No, I’m not talking about the gastrointestinal waste product, I’m talking about Guitar Acquisition Syndrome. It’s an affliction that plagues guitar players the world over, forcing them to buy more and more equipment so they can achieve the perfect tone. Wonder why guitar players are always broke? Look no further. It’s because they’ve sunk all their money into their gear.
Some people have likened GAS to obsessive compulsive disorder; considering the amount of money some people spend, it could be highly likely that it comes close, but really, it’s not that bad. It’s just that in the quest for attaining the ideal sound, you need to get equipment – and that costs money.
Is there a cure? Not as long as you’re trying to tweak your tone. But it goes away once you get close to your ideal. For instance, I’ve pretty much stopped buying gear since I’ve achieved my ideal – at least for now; and that’s the catch. GAS comes back when you want to change your tone, and the amount of GAS you get is in direct proportion to how big of a change you want to make. For me, last year was a year of complete re-invention. I went from being a primarily acoustic-electric guitar player, to being almost entirely electric, and the equipment I had just didn’t suffice. So, two electric guitars, three amps, and a set of stomp boxes later, not to mention a new PA and recording equipment, I’m pretty much over my GASeous period. I’m pretty satisfied… at least for now… 🙂
Can you control GAS? Actually, yes. I have a very supporting wife who sang for me in a music group before we started dating, so she was pretty familiar with my need for more equipment. Once we got married, we had several debates about me getting equipment, since the money was coming out of our family budget. So after going back and forth, and not getting any resolution, she one day said she’d like to make a deal. Since my regular job provided enough money to support the family and pay the mortgage, I could set up a separate account and deposit all my gig money into it to use as I pleased. But a huge part of the deal was that I couldn’t buy anything on credit or financing. I had to use the cash I had. That was a very fair deal, and it was also a way to curb my GASeous urges.
Anyone else have GAS? Share your thoughts!
Guitar Gear 
Actually, our bass-player and me got GAS pretty soon after starting with the band. The good thing at the moment is at least that I am able to repair broken effects. My solution as an electronician is… well to build them by myself in future. Because it’s cheaper and because i might not have the time to produce more than a few 😉
My Equippment right at the moment is a Hoefner LP-Copy, a Crybaby, a MXR Dynacomp, a Ibanez TS9, a Ibanez FL99, a BadCat Twotone and a Colorsound Wahfuzz. All that is plugged into my VOX AC30.
Pretty cool stuff for the moment, though…
Greets from Switzerland
Simon
Simon,
That’s a sweet rig! I was considering getting a TwoTone myself, but after I modded my amp, the drive channel, combined with my TS8 gives me all the breakup that I want for now. That may yet change…. 🙂
–GoofyDawg
It’s me again 😉
As for the TwoTone:
The case is rock stable and I love the distorted sound!
But…I’m quite disappointed about the following things:
– very (!) cheep potentiometers. They get out of position too easy!
– quite loud (very high output) and it’s therefore quite tricky to
finetune
– the LED’s were not glued properly and get loose after hitting by accident
– the front-panel is just glued and tends to shift now after just a month
– The clean channel is humming a little
– The bombastic price!
The parts inside the box are handwired and this looks a bit adventurous to me in the 21th century 😉
So check this out before buying
What effects do YOU use???
Very simple, straight-forward set:
Ibanez TS-808
Boss CH-3 Stereo Chorus
Boss DD-5 Digital Delay
BBE Sonic Stomp
A cool rig indeed!
I’d love to put a TS-808 once next to my TS9 just to find out if I could hear any difference…
BTW: I tested a Ibanez AD9 (analog delay) today in my local store but I’m a bit disappointed… the delay time is just too short. Probably a memory man would be a bit better…?
(sounds nice!)
Or even a digital delay/reverb. (There is no spring-reverb in my VOX AC30 but even my lowcost VOX VR30 at home has got a nice one built in ;-(
Well, I guess I just look forward for the next local fleamarket in september :=)
I completely forgot to mention my rig for my acoustic guitar, which is completely different:
Amp: Roland Cube 60 – Great sound in a small package.
With that amp, I use a single pedal: DigiTech DigiVerb. It has a great spring reverb, but also has 6 other reverb settings (I use Hall a lot).
The amp has a decent chorus built in, but the reverb sucks, which is why I use the DigiVerb.
It’s funny, I played my Ovation through a lot of different tube amps, and ended up going with a solid state because it just sounded great. And for $300 on sale, I couldn’t beat the price. Besides, even though it’s small, it’s really loud! Great for the small to medium sized venues I normally play.
DigiVerb… Might be another effect to satisfy my GAS syndrome 🙂
I owned a Marshall amp with several digital FX built in but that was real crap except the delay. It really sounded natural! Probably because you don’t need to shape the sound but only copy and repeat it.
Probably I don’t like digital pedals because i would not be able to repair such a complex little box…
But if i think of the new soundlabs of Vox … might be fun to improve the sound a few month later just with a software-update for free… I have seen a big community growing. Who knows what the future may bring…
The Cube 60 is really a sweet box. I think that the manufacturing of small speakers also improved much over the years. That makes those boxes singing!
Yeah, I love it. I use the Cube 60 as my practice amp as well, so I don’t have to set up my very heavy Hot Rod Deluxe.
I’ve used a variety of pedals over the years, but the thing that always struck me about hand-wired stuff is that they’re incredibly expensive! I’ve been saving my money for a Keeley compressor, but it’s tough to make the decision to actually buy it since it costs close to US$300.00. So I’ve been holding out.
As far as the DigiVerb is concerned, I just love its flexibility. It really produces excellent reverb for a fraction of the cost of a hand-wired pedal.
GoofyDawg
Actually, I don’t see the point of handwired FX pedals. I understand that in a (very) hot tube amp it is more dureable to handwire components. But fpr everything else… I believe this is a myth!?
I didn’t even know the keeley compressor… But i can tell you that I am very happy with my MXR Dyna compared to the one from BOSS that is defect now.
To avoid GAS: I think that 219$ are way too much for a compressor with just about 15-20 components inside. But who knows, probably the pays also a lot to buy those matched transistors?
From my point of view i find that most FX are too expensive. But I understand that the market is going on as long as there are people with GAS 🙂 (Not even thinking about eBay!)