How often do you get GAS? How do you deal with it?

[Cool555]

Just wondering how often GAS strikes you? Is it because you're in AGF that you have GAS? What do you do when you have GAS? Just go buy whichever guitar you're gassing after. Talk yourself out of it.

I experience GAS about every 6 months. The last guitar (00-15m) that I bought was 10 months ago.

Thanks for your votes and comments!

[Wade Hampton]

I didn’t vote in your poll because you didn’t have an option for “all of the time.” To me how often I think about and want guitars is kind of like asking “How often do you find women attractive?” or “How often do you like to breathe?”

For all three my answer is “Pretty much all of the time.”

I’m a lifer that way, I guess....


Wade Hampton “Guitar Buying Recidivist” Miller

[richard1]

I never buy on credit, and I always make myself save money in a jar for large value purchases. By the time I have enough for a guitar I wanted so badly, I usually find that I don't need it any more, so I just keep saving.

[Cool555]

Originally Posted by richard1

I never buy on credit, and I always make myself save money in a jar for large value purchases. By the time I have enough for a guitar I wanted so badly, I usually find that I don't need it any more, so I just keep saving.

Wow! I really like your method of saving money. This method was used in the 70’s and earlier when credit was not so readily available. The passing of time can also quench the desire for the guitar that one was saving for.

[Cool555]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

I didn’t vote in your poll because you didn’t have an option for “all of the time.” To me how often I think about and want guitars is kind of like asking “How often do you find women attractive?” or “How often do you like to breathe?”

For all three my answer is “Pretty much all of the time.”

I’m a lifer that way, I guess....


Wade Hampton “Guitar Buying Recidivist” Miller

Yes, I should have added in “all the time”. I thought “every other day” was excessive already.

[EZYPIKINS]

I voted every other day, because every day wasn't an option.
But lately I have decided, I would just as soon have a motorcycle.
So when I need to social distance, I can do it in style.

[Silly Moustache]

EDIT : I misread the title - quick answer - Every Day, like Wade,
but it started me on a task of recording my acquisitions and disposals since '98 when I strated keeping records.

It may not be the answer to the question, but s I did the following whilst eating breakfast, I might as well leave it - it was an interesting exercise on a grey autumn morning!

I voted 13-24 months - but that was my buying pattern (approx).

My records only go back to 1998, and so a net plus does not happen every year but a rough average is one item per year.

In '98, my wife ordered and I received a local luthier built 0028 - which I still have.
In '99 I bought my first Collings. (two or three guitars out)
2000, nil
2001 nil
2002 - Martin D35-S Del 'arte 12 string.
2003 -nil
2004 - (my pneumonia year and Texas year) nil
2005 - (our California to Texas year) - Collings 0002h
2006 (my heart op year) - Harmony Monterey, Reliance archtop.
2007, (my retirement year) Weissenborn, Lebeda Mandolin, Eastman AR805e
Lakewood 6 and 12 out and previous mandolin out. (net nil)
2008 - Huss & Dalton, National Style O, Larrivee SD50SB
- H&D rejected.
2009 My dying friends Dobro, (old Dobro out) net nil
2010 - My Collings DS1, "Evans" L-1, Loar LH700
2011 - My D12-20, Gibson L-4, 2nd DS2h & BR371 (D12-35 & BR371 out)
2012 - my second Collings Ds1 - (Loar LH700 and Reliance out)
2013 - nil
2014 - Santa Cruz RS, (Del arte 12- out).
2015 - National Estralita (National Style 0 & Daion Legacy out)
2016 - Waterloo WL12 (Eastman AR805e, Larrivee SD50, Daion 12 - out)
2017 - (Cancer year) Harmony 12 st.
2018 - Eastman AR805 (Martin D35-s - out) (my wife bought me a banjo)
2019 - Eastman E20-P - (CollingsDS2h - out)
2020 - (something else TBA)

Sales/trade-in records incomplete, but I guess I acquire slightly less than one per year, on average.

[Parlorman]

I voted “Never” but I mean “No longer”. A few years ago I realized that I was perfectly content with the instruments I have. I still like to look at what’s out there and read the classifieds regularly but I no longer have the urge to buy. If anything, I’ll probably sell one or two.

Before that, I was buying and selling every six to twelve months, sometimes more often.

[Cool555]

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

EDIT : I misread the title - quick answer - Every Day, like Wade,
but it started me on a task of recording my acquisitions and disposals since '98 when I strated keeping records.

