I was reading a technical article on microservices architecture to corroborate points in a presentation I’ll be giving next week, and I ran across a reference to a saying I’d heard a long time ago: The First Law of Holes. It basically goes like this:
“If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.”
Attribution to the origin of this saying is a bit murky, though, according to a Wikipedia entry, it can be found in an article published back in 1911 in the Washington Post.
The first time I heard the saying was from an old priest, Father Bob. I forgot exactly what the conversation was at the time (this was back in the mid-1980’s), though I believe it was probably me venting my frustration with my career plans (I really didn’t know what the hell I wanted to do back then and it REALLY bothered me). To that he said, “You know, as they say, if you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.” Such sage advice, and frankly, it caused me to just relax and let the universe work things out. But I’ve digressed…
That saying can be applied to just about anything; especially gear. When I was overcome with GAS a few years ago, what helped me snap out of it – besides running out of money – was remembering that saying, or a corollary. I had spent so much time, effort and money trying to chase that unicorn of tone, that I was never happy with the gear I had and would sell or trade off gear on a whim, or purchase more stuff to layer onto my rigs.
It really was the case of digging a deeper hole for myself. In the end, I climbed out of the hole, just stuck with the gear I had, and made it work. No, I wasn’t just settling. What I did was take the time to do a deep-dive into my equipment. I also spent a lot more time practicing to increase my skill and expressiveness.
A few months later, I found my sound. It was literally a breakthrough moment. I was recording a new piece and laying down a solo. The way I usually record solos on my recordings is to do several takes, then pick the one I like best. What I realized is that even though my phrasing might be different from take to take, I sounded like me every single time.
That really sealed the deal for me with respect to breaking me of my GAS because it changed my perspective on my gear. Instead of my gear defining my sound, my gear merely added texture and color to what I had all along and didn’t realize I had it. From that point on, I didn’t see a need to keep on adding new stuff, and when I did, it was to add a feature to my sound, not be my sound.
Now I also realized that when I had the funds to spend on gear, it was REALLY fun. I was on the boards all the time. I went to local guitar shops and played everything that I found interesting (which was a lot of stuff).
What about now? I just gig. I have my solo acoustic gig, play lead guitar for an old farts band, and have recently been asked to sit in with a buddy’s blues band to sing and play rhythm guitar and keys. I have six pedals on my board. I used to have twice as many. But most of the time, I only use my Soul Food and my Big Bad Wah. I also use my booster for solos, but I don’t use my mod pedals all that much, though I keep them there just in case…
So if you find yourself in a hole similarly, stop digging.
And here’s my Second Law: Climb out.
Guitar Gear 
I TOO, HAVE CLIMBED OUT OF THE HOLE. YOU CLIMBED IN BY YOURSELF, NO GEAR IN THE WORLD WILL GET YOU OUT OF YOUR HOLE, ONLY YOU CAN GET OUT OF IT.
Exactly. What amazed me when finally got out of that hole was my perspective on gear in general. I realized that I was so doubtful about my sound that every time I’d hear a clip I’d think, “I wonder who that’ll sound in my chain.” Now, if I hear something cool, my thought is, “That’s cool. I need to try it out one of these days.”
You can never be all things to all people (or sounds), satisfy yourself, people will notice. Have a good one GD.