitement in some piece of gear that you already have but haven't used in a while, or think up some new interesting thing to try with it.
 
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