G.A.S. has been studied and is a real thing - Article

Yes internet has lead me to getting the exact gear I want, that’s part of the GAS equation.
I’m honestly proud to own the rare gems I’ve got. That’s as empirical as I can be.
I don’t know how much there is to study about that.
"Look at this! @Ransan 's wife must REALLY LOVE him!"
"If you like it then you shoulda put a kit on it!"
😆 Your an odd guy @felonious69 - for some reason your growing on me.
 
Yes internet has lead me to getting the exact gear I want, that’s part of the GAS equation.
I’m honestly proud to own the rare gems I’ve got. That’s as empirical as I can be.
I don’t know how much there is to study about that.

😆 Your an odd guy @felonious69 - for some reason your growing on me.
I wanted a drum set...always have.
When she initially nagged (just a bit), I told her: "I actually had about five thousand dollars at my disposal, so I could've gotten something a LOT closer to this!" (Showed her a pic of YOUR kit).
She conceded.
 
I like drums. I like to play drums. But I also like to play with drums. I like tuning them up, tuning them down, changing heads for a different sound, taking down a 4 piece kit and setting up a 6 piece, changing the configuration of a kit, recording 4 different snare drums with the same kit. So Yeah, I like gear, I like to get new gear. Am I a great player? No. Would I be better if I spent more time playing them than playing with them, yes. But my goal is not to be a great drummer, as much as it is just having a great time with drums.
 
To me GAS is one of two things, exploring possibilities or getting more stuff. I had GAS for the longest time. I just couldn’t be happy with what I had. It didn’t speak to me. New snare… good for a bit, then board. Another snare, same. Sold for two more till I found two I just dig. Same with pedals. Tried them all till I found the ones I don’t even think about when playing. They just feel natural. I went through everything till I found what spoke to me.

For others, the more gear, the better. That’s fine too, but I’ve never had the budget or room for it. If that’s you, excellent. If you are content with playing whatever is in front of you, that’s cool too. I wish I could as more like that, but I get fixated on what I get after till the beast is fed. I’ve actually shocked myself discovering some rather inexpensive stuff to just hit home. Things are as I like them, so haven’t looked in quite a while.

interestingly, the gear that hurt to buy the most were L80s and Super Pads when I realized how much I was to spend to make stuff sound like dog crap. Even then, the benefits have outweighed the costs and I’ve been happy with them, so haven’t looked for alternatives.

We all have different reasons for GAS but I found I went with less and not more when I found the right gear for me.
 
I wonder how many folks with GAS actually suffer from shopping addiction?

Oh cool, is it an acknowledged addiction now?
It would be neat to get a prescription and pick up government-funded gear directly at the pharmacy: "I'll have some antibiotics and that solid maple snare, please."
 
Oh cool, is it an acknowledged addiction now?
It would be neat to get a prescription and pick up government-funded gear directly at the pharmacy: "I'll have some antibiotics and that solid maple snare, please."
Don't forget the 12-piece meetings! Gotta have meetings at least once a day or you'll never be cured!
"One drum at a time"
"Give in to your Hi hat power"
"Keep Drummin back"
 
Or it COULD be...
Oh, you only have a seven piece?!?!?
This is a closed meeting. For serious people!
 
Oh cool, is it an acknowledged addiction now?
It would be neat to get a prescription and pick up government-funded gear directly at the pharmacy: "I'll have some antibiotics and that solid maple snare, please."
If you had read it you would understand that its a mental illness. Do you normally ridicule mental illness?
 
If you had read it you would understand that its a mental illness. Do you normally ridicule mental illness?
I do not and this was in no way the intention of my post. It was meant as a light-hearted joke, since lots of us (me included) have bought too much stuff. OCD and ADHD are treated similarly here, but I'll try to avoid such jokes in the future if it's aggravating to you.

After reading the article, I don't really see it as a mental illness, though. It's described as a "behavorial addiction".
Wikipedia: Addiction canonically refers to substance abuse; however, the term's connotation has been expanded to include behaviors that may lead to a reward (e.g., gambling, eating, or shopping)
Tons of people are addicted to something (sugar, tobacco, alcohol, coffee, working, sports, sex, gambling...) or have some form of disorder according to the manual, but I wouldn't call all these people mentally ill. Of course it's sad when someone ruins their life with something and it's beyond their control.
 
I think a lot of this behavior is more related to people who think better gear will make them better players and/or cooler.
One example, I think is @Andy s post regarding people "applying" for the position of new bass dude with pictures of his gear and nothing more.
I have a lot of tools but if my"resume" consisted solely of " these are my awesome tools" I probably would not have this job I have now.
Another example is Eddie, who wanted to sing for us, so, of course, because he's a Jim Morrison fan, the first thing he did was to get some leather pants. He could NOT sing very well at all, but he had the pants and the pose!
He didn't know the lyrics to ANY songs, but that wasn't gonna stop Eddie.
I used to tell him... make something up if you don't know the words... it's not that hard.
 
