Where to go from here...the musings of a madman?

[weebles]

Jesus Christ. You guys need to move to the South.

$475 utilities included
Only till August though, then it's time to get fucked with real world rent again.

No. Everyone stop coming to the south. I've been priced out of my last 4 places in Austin because fuckers keep coming in from California and pushing up the cost of everything.

Also this is good advice:

Jwar sells half his gear.

Jwar gets family member(s) to watch kids.

Jwar and Jwar-wife pick an amazing vacation spot.

Jwar and Jwar-wife vacation like bosses: drink, relax, bang--the whole 9, bitches.

Jwar comes back refreshed.

Jwar feels better about life.

Jwar makes music with a simpler outlook on his gear.

[popvulture]

I used to hold onto everything—I've been a collector type since I was a little kid. Obsessively enjoying scoping out new things and amassing lots of them. Then of course not putting it too good enough use.

I changed a lot of this last year, just started selling lots of pedals I didn't need. I realized I had like 10 ODs and had always thought I'd hold onto them because I might be chasing some tone in the studio at some point. When was the last time I was in an actual recording studio other than my own little home setup? Not recently. So, once I started selling them and realizing I could apply that money towards newer, more fun shit or just other, non-musical stuff that's great for my life (hey, pay down that credit card bill that's stressing you out), I felt a huge relief. A couple were really hard, like the Space Station... I was keeping it because it was a coveted object that I got a deal on years ago, but when did I play it? Never. When would I? Probably never. I sold that fucker for 700 bucks and haven't regretted it a bit.

I don't think this is necessarily the same thing you go through, Jwar, but there's some relation. I know I'll never sell all my pedals and have everything down to a concise board—that's just not who I am. That said, I can get the whole pool down to a smaller number, and frequently swap out ideas on ONE small to medium sized board. I feel like this makes me sound better and come up with better ideas. All that shit chained up together is just stifling—I don't know about you, but I feel panicked as fuck after wiring up a huge board. Too much.

So anyway, a lot of people have said it and I agree: less is more. Maybe keep a little more available to play with, but try experimenting with some smaller everyday setups.

[weed_killer]

I'm lucky enough to have the type of personality that's maximal in thought but minimalist in practice, which I know can be pretty difficult to maintain, or get into in your case. One thing I try to do with pedals is to sit down and figure out what I use it for and how many different aspects I can get out of it:

-some pedals are a 'does one thing but I use it constantly' (ss/bs fuck for example) so it's a keeper
-some pedals are 'does many things and continues to surprise me' (ct5, in limbo iii) so it stays

the ones that are 'does one thing and I like that one thing but I don't use it enough' are generally the ones I let go, like my old seppuku kompakt kassette. I feel like you probably have a few pedals that would fall into this category, and I get how it can be hard to convince yourself to flip it cause that one thing is cool, but whenever I've done it I've felt better in the long run cause I now have the creative challenge of getting something like that out of what I still have.

[multi_s]

TL;DR

A 22 dollar boss collection is all you need.

[worra]

No. Everyone stop coming to the south. I've been priced out of my last 4 places in Austin because fuckers keep coming in from California and pushing up the cost of everything.

Does it count if I used to live in Austin, moved to California, now wanna move back?

[Jwar]

TL;DR

A 22 dollar boss collection is all you need.

This is definitely something I might listen to. LOL!



Lots of good suggestions!

I went and jammed for a bit just now to see what I automatically gravitate towards. I can tell you this. I'm a simple mother fucker in terms of what a pedal can do. I usually set it and forget it, then get pissed off when the knobs get moved.

I used (just about 10 minutes ago) the following-

Uverbia (through Fx loop on my amp)
Fea Opti Fet
Boneshaker
Lonewolf LWA120


then I mixed up my playing into something else and used

Uverbia (still in fx loop)
Fea Opti Fet
LWA120
Duality
Toneczar Echoczar
Openhaus
OH! and the Dual Bitquest


I did not touch anything else. I've noticed that I do that. The second board I have is stuff I won't play as much, so literally all of it could go and I wouldn't care.

Most of the first board could go too. I can't decide between delays though. I'm thinking I want to keep the Nemesis and DD500 and boot the Toneczar. Keep the Openhaus, boot the Vault.

I can do this...fuck! I can!!!!!!!!!!

