electricnemesis
New Member
So, it is funny that I just got done writing a paper on the topic of G.A.S. and I see the AXE FX 2 is about to be released.And I was just saving to buy an Ultra come October. Hope the waiting list isn't too long for Axe 2 by then.
Never Running Out of G.A.S
I have often heard that musicians are a different breed of people. That “we” don’t think like normal people and that we are a bit eccentric in our ways. Then, just recently there was another stereotype associated with musicians that caught my attention. It was a condition that musicians suffer from called G.A.S.:“Gear Acquisition Syndrome”. This condition is characterized by the compulsive need to constantly buy newer musical gear and in the process of acquiring this gear, there is a period known as the obsessive portion where the musician researches said gear for many hours, even weeks before buying, only until the next best things comes out. Some would argue that the reason people suffer from G.A.S. is to keep up with the Joneses or for retail therapy. But I believe that it goes beyond showing off a new toy or filling a gap in one’s life by spending hard earned money. I feel that the singular cause of G.A.S. is the pursuit of the perfect tone. G.A.S. does not discriminate against age, color or sex. It will appear unbeknownst to the musician. It may take several months or even years to realize and understand the symptoms of G.A.S. and the only known cure is a musician finding his or her perfect tone. Like the Holy Grail, mankind has talked about its existence and even spent lifetimes searching for it only to pass the legend on for others to search.
My first introduction to G.A.S. was twenty years ago, although the term G.A.S. had not been adopted, its symptoms as described above were prevalent in my early stages of musicianship. My first guitar was a cheap Harmony electric; one which retail stores like Sears would sell to parents that didn’t want to pay for a decent guitar in fear of their child giving up this craft. In addition to the guitar I had a one channel Peavey amp; some consider this to be a cheap beginner amp “later in my twenties I worked for Peavey and would agree with the masses”. Although I knew that my gear was less than stellar I still felt like the coolest kid on the block, because I had a new guitar and amplifier. Only I wasn’t the coolest kid, because Billy down the street had a Gibson Les Paul Studio with an amp that had delay , reverb and three channels :clean, rhythm and lead. It wasn’t until I played his guitar and amp and heard his tone that I realized what inferior gear I really had in comparison. Unbeknownst to me, I was about to suffer from G.A.S. for the rest of my life.
It took me only three months after getting my Harmony to upgrade to something better. I met a guy that had a B.C. Rich guitar that he referred to as “the slut” because the guitar had been everywhere and had been held in many dive bars. Upon playing “the slut” I knew I had to have her because she not only played great, but sounded incredible because of active pickups, which I learned was just battery powered pickups that let you attain another level of gain. But wait, what was this bright green contraption that he pulled out of the case that looked like a miniature version of the device that sucked up the ghosts in Ghostbusters. It was a distortion pedal called American Metal. I just found out that in addition to the gain the active pickups produced, this was distortion on steroids in a handy little travel package making a growling tone unlike any I had heard before. Even Billy’s three channel amp in all its glory didn’t have the balls that this throaty little bastard produced. How much? I bought that too! Then he told me something that I should have never been told. They have a plethora of these little pedals that have delay, reverb, chorus, tremolo and different types of gains and effects and tone or sound you can imagine. It was the Baskin Robbins of effect Pedals and I was soon to be eating them up looking for that tone I could only hear in my head.
It only took several more years to have attained three more guitars and an arsenal of foot effect pedals that could have kept Bill "Bojangles" Robinson tapping for hours. I had been through a half dozen amps until I settled on a 1979 Marshall Bass amp that brought my pedals to life unlike any other amp before it. My next evolution in sound came from a Roland Synthesizer that could play piano, flute, bagpipes and any other instrument that was under the sun. Next were the drum machines and recording devices. Joining a band didn’t help G.A.S. either because now I needed more sound. Power amps and large speakers had to be bought so my juvenile tone could blanket the audience in a sea of cacophony. But there was something coming next that would be the ultimate G.A.S. on the fire: the internet.
Like men before me searching for treasures, I now had my very own map to search for the perfect tone. The internet was both a blessing and a curse: a curse because now there were so many choices that narrowing down what piece of gear I wanted made my head dizzy like a kid in a chocolate factory deciding on which edible to consume first. But researching these devices was convenient because of sites that had pro reviews and user reviews as well. Then YouTube came along and let you hear what the gear was capable of with in depth reviews and samples of nearly every nuance the device was capable or incapable of. Local music stores became superfluous because of the internet. I could look up virtually any guitar, pedal board or amp “which the local music stores most likely didn’t carry”, and I was able to order it online at much bigger savings. I now had super high octane G.A.S.
Even though I am older and a little more responsible with my money, and about to get married to a woman who frowns deeply when a new gadget arrives via UPS, I still have symptoms of G.A.S. sporadically. I often wonder if the search for perfect tone is attainable and just when I convince myself that it’s not, another guitar or device comes out that is hailed as revolutionary tone. And because of the exponential advancement of guitar and amp modeling technologies I have three words when my fiancé asks me “how many more pieces of gear do you need to buy?” I reply, “Just one more”.
