Does Your GAS Predate the Internet?

[Mandobart]

The AGF, and most instrument forums I visit, are Acquisition Enablers/Multipliers. My theory based on nothing but my limited brain and experience is that the hyper targeted ads and hours of screen time on enthusiast-driven forums and ease of online purchasing that accompanied the rise of the internet has increased GAS a bunch.

So to be honest, before 2008 I hadn't bought an instrument since 1983. 25 years. I'd always try out guitars whenever I'd go get picks or strings. Never a strong urge to buy anything. Then I started mandolin, started researching instruments, gigging again, surfing the web and looking at stuff....

In a 15 year span I bought or was gifted 23 stringed instruments and only sold 2. So in my case, I feel the internet helped drive my acquisition.

How about others? Were you GAS-free (or at least GAS-less) before you went online?

[PassingThru]

Short answer is no. Pre internet, I bought the best guitar I could afford. A lot of the decision was who was playing the guitar I liked. Once bought, I just played it until I finally had to sell it for financial reasons in college. I have never owned a better guitar than my first D28 period!

GAS seems to drive frequency and not satisfaction.

All that said, I do hope to own and play a pre internet D41 one day.

[rule18]

It's a no here too. Prior to the later 90's, I had one guitar. The internet is the great enabler, for so many things that I don't need. Or, do I? I'll just Google that.

[TiffanyGuitar]

Sort of. I know, a cop out answer.

I had GAS in 1994 bad for what eventually became my 1993 Gibson J-30. It hung in my local guitar shop for about a year. I would go every few weeks to get strings, talk to the people I knew in the shop and ogle at it. Eventually, they let me start to play it. And eventually they had a moving sale, and my parents bought it for me for a college graduation present. I seem to recall the shop had mercy on me and sold it at 50% off. It was my only guitar for a very long time and is still a very best friend. In the last 10 years I have been out of control at times buying/selling and generally being nuts with guitars and some amps. I finally have GAS under control, have 7 guitars, thinking about cutting to 5 or 6, and I am happy.

I am actually not playing that much anymore either. I think GAS recently really burned my interest out. I think I will eventually be back at it. But, I am determined to not go back to the nutty behavior GAS can bring out.

[martingitdave]

Nope. Almost entirely internet fueled. Before the internet, I couldn’t imagine having more than one acoustic and electric guitar. But I have a predisposition (got it honestly) for obsessing about gear and such.

[BluesKing777]

I was 14 years old with my Kyowa Strat sort of copy but with whammy bar!.. and was at a friend's with his Ibanez LP Black Beauty copy, never heard of the real things Strat or Gibson LP before that day! There was another friend there with another guitar, don't remember what....

And the beginning of GAS was happening - black Strat for me and black Les Paul for them!

BluesKing777.

[gr81dorn]

Two words: Fender Frontline

That catalog and any others you used to be able to get from guitar shops were the reverb.com of my younger years.

[rounder]

Yes. Was pretty much clueless about guitars and what was happening. In 1964, I liked Peter Paul and Mary and bought a Guild classic as my first guitar. Then, got more into the folk and blues scene and bought a D-28 around 1970. My first two guitars had cost $200 and $300. When the Internet came around, it was a lot easier to find out about guitars, but by that time, they had gotten a lot more expensive. There is probably a correlation.

[brad4d8]

My GAS predates the Internet, although it has been more active since due to the fact that I had more money to spend. I think the most I had at one time before the 'net was four or five. Peaked at around 20 in the Internet era, down to a more manageable number these days.

[Mbroady]

GAS has always been there but it did not kick in with force until I joined the forum an around over 14 years ago. I’ve also been more financially viable in the last decade.

[RP]

Does Your GAS Predate the Internet? No. In fact, it corresponds to my joining AGF. I'm not blaming anybody; but as silly as this sounds, I never even considered the notion of owning more than a single guitar before joining the fold...

[fitness1]

Monthly trips to Elderly for many years just to see what they had would say yes.

[LFL Steve]

Yes, by decades.

[ghostnote]

The guitar I lusted after for years was a black Les Paul copy in the Sears catalog. I looked at it in that catalog every day after school for years - I wanted it badly and never did get it. I have so many guitars now it’s nuts, but still no black Les Paul. The first guitar I bought myself was a white Tele copy, and I fell in love with it. Of course - you never forget your first.
Yeah, I had GAS pre-internet for sure.

[LAPlayer]

I never had GAS because I was working my tail off and didn't have time, space, money or the desire, to haul around more guitars. One guitar kept me busy. Then in the '80s when I moved to L.A. and I found I needed an electric for sessions - that meant two. Then, I was too close to lots of places that sold used guitars in Hollywood. After that I was introduced to Martin guitars and all heck broke loose. Now I have no GAS. When I find a guitar that's "it", I buy it. No more GAS.