If I could get myself down to fucking 10-15 pedals, I'd be good to go. Shit, maybe 12.


Also, I'd use the profits to buy 222 Metal Zones.

[rfurtkamp]

Stop worrying about the gear.

Stop buying it. Stop selling it. Just *have* it.

Then make music.

No excuses.

No bullshit.

Just make music for a few minutes a day, whether you want to or not.

Only reason you haven't is you haven't wanted to enough.

It's all about actually doing it, not finding reasons not to.

[BossMann73]

Jwar, you're a good guy who took a leap to write such an honest post. I can relate to your issue very closely, having spent tons and lost tons on gear since about 1989 or so. What worked for me is I imposed a maximum of 3 pedals and try to stick with just those. Those three are usually rotating (today is a CS-2, Volt Thrower and MD-2), but that's all I allow myself. This way I focus on writing my riffs and the fluff can wait till I actually finish a song and record it. Yeah my PS-3 into an RV-2 sounds "deep and haunting," but I can spend all day with those pedals and still not write anything worth a damn. With a clean tone and a dirty tone I find I can do much more.

[JereFuzz]

I figured I'd make a whole "I came from this to that" thread in the same vein as the modular stuff being posted as of late.

So over the last six or seven years (maybe 8??? Fuck I dunno), I've gone ape shit. I don't want that to be put lightly. I have literally bought and sold so many goddamn pedals, basses, amps, and other shit, I can't recall it. I've owned the best of the best and the worst of the worst (ok maybe not the worst but...close).

It all started on that fateful day I purchased a Way Huge Swollen Pickle. I remember I had just received a new bass, my first nice one ever btw. A 25th Anniversary Musicman HSS brand fucking new. I paid 2600 bucks for it, which looking back was dumb, but I didn't care! I was 26! So before that the most expensive bass I'd ever owned was a custom (and I mean legit custom) Peavey that I sold for meth when I was 17. I'm not joking. I'll never, ever get over that. Anyway, I had just decided to get back into playing after taking a few years off. I really loved NIN and wanted Trent's tone on bass. Found out he used a Swollen Pickle. So I jumped in the car, went to Guitar Center and bought one.

I instantly hated it. I didn't know what was going on or how to make it sound good. It pissed me off really bad. Then I broke a cable on the inside of it and had to take it back. They gave me a new one while I was there and I decided to buy a Boss AW-3 (fuck that pedal sucks ass). I got home and started researching stuff and landed on Talkbass.com. I discovered my pedal had these internal controls (which to this day that shit baffles me), that I could tweak and get a better sound. I did that and was instantly happy.

From Talkbass I learned about the Carbon Copy and a few other TB type lame ass effects. Then one fateful day a gentleman by the name of Behndy invited me to ILF which was kind of a secret group so to speak. I joined up and learned about Fuzzhugger.com. I got on and saw a limited edition Dwarfcraft Secret Destroyer for like 200 maybe 180?? I can't remember honestly. I also saw a Seppuku Mind Warp, which I had NO idea what it did, and bought it for around 150 I believe. It was hand painted and looked cool. I discovered the Mind Warp made me be able to get The Presidents of the United States Peaches sound perfectly for what it's worth.

Those arrived and I hated the Secret Destroyer. I couldn't get over the fact that it made some weird noise that sounded like it was uncontrollable and made no sense. I actually believe I thought it was broken (which now I know to be oscillation. LOL!). I returned it and Tom Dalton agreed to build me something custom. I had no fucking clue about pedals, especially with bass, so I asked him what to do. We landed on a Chalice mixed with another circuit I cannot recall (Tom eventually bought this back from me btw, which I to this day kick myself for because he sold it to a buddy and I'll never see it again). I remember picking the colors, the design, the LED's...everything. The way the circuit worked even. It was beyond me that I could do that!

Then things just kind of went nuts from then on out. I started with a lot of Dwarfcraft stuff, most custom or second hand custom. A lot of SS/BS, that some was also custom. Then I just kind of started trying every fuzz I could get my hands on by every maker I could find.

If I had to guess, I'd say I've tried maybe 500 fuzz pedals and that's probably being a tad unstated. I actually have no idea. I do know that I've bought and sold almost 100k worth of gear in 7 years. That's, uhhhhh....kind of insane if you think about it.

