Gear Acquisition Syndrome and the two prices of things
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@elesimo Jan 2022
I read an interesting article called "Everything Must Be Paid for Twice" (website is down but here's a cache: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:dLyPRvNlrcoJ:https://www.raptitude.com/2022/01/everything-must-be-paid-for-twice/+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us).
The idea is pretty simple. Things have 2 prices: a monetary price, but also a price to be paid with time and effort in order to benefit from the item. A used copy of Moby-Dick might cost just $1, but unless you're also willing to spend 16 hours reading it that $1 was wasted.
The parallel to music might be obvious: you might have the money to buy a new shiny musical instrument, but if you don't have the time to learn how to play it properly there's no point in buying it in the first place. (I'm writing this as I read the 320-page manual of the Synthstrom Deluge which I recently bought.)
Buying new stuff is cool (I just made a post asking if I should buy an Otomatone: https://fawm.org/forums/topic/12219/), and many times I've tricked myself thinking "if only I had the same gear as my favorite musician I'd make music as good as theirs!" But there's no point in paying the first price for something if you're not willing to (or simply can't) pay the second price as well.
I think part of the problem is that early in my life the first price was very expensive, while the second wasn't (I had more time than money). Now that I find myself living the US and with more disposable income the opposite is true. And I thought the article did a good job in putting that in perspective. -
@andygetch Jan 2022
Interesting article. Growing up and going through college with not much disposable income I can certainly agree with the premise of a second price. I loved the reference to the difficulty of a B major chord as I imagine a lot of people quit learning guitar before getting the hang of that barre chord.
I have a slightly different angle on the idea. I put a time value on my free time when I actually spend/use disposable income. Sort of the same idea but from a different angle where say the value of my free time is discretionary budget divided by actual free time. In my case now, that is about $5/hour. If I buy a guitar, and already know how to play as a hobby, for $100 ([presuming I can sell/trade it at some point for half of what I paid so I need to get $50 of value from it) I need to use it at least ($50/5 =) 10 hours to get my second price/time value out of it. However, if I buy a guitar for $1000 (the most I have paid for a single instrument), then I need to use that guitar for at least 100 hours. A big reason why I stopped buying the new shiny things because I still need to get the value from what I have bought. -
@jackketch Jan 2022
My wife thinks I've got GAS but I still use the same amp and guitar I got for my 16th birthday. My Boss distortion pedal is of the same vintage. Feel no particular urge to upgrade until they eventually completely break..
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@jackketch Jan 2022
(I should say that I am 40!)
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@johnstaples Jan 2022
Didn't read the article yet but I agree with the idea mostly. However, there is an opportunity cost associated with *not* buying something even when you don't currently have time to make use of it. I would never have learned guitar without owning one. Same for banjo and fiddle and, well, on and on! And I still have a few instruments I have yet to master but I want to and someday I *will* pick them up and go for it. Books are another great example. I have quite a large library of books I have never read (yet) but I certainly don't see that investment as wasted. Rather, it is stored value I can access any time I want!
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@thedutchwidows Jan 2022
When I saw this title, I assumed the ‘two prices’ referred to the price I paid and the price I tell my other half that it cost!
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@elesimo Jan 2022
@andygetch I was talking to a friend last Friday and he said exactly that: every time we would try to learn guitar he would stop when he got to barre chords! I told him they're hard to learn, but once you do suddenly it opens the whole neck of the guitar, and there's a step jump in the playing skills.
I like your idea of calculating an "enjoyment value", it's another interesting perspective. When I buy gear I generally try to buy used, and I scout Craigslist/FB Marketplace/Ebay/Reverb for months to find the best price I can. Then I know later I can usually sell for the same price I paid. -
@elesimo Jan 2022
@jackketch in his Masterclass, Tom Morello talks about how he still has the same amp he had when he started. His philosophy is that you can always get a good sound from the gear you have, so stick to the gear and figure out how. He mentions that one day he adjusted the knobs in his amp so it sounded good, and he never changed them after that.
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@dzdandcunfsd Jan 2022
That's really interesting. A few months ago I was sent a pedal from a friend who had it sent to him. He said I like it, but I'm not going to take the time to learn all its ins and outs, but if you will its yours. I loved it as well, but it got sent back to him to get passed on down the line.
I would of enjoyed it and gotten more than my first price out of it (free) It just didn't grab me the way I know it will someone else, and it would of somewhat languished with me probably slowly taking 6-7 months to really figure it out if ever. Whereas when something grabs me I go all in, and that would of taken time from things I'm more passionate about.
So not quite the same point that article was making, but I am going to go start reading a few books I've just had sitting on the shelf for a while now :) -
@gubna Jan 2022
Oh god, Reverb.com...
I actually tracked my music gear purchases the last two years, despite having less income during that time I spent about $3k each year (but that doesn't take into account the considerable money I made selling other musical gear).
The biggest purchase was a DSI Rev2 synth in 2020. And this past year I bought 15 pedals - 8 of which were for an art project I still haven't finished. AND I barely ever play the REV2 even though I really like the sound and functionality of it.
BUT I play my very first acoustic guitar, a Yamaha FG345 dreadnought, more than anything else these days. My mom bought it for me when I was in high school back in 1987. -
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@cblack Jan 2022
Interesting idea. It also plays well with minimalism, where if you don't love (or need) something, get rid of it. I'm a minimalist, but I love all things music, so I own a lot of gear. I'll never be a "tiny house" minimalist (see YouTube) because my gear requires lots of space, but I still get rid of anything I neither love nor need. Including old gear.
Interesting thread. Thanks. :) -
@elesimo Jan 2022
@cblack I'm also a minimalist and know very well the struggle! Sometimes I daydream of a minimalist setup with only a laptop and a guitar, but I really dislike using a laptop for making music and/or performing. Instead, I've been focusing on using machines that are small and versatile:
- Teenage Engineering OP-Z
- Empress ZOIA
- Poly Beebo
- MOD Duo
- Synthstrom Deluge
I think with this setup (plus a guitar and headphones) I could be happy in a tiny house. Though I would have to get rid of a lot of stuff before doing that move.
For 50/90 last year I tried to use all the gear I have... Each day I would choose a piece of gear and write 2 songs using it paired with the OP-Z (which was the main brain of the setup). It was fun, and made me realize that I like everything that I currently have. :-P -
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@elesimo Jan 2022
@tseaver I'm a huge fan of the Duo (I also ordered their new model, the Dwarf, but still waiting on that). The fact that you have 100+ of pedals inside, that you can arrange in virtual pedalboards, already makes it worth the price. The fact that you can use it as a MIDI hub makes it even better. All the MIDI plugins help when you need to connect different devices that speak MIDI but don't talk directly — you can remap MIDI channels, filter notes, send CCs, and a lot more.
Keep in mind you don't need to use Linux to use it, it just happens to run Linux.
