Guitar Gear

I had a little chuckle this morning. I went into my garage, looking for my Ibanez TS-808 overdrive in one of my pedal drawers. I went to my overdrive drawer and looked at all the different ones I have. That’s when I chuckled. I looked at some of them and had a WTF moment. I had no idea why I got some of them in the first place.

One for sure I bought on pure impulse based on forum discussions. Another was because I heard a dude using it live and loved his sound. But I never could bond with it (goes to show it’s the whole signal chain and not just a component). But some of the others? I just scratched my head and asked myself, WTF was I thinking at the time? I seriously had NO idea why I bought them.

And maybe that’s the point. The fact that I don’t know why I bought some gear is kind of an indicator that I probably didn’t put too much thought into the purchase of that gear. But for all my really major purchases, I literally took months and sometimes years before I pulled the trigger. I put a lot of thought into those purchases. I did a lot of research. I talked to a lot of people.

But that gear that I don’t remember? Not so much. It most probably was a compulsive buy. And that’s the danger of being a gear slut. We are extremely prone to compulsive spending. I’m so much better at it now and don’t give in to my whims, however strong. But I know of guys who’ve literally accumulated truckloads of gear. One, in particular, wasn’t even in a band! He just hoarded all sorts of guitars amps and pedals!

He passed away tragically, and my buddy purchased all his gear. It took two full-size car transport trailers and the bed of an F-350 pickup to haul all his gear away. When I saw all the gear, my jaw dropped. There were dozens of amps, hundreds of pedals, an insane amount of guitars. It was like the dude had a shop all his own!

Obviously, the dude had hoarding issues. Once I saw all that gear, I resolved to never get to that point. I thought I had a lot of gear at the time, but despite filling up half my garage, it didn’t even come close to what this guy had amassed.

Still though, looking at those pedals was a great reminder. I need to keep my impulses in check. I don’t want to have that “WTF” moment again!