Would an unlimited gear budget be boring?

If I had an unlimited budget I'd be paying other people to implement my ideas, and a few of those do involve guitars. But I'd spend a little more of my attention on cars and architecture than I do now.

Sure it'd be fun to go up to Gruhn's knowing I could buy anything that speaks to me. I would certainly try a few, and find out for myself whether pre-CBS really is better. But I really don't think I'd buy 30 of them. I'm already at a place where some of my guitars don't get any playing for weeks at a time.

 

I'd probably buy more amps and pedals than anything else, maybe build a crazy home studio. More than 5-10 guitars and some of them won't see any playing time. You can mix and match pedals and amps all day. But if it didn't make me a better player and I had nobody to listen to me it would be like a tree falling in the forest with nobody around.

 

The "answer" for many (should be for all) is to determine the sound you want above all else. Once that is attained find the gear that provides that sound in addition to your abilities. Settle on it and for as long as you desire that sound stay with what you have. Fashion and Fancy should never be the criteria by which we buy guitars but sadly it all too often is. I recall being a kid in the 1950's. I would wait for the LIONEL TRAIN CATALOG to come out in October ahead of the Christmas rush. In truth we lived in a three room apartment with a family of four. I can count the times I had my "trains" set up. Maybe once or twice. Most of the time they were boxed and sitting in a corner of the room. But boy...do I fondly remember the time I spent looking at that old, vivid Lionel Train Catalog. Get my drift? Many times the boy never leaves the man. The Pisstoff Musician.

 

Sounds like you are describing Joe Bonamassa?

 

Stuff is cool, but I would inevitably find that what I need can't be bought.

 

It would be like being immortal. The only reason we humans attempt to do anything with our sorry lives in this ****ty world is because we have a limited amount of time on this planet to begin with. If we knew there would always be another tomorrow there would be no reason to do anything today.

If we had an unlimited budget we may in fact by fewer guitars as there would be no sense of, "I have to have that now while I have the money and I might never come across it again." So maybe if we all won the lottery we would spend less on our hobbies than more?

NC

 

While I haven't had an "unlimited" budget, I have been fortunate enough to have a budget that allows me to be able to acquire whatever I have actually wanted in terms of gear and yes -- it gets boring for me which is why I applied the brakes some years ago now and I stand pat with my electric gear.

Granted, I recently purchased a new Martin 000-28 acoustic, but that is strictly because I have developed arthritic hands (especially my fretting thumb) and the shorter 24.9" scale does help a great deal in that regard.

What I've learned after riding the G.A.S. train long enough is that the inspiration you get from a new piece of gear is fleeting as heck, and when it dissipates, you are still the same player you were before. The REAL joy lies in learning new styles, songs, techniques and that kind of thing. But that is HARD to do, and I must drag myself into it daily to overcome the inertia of my own laziness. But the payoffs are HUGE and the boredom disappears as I learn, for example, how to master Jerry Reed banjo roll techniques on my acoustic or to play a great Zep song correctly on my electrics.

Oh, and staying away from forums helps lol, present situation notwithstanding

 

I'm at a place currently gear-wise where it makes the most sense to spend money on lessons and tools to learn theory. There are still a number of things I'd like to get, a 12-string Guild Starfire jumps to mind, but I currently have neither the time nor the space to play all that I have now.

 

Give me the unlimited gear budget. I'll take care of being bored about that.

 

I would value an unlimited budget of time to practice over equipment.

I would love more more more equipment like most, but there is just something wonderful about seeing a guitar that has been the one played for so long that you don’t know where the instrument stops and the player starts. I see a guy out in front of a local grocery store, playing an old worn out Taylor with a big crack on the top. He has no budget for another guitar, I’m sure, but he knows how to squeeze out every ounce of music that guitar has left in it.

 

Human nature one on one....we are floating in a state of perpetual...dissatisfaction.The grass ll always be greener on the other side.Guitarists of today have so many options that guitarists decades ago would think its a dream scenario and yet guitarists of today still dont have enough gear...it ll never change no matter the amount of money we can spend or tech improvements that ll occur...

 

Past a certain point of buying equipment, it's just pissing in the wind.

 

I think the big advantage would be not having to spend hours/days trolling for that perfect "thing", and instead spending the time practicing/recording in my practice space. When I found I needed some "thing" I could go buy what I "needed" without spending the time thrashing, selling something to finance the purchase, compromising with "good enough" or whatever. If I was a collector instead of a "player" that could become a problem, but then the thrill of the chase for that perfect vintage piece or trip to Norms or Gruhns might be fun and part of the joy of having exactly what I wanted. Then again, part of being able to afford anything you want is some level of self control to not deplete the funds below some critical level.

