A case against GAS

[HappyCat]

This is just a food for thought post.
All comments are welcome. Agree, or disagree.

So I’ve pretty much stopped getting new gear.
I’m ok with this too.
For this reason.

So the last guitar I got, which I happen to like a lot was 3 or so years ago.
When I brought it home and was playing it and really enjoying myself.
My wife said something to me that really stuck with me. And fwiw, my wife knows nothing about making music.

She said.
“Nice guitar, but you still sound like you.”

While I like to chase tone as much as the next guy. That comment really struck home for me.

It’s like, my gear really didn’t make any difference to her untrained ear. I still sounded the same to her. And that was going from a solid body electric to a hollow body electric, which to me sound very different.
But to her, it still just sounded like me. I just thought that was a pretty interesting comment.
Enough so, that not only have I not bought much gear for a few years. I’ve removed most all my pedals too. Not that I had a lot of them, six I think when I had the most deployed.
I’m down to two (tremolo and 10 band eq fwiw) for I suppose getting close to a year now. I don’t feel short changed for not having a gob of pedal tones to fall back on either. It almost feels liberating to play and have it be me that I’m listening to.

I figured since I sound like me with whichever guitar I choose to play today, or amp too. It perhaps really does come down to tone in the fingers.
If I want to sound good, perhaps I should pursue playing better. Getting tone out of the instruments that I have.
So far I’m good with this idea.

My disclaimer is that I feel I have fair to good enough sounding gear as it is. Most of my gear is moderately priced gear. Not cheap, not expensive as gear goes. It’s just usable/servicable gear
I did have a amp that I truly didn’t like, a amp I couldn’t seem to get tone out of that was satisfying to me. If I had only that amp, I for sure would consider new gear (I not only considered it, I replaced that bum amp). But if ya got gear that generally sounds good to you, perhaps a new guitar or a new amp or a new pedal isn’t what is needed? Working on playing better is what’s needed?

Just food for thought…
Making music is by ‘me’. If I can.
If I can’t make music, I don’t think it’s my gear that’s holding me back. Any new gear that I’d get will not make me play music better.
Hopefully, my tone is in my fingers. And that is what I’m working on. Not what my next gear acquisition will be.
It seems (at least per my wife), I’ll still sound like me whatever I play for gear.

What are your thoughts on this?
I’ll assume many will feel much differently than I do. Judging by how many different styles of amps, guitars and pedals there are in this new modern age. Near infinite choice.

[MarkPeters]

I am with you on this. In fact, I may be even further from the mean; I have very little gear, and very little desire to add to it.

One of the most chastening things to happen as a musician is to have someone pick up your instrument and instantly play something absolutely wonderful on it. You know then what it is that is holding you back. Everyone should put themselves through that experience.

I posted on the subject of GAS very recently in my learning log. I griped about a few other things too!

[Mustela]

A lot of hobby activities are like that. The initial spend can often be big. especially when you are learning what you like. but then you get to a point where the stuff stops being at the forefront. at least until maintenance needs arise. but ongoing maintenance usually isn’t a big deal compared to getting started in the activity.

I definitely fall into this type. once I get to a point where I’m satisfied, my purchases taper off a lot. I probably overanalyze many purchases, but I do that to minimize the chances of being unhappy with a purchase and needing to buy again.

with music, untrained/inexperienced ears aren’t going to be able to identify a lot of nuance specifically. doesn’t mean that the little things don’t matter or that they won’t be able to tell “as a whole” when it’s all put together and polished. especially if you have a recording they can listen to back-to-back. but it’s nearly always the case that nobody will be as critical of the way you sound as you are.

are your purchases for other people, or are they for you? my first goal when I’m considering buying something is if it will help me be happier with the music I play, not if it will make other people happier.