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Re: Significant others and gear

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 10:46 pm
by MaxMaps
While my wife and I don't see eye to eye on everything she for the most part has been ultra cool with gear obsession. She works for a tax firm so she is always crunching numbers and has a zero tolerance policy for debt in our house (500 is allowed on either credit card)

There have been a few times even non gear related that she got really upset at me, even when I had the money. As long as I keep her in the loop about what I am buying she is very supportive of my habit and rather I play music obsessively rather than video games ( I turn into a crack addicted animal if you put me in-front of the right game ).

She even bought me my rainbow machine =D

Re: Significant others and gear

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 11:15 pm
by dase
my girlfriend actually played violin for years and years, but gave up before we met, and I've been trying to get her to start some kind of grails-y but more noise type thing with me pretty much the whole time we've been together. We talked her into playing violin on my band's new record and it came up amazing. She's also way more metal than me and thinks all my guitars look 'too gay' because they're not some kind of double cut ibanez or esp haha. The only time she's ever criticized me for buying gear is more about how the bass I just bought was 'ugly' or something.

when we've travelled to places like japan any time we walked past a guitar shop she would be like 'do you want to go in?', and was actively looking for things I'd told her I was gonna try and pick up over there. She also bought me a replacement for a multiplexer that got stolen about five years before we met recently. So yeah...she doesn't really care that much about gear but tries to take an interest because it's obviously something that's important to me, which kind of rules. Probably helps that I don't spend much money on gear anymore, I have a bit of a rule that purchases can only be financed from flipping stuff or my side job.

as for bands, I play in like four at the moment and if I'm like 'uh I'm practicing monday, tuesday and wednesday nights' she'll just be like 'cool so I get to see you thursday then?', which is absolutely awesome. She works full time as well as studying law so she's pretty busy, and I really don't mind if she decides to stay home with our dog rather than come out to shows I'm playing all the time, because I know she doesn't dig most of the music I play (not brutal enough), and I'd rather she was doing something she wanted to do rather than sit around in some shitty pub being bored. Rules coming home from a show to the tranquil vibe of a house with her and the pup too.

Re: Significant others and gear

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 11:18 pm
by MannequinRaces
This is a great topic for a post! My girlfriend bought me an EQD Bit Commander for my b-day and a TC Electronic Polytune for V-Day. She does kinda roll her eyes though whenever a new pedal shows up... I've tried rotating them but she always spots the new ones, lol. My advice is to be upfront with your purchases and as long as you're not putting yourself or your family into debt then keep supporting the pedal building industry.

Re: Significant others and gear

Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 12:50 am
by gruizmuller
My wife asked me to buy her a drumkit to learn to play and we jam every now and then.

I tought she was going to be mad with my fast growing pedalboard, but she liked the results, my sound improved a lot with pedals.

Re: Significant others and gear

Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 1:02 am
by GardenoftheDead
My girlfriend was lead soprano in her church choir and she has a Squier P Bass she never plays. Otherwise she enjoys the music I make but thinks I spend way too much money. XD

Re: Significant others and gear

Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 4:29 pm
by Gozu
my gf once surprised me with a new bass, then this christmas she got me my fender, couple of times she's done some vocals on some noisey droney stuff for me. she thinks gear is silly but she knows how much i love it. i had a pretty brutal breakdown recently and she just showed up with a cup of coffee, a joint and a blackout effectors twosome.

she's pretty rad

Re: Significant others and gear

Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2012 4:51 am
by GardenoftheDead
Gozu wrote:i had a pretty brutal breakdown recently and she just showed up with a cup of coffee, a joint and a blackout effectors twosome.


Marry her now.

Re: Significant others and gear

Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2012 6:02 am
by DarkAxel
GardenoftheDead wrote:
Gozu wrote:i had a pretty brutal breakdown recently and she just showed up with a cup of coffee, a joint and a blackout effectors twosome.


Marry her now.


:poke: for real

this is like... THE DREAM

and i'm not talking just bout the blackout effectors goodness, even though i'm a big fanboi

Re: Significant others and gear

Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2012 9:15 am
by greyscales
None of my exes completely supported nor hassled me about buying gear. But that's mostly because I keep it in rotation and don't leave all of my pedals in one place. My most recent ex hated that I would spend hours at a time building pedals. I had bought her a guitar and tried to teach her. When we broke up I never saw it again. Shame too, it played really well.
One ex did buy me a Souldier strap, which was pretty cool as I couldn't justify spending more than $10 on a strap myself.

Re: Significant others and gear

Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2012 9:25 am
by unownunown
Gozu wrote:i had a pretty brutal breakdown recently and she just showed up with a cup of coffee, a joint and a blackout effectors twosome.

she's pretty rad


awwwwww

Re: Significant others and gear

Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2012 3:48 pm
by retinal orbita
My wife is just not cool with my amazing ideas, for example buying a sitar, or an 8 string guitar.... but that's okay, deep down I know I can't afford them because we have to pay the mortgage and bills and what have you....

Re: Significant others and gear

Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2012 6:53 pm
by Gozu
GardenoftheDead wrote:
Gozu wrote:i had a pretty brutal breakdown recently and she just showed up with a cup of coffee, a joint and a blackout effectors twosome.


Marry her now.



heh... neither of us believe in the institution of marriage but we're for keeps

Re: Significant others and gear

Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2012 6:59 pm
by el_hombre
My missus is in one of my bands with me and while I think she does struggle to deal with money being spent on gear, I think when it comes gig time and she gets to run into a mass of effects (mostly mine) and crank it nice and loud, she gets it.
So long as I can justify the spend and prove I can afford it, I'm generally good.
My current situation is tricky though, I have a new tattoo, new pedal, and a film festival all competing for my dollar.

Re: Significant others and gear

Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2012 7:06 pm
by GardenoftheDead
Gozu wrote:
GardenoftheDead wrote:
Gozu wrote:i had a pretty brutal breakdown recently and she just showed up with a cup of coffee, a joint and a blackout effectors twosome.


Marry her now.



heh... neither of us believe in the institution of marriage but we're for keeps


Neither do I, but you might as well exploit tax breaks.

Re: Significant others and gear

Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2012 1:30 am
by hbombgraphics
My wife is pretty awesome as far as gear is concerned, a few years ago she snagged me a j-bass for our anniversary and normally for Christmas she just takes me out pedal shopping. She doesn't always get the pedals but I ran her Yamaha digital piano (gift for her birthday) into my empress trem and RC-2 and I think she is starting to appreciate them.

She is also pretty amused by my craigslist antics provided I don't invite murders into the house.

She is a sick piano player and really puts together interesting pieces of music, however we have never successfully jammed because we have a completely different approach to music.

Been married 11 years now, have three awesome kids who all seem to be musical, future looks good!!!