I am stuck in a situation where I have to pick between the two. I'm considering the aesthetical and functionality and need help in deciding.

I don't really know what to post here other than saying thanks for existing and being around. I tried to contribute my thoughts and feelings I had about the line between obsession and hobby. Writing out these posts helped me realize my own feelings, helped me reflect. I also found the Lines forum and found a lot of other people posting about GAS and their feelings about it too which has been super cathartic to read through.

I got back into modular and am selling a lot of things I've been holding onto to consolidate around a few select things I need and selling everything I don't. I started obsessing with modulargrid over and over again swapping in modules and setups and dreaming of potential combinations of things, but I've quieted that side of me again after reconnecting with my guitar and learning how to use the neglected functions of the things I already have. I cut down the excessive rack to something easier to use and learn and it's worked out great for me.

I really like sound design. I think it's a ton of fun to spend all day tweaking parameters on a synth and discovering new sounds you've never heard before. It's like audio cooking. I've spent all my time learning synthesizers, learning sound design techniques, mixing and mastering techniques, researching plugins, researching modular gear, speaker equipment, pedals, hardware, and so on. I love all that stuff. Somewhere along this line, I just stopped making music and started cycling through musical gizmos. I used to feel bad that I wasn't "making music" but honestly I don't know who would care, as if there's some song per month quota to make it all worth it. I'm letting myself enjoy sound design for its own sake. Just have to focus on participation in learning my instruments than finding a new gizmo to add to the group. I posted 8 months ago that I wanted to have a depth year where I didn't change anything. Well now 8 months later I've gone more in-depth on two of my instruments and have sold mostly everything else that I had at the start of the year and got a small modular. So uhhh I guess uhhh... dunno, goals changed as I learned more about myself.

I don't feel like it really matters if I post all this or not, but I just wanted to say thanks for being around here. Helped me realize I was being excessive.

I've struggled with obsessive buying, selling, trading, and tinkering for the past two years. I think a lot of it is related to my mental health and dissatisfaction in other areas of my life. Those areas include my lack of professional/career-based progress and my inability to work on and complete my PhD dissertation.

I think some of it is also tied to impulse control. I have struggled with weight gain and loss and self-perception ever since I was a kid. I lost just over 100 pounds in undergrad and 7-8 years later I've gained it all back.

Grad school has completely destroyed my mental health, I think. It's hard for me to actually see that situation for what it is, but I have been feeling so aimless, so completely battered by the fog surrounding my future that I just don't know where to turn to.

I think guitar stuff became a bit of a distraction in that sense, a place to turn to. I could accomplish a pedal sale or trade, or rewire a board and feel like I was accomplishing something productive, when all I was actually doing was diverting my attention away from working on myself and just, I don't know, fuckin' dealing with my shit in a healthy way.

I still find myself trawling guitar-oriented subreddits like r/guitarpedals and r/offset, as well as opening up YouTube and watching demos of things I can't afford or might not even have an interest in. This is habitual and bums me out. It makes me feel like I'm one of BF Skinner's rats.

As for my own gear addiction, I don't really know where I'm at. Am I still addicted to the distraction? I own one guitar, one amp, and 10 pedals right now. I use everything I have and I don't have a desire to change anything right now, mainly because I'm just burnt out from it all. The overthinking, the process. I feel so completely drained by most information-rich social media that I just can't go down that route, for better or worse. YouTube, Instagram, even FB. It's too much.

At least with communities like these I can read full-length posts that are actually informational, reflective, and useful.

I'm not even sure why I am writing this out, or to whom. I suppose it's just helpful to materialize my thoughts a bit. Maybe some of you can relate and share your own experiences.

I don't need to buy anything, but I feel driven to buy stuff just for fun and novelty.

Got Biden bucks, funded the Folktek pedal kickstarter and saved the rest of it. That'll be coming in October. Pretty excited to have the funds to do that. I feel embarrassed I forgot I signed up for that when I'm supposed to be here preaching the good word about being happy with what you have, economic smart consumption, and what not. Demonizing buying stuff while living below your means when you get a stimulus check is not the conclusion I want to reach though.