Never Running Out of G.A.S
I have often heard that musicians are a different breed of people. That “we” don’t think like normal people and that we are a bit eccentric in our ways. Then, just recently there was another stereotype associated with musicians that caught my attention. It was a condition that musicians suffer from called G.A.S.:“Gear Acquisition Syndrome”. This condition is characterized by the compulsive need to constantly buy newer musical gear and in the process of acquiring this gear, there is a period known as the obsessive portion where the musician researches said gear for many hours, even weeks before buying, only until the next best things comes out. Some would argue that the reason people suffer from G.A.S. is to keep up with the Joneses or for retail therapy. But I believe that it goes beyond showing off a new toy or filling a gap in one’s life by spending hard earned money. I feel that the singular cause of G.A.S. is the pursuit of the perfect tone. G.A.S. does not discriminate against age, color or sex. It will appear unbeknownst to the musician. It may take several months or even years to realize and understand the symptoms of G.A.S. and the only known cure is a musician finding his or her perfect tone. Like the Holy Grail, mankind has talked about its existence and even spent lifetimes searching for it only to pass the legend on for others to search.
My first introduction to G.A.S. was twenty years ago, although the term G.A.S. had not been adopted, its symptoms as described above were prevalent in my early stages of musicianship. My first guitar was a cheap Harmony electric; one which retail stores like Sears would sell to parents that didn’t want to pay for a decent guitar in fear of their child giving up this craft. In addition to the guitar I had a one channel Peavey amp; some consider this to be a cheap beginner amp “later in my twenties I worked for Peavey and would agree with the masses”. Although I knew that my gear was less than stellar I still felt like the coolest kid on the block, because I had a new guitar and amplifier. Only I wasn’t the coolest kid, because Billy down the street had a Gibson Les Paul Studio with an amp that had delay , reverb and three channels :clean, rhythm and lead. It wasn’t until I played his guitar and amp and heard his tone that I realized what inferior gear I really had in comparison. Unbeknownst to me, I was about to suffer from G.A.S. for the rest of my life.
It took me only three months after getting my Harmony to upgrade to something better. I met a guy that had a B.C. Rich guitar that he referred to as “the slut” because the guitar had been everywhere and had been held in many dive bars. Upon playing “the slut” I knew I had to have her because she not only played great, but sounded incredible because of active pickups, which I learned was just battery powered pickups that let you attain another level of gain. But wait, what was this bright green contraption that he pulled out of the case that looked like a miniature version of the device that sucked up the ghosts in Ghostbusters. It was a distortion pedal called American Metal. I just found out that in addition to the gain the active pickups produced, this was distortion on steroids in a handy little travel package making a growling tone unlike any I had heard before. Even Billy’s three channel amp in all its glory didn’t have the balls that this throaty little bastard produced. How much? I bought that too! Then he told me something that I should have never been told. They have a plethora of these little pedals that have delay, reverb, chorus, tremolo and different types of gains and effects and tone or sound you can imagine. It was the Baskin Robbins of effect Pedals and I was soon to be eating them up looking for that tone I could only hear in my head.
It only took several more years to have attained three more guitars and an arsenal of foot effect pedals that could have kept Bill "Bojangles" Robinson tapping for hours. I had been through a half dozen amps until I settled on a 1979 Marshall Bass amp that brought my pedals to life unlike any other amp before it. My next evolution in sound came from a Roland Synthesizer that could play piano, flute, bagpipes and any other instrument that was under the sun. Next were the drum machines and recording devices. Joining a band didn’t help G.A.S. either because now I needed more sound. Power amps and large speakers had to be bought so my juvenile tone could blanket the audience in a sea of cacophony. But there was something coming next that would be the ultimate G.A.S. on the fire: the internet.
Like men before me searching for treasures, I now had my very own map to search for the perfect tone. The internet was both a blessing and a curse: a curse because now there were so many choices that narrowing down what piece of gear I wanted made my head dizzy like a kid in a chocolate factory deciding on which edible to consume first. But researching these devices was convenient because of sites that had pro reviews and user reviews as well. Then YouTube came along and let you hear what the gear was capable of with in depth reviews and samples of nearly every nuance the device was capable or incapable of. Local music stores became superfluous because of the internet. I could look up virtually any guitar, pedal board or amp “which the local music stores most likely didn’t carry”, and I was able to order it online at much bigger savings. I now had super high octane G.A.S.
Even though I am older and a little more responsible with my money, and about to get married to a woman who frowns deeply when a new gadget arrives via UPS, I still have symptoms of G.A.S. sporadically. I often wonder if the search for perfect tone is attainable and just when I convince myself that it’s not, another guitar or device comes out that is hailed as revolutionary tone. And because of the exponential advancement of guitar and amp modeling technologies I have three words when my fiancé asks me “how many more pieces of gear do you need to buy?” I reply, “Just one more”.
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It will happen with a wife too.Man that would of taken me an hour to type
