The GAS cupboard

one of the better excuses for buying more gear :wink:

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since i buy only gear of a certin kind (desktop units) — it’s still not a lot.

Interesting point, I sometimes wonder if my reluctance to sell unused gear stems from how miserable I was in the years that I never had any gear at all.

Edit: I should clarify I do sell gear that I know I will not use/don’t like.
Edit2: The future value is something I think about occasionally too as @chaocrator for small stuff which currently has little value like PO’s, Volcas etc.

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Great thread! In my GAS cupboard I have a 1990s Laney amp with one channel broken, and a pedalboard with a small mixer, couple of noise synths and some pedals. Every so often I get these out and spend an hour two sending screeching feedback, drones and static around the house. I don’t need any of that stuff for making music, but I wanted it and don’t need to sell it.

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I sure do.
I have a variety of utility type devices that aren’t especially valuable that I hang onto in case the need arises. Seems reasonable to me. Splitter boxes, midi mergers, a spare patchbay, things like that.
Then there’s my guitar stuff. I’ve had a number of hand injuries in the last few years that have kept me from being able to play (the way I enjoy playing anyway) but I’ve kept the gear in the hopes that I’ll get my full hand function back though it’s looking increasingly unlikely at this point. I might sell most of it soon.
My band gear (drums and pa gear mostly) is currently stored in my shop due to COVID. We haven’t played since March but we will get back to it some day. I don’t feel any negativity about storing that stuff (plus the drums get a little solo use) but I wish it didn’t take up so much space.
Then there’s the old home made stuff. I use a lot of that but there’s a few trunks up in the rafters full of circuit bent toys and the like, some dating back to the mid 90s, that I can’t seem to let go. This is what’s left after giving away more stuff than I can remember.
Of course there’s the stuff piled around my electronics work benches but that’s all project fodder. If you build stuff you need parts on hand. I’ve stripped five organs for parts last year so it’s inducing less anxiety now.
I’ve been selling a ton of gear this past month so the piles are being reduced but I still have a way to go.
I might come off as a hoarder to some but most of the junk just cycles through as part of my side hussle. I’m really more of a shit-haver.

I have an electronics room full of parts, tools, test equipment, etc as well. It also contains 3 3D printers. Don’t get me started on all of my wood working tools in the garage homemade CNC machine, power tools, hand tools etc… I’ve turned my house into a makers space including a music studio :joy:.

I’ve spent the last couple of years since buying my house just figuring out how to organize it all. Between electronics projects, wood working, and the music studio, it feels like it’s all I do.

I think it’s fine to have a lot of tools (music or otherwise) if they are organized, neat, and you actually use them sometimes.

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I’m not even getting into my wood working tools. That writhing mass is ridiculous but it’s what I do for my day job, hence the aforementioned hand injuries. If I get rid of that stuff I would lose my income.
I agree completely with your qualifiers for tools though I currently meet only two of them. Get used? Constantly. Organized? I know where everything is so, effectively yes. Neat? Not even close. I’m working on that though.

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I always seem to have an odd assortment of pedals, midi boxes, small mixers etc that are bought to supplement other bigger instruments and then stick around unused once those bigger instruments get rotated out from buying/selling.

A friend of mine who works in screen printing hit me up about trades, all his gear comes out of trades for shirt and sticker printing, and he is in his slow season now.
I used to trade him mixtapes and records in the 90s for t-shirt jobs. He always had a table selling tapes and glow sticks at Midwest raves, sometimes multiple tables in 3 or 4 different cities on a Saturday night.
So he is about to get my Mix8, Harlow, and iConnectMIDI2+ for a few runs of stickers and shirts that I’ll merch up my Bandcamp page with.

I love the barter system.

Also, his message gave me a good reason to take inventory on all the little odds and ends I don’t want. So much random stuff in the list. There will be a Reverb purge of the GAS closet soon.