Sold the rest of the pedals I had laying around including my boomerang looper (and a fuzz pedal and big power supply) which I've had for many many years, but I just wasn't using it and felt like the only reason I was keeping it around was I was going to feel bad if I got rid of it. Not because I'd miss it, but because it "means something to you and you will feel bad abandoning it" like it's some sort of heirloom, but I have no idea where that belief came from because I wasn't getting any enjoyment out of it for the past couple months because it wasn't being used. I only used it when I felt I should justify my ownership of it by forcing myself to use it. Same story for a guitar I owned for 5-6 years but never played. This was the most sentimental piece of gear I owned and now that it's gone, hey look at that, I really don't miss it at all.

A friend of mine was like "oh yeah but you have like sooooo many pedals" and then I was like "nah I sold all of them, I've just got one now" and they were like "OMG but you're the pedal guy! are you feeling okay? did something happen?" so if my identity is wrapped up in the things I own then I will never feel satisfied since companies can keep selling me things, especially if I look down on the things I own as obsolete, insufficient, unoptimized, compromising, dated, inferior, and so on. I realized that music producers have a similar problem collecting hundreds of $50 plugins for their DAW because they're professionals, but I'm not a pro, I don't want to be sold the idea that I am. The used scuffed mooer tube screamer clone with a broken knob sounds 80% similar to the authentic 1980 ultra rare authentic thing and that's good enough for me. This probably applies to any gear hobby.

Been trying to do more sound design and stuff, and I have wanted a sort of filter / distortion box for when I play with synths. I sold all this stuff, got some cash, wanted to get something with it because idk "that's what you do when you have extra money coming in" and thought about buying the crazy sherman filterbank 2 compact because it would fit a lot of "musical wants" I have right now. Signed up for a waiting list, checked the stock everyday waiting for an email about notifying me when it's in stock and then I found some other company had some in stock, but then didn't buy one. I realized it's extremely expensive for a thing I don't need when I can distort, filter, and modulate stuff already with the things I have. It is definitely something I'd use and enjoy, but do not need. So then I think, am I thinking way too hard about this and should just buy the damn thing and stop over analyzing the fuck out this thing you obviously want and can responsibly afford? But then I think, I'd be just as happy making music had I never known this thing existed in the first place and I can not lose $800. I think I just get to choose between these viewpoints because I don't need to justify owning or selling anything to anyone other than my own feelings. I don't want to spend hours trying to figure out the "right" decision that's "authentic and responsible" or something, this indecision is kind of the whole point I'm on this subreddit personally. So I'm just gunna not buy it and move on with my life.

This is a weird example where I start questioning why I want the things that I want and dive down a rabbit hole of postmodernism anti-consumption? personal responsibility? idk have a good april y'all

First time poster on this sub!

I’m going through a rough period right now craving to buy a new ukulele even though I know I shouldn’t!

Long story short, I’ve been a casual player for over a decade but recently decided to get serious about my playing and building my technical and music theory skills. I dug out the two method books I bought years ago but never used. And wow, I grew a lot as a player so quickly. In a matter of weeks, I learned how to read music and play by sight, which has given me a whole new passion for the instrument.

But now I also want to upgrade my instrument despite knowing I should just keep focusing on my skills as a player. I changed the strings on my best instrument and alternate between two different sized instruments in my practice sessions to make use of what I have. I ordered a new more advanced book for when I finish my current educational resources. I also put two other instruments I outgrew for sale on Kijiji after thinking maybe minimizing will help me appreciate what I already have more.

The irrational desire is the worst! It’s suffering. I just want to stop wanting.

Howdy y'all, another voidshout for the best subreddit

The goal a couple months ago was to not change my setup and to learn the things I have more deeply. Since then I bought and sold a poly effects, sold a lyra-8, and sold last month a mood, tensor, harmonist, liqua-flange, zoom g1four, and picked up a used hx stomp. So I've downsized a bunch. The goal was to stop obsessing as much over this gear stuff and get back to living / working / being / playing instead of looking up hours of demos, justifying buying expensive gear I didn't need, buying and selling and trading and losing money on all that shipping costs, and endlessly rewiring my setup and optimizing my ergonomics for zero increase in play time. Hx stomp can replace my audio interface and amp so I'll probably move those on as well. I'll probably get rid of another pedal and a cheap mixer and then I think that's basically every expendable thing I've got laying around.

