I may have to institute a "catch and return" policy - delayed, though - catch a new one, release an old one.
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What's wrong with me - can't stop shopping :-)
- Thread starter darwin-bass
- Start date
Gear Acquisition Syndrome is not really all that bad of a thing.
Converting cash into real goods is the sound economic principle that powers the engine of retail.
Buying used gear at a good price can be a hedge against inflation.
If you know what you are doing, understand the marketability of an item, and negotiate a decent price you will likely be able to recover your investment and perhaps make a profit over time. At the very least you might sell at a modest loss that would be an acceptable cost of the use of the item.
Real goods are definitely more useful than promissory notes or numbers on a bank statement.
It is hard to put a value on experiencing things you love.
Converting cash into real goods is the sound economic principle that powers the engine of retail.
Buying used gear at a good price can be a hedge against inflation.
If you know what you are doing, understand the marketability of an item, and negotiate a decent price you will likely be able to recover your investment and perhaps make a profit over time. At the very least you might sell at a modest loss that would be an acceptable cost of the use of the item.
Real goods are definitely more useful than promissory notes or numbers on a bank statement.
It is hard to put a value on experiencing things you love.
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I was trying to make that last point in another thread, and got attacked for saying it.
I orderd the body from warmoth last week for "MY LAST NEW BASS FOR A VERY LONG TIME!" it hasn't even shipped yet, so then yesterday morning for some reason unknown to me I was browsing the ibanez basses on sweetwaters site and I came across this....
it will be here on wensday
I wasn't even planning a build when I saw this one either
im week, someone needs to come take my computer away before im buried in basses...
im week, someone needs to come take my computer away before im buried in basses...
As one reader mentioned...the advent of the internet often makes you think that you now need "this" bass. I own 14 so I know very well the insanity that can start. But...I do enjoy collecting and admiration of the instrument. I would say to anyone in a normal world, that having two nice basses is very fair and realistic.
I am just as bad about shopping and drooling and GAS as the next player, but my advice is always to spend more time playing what you already have.
This has helped me a great deal over the years. I would get GAS for a certain guitar or bass...like "Oh man, I have GOT to get a hollowbody bass to play and string it with flats!" or "I can no longer LIVE without a Gibson non-reverse Firebird!" and so on.
BUT, I live very tightly and frugally (by design and due to circumstances). My entire family does. In other words, I rarely, rarely have leisure / spendy ca$h laying around to where I can just outright make a purchase, even a very meager one, on music gear or, really, anything that isn't essential to existence. (Although I would argue that, for a musician or someone with music in their blood, having at least one instrument on which to create is nearly as essential as food, water, shelter and the love of family & friends. In my philosophy, anyway.)
So what I've found is, I'll see some bright new shiny instrument, or get fixated on a specific make and model, or get the urge to order new $120 pickups for a bass I only spent $100 for, but I can't rush out and get one. Instead, I go back to whatever I have to play and try to milk new sounds out of it. Woodshed. Be thankful for and grateful for what I DO have (which, poor as I may be, is still far more than most people on this planet or even in this country.)
And then, almost always, the GAS passes (pun!) ...I end up getting over the feeling of need and desire. Very often I come to think "Eh, how much would I really play this or that thing that I wanted so badly just last week?"
So I go back to playing the heck out of bass and trying to become a better player instead of the player with the nicest toys.
DISCLAIMER: I want to clarify that none of this is meant as a jab against people who have 4 dozen basses and a hundred grand sunk into gear. People should buy what they want to buy if it makes them happy, and I truly dig seeing people's big collections, family pics. Guitars and basses are cool as all get-out. I will always congratulate someone on a NBD. I just prefer to keep things minimal personally.
This has helped me a great deal over the years. I would get GAS for a certain guitar or bass...like "Oh man, I have GOT to get a hollowbody bass to play and string it with flats!" or "I can no longer LIVE without a Gibson non-reverse Firebird!" and so on.
BUT, I live very tightly and frugally (by design and due to circumstances). My entire family does. In other words, I rarely, rarely have leisure / spendy ca$h laying around to where I can just outright make a purchase, even a very meager one, on music gear or, really, anything that isn't essential to existence. (Although I would argue that, for a musician or someone with music in their blood, having at least one instrument on which to create is nearly as essential as food, water, shelter and the love of family & friends. In my philosophy, anyway.)
So what I've found is, I'll see some bright new shiny instrument, or get fixated on a specific make and model, or get the urge to order new $120 pickups for a bass I only spent $100 for, but I can't rush out and get one. Instead, I go back to whatever I have to play and try to milk new sounds out of it. Woodshed. Be thankful for and grateful for what I DO have (which, poor as I may be, is still far more than most people on this planet or even in this country.)
And then, almost always, the GAS passes (pun!) ...I end up getting over the feeling of need and desire. Very often I come to think "Eh, how much would I really play this or that thing that I wanted so badly just last week?"
So I go back to playing the heck out of bass and trying to become a better player instead of the player with the nicest toys.
DISCLAIMER: I want to clarify that none of this is meant as a jab against people who have 4 dozen basses and a hundred grand sunk into gear. People should buy what they want to buy if it makes them happy, and I truly dig seeing people's big collections, family pics. Guitars and basses are cool as all get-out. I will always congratulate someone on a NBD. I just prefer to keep things minimal personally.
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Four out of five doctors surveyed prescribe prolonged absences from TB for safe and effective relief of GAS. In other words: "Less eBay, more Mel Bay."
Works for me. See you in April or May.
Works for me. See you in April or May.
Must be because gear is like potato chips - you can't eat just 1. Besides, it is good to have a backup, especially if it came at a bargain price.
It is completely understandable that you would buy this bass on an impulse. That thing is BEAUTIFUL!
thanks, I cant wait to see it in person, ive owned a few soundgear basses but this will be the nicest of any Ibanez ive ever owned or played...so far......
I have a gear fund. I take $20 a week and put it in a separate account that's only for gear. Ill finance new stuff interest free, I'll buy used. Every year or so I have a gear purge where I'll sell bunch of stuff. Made over a grand this month on eBay selling stuff (1 bass, tuner, bass whammy, jamman) I was no longer using. All of it stays in the gear fund. I don't for example sell a piece of gear and go out to a fancy dinner. So it's not much of a burden financially if your smart about what you buy you can break even and sometimes even make a profit from buying and selling gear. I've had a couple basses that i sold for more than what I paid for and the majority of them I either broke even or I nearly broke even on. To me searching for and trying different gear is fun. Just have to be finaincially responsible.
Very wise approach. I think another part of the reason I can keep GAS at bay pretty easily is because I already have gone though and tried out so many kinds of basses and other gear. I've been playing nearly 40 years and I've been lucky in a lot of that time to have been able to try out and purchase lots of different instruments.
This isn't to say there aren't new innovations, new models, etc. that I become interested in, but maybe just because I'm an older guy who's kind of already been through The Rollercoaster / Merry-Go-Round of Gear I don't feel the need as much.
I have GAS, research the gear, purchase the gear, then continue to check the classifieds to convince myself that I didn't get porked.
Yeah its fun. I've been playing since 94. I still go on road trips to music stores in other towns and try new stuff I come accross. Although how often I go has slowed down a lot.
Yeah, I have owned two Sound Gear Basses in the past.
An 800 and a 900 thru-neck. They were both a joy to play.
That sounds like a disease...I think the tipping point is when you start spending more time looking for a new bass than playing the one(s) that you have already. Or isn't it?
.... that I have.