If you had read it you would understand that its a mental illness. Do you normally ridicule mental illness?
Perhaps you’re mistaking the subject of the joke with the actual target? The way I read it, @Swissward Flamtacles is doing a joke about how he himself, as the actual target and prone to GAS, could take advantage of a government funded prescription service to get the latest drum he wants? IMO there was no attempt to ridicule mental illness? :unsure: I posted a flippant limerick about a drummer with GAS to make people laugh. I wasn’t belittling GAS itself or people with serious addictions; I was the actual target of the joke and the subject (GAS) was merely the context for the hopefully humorous scenario. Appreciate that you didn’t perceive the post in the same way I did. @Swissward Flamtacles does not strike me as the kind of person who would ridicule mental illness. I wouldn’t have laughed if I thought mental illness itself was the target of the joke. Completely respect that you may have a different view. (y)
 
I do not and this was in no way the intention of my post. It was meant as a light-hearted joke, since lots of us (me included) have bought too much stuff. OCD and ADHD are treated similarly here, but I'll try to avoid such jokes in the future if it's aggravating to you.

After reading the article, I don't really see it as a mental illness, though. It's described as a "behavorial addiction".
Wikipedia: Addiction canonically refers to substance abuse; however, the term's connotation has been expanded to include behaviors that may lead to a reward (e.g., gambling, eating, or shopping)
Tons of people are addicted to something (sugar, tobacco, alcohol, coffee, working, sports, sex, gambling...) or have some form of disorder according to the manual, but I wouldn't call all these people mentally ill. Of course it's sad when someone ruins their life with something and it's beyond their control.
Even if we call it "behavioral addiction", it's still a mental problem for some that is beyond their control. It can be a compulsion that controls and even ruins their life in the same way substance abuse can. And just like not everyone who drinks is an alcoholic, not everyone who buys has shopping addiction.


Regardless, what I was getting at is some folks cant stop buying gear. It's okay to set a goal for gear and then purchase it when able. Its something completely different to post up a new kit every month and state "this is my last kit" only to sell it and buy another one for the 10th time this year. That's more than just spending, that's a problem. And I wonder how many struggle with it? I'm not saying everyone who buys has a problem, just like not everyone who drinks had a problem. I was just curious if some of us here are dealing with this, that's all.
 
People that had over 100 drum sets are normal. I call them dealers. They are buying and selling, and we rely on them to support us when we are gigging.

Who would you prefer to deal with, the guy that owned three drum sets his entire life, of the guy that owned 120 kits and rebuilds anything?
 
Hyper-GAS is rampant. Interestingly enough, there's a guy on another forum who gleefully advertises that he's had over 100 different drum sets in his life (he's in his 60s), and he's not exaggerating. And that, of course, means he's had the same make and model drum sets numerous times, changing only the colors like Imelda Marcos bought shoes. And the birds that flock love the 'pics'.

Anyway, the interesting part is that he's become a sort of lighthearted jokey-joke whipping boy for GAS by other gassers who routinely post how they don't feel bad for their obscene collections thanks to his. But the kicker is there are guys there with compulsions every bit as bad, if not worse, than this poster child for gas. One guy goes so far as to advertise himself as "Jr" to this guy, as in "I'm [guy's name] Jr." because of the GAS.

Finally, to give you an idea of how safe havens work, during a thread where gassers were upset about the Post Office delays due to the pandemic, I pointed out that the only reason the difficulties at the P.O. were an issue befitting a thread on a drum forum was the "Conspicuous consumption" that is the site's focus was finally affected by goings-on in the real world. My post was deleted and I received a nasty gram from what I'm assuming was the site's owner to "CUT IT OUT" that's a quote.

The struggle is real, and it's being exploited in ways that aren't readily apparent.

Was similar on a bass forum I frequent- One guy was always going through basses- a six string for church, a five or a four (changed several times) for blues, sell the six and get a five for church, take 3 basses to a bar gig, countless amps, and everything was high-dollar- he was the board example of "that guy". Eventually even he joked about his ways, and toned them down. Last I knew he was settled on a specific "boutique" bass brand and was going through their product lines.
 
I've been buying and selling gear for quite a while, and, I'm done.
It seemed like I was enjoying the hunt and the deals more than, you know, actually playing the gear. So, I am done with G.A.S.

I used to wake up and start looking at ads and sales- Now I wake up and start playing. It turns out that actually playing the stuff is lots of fun, and there's lots to learn and skills to acquire and develop. Who knew? :D It's not like they're mutually exclusive or anything, but I found that, for me, the getting was taking precedence over the playing.
So, I now have S.A.S.- Skills Acquisition Syndrome.

Please, enjoy the gear that I may have bought, I'm done with all that. Besides perishables like strings, picks, drum heads and sticks, etc, I'm done with the gear getting.
I'm just going to use what I have, and, maybe actually get gooder at the musics and stuff.

I've always been a bit of an auto-didact, and strive to be so at a high level, so, if not mastery I'd like to at least be able to be marketable as a player on each, in some fashion.
I was a semi-pro touring bass player for years, I have been playing drums for quite a while now, and recently got a new guitar that is played for hours a day, so, already have gear covered. I still appreciate seeing and even trying new gear, and always appreciate seeing that of others, but, I really have enough. I even listed an old keyboard for sale the other day.
Having given up on the shopping bit gives me even more time to play and learn, and I'm okay with that.

However, I'm not advising others follow my S.A.S. course- it's just the course I'm on. :)
 
Dr. Herbst, the researcher featured by Guitar Center in the original post, has done a lot of work on GAS. I looked up his publications, and he's actually collected and analyzed data from this very forum on the topic. He included an entire post @larryace wrote on his experience with GAS in one of those publications.
 
There are actual conditions that I'm sure for one reason or another some people will never recognize and therefore never respect.
One condition I am susceptible to is getting down, bummed or downright depressed and that has lead me to the liquor store or the dealer more often than it should have and THAT is why I choose to try to find the "funny" part of anything I can.
I'm getting pretty good at it.
 
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