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1 - yeah I think that factors in for me too. also there’s a lot of things I’ve learned over the years along the lines of: “there’s a good chance I’ll come back this, so don’t sell if you don’t have to” sort of thing. especially when it comes to smaller utility stuff, but sometimes with synths/machines too.
2 - 100% (and also in case it wasn’t clear in my original post)
3 - this actually cripples me sometimes. especially if I think there’s even an outside chance I’d want it again. never from the “I could make more if I just sat on it for a while” perspective. just the “I don’t want to pay more if I decide I want it again” perspective.

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I feel absolutely horrible for you. I know how important my hands are to me and I know yours are too. I hope you get back full function regardless of what you’ve been told :heart:!

Thanks! Vibe is essential to me :wink:

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Hey thanks! It’s been a very hard pill to swallow. My hands are my interface with the world.
On the bright side, I can still play drums almost as well as ever and I’ve been making good progress with regaining key playing dexterity lately. And it’s a near non issue for electronic gear, just a little clumsy. Strings are the biggest problem and they had always been my strongest area. That’s life I guess.
Anyway, I appreciate the kind words.

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I have one, but it’s not necessarily by choice; my wife takes the slew of guitar pedals lying around and throws them in a drawer in my den. I call it the “clean up your damn desk” bin.

The drawer got so unruly recently I was able to sell about half of them and pre-order the black Octatrack. :sweat_smile: I’d say 2/3rds of my synth set up were funded by guitar gear I no longer use.

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:joy: Yes. Only recently did I sell some unused gear, and even some gear I was using but which did not bring unique value to my studio.

My least used thing is sadly a handmade drone synth from an artist I really otherwise support. Still have it, don’t use it. Is in a literal cupboard.

Just sold off my Axoloti Core to an instrument maker here in Berlin who will make much better use of it. Was in cupboard with drone for over a year.

And then, two midi controllers I use when doing live music for theatre. Dust collectors now! But not forever.

I had a TR-8S, which is an excellently built and surprisingly deep machine I got on very well with. One day I looked at it and realized that it wasn’t unique, though, not bringing something truly creative to my work. Wasn’t exactly in the cupboard, but wasn’t uniquely essential. Selling it was impulsive, and weirdly felt risky, as I’d saved for it. But once it was gone I felt lighter and shaken up in a positive way. I feel much more creative now that it isn’t there, even though I liked it.

So I really do think selling gear can bring something energetically important to one’s work. Its important to refresh. I think change is good for one’s creativity, even if the item is merely taking up psychic space by remaining in the cupboard.

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I’m glad I found this thread today, especially the most recent comment by @noisebox. “Shaken up in a positive way” is a good way to describe that feeling — and I think it’s what I need to pursue next.

I’ve been very fortunate to acquire some beautiful gear over the years but I’m increasingly feeling the frustration of not diving deep enough into any of these machines individually. I tend to mix up my setup too frequently, swapping things in and out too often to get really comfortable.

In the past, I’ve sold gear because I’ve definitively felt like I was ready to let it go. I think what I need to do now is let some gear go even if part of me still wishes it was around. I just have to accept that keeping too much gear around comes with a cost for me — I’d rather go deep on 1 or 2 machines than have a series of shallow interactions with 4-5.

Or maybe I just need to suck it up and make music? Isn’t that always the answer to these dilemmas? Unsure as of now but I do appreciate this discussion.

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In the last few weeks, I sold everything except what’s on my desk.

Gone are: Volca Bass|Keys|FM, Monotribe, Little Bits, Kilpatrick Carbon, OP-1, DJ controller, Korg Nano controllers.

Staying are: Digitone, Nord Drum 2, Micromonsta 2.
(And Volca Sample, just in case)

Been decluttering here too. Sold R8 Mk2, BX-8, and Boss half-rack thing to pick up OT AE edition. And traded a couple of old samplers plus cash for a long-considered API 2500 bus compressor. Feeling very set.

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You know what can also help, I loaned out a few things to a friend recently and its giving me a similar feeling of freedom without having to fully part with the object. And it can be nice to distribute creative tools, you never know if you’ll get some inspiration back through sharing that with a friend

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