 

I'm guessing it would cost about $200,000 before I got bored.

 

If we could graph these replies, we'd had a continuum of the G.A.S. Spectrum

 

I can answer this question based on personal experience.

Yes, an unlimited gear budget gets boring. It also is not conducive to making great art. Working within limitations is what it's all about.

I was sponsored by Fender. They gave me guitars. My bandmate was sponsored by Gibson/Epiphone. They also gave me guitars. I had a lot of guitars, including two Custom Shop strats that I built via a visit to the Custom Shop to pick out all the pieces and meet with the builders.

I was making a lot of money being a rock star and my job was to play music. So I had no compunction about buying stuff -- pedals, amps, guitars -- because it was all equipment for my job.

I've sold almost all of it. Including the two Custom Shop strats (which I regret, if only because it would be cool for my kids to have them) and some early Way Huge pedals that Jeorge gave to us when he was starting out and that are now worth about a jillion dollars -- sold them to friends for reasonable prices.

On our first record, which has sold/streamed 6M+ copies/total album equivalents at this point, I did not even own an electric guitar or amp. I was using a borrowed Harmony worth maybe $50 and my best friend's blackface Twin, which he had had since the mid 80s and had mismatched speakers, one of which was mounted with only one bolt. All I owned was a cheap Korg tuner, and a used Ibanez TS-10 and Sovtek Big Muff, plus cables to patch it all together.

The record I made with that gear resulted in three top 40 singles and got gold, platinum and double-platinum awards around the world and two GRAMMY nominations.

It was recorded for about $5,000.

I realized after I got all of the gear and crap that it was hurting rather than helping my creative process. At this point I own a mongrel parts strat that was my main touring guitar (started as a MIM giveaway strat that a label rep brought for us to sign), a $179 Squier tele that I bought last year on vacation cos I didn't have a guitar with me and wanted something to practice on, and some nice amps (a Pro Junior, a tweed Deluxe clone, and a custom Rola 35-watt head that's in the blackface Fender vein). I also own some pedals, but no fancy/boutique ones, and often I just plug straight into the amp.

 

I know it makes no sense, but sometimes the least expensive things in life give you the most pleasure. Reading the entire Travis McGee series by John MacDonald gave me hundreds of hours of enjoyment. These novels show the true meaning of friendship.
I have done well collecting Gibson, and the cost has been steep because the hobby came later in life when the prices were already within 20% of the top. To amass a similar collection of Fender vintage guitars would take at least a decade and several hundred thousand dollars. Can't say it would be worth it. Too many pressing needs in life, like exercise, for example.
This is an example of a collector with all the years in the Fender pre-CBS lineup.

I would not call this excess. It is dedication to a hobby. Whatever makes the world go Sound.

 

I have 11 guitars and 9 amplifiers some of which hasn’t been touched in years. I would like to spend some time with a Dumble though.

 

Hasn’t slowed down Joe Bonamassa.

 

Going through many lean years have made me frugal. On top of that, I'm cheap.

I believe that The backstory and circumstances of how gear comes to me feeds into the creative process.

Here are some examples:

On a cold November night I drove the entire length of Chicago from Rodgers Park all the way to Worth to check out an amp. It started to snow and the trip down took 3 hours. The seller was a very interesting guy (he had 4! Hammond B3 stashed in his garage). Ended up hanging out for a couple of hours and shooting the ****.

Back in the 80's, I was in downtown Champaign, IL, waiting for a bus that was 3 hours late from Jackson, Mississippi. To kill some time, I went into a small pawn shop. They had a Blackface Deluxe Reverb ("plugged it in, smoke comes out - $20"). I Wasn't an electric player, so I left, but kept thinking about it while I was in Chicago for a couple of days. Ended up going back the next week and bought it. I carried it home, 5 miles in hot, humid August. This random event caused me to get an electric and completely changed my musical direction. All because if an overdue bus.

My most recent Strat purchase happened when the wife and I walked by a church rummage sale. They had a Squier Affinity for $25. I picked it up telling my wife that "these rummage sale guitars are always crap". Played it, not crap! Had to put up with some gentle ribbing from the wife.

When I play, I always think of what I went through or how an odd series of events lead to a piece of gear. Somehow there's a certain energy that comes from this gear. Don't feel the same about stuff I buy from a retailer. I don't think I'd be the same kind of player if I could just buy anything. I like trying to make all the random stuff work together.