#musicianproblem

As a musician, I have fallen into the trap of constantly acquiring more and more gear to the point where I currently have 9 bass guitars, 4 guitars, 2 drumsets (only 1 is complete), a keyboard, and two microphones (crap quality).

I've always been kind of strange and that's been translated into my obsession with giving each bass and guitar a name. Sometimes the names are simply their company of manufacture like my Lyle guitar, but most of the time i give them imaginative names like my Epiphone Thunderbird named Trixie. Here's the full list of guitars and basses that actually have