An end to GAS

[LukeFRC]

It strikes me that if the internet didn't exist there wouldn't be much in the way of GAS

and I was thinking. If I sold every bass I have, and had just a (good) passive jazz bass.... well all the music that I want to play that could do.

and wouldn't it be easier that way?

[chris_b]

The web has made things easier and quicker, but before that there was Loot, Exchange and Mart and the Melody Maker classifieds.

[neepheid]

I was going to say ... remember books?

[Cameronj279]

[quote name='neepheid' timestamp='1342291352' post='1732955']
I was going to say ... remember books?
[/quote]

Is that a type of yoghurt or something?

[LukeFRC]

[quote name='neepheid' timestamp='1342291352' post='1732955']
I was going to say ... remember books?
[/quote]
yeah, but you wouldn't have had such a wealth of basses available to you. You might know a fella made a bass cos he took an advert out in some magazine- but you wouldn't be bombarded with all these pictures.
I dunno, just been thinking and playing and in a funny funny mood

[Lozz196]

I agree with the OP, the net has made GAS so much easier. I went for about two years without the net, and think I only bought one guitar in all that time. Contrast that to when I`ve been online, and especially a member of Basschat - well I dread to think how much I`ve spent.

[bartelby]

The internet has made it a tiny bit easier and a lot less tiring. But I remember coming back from Musical Exchanges, in Coventry and Brum, with loads of catalogues and such. I'd spend days drooling on Trace Elliot, Roland, Aria, Akai and Yamaha catalogues.

[discreet]

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1342291127' post='1732951']
...there was Loot, Exchange and Mart and the Melody Maker classifieds...[/quote]

I used to keep a stack of Exchange and Mart in the bog. Another small pleasure lost to technology.

[Rick's Fine '52]

I remember reading the classified in Guitarist mag, and also spending many a Saturday holed up in the vintage room of Musical Exchanges in Birmingham, playing all the old gear, that was when 1960 EB2's were £400!!

I agree with the OP though, it makes things far quicker.

I remember being interested in a 1956 Precision that Vintage & Rare had advertised in Guitarist mag. I phoned up, and they said they'd send some pics. This involved them taking the photo's, having them developed, then posting them! I got them about 3 weeks after the initial phone call. I remember opening the envelope with an excitement you just don't get anymore. Funny enough, I still have those pics in the original envelope with the handwritten covering letter. It was a near mint '56, price.........offers around £2250!! It was obviously deemed too pricey for me at the time, as I didnt buy it! Fool.

The web though, has made a wider range of vintage gear available to me....(Edit)....and of course, easier to find the rarer stuff, if there's something specific you're looking for.

Edited July 14, 2012 by Rick's Fine '52

[neepheid]

That's not what the OP said[font="helvetica, arial, sans-serif"][color="#282828"]. The OP asserted that "[/color][/font][color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]if the internet didn't exist there wouldn't be much in the way of GAS". I don't agree with that at all. Before the internet it was computers I was into and believe me, I could find all sorts of things to overspend my pocket money on back in the early/mid 80s. You found out about it by reading books and magazines, or even through word of mouth from fellow geeks [/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]There has always been GAS. I wasn't around for it but I'm sure there was a major car customisation cult in the 70s. Multiple exhaust pipes on your Mini anyone? Ahh, I had car GAS before I could even reach the pedals. Ford Capri for the realistic fantasy, Jaguar E-type or Ferrari 365 GTB/4 for the highly improbably fantasy. All found out about through books and magazines (and toy cars).[/font][/color]

[KingBollock]

Looking online is a lot easier than the walk to the local shop where I could smudge my snotty nose against the window in awe. Even when I ended up working in there there was still [i]That Wall[/i] with all the expensive Guitars hanging up, all Hamers. One of them was £2000! The most expensive Bass was only £900.

[bubinga5]

i actually think if the internet didnt exist there would be ever more GAS... the lack of info a pics etc would just add to the mystery of basses/amps that people want... we just wouldnt collectively al be able to l acknowledge it

Edited July 14, 2012 by bubinga5

[LukeFRC]

what brought this about was my wee session playing today.
Last week or so saw the P bass get a lot of play time, it's still got 2 year old strings on it but it sounds great like perfect. Well some stuff just needs a bit of back pickup in it.