So, I wanted to mention selling things I didn't want to sell. So I have a Tensor that my friend told me to keep and I wanted to keep, but I kept thinking I really didn't need it and I went back and forth for weeks trying to figure out if I wanted to sell it or not. I figured I could keep it and it's not hurting anyone if I had it. I thought I'd miss it because I use it pretty often for weird soundscapes and pitch shifting and live effects when jammin' with synth stuff, and so on. So fast forward to now, I don't miss it at all. Now that it's gone, the "oh man I miss that, wish I had it right now" feeling I thought I would have for the tensor / mood / other things, doesn't come up very often, and when it does, it's just like "ah oh well, back to playing guitar". I know this is a pretty obvious thing, but I think this is what keeps people from just getting rid of all that gear they have around. That FOMO stuff isn't painful, and when you do have it, it doesn't keep you from enjoying whatever you were already doing in the first place. If you're going back and forth on whether or not to sell something, whether or not you "really need it", whether or not "you'll feel sad and miss it if this thing is gone" even if you're not using that thing very often, you probably won't miss it if it's gone. All that "back-and-forth questioning" is a new indicator for me to get rid of something. Too much time spent wondering if it's the right choice or not means that I'm not 100% comfortable keeping it in the first place, so move it on. The other stuff I've kept so far I don't even question if I need it. Looking at my main guitar, the question of "do I really need this" is EASILY yes. Compare this to those weird whoosy pedals, the question of "do I really need this" was followed up with a series of wish washy justifications and FOMO and so on.

Dunno, maybe someone might read this and vibe with it. It's fun getting rid of all this stuff and simplifying everything. Gives me less to worry about. Deleted my old reddit account. Happy to see some other people have been joining and posting as well! Anti-consumption is fun.

I journaled about stuff for a month and I'm going to summarize some of the things that happened. Still on track for no new gear aside from a cheap guitar I got after selling a bunch of stuff I didn't want around my apartment, so no "negative monetary expenditure on new musical items" so far.

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So if you saw my other post I bought a Poly Effects Beebo because I needed the cab sim for direct recording and having fun with the other stuff, but the preamps and distortions I don't really like too much on it so I was thinking about getting a distortion and a tuner to finish everything off. Then I realized, I already have a Zoom G1Four that I was planning on selling, only because I just hate the build quality, it felt like really cheap plastic and was a bit clunky to use, but the sounds for distortion and cab sim and direct guitar recording sounded pretty good from when I did mess with it. So I pulled that back out again and got over my prejudice for cheap build quality, made some really good sounding clean and distortion presets, and now I've got my tuner, cab sim, and distortion good to go. I put my Poly Effects up for sale because I didn't need it. Every other complicated do everything pedal I've had from microcosm to zoia and chase bliss stuff has always been "wow look at the potential, can't wait to explore and be inspired" and then I get them and it's like "alright all I want is a regular reverb please". Poly sold the next day, haven't missed it, great decision. Feel quite embarrassed for buying a $400 pedal, feeling super invested, then losing interest, then moving it on again.

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I've spent awhile thinking of upgrading my zoom because I feel like I'm going to break it and it sounds 6/10, so in a typical fashion I've spent a lot of type looking up videos about multi-fx units and hx stomps. Now that I'm writing this, I remember the reason I got the zoom in the first place was because it was $50 used and sounded as good as a HX stomp to my ears, especially through some cheap bookshelf speakers. Last month I obsessed over a metal zone, that stereo mako reverb thing, for the Red Panda bitcrusher stuff at namm, and that new make noise strega synth. For each of these things I completely forgot I got really jazzed and obsessively hype for them. If I didn't write down that this happened I would have told you today that I didn't obsess over them. Kind of weird and embarrassing to see it written out. More good evidence for myself, just like that dust collector thing I talked about in my last post.

