GAS Justification

[bruno]

Well siting here and musing a good way to justify my spending on gear - a though occurred to me, particularly with the Kemper. For me, the Kemper has been by far my best and most used purchase. I've used it to produce 67 songs so far (give or take to day). I would be interesting in hearing what your best purchase has been.

So here's the rub, the justification.

So I recon I could easily sell the Kemper (not that I would, but for the sake of theory) - I recon I'd 'loose' £400 approx. 67 songs for £400 - around £5-90 per song. Not bad!

However, add to this, having the Kemper has halted me buying other gear (as it has so much stuff built in, and its all studio quality) that I then use on one or two songs, and then pack it away and keep for ever more - I would have spent at least £400 on this stuff. So the Kemper is cost neutral. Ergo, in the grand scheme of things, its cost me nothing. Convinced! 

I am justified!

Gear and justifications, come on, fess up   

NB My worst purchase is the Boss Looper - which I really like, but really never got to grips with it. I should have sold it, but I can't sell anything musical.

B

[thetworegs]

well my best purchase was first the imac with Garageband which without i would never have started to find the pleasure of making music ... My M-audio keystation pro 88 which for £120 is my best purchase 5 years ago now i learned how to play piano badly to accompany my vocals on most of the tracks i have recorded ...Yes i think the M-audio was the best purchase although Les is the most loved and coveted musical possetion i own but have yet to master......it's an ongoing project
Ps i have a Boss looper too which is under used...... and i also can't bring myself to sell it

[Johnny Robbo]

Hmmm... so many purchases I've made over the years, it's hard to pin down what I value the most. I'd have to say it would be the Vox Tonelab. Before I had it, I used to record my guitar through my Marshall 6101 combo via the speaker simulated line-out. Lovely amp, but so unreliable I might as well have given the damn thing pocket money! I ended up selling it & buying a POD (which was garbage - sorry if that upsets any Line6 fans)... then a whole succession of other amp modellers before finally getting the Tonelab. I've never tried the Kemper, but I did have an Axe FX on loan for a while, which was pretty good, but it just didn't "feel" like playing through a good valve amp the way the Vox does... there's that "touch sensitive" thing that you feel through the strings, that no other amp modeller has ever given me... I'd be lost without it.

Back in the days when I still used to gig, I would turn up with a guitar & the Vox and that was it... just plug it into the desk & dial it into the monitors for a really great sound on stage & front of house. I've used it to produce several albums and done countless lessons with it, as well as the occasional paid recording session... all for £150, which has to be the bargain of the century.

After the Tonelab, I'd say the next best purchase I made would be the Charity Shop Tele... it's my daily player now. A £25 guitar, that I spent about another hundred or so quid doing up & it feels (and sounds) like one of Fender's finest USA models... for that kind of result, it's hard not to justify the outlay

[The Gobi Desert Canoe Club]

Hi all, not sure I can justify many of my purchases apart from the Strat which I needed for when I was gigging. I bought it from a guy who wanted a cash in a hurry for £135. It's a 1972 all original even down to the 3 way pick-up selector and is worth considerably more these days. It's not for sale though at any price. However, my most important purchase is my BR900cd which actually got me back playing after not touching a guitar for over 10 years. After working with other musicians for the best part of 40 years it was just so good not to have to be worried about musical tastes, egos and where the next gigs were coming from. Best money I ever spent.   Regards Willie

[Hook]

Great thread, I've (of course) been thinking alot about this as I've bought most of the instruments available in the States...look out Europe .

As a gigging musician my best purchase was my Boss RC-20 looper, which I still have even though I've upgraded to the RC300. When I was doing cover gigs it allowed me to turn a 3 min. song into a 5min. song. Basically instead of 20-24 songs in a 1 hour set (solo acoustic) I could get it down to around 14 songs, big difference in a 4 hour/3set night. Also teaching me to improvise/solo...if you want to call it that. In the new show I'm writing I'll be using both loopers!

As a songwriter I'll agree with Willie, my BR900 was what got me back into writing after 8 years or so of writing nothing. Initially for professional purposes and then for personal writing, which has exploded over the past 5 years.

As a producer it is my Ipad (iphone initially). Thumbjam, garageband, drumjam & all the synths have allowed me to produce music to a caliber I never imagined possible. It has increased my abilities as a musician both technically and has developed my ear greatly.

