The Year Without Gear

[coldbrightsunlight]

If you want double tracking effects in post, better off with plugins anyway if you're using a DAW.

Plus yeah, get in the woodshed and double the part properly Good luck with Capillarian Crest, seems like a fun one to learn!

[friendship]

If you want double tracking effects in post, better off with plugins anyway if you're using a DAW.

Plus yeah, get in the woodshed and double the part properly Good luck with Capillarian Crest, seems like a fun one to learn!

Great point! Plus if I'm doubling it properly, there is room for spontaneous variation. It would also be interesting to do some recordings that avoid double tracking entirely, e.g. if I want a second guitar playing the same thing, it has to be a different guitar and/or amp or whatever. For funsies you see. Thanks homie!

[le lambin]

Well I fucked up- I have two flangers incoming. I guess I really needed to flange.

I would be lying if I said that was the first time I prowled used gear listings this year though, even though I said I wasn’t going to buy anything. Wouldn’t that be the last thing I would want to do? Yet I found myself scrolling through GCs used section almost daily, then gave up after a few pages of used Phase 90s and klones. Why?

I think, for me at least, it’s the same sort of activity as scrolling through Instagram or your social media of choice- it’s occupying time without actually doing anything. It’s the thing I do when I have a million other things I should be doing but I just don’t feel like it and can effortlessly justify not doing any of those things while…looking at used flangers.

I also realized my rationale of buying most gear is “oh, if I don’t like it that’s okay I’ll just re-sell it and recoup my costs” except that almost never happens, and I lose money every time, and I am reminded why selling on Reverb just sort of sucks. It’s a weird sad little loop.

So 2023 wasn’t the year without gear for me, but I think it will be the year of less gear. And that’s a good thing too!

[friendship]

Well I fucked up- I have two flangers incoming. I guess I really needed to flange.

I would be lying if I said that was the first time I prowled used gear listings this year though, even though I said I wasn’t going to buy anything. Wouldn’t that be the last thing I would want to do? Yet I found myself scrolling through GCs used section almost daily, then gave up after a few pages of used Phase 90s and klones. Why?

I think, for me at least, it’s the same sort of activity as scrolling through Instagram or your social media of choice- it’s occupying time without actually doing anything. It’s the thing I do when I have a million other things I should be doing but I just don’t feel like it and can effortlessly justify not doing any of those things while…looking at used flangers.

I also realized my rationale of buying most gear is “oh, if I don’t like it that’s okay I’ll just re-sell it and recoup my costs” except that almost never happens, and I lose money every time, and I am reminded why selling on Reverb just sort of sucks. It’s a weird sad little loop.

So 2023 wasn’t the year without gear for me, but I think it will be the year of less gear. And that’s a good thing too!

I do this too! I think it's a leftover habit from when I didn't have money or access to gear and fantasized about all the cool sounds I could make if I did. For most of my music-playing "career," I had a strict attitude and only bought things if I felt it was necessary. I wouldn't dream of having more than one delay pedal, for example. Eventually I got some more disposable income and decided it was fine to buy stuff I don't need as long as it was a good deal. And it is fine, but I've noticed that every time I do, the novelty of the new thing wore off after a few weeks and most of that stuff is now sitting in a closet. I have a wah pedal that I literally haven't used in over a decade. A decade! I don't sell the stuff because of this imaginary feeling of scarcity ("what if I want to use it later?!?!") that is basically a hoarder mentality, though it's not so out of control that it's clogging up my living space or anything.

A couple months ago I had to move, and ended up donating a couple guitars I don't really need. It felt good! I'm thinking about addressing my collection with my older, hardcore attitude and selling all the shit I don't use, regardless of whether it's something cool I think I might use in some imaginary future.

[coldbrightsunlight]

I think, for me at least, it’s the same sort of activity as scrolling through Instagram or your social media of choice- it’s occupying time without actually doing anything. It’s the thing I do when I have a million other things I should be doing but I just don’t feel like it and can effortlessly justify not doing any of those things while…looking at used flangers.

I definitely do this from time to time. I don't enjoy any of these "dead time" activities so I really wish I'd stop them all, but that seems trickier than just saying it.

I definitely have a desire to take a brutal view of my gear and get rid of stuff down to "the essentials" - not that any of this is truly essential so that's exactly why it becomes easier to justify just a little bit more and creep your collection up

[friendship]

Oh I forgot the most important part of what I wanted to post which is: as long as you have two flangers coming in, run them in series and crank the resonance knobs and pretend ur a whale imo

[Dowi]

2 months into Year without gear and a couple pedals give you this look:



I've been totally zen but i got rid of a couple of unused pedals, so the temptation was strong.

Now i've got a Dispatch master coming just because I was always curious to try it. At the same time i saw an EAE Dagger V2 and wanted to see how it is compared to the Longsword, just to see if it could work in conjunction to the Elements in a scaled down board, so that's incoming too.

I'll put some stuff for sale in the upcoming weeks.

[le lambin]

Oh I forgot the most important part of what I wanted to post which is: as long as you have two flangers coming in, run them in series and crank the resonance knobs and pretend ur a whale imo

I’m gonna eat all the krill in sight

[Blood_mountain]

Oh I forgot the most important part of what I wanted to post which is: as long as you have two flangers coming in, run them in series and crank the resonance knobs and pretend ur a whale imo

I’m gonna eat all the krill in sight

Oh man...off-topic, but on the subject of Krill...I work in the retail food industry and a company just presented canned krill to me. Seems great for our customers who are whales.

[le lambin]

Whaletallica- Krill em all