It may not be the answer to the question, but s I did the following whilst eating breakfast, I might as well leave it - it was an interesting exercise on a grey autumn morning!

I voted 13-24 months - but that was my buying pattern (approx).

My records only go back to 1998, and so a net plus does not happen every year but a rough average is one item per year.

In '98, my wife ordered and I received a local luthier built 0028 - which I still have.
In '99 I bought my first Collings. (two or three guitars out)
2000, nil
2001 nil
2002 - Martin D35-S Del 'arte 12 string.
2003 -nil
2004 - (my pneumonia year and Texas year) nil
2005 - (our California to Texas year) - Collings 0002h
2006 (my heart op year) - Harmony Monterey, Reliance archtop.
2007, (my retirement year) Weissenborn, Lebeda Mandolin, Eastman AR805e
Lakewood 6 and 12 out and previous mandolin out. (net nil)
2008 - Huss & Dalton, National Style O, Larrivee SD50SB
- H&D rejected.
2009 My dying friends Dobro, (old Dobro out) net nil
2010 - My Collings DS1, "Evans" L-1, Loar LH700
2011 - My D12-20, Gibson L-4, 2nd DS2h & BR371 (D12-35 & BR371 out)
2012 - my second Collings Ds1 - (Loar LH700 and Reliance out)
2013 - nil
2014 - Santa Cruz RS, (Del arte 12- out).
2015 - National Estralita (National Style 0 & Daion Legacy out)
2016 - Waterloo WL12 (Eastman AR805e, Larrivee SD50, Daion 12 - out)
2017 - (Cancer year) Harmony 12 st.
2018 - Eastman AR805 (Martin D35-s - out) (my wife bought me a banjo)
2019 - Eastman E20-P - (CollingsDS2h - out)
2020 - (something else TBA)

Sales/trade-in records incomplete, but I guess I acquire slightly less than one per year, on average.

Thanks Andy for the detailed list. My guess for your coming guitar is an Eastman E20SS. Just a random guess.

[WiseAxe]

One feature of my own GAS- the guitars I'm interested in are priced just a little bit outside of my discretionary spending comfort zone. Similar to the hoop toss psychological experiment where the subjects in the test would continue to play if the target was just barely out of reach, in their case, they would continue to play, in my case, I would continue to pay.

One possible outcome to OP Cool55's question of "how do you deal with it" was answered in one of his following posts- for me, sometimes by the time I find the one I've been looking for, the target has already changed.

[rstaight]

If i wasn't married my collection would be much larger and more expensive. My wife keeps me in check and not writing checks for instruments.

[Norsepicker]

Everyday like others here, sort of like looking at art. But I found a solution. I won’t let myself have guitars I don’t play at least once or twice a week, and I’ve reached my max with different guitars for different kinds of music -so I moved laterally. Room now has one vintage Vega Banjo, one half fretless Pisgah banjo, one fretless 18th century repro Stone banjo, one Jason Harshbarger f style mandolin, one Keith Newell A style mandolin, and one turn of the century bowl back mandolin. I hope it’s over with, but I doubt it.

[815C]

I have a fairly long list of instruments that I'd like to acquire.

The way I deal with it is that I only spend money that I've made playing music to buy more gear. Back when gigs were a thing this would allow me to buy an instrument or two each year. In 2020 I'm gonna have to find another way to pay. As I was laid off from my day job in April, guitars have not been high on my priority list for spending. Any money I may from online lesson sales has been going to things like FOOD.

Thankfully, just last week I started working full time again. And while I've averaged 1 gig a month during this pandemic (outside events with social distancing), I've been making only enough to pay my recurring internet costs associated with my online material, but not enough to buy another instrument.

[madison]

I suffer from GAS constantly, but try not to succumb to it. I first attempt to desensitize myself to the desired guitar by reading as much as I can about it, including positive, indifferent, and negative reviews. I then make a paper copy of a dealer or maker entry on the guitar and write on the front of the copy, with a bold Sharpie, the name of any guitar that I already have that would make the desired guitar redundant. Then each day, or several times a day, I look at the copy and say to myself, "I don't need that!"

Thus I keep the Sweetwater entry on a Martin 000-18 close by, to which I've added Martin 00-28, which I already own. So far it's working. But I've weakened a little in the last few days. Don't know how much longer I can hold out. Gasp!

[Mike McLenison]

Never. I have an HD-35. The best ever imho.