{"id":3669,"date":"2013-04-08T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-04-08T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/?p=3669"},"modified":"2013-04-09T11:47:30","modified_gmt":"2013-04-09T16:47:30","slug":"got-gas-youre-not-alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/ideas\/got-gas-youre-not-alone.html","title":{"rendered":"Got GAS? You’re Not Alone"},"content":{"rendered":"

GAS is an acronym (sort of<\/a>) that doesn’t refer to fuel but is a word that every dedicated guitar owner eventually learns; it’s Guitar (or Gear) Acquisition Syndrome<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

You’ll note that I said guitar<\/em> and not specifically bass guitar<\/em>, because when you’ve got GAS, well then, you can’t just stop at bass guitars, can you? Oh, no. You’ll start picking up all sorts of stringed instruments. A bunch of electrics, acoustics, oddball stringed instruments that have way more than 4 strings or way less than 4 (GAS sufferers have been known to own 2-string and even 1-string instruments,) and so on.<\/p>\n

What causes GAS?<\/h3>\n

Everything; it usually starts with a 5-string.<\/p>\n

“Hm. I’d love to have that low B…”<\/em><\/p>\n

Then the 6-string.<\/p>\n

“Well, as long as I have the 5, I might was well get a 6…”<\/em><\/p>\n

Then to ‘match the set’ you specifically find the same instrument in a 4-string version even though you didn’t need it.<\/p>\n

“Cool! I now have all 3!”<\/em><\/p>\n

Then, of course, you need cases for all 3 of those – all matching, of course.<\/p>\n

“I’d sure love to get tweed cases for these these 3 pretty things.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Then the manufacturer comes out with a ‘special’ edition of the same bass, now with gold hardware.<\/p>\n

“Damn. Now I have to buy another 3 bass guitars.”<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s like I said, everything causes GAS. Number of strings, color of finish, color of hardware, special editions, special edition cases<\/em>, etc.<\/p>\n

You can see how this can get quite ridiculous in a really short period of time.<\/p>\n

How does one stop the GAS?<\/h3>\n

The best bit of advice on concerning GAS is to try the guitar<\/strong>, meaning that instead of running away from GAS, you face it.<\/p>\n

If all you do is admire the whatever-it-is on a shelf or rack but don’t work up the nerve to try the instrument, that will make you want it even more<\/em>. You just need to get that lust for that bass guitar, electric, acoustic or whatever-it-is OUT of your system; the only two ways of doing that are to either ignore the instrument completely, or actually play the thing for 10 minutes plugged in.<\/p>\n

Believe me, the feeling of holding and actually playing the expensive instrument for a few minutes really works for getting the GAS out. After playing it, you’ve satisfied that gear lust for free<\/em> and you didn’t have to spend a dime to do it. Once you’ve played the super-expensive whatever-it-is, you’ll find the GAS quickly diminishes. Why? Because you “faced the enemy,” so to speak, and won because you get to go home with no new monthly payment to satisfy.<\/p>\n

CHALLENGE: Try that “bass you’ve always wanted” in the store to see if the GAS goes away.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Have you stepped up to the challenge, played the expensive in-store bass and did the GAS go away? Post a comment or two with your experience(s).<\/p>\n

Remember: Owning expensive bass guitars is not a bad thing<\/b>. Not at all. It’s when you have too many of them due to GAS that it becomes a problem.<\/p>\n

(And not to put too fine a point on it, but part of the reason our store<\/a> even exists is for those “defeat the GAS” and switch over to building instead of acquiring. More fun to build than buy? Absolutely.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GAS is an acronym (sort of) that doesn’t refer to fuel but is a word that every dedicated guitar owner eventually learns; it’s Guitar (or Gear) Acquisition Syndrome. You’ll note that I said guitar and not specifically bass guitar, because when you’ve got GAS, well then, you can’t just stop at bass guitars, can you? … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":3671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[24],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3669"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}