so today got the warwick out. Now at the moment it doesn't have a preamp or controls in it- just the pickups wired straight to the jack socket.
Now I love this bass, it weighs nothing, it fits me like a warm glove, the neck is perfect.... and... it's I dunno. I was trying to play stuff and it just sounded wrong, ah I thought, that's because it's a active bass.... and then realised it's got no activeness in it.
and I just struck me, I want this thing to sound like a jazz bass, but because of the neck construction and the pickups, and the pickup placement and the very woods it's made of it never will, theres this thing going on in the upper mids, the treble is more open, theres a lot of natural lows... and...so then I start thinking pre amps, and eq, or set up or selling it and getting a jazz bass, and maybe if I did this, or if I did that or....

and I just think that without the net I probably would have shrugged and kept playing the thing and not been dissatisfied.
I dunno, funny mood.

cheered up when I just got the P bass out again

[Rick's Fine '52]

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1342300931' post='1733114']
cheered up when I just got the P bass out again
[/quote]

P's have a habit of doing that!

[LukeFRC]

[quote name='Rick's Fine '52' timestamp='1342301133' post='1733116']
P's have a habit of doing that!
[/quote]
Yeah, just sometimes a bit of bridge pickup... and that funky tone

ahhh I guess sometimes I just don't want the modern piano type notes on the.... baahhh never mind

Edited July 14, 2012 by LukeFRC

[LukeFRC]

ahhh this cheered me up

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eynnYLXW3Fo&feature=player_embedded

[LukeFRC]

though this has got me smiling and looking wistfully at jazz basses agian

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ptrc2cWRxU&feature=related

[lojo]

Yeah I remember gigging with a stingray copy (before the net) and being really happy, until I started mixing with other bands who had better (or at least more expensive instruments) then it started.

I wouldnt say I go over the top now with basses as I don't buy what I can't resale and reasonable loss (although I've tried alot of amps) but without the net, I could be happy with a squier I'm sure.

Edited July 15, 2012 by lojo

[surfinbernard]

I think that GAS had a different and perhaps more manageable form before the internet. I love your idea of downsizing, I only have one bass and I am completely happy with it, it was my second bass and I was lucky in that I chose the right bass for me and no other bass (other than maybe a vintage version of my lovely Fender Jazz bass) would fit the bill. I paid £475 for it 10 years ago and have recently upgraded the pups to Fralins, it absolutely rocks. I know there are many amazing instruments available now and in many ways they could be argued to be 'superior' to my bass but I love mine so why go mental? I am slightly GASing for an SG bass like Jack Bruce's and an EBS valvedrive to get some tube dirt but I am quite happy really with my one bass and rig. My GAS has only really ever been about getting a certain sound.

Guitar wise I am a lot worse, I suppose the different sound you get from different guitars makes it much harder to just have one.. I at least have to have a tele, a strat and a LP, and I wouldn't mind having a hollow body one to play all the Scotty Moore type picking on... and a Tokai Talbo cuz they're cool... and.. and. And I could have at least 5 valve amps given the chance. The internet has certainly fuelled this desire to possess all the beauties but I see it for what it is: materialism. I still think that once I get one guitar and amp sounding the way I want that will do, it worked with the bass so it should work with guitar.

Seriously though, if you're not really attached to your basses I say go for it, sell em, try just having one, it's bliss.

[LukeFRC]

[quote name='surfinbernard' timestamp='1342341388' post='1733320']
I think that GAS had a different and perhaps more manageable form before the internet. I love your idea of downsizing, I only have one bass and I am completely happy with it, it was my second bass and I was lucky in that I chose the right bass for me and no other bass (other than maybe a vintage version of my lovely Fender Jazz bass) would fit the bill. I paid £475 for it 10 years ago and have recently upgraded the pups to Fralins, it absolutely rocks. I know there are many amazing instruments available now and in many ways they could be argued to be 'superior' to my bass but I love mine so why go mental? I am slightly GASing for an SG bass like Jack Bruce's and an EBS valvedrive to get some tube dirt but I am quite happy really with my one bass and rig. My GAS has only really ever been about getting a certain sound.

Guitar wise I am a lot worse, I suppose the different sound you get from different guitars makes it much harder to just have one.. I at least have to have a tele, a strat and a LP, and I wouldn't mind having a hollow body one to play all the Scotty Moore type picking on... and a Tokai Talbo cuz they're cool... and.. and. And I could have at least 5 valve amps given the chance. The internet has certainly fuelled this desire to possess all the beauties but I see it for what it is: materialism. I still think that once I get one guitar and amp sounding the way I want that will do, it worked with the bass so it should work with guitar.

Seriously though, if you're not really attached to your basses I say go for it, sell em, try just having one, it's bliss.
[/quote] i am attatched to them though! the P is amazing- i love it. a jazz version of the same bass aswell would be amazing. but i have a two bass rule- and i also love almost everything about the warwick.... actually in the mix it works so i think it will be fine.