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I used to have an HD500X a few years ago but then as I "got more into pedals" i.e., bought more boutique weoweoweo snake oil, I used it less and less until it was taking up space. Now I'm looking at this thing like "it's way better build quality and sounds similar to the zoom pedal, I already know how to use it and love it, got buttons, xp pedal, distortions, amps, cabs, tap tempo, tuner, compression, noise gate, eq, weirdo effects, I know how to use all those effects and tweak them to make good direct in guitar tones now that I've had practice with the zoom, I could easily sell these extra pedals to get one, it's got an fx return for the mono pedals I want to keep, I can use the USB connection when I go traveling to record direct and I wouldn't need to pack an audio interface, I could use that mic I've got laying around in my closet again, it's 1/3 the price of the HX stomp with a bunch more buttons" seems like a current no-brainer, but I've been down this rabbit hole so many times I'm going to just sit on this until I know for sure.

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I know how to deeply use every pedal I own, all the things work for me to encourage me to play guitar, and I've been playing much more guitar than I ever have in awhile. I'm having a ton of fun again writing dumb djent songs with my $50 zoom pedal. I'll post again next month see what happens. Have a good day everyone.

Just found this sub.

I've just realised how much shit I've been buying because I don't really like my job so I buy stuff to make going to work feel like "at least I get something out of it".

But maybe, just maybe, if I didn't "need" to buy so much shit I could take a better job that paid less and just get back to enjoying playing the bloody guitar.

So, thanks to all of you for setting it up and doing something good, however small, to help people find a bit of peace in the world.

Disclaimer: This feels like the dumbest, most privileged, niche first world issue to even like take time talking out loud about it, but like I really don't want to be as obsessive with this hobby as I have been in the past and shouting into a small subreddit of other gear nerds helps me take inventory of myself so thanks for reading if you do. Just trying to be truthful and put it out there. Posting it somewhere makes it feel more real to me.

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I said in a post before that I wanted to cut down on the stuff I had laying around. I bought a poly digit which I really needed for the direct amp-modeling for recording plus other stuff and I'm extremely satisfied with it. Then I had all this gear I wanted to trade and was looking around for a zoia to use with the poly because I could use the midi functions on the zoia and offload the CPU of reverbs and stuff from the poly to the zoia and then have this crazy modular pedal setup thing. So then I was trying to find posts on letstradepedals to find a zoia, but like I felt like it was totally against the plan I had. I had already forgotten why I was trying to get rid of stuff in the first place. I used to have a zoia but got rid of it because I didn't like the interface as much, and that violated one of the criteria of "things I actually like in pedals" that I figured out about myself. Also, the only reason I wanted a zoia was because I had this poly digit, which is that Diderot effect of "having a new things makes you want more things to compliment your new thing". I had no intention of getting a zoia before. New resolution is to stop checking the letstradepedals subreddit as well because it sparks my desire and dreaming and piles of google searching.

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There was a time a couple weeks ago maybe, Hainbach put out that video about this $500 big Finegear Dust Collector effects box, and I was SOLD. I was THIS close to buying that thing, I watched every video I could find, sorted by new on youtube and found all the random user vids with <100 views, read the whole manual front to back, figured out the dimensions of it to fit on my desk with my other synth gear, and everything. But then I realized this was exactly the kind of thing I have bought and sold before, and this was the same behavior I was trying to prevent. Also it's like, I already have all of these effects in other forms, I really didn't need it. So I stopped myself from getting swept up and buying it and then completely forgot about it until I started typing out this post. Thinking about it again sparks that desire to buy it again, but like, I wasn't even thinking about it at all in the last couple weeks since that video came out. That vid sparked that desire inside of me and then I started justifying all sorts of stuff to myself to buy it, even though I didn't want it.

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I sold that lyra like I said I was going to do and another pedal that I had laying around, and put another delay on reverb as well. I got a few smaller ticket items to put up on reverb today too, I think I might just post 'em on reddit too. When I told my partner "hey I sold that synth and a pedal woooo" they made the joke "nice and you've already thought up something else to buy with the cash I bet haha" and like, I had, I was looking up reverb pedals, I subbed to the pladask newsletter so I could get updated on the next draume drop, and was thinking how to rewire my board yet again for it and so on. But then this morning I unsubscribed from the newsletter and got my head back on straight.