I've owned pedals that cost me 25 dollars, and I've owned pedals that cost me 1500 dollars.

Now here I am with two full pedal boards and things still coming in all the time. I have a modular system coming in soon as well. I'm thinking, what am I doing here? Have I wasted 7 years of my life trying to achieve something tone wise and not made a lick of actual music??? The truth is to a certain extent, yes is the answer. I've not written one full song in that long. I've done almost full songs, but I'm limited by my lack on imagination and the overwhelming feeling of having too much to work with now.

I know the answer here too. Put it away and play with less, and trust me, I've tried that. It doesn't work for me. I have probably some of the worst OCD possible. I get very in the zone and want to have it all or nothing. It's the way I am with literally everything in my life. It's fucking exhausting at times.

So where do I go from here? I want to make music. That was the entire point of this journey I stared 22 years ago and when I did, I played in a band! We sucked, but damn it, it was fun! Now I'm lost. I'm falling down that rabbit hole of being that lonely old guy who hoards gear LOL! I'm laughing because I know for a fact there's more of you out there!

This isn't an "oh poor me" thread. This is a "holy fuck, I'm a crazy man" thread. I know own easily around 12-13k in gear, maybe more. I don't do anything cheap really.

So that's my gear story....reduced gear story at least. Those that have been on ILF have watched probably and shuddered at times of my rampant regard for collecting and just flipping board after board after board. haha.


Thanks for listening if you did.

For you Jack I'll summarize. I bought and sold a lot of shit, then realized I never really do anything with it. So fuck balls basically.

Start collecting scales ... the harmonic minor and Spanish Gypsy may have a greater impact on your music than most of your gear

[D.o.S.]

Stop worrying about the gear.

Stop buying it. Stop selling it. Just *have* it.

Then make music.

No excuses.

No bullshit.

Just make music for a few minutes a day, whether you want to or not.

Only reason you haven't is you haven't wanted to enough.

It's all about actually doing it, not finding reasons not to.

This is such a fucking good post.

[B.O.B]

just focus on making music. maybe change your perspective. i look at pedals etc as just tools. having the right tool for the job makes it easier, or improvising with what you have on hand is great to, but... Here's a pic of some wrenches and sockets in my toolbox. that's kinda lot of tools, and they are all kinda the same thing. just like fuzz are all kinda just fuzz or delay are all kinda just delay...but not really, at all. Each is useful in a particular situation. I'm wondering if having all your tools out on your big pedalsboards might be part of the problem. I never got into pedalboards because I'm always working on new material so it doesn't make sense in that regard. I keep all my tool in the toolbox and only pull out what I think I need for the project at hand and go from there. And sometimes maybe I grabbed a flathead when I needed a phillips...hey maybe I can make do with the flathead if I try or maybe this adjustable wrench will work if I just...or not, and i'll just go grab a phillips. I've never felt overwhelmed by having a lot of tools, its a relief to be able to have all theses tools at my disposal so I can just get right to work on the project and hopefully compete it to move on to the next. And i'd never think of selling off a bunch of tools just because a certain project wasn't a success. Also don't think just buying more tools is necessarily the answer either. I dunno, I don't get the impression you're putting yourself/family in debt with all this and there's nothing wrong with just liking pedals for their own sake, they're fun! make noise maybe break down what you are trying to do and reassemble in a new direction with your songwriting. if you're goal is making music maybe redefine what music is to you. i'd never suggest not making music, music is the best but you don't seem to be having fun ignore the tools and focus on the composition if that's your thing, or it that's not your thing maybe give it a go. maybe you get inspired by sounds so just explore all the sounds you can make with all these tools and maybe you'll start to find certain new ways of organizing these sound that you like and is fun. good luck

[Chankgeez]

38,000-piece wrench set

[B.O.B]

38,000-piece wrench set

you should see my fuzz pedal collection

[Chankgeez]

38,000-piece wrench set

you should see my fuzz pedal synth module collection

[ritz]

Great post, great comeback B.o.B., literal lol.

You seem like you really like chasing the tones Jwar, so don't fight that impulse if that's part of the fun for you, but as others are sayin some arbitrary structure or limitations might enable some new directions... or maybe you need to get lost in the mescaline + pedals and just get lost in sounds... forget about guitar for a bit... or don't ... but don't be afraid to try something new and mix it up and get lost in that process