[BigRedX]

If the internet didn't exist there would still be GAS. It would just be more realistic and more manageable. When I get into playing music in the 70s there was two sources of information about instruments. Your local music shop and International Musician magazine. Every so often IM would review something a bit off from the mainstream but if your local music shop didn't stock them then they might as well not exist. You could try the shops in the next big town/city but the usual result would be a slightly different selection of the same types of instruments. In the 70s that meant Gibson, Fender, Rickenbacker, MusicMan and japcrap copies. There would be the occasional appearance of a Burns, Hayman or Shergold in the second hand section and that was it.

In the 80s the selection got better but it was still mostly the above plus Aria Pro II, Ibanez and whatever the current flavour of the year was. Anything else you'd only hear about if a big-name player used it. I lusted after various instruments during this time, but the objects of my desire were pretty much limited to instruments that were hanging on the walls of the shops within easy travelling distance.

The internet has changed all that mostly for the better, in terms of selection and variety. No matter where in the world the maker of the instruments you are after are based, you can interact with them and order the bass you are interested in. Even if they won't deal internationally, these days it's far easier and cheaper to travel than it was 30 years ago, so you could go and see them in person.

The down side of this is that you are now often buying blind (although these days there are few shockingly bad guitars compared with what was around all the way up to the late 80s). That was never a problem when your knowledge and choice of instruments was limited to what was in the shops and if you wanted to know what a bass was like you simply took it off its stand and found out for yourself.

Also there are now very few second-hand bargains to be had. The situation that allowed me to pick up my Burns Sonic Bass for about £50 and my Overwater 5-string for under £500 is unlikely to ever exist again when the internet allows you to sell your used instruments all over the world, and there's information easily available on line about the most obscure makes which means that no-one should be ignorant of what they are buying and selling. That unfortunately has meant all the weird and unusual instruments that ended up selling for peanuts in the music shops because they'd been sitting there untouched for months are now "rare" and "collectable" and have price tags to match.

Would I want to go back to the pre-internet days? Probably not. I like the accessibility and the variety, even if it means that the prices are probably higher than they would normally be. Also having had ten years of rampant bass and guitar buying, I've now reached the point where I know what I like and I'm (mostly) happy with what I have.

[Ou7shined]

I have a feeling that in a lot of cases GAS is a bit of a misnomer. First off I agree that the internet and in particular for us Basschat is to blame. As the fundamental purpose of Basschat is... er... chatting about basses, we wouldn't be able to fulfil this objective without actually knowing what we are talking about, therefore experiencing a wide range of instruments or kit first hand gives us this knowledge (ok there are obviously a lot of exceptions on this forum ). But look how much time is spent on here talking about minor aesthetics or furthering daft internet myths and using these factors as excuses to drive a purchase, instead of concentrating on what makes them playable or good to hear from an audience's perspective.
I never feel the need to buy a new bass because of some irrational desire to spend money on a whim, if I'm honest I'm usually driven by curiosity. Got to Aquire something Syndrome could in my case at least be replaced with Got to Learn about something Syndrome... not as catchy I know.

[steve-bbb]

i'd rather see an end to G4S

[clauster]

For me gas is easier these days that it was in pre-internet days.

My musical life began in the 80s and I lived just outside Brighton. There used to be a shop (Southern Sounds) on Castle Street where I'd spend all my School holidays and most weekends hanging out with friends. I remember them having Wals, Overwaters, Wilkes, JayDee and the like hanging on the walls alongside the usual Fenders, Ibanez, Aria and Yamahas. In the keyboard section there were Korgs (I loved the Poly6), Prophet 5, Roland Jupiters and Junos, and the Memory Moog. So long as no paying customers were in they were happy for us to play with this kit to our hearts content (especially the synths as they could plug us in with headphones ). They'd even rope us in to show how certain features worked as we spent more time on this kit than shop staff did.

On top of this were the magazines - Electronics and Music Maker, International Musician (and Recording World), One Two Testing and Guitarist. Even more gear to lust over.

Fashions were constantly changing and new technology was coming out all the time. My GAS list changed weekly and always ran into several thousands of pounds (at a time when I had a paper round paying £3 a week).

These days my GAS list is usually a handful of items rather than a shopful.

[spinynorman]

There was GAS in the 1960s, fueled by the Selmer catalogue, which you could get by post. And, while you were drooling over pictures of a Watkins Rapier, imagining what you could do with all those buttons, you didn't have 20 people weighing in to tell you it's total crap.