Luckily I can justify most of my purchases through my job (to myself at least...not Mrs. Hook...oh she would hate that!!!) and if I can finish & sell my new show...Justification!
Rock on!
 

[Greeny]

This one is easy for me.

It's my humble little MBR - still going strong on the original card after 1,000+ recordings, and still feels like having Abbey Road in your hand / pocket.

It's a little bit battered after so much use over the years, but aren't we all!

And it's not just the music: buying the MBR led me here to meet so many wonderful people and form some (hopefully!) lifelong musical and non-musical friendships. I still find it incredible that we've recorded 5 (or is it 6?!) albums as Jemima's Kite, and so many other collaborations with ultra-talented people.

Playing live with the Kite boys is just a magical thing, and down to the pure chance of walking into a music shop in Denmark Street because my Tascam Portastudio broke.

There's nothing I have to justify really. I maybe have too many guitars, but they all get used and do different jobs. And being around and surrounded by so much music has helped encourage my step sons to become amazing musicians in their own right.

Love & Peace.

[chapperz66]

As a keyboard playing guitarist perhaps you will indulge me and let me choose one of each.  The guitar has to be my mid-seventies strat.  My dad lent me the cash to buy it new and I have played it most days since.  I have pretty much trashed its value through customisation but it is an instrument with which I will never part.  I used it at a lot of gigs for quite a few bands and a few recording sessions.

For the keyboard I choose my Yamaha Motif XS7.  I have used it on just about everything I have recorded in recent years and the sound quality is awesome, 16 track midi sequencer built-in and it has a fantastic arpegiator capability.  It cost quite a lot of money when I bought it and have not used it for anything other than a mutitude of home recordings - so at face-value perhaps it is difficult to justify.  Then again - I worked bloody hard and convinced myself that I deserved it!   

Self-delusion is a wonderful thing..... I can't get enough.

[Blooby]

My most sentimental item was a gift from my parents (an Ibanez AR-300 sunburst from the late 70's/early 80's), but I guess that's not a GAS purchase. I have definitely got the most mileage from my Yamaha acoustic-electric and right after that, my Boss RC-20XL looper. John and I are coming up on our 100th gig, and both have been used and abused.

Interesting thread.

Blooby

[bruno]

Wow - this is turning into a really interesting thread. Loving hearing the stories behind your favourite gear. Keep 'em coming. Each and every one is different. Great stuff.

I've never tried the Kemper, but I did have an Axe FX on loan for a while, which was pretty good, but it just didn't "feel" like playing through a good valve amp

Johnny - interesting comment. I've never played or heard the Fractal FX, but read a lot about them. They seem to be twice the price of the Kemper in the UK, and there is quite a bit of ananostity between the two camps for some reason (never really understood this).

I decided to go for the Kemper precisely because it is not a modeller. It doesn't model amps, rather captures a sound. That's the whole chain, microphone and mike position, desk, preamp, amp, speaker, distortion etc. Therefore there are lots of profiles for each amp with all the infinite settings and tweaking. What you get is an exact copy of that chain, responding with the same dynamics for everything on that one setting, to the point when studeo engineers cannot tell the difference in AB tests. What you get therefore is all the experience and work of the studeo engineer in miking up the amp, plus the studeo plus the infinite tweaking of the amp to get 'that sound'. That's why there are some great profiles and some not so great ones. Where as the modeller model the amp, its reproducing the amp, and its down to you to select the amp and then tweak.

Now I'm basically a plug in and play guy - I've never been a  tweaker. But I know a good sound when I hear one - so the Kemper is bang on perfect for me. There are litterally 6000 free profiles online - and they are tiny, so very quick to load. There are also pro studeo's selling (£5) for professional profiles of rare and super expensive amps. After a while, you find a set of profiles that really suit you and your playing - and then you keep going back to those. So its, imo, and amazing piece of gear. Not everyone likes them - and that's okay. But it is a very different take on the modelling approach. I think that is the best way to explain it. I'm sure if you played one, you would love it, but then that just me :-)

B
B

[Geir]

Like Tim the MBR changed my life and is the reason in here. I recorded over 200 songs before upgrading to BR800 and later MBR-80. No problem justifying that.

Also my first electric guitar, the Ibanez ST300, bought second hand in '79 (i think), has been used and abused for all this years and not hard to justify at all!

I think I need the rest of my gear as well, but some of it might be harder to justify than those two