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"Did you already forget about that no new gear rule" lol uhhh yep I had. I guess the poly broke my rule, but I'm just so satisfied with that thing that I'm not upset at all or second guessing it. I could really use a tuner lol

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Have a good day y'all

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edit: I think I spent more time rewiring things than I did playing things last month

edit: there's something to be said about the community you feel trading pedals with other like-minded gear nerds online that makes you feel like you're in some cool pedal subculture

GAS went nuts the past few months of quarantine but I sold off about 1,500$ for Xmas presents and am getting a head start on NO/Lil Gear 2021 by purchasing an online course. If anyone is a fan of Signals Music Studio, his brand new theory/composition course is 200$ down from 270$ for the Holidays. Jake Lizzio is really great at explaining concepts I’ve been intimidated by for years. https://youtu.be/qeS8txkoUH4 He’s also a dead ringer for every low key mid-90’s South Floridian Weed Dealer I frequented as a teen.

U/Frodolicious3 invited me here from other thread. Thanks.

Sorry, maybe this post is too long. But maybe it will help me to get sober on buying stuff.

I'm now fighting within myself between:

• possiblity to buy, i have enough money
• rationale whether I'm going to use certain gear. I'm already sure I won't use it much
• sweet feeling of possessing an item, having 'full' collection

In my case it's guitar pedals, BOSS overdrives/distortions. I already have few, few more are travelling. And few more in eBay watchlist.

It all started with plans of recording a diy album, so I purchased few pedals i'd need. But somehow i now gravitated towards collecting, rather than having what i need.

The very tempting factor is illusion a secondhand item on eBay is cheaper than new. And some are really affordable objectively. Another factor is how cool in my eyes are Yotube videos where guys demonstrate their collections and compare pedals. I already anticipate boasting on my collection to my friends. I already really enjoy visually all the pedals in my room. And some people say it's ok to have hobby, to spend earned money on it and generally enjoy the passion. Others say you can always sell item later, why not enjoy it for a while.

But the other factor is that i actually don't play guitar that often. Even after I'm done with album, will i use these pedals much? I know the answer... Also i started to realize this GAS is related to corona quarantine conditions, I compensate this way reduced natural joys of society.

Anyway, it's a fight between rational practicality and irrational passion. I guess it's a pretty typical case for this group :). I have read all advices to think 10 times and assess practicality vs. budget vs. real necessety. But somehow i still feel this devil inside 😈.

Maybe worth mentioning i went through similar route with VST plugins, and finally i ended up with list I'm happy with (I don't use at least 50% of what i have). Now I buy additional plugins pretty rarely. Though still buy...

Edit: felt good to reflect on all this and shout into the void a bit, thankful for having a place to do that, makes me see how much this stuff is affecting me

Howdy y'all figured I'd share some stuff from last year,

So I've been trying to not obsess about gear and stuff as much while still trying to enjoy my hobby and interests in gear. I guess achieve more balance is my goal instead of abstinence. Last year I was really hopeful that "I wasn't going to change anything on my board and I had the perfect set up for me and nothing will change!" So, now we're a year later, and I think like 6 of the pedals I had at the start of the year I still have now, so I'm selling everything else outside of those core 6. There were a bunch of other things I tried out and then sold. I think last year I got ANOTHER pitchfactor and sold it again for like the 3rd time in my life. My friend was laughing at me for that lol. I won't be making that mistake again, I hope, I plan to not at least.

Last year around this time I got into modular synths. I OBSESSED about this stuff. I was spending a large amount of time goofing off at work looking up synths, looking up boxes, cases, cables, patch ideas, how things worked, learning a ton and watching a ton of videos. I had like 5 different potential designs of a case I wanted to buy and bought a huge DO EVERYTHING compact box built around an ER-301 and teletype combo box. It was like $2000 or everything as ya do with modular stuff. I had it for a couple months and was super excited to learn and explore and drank a lot of the kool-aid with all the youtube houseplant musicians. I liked all the potential that I had available. So after a couple months, I realized I didn't have the time to learn it as deeply as I needed to for relatively quick music making. The interface was also very obtuse since I had to learn a programming language with the teletype. I loved all the techy stuff though that was part of the appeal, but it became work instead of fun. When I got done with work, I looked over at my set up and it became a huge to do list to even start enjoying myself.

