The Psychology of GASing for a Gibson (es-335)

[mediocreplayer]

Im personally realizing that so long as a guitar meets 3 criteria, then literally all guitars are the same to me.

I 100% agree with this but I will remind both of us that this is exactly the premise of this thread -- lusting after guitars for no compelling reason. I am guitar shopping like crazy these days and I almost don't play guitar any more.

[seenoevil II]

Ah, that sucks so hard. I was thinking about your NGD thread and where it would be. I also had guessed that it was some kind of Starfire, but I don't know much about the model to really guess more exactly.

It's such a shame because this thing was in beautiful shape otherwise. I very carefully weighed keeping and having it repaired. But it was the unknown unknowns of neck joint unstable like that. Every time I looked at the lacquer around the joint, something was happening that wasn't there before.

Idk if it was the packing job or ups, but if thing arrived intact, you'd all have had a feast for the eyes as this thing was the best looking guitar I've ever seen.

Like I said, I'm taking a break from guitar hunting. Ain't no shows to play my inferiority complex inducing guitars at anyway. Seeing a vintage guild made me appreciate the Newark street series more as they did seem to sweat the details and get pretty close. I saw somewhere that somebody retro fitted DeArmonds into a NS starfire built for hamburgers. That might be where this story goes.

USA made or no is still up in the air, but I do think I've realized that vintage isn't for me. If Korea can make world dominating pop music, smartphones and cars, I guess they can make my guild guitar too.

[mbene085]

Ah, that sucks so hard. I was thinking about your NGD thread and where it would be. I also had guessed that it was some kind of Starfire, but I don't know much about the model to really guess more exactly.

It's such a shame because this thing was in beautiful shape otherwise. I very carefully weighed keeping and having it repaired. But it was the unknown unknowns of neck joint unstable like that. Every time I looked at the lacquer around the joint, something was happening that wasn't there before.

Idk if it was the packing job or ups, but if thing arrived intact, you'd all have had a feast for the eyes as this thing was the best looking guitar I've ever seen.

Like I said, I'm taking a break from guitar hunting. Ain't no shows to play my inferiority complex inducing guitars at anyway. Seeing a vintage guild made me appreciate the Newark street series more as they did seem to sweat the details and get pretty close. I saw somewhere that somebody retro fitted DeArmonds into a NS starfire built for hamburgers. That might be where this story goes.

USA made or no is still up in the air, but I do think I've realized that vintage isn't for me. If Korea can make world dominating pop music, smartphones and cars, I guess they can make my guild guitar too.

That's a real bummer all around.

As a DeArmond appreciator, I can vouch that TV Jones' T-Armonds are great pickups, and they come in any form factor you like. Looking at the HB-equipped Newark St models, you could drop in a set of the Filtertron-sized T-Armonds with the PAF-sized mounting rings without any issues. They'd sound and look right IMO.

Just something to think about.

[Larry Mal]

My buddy contacted me about what should he get in a new guitar, and I steered him loosely towards one of those brand new Starfires that sells for about $1,100. I later got to play it and record it, they are tremendous guitars.

[seenoevil II]

Im personally realizing that so long as a guitar meets 3 criteria, then literally all guitars are the same to me.

I 100% agree with this but I will remind both of us that this is exactly the premise of this thread -- lusting after guitars for no compelling reason. I am guitar shopping like crazy these days and I almost don't play guitar any more.

Yeah, it comes in waves. Usually an experience like this quiets it for a while. It is about the hunt in a large way. After I got my JM, I can honestly say I had no GAS for about 5 years. But it's a mere Squier with lots of problems. Doubling on the jm by investing in a fender isn't as appealing nowadays as they've become cartoonishly ubiquitous in certain contexts.

But, whatever, it's a problem without a solution. The objective of the game is the playing of it. You'll always want another guitar if your the kind of person who wants guitars. And a whole industry and culture has grown up around this quest. But unlike the GAS that photographers get, guitar gas is 1000000% subjective. Beyond a guitar that's literally broken, once you strip away symbolic value, culturally defined values and hierarchies, and laceratingly specific personal preference, all guitars really are on equal footing.

Retracted<<This clarity is helped along when you notice how little guitars matter in broader culture now. They've become rather niche. Guitar music is going the way of saxophone music. Never gone, but never again at the fore. >>retracted

But I suspect I'll forget all of this and relapse in no time at all.

It's petty thoughts that get the ball rolling. It isn't "gee, a gibson would provide reliably excellent playing experiences that would allow unfettered creativity." It's more like, "crap, that a-hole Kevin from college has a gibson for his sublime cover band, while I'm trying to explore compositional possibilities on the same damn epiphone I've had since I was 15. What am I even doing with my life? If he has one, I darn tooting should. "

[Larry Mal]

I am 17 years older than my wife, and she listened to Sublime when she was in high school or whatever. Fuck, I mock that. I make fun of her so hard. Sublime is the fucking worst. She dug up a bunch of her old road trip CDs and Sublime was on there and I just fell the fuck out.

If I sell my ES-335, I'll offer it to you at the same $2k I bought it for.

[mbene085]

You mean you aren't a badfish, too, Larry?

That's a shame.

On the subject of the psychology of GAS, I noticed I was developing some GAS for the first time in many months. I've been purging guitars (happily, too), and don't even want any specific guitar right now, but I noticed I was in the mood for a new guitar.

It snowed a few days ago, a good dumping that has yet to melt.

It made me realize that I got my first electric guitar in wintertime, and some part of my brain connects those two things. I remember coming home from the music store, so excited to play something modern-sounding instead of my classical guitar which was what I started with. I remember the neck of the guitar feeling a bit cold from sitting in the trunk on the ride home. Even the tolex of my new amp was a little cold when I first plugged it in.

The difference, of course, is that I now have way too many electric guitars as it stands, so I will continue to offload them. Besides, my last three acquisitions were two lutes and a 120 year-old Romantic guitar, so if anything, you could say I currently have classical GAS.

I'll see myself out...

[seenoevil II]

If I sell my ES-335, I'll offer it to you at the same $2k I bought it for.

I would like to believe that it was my shitting on Sublime that made you decide this.

[seenoevil II]

I'll see myself out...

Go from this place and never return.

Maybe this is why I struggle in buying guitars. My first real guitar was a surprise gift from my family during a week's long battle with a stomach virus.

[Larry Mal]

I would like to believe that it was my shitting on Sublime that made you decide this.

I can only say that the mention of Sublime upsets me very much and the prospect of hearing any fires up my fight or flight animal impulses.

[BoringPostcards]

I would like to believe that it was my shitting on Sublime that made you decide this.

I can only say that the mention of Sublime upsets me very much and the prospect of hearing any fires up my fight or flight animal impulses.

So, you're saying you have no Santeria or crystal ball? You had a million dollars, but you spent it all?
Go and find that Hannah, Bruh.