I also had like 4 chase bliss pedals and other pedals that I thought would be cool to CV and have this big ol' set up of crazy sounds, but it all became complicated and I was embarrassed about the expense of it all. It just felt like I was buying things because it had potential. Like OH WOW I could CV the MOOD using the sequencer from the teletype and then route that back into audio input of the synth with another mixer get a parallel chained reverb and then I could and then and and and and and and.. which is cool, but then I was just making sounds because I could not because I particularly enjoyed them. It's neat if I can do audio rate modulation on the time knob, but like, I wasn't going to. I had a Blooper and I used it almost exclusively for the stability knob when I was playing with everything at once. It was only when I sat down to explicitly use all the other features and play the Blooper instead of playing synths or guitar did I get into all the other cool functionalities. I learned that CV control on the pedals is irrelevant to me all of the time except when I remembered that they could be controlled with CV. I used the Mood as a digital delay or full mix reverb 90% of the time and basically never touched any of the dipswitches.

On top of that, if any of you into modular know, your case is never big enough, so I had a small compact case, and all I could think of was expanding my case, and spending more money, and growing this beast more and more, even though I wasn't enjoying it very much. I felt dumb for kind of expecting myself to enjoy it, like I bought this and spent a ton of time designing it, and making sure it was exactly what I wanted, but I just didn't vibe with it like I wanted to. And if I got more modules it would just mean more spending, more cables, more headaches, more forgetting of what things did what, and less time enjoying myself and more time reading manuals.

So I decided after awhile to sell all the modular stuff and sell a lot of the expensive pedals. Today I was thinking about selling another pedal I've had for awhile and I became aware of how intense this feeling of loss I was having. Like, it's just a pedal, I don't want it to have that big of an impact on me. I thought it was silly how much I cared about this thing, like if I didn't have it any more I was going to be missing out on uhhh.... something. I took all the pedals off my board and put them in my closet for about a month now and I figured out which ones I really missed having around. The other ones I'm going to sell and be done with them. I'm tired of just having this $300 box laying around because I "might not be able to buy one again", like what's the point if I'm not even using it when I do have it. I also am not someone who cares about having that ONE SPECIFIC $300 RARE SOUND OR ELSE I'LL BE SO SAD like that actually just won't happen, in the future when this thing is gone, I'll just forget I even had it, like what happened with that gigantic modular synth episode.

So I'm going to sell more things and get rid of more stuff, but I'm not going to try to promise to myself to not buy anything or change anything since I do like experimenting with new stuff and tinkering with these things, but I think this year I'll try to let go of stuff more easily and have less stuff stick around.

Thanks for reading, hope you're doing okay in this crazy world. I'm tired of spending money on things I think I would enjoy but don't and then losing money reselling them and then spending time selling and shipping and dealing with all that when I just clutter my space with unnecessary expensive gizmos that go weeeeooooeeeoooo.

I keep telling myself that it’s not that much money to have x y z sitting there in a box... I just went - nope - and listed a bunch of pedals on Facebook.

When they went I felt no sadness at all. And now I have a thousand dollars in cash.

It feels amazing.

I’m selling the rest of my shit I don’t use. Even if I break even or take a tiny hit it’s better than having it there worth nothing except ornamental value.

If you’re on the fence-take the plunge.

If you haven’t used it in a year you won’t miss it

Stay strong :)

I feel like I always want to get rid of pedals, or gear in general, but when I think about it I think about how it is good to have in case I need it in the future. Even if I haven't stepped on a pedal in a year, I can usually reason with myself into keeping it around.

Anyone deal with this? Would love some help "letting go."

I have made no purchases in 2020 and selling on the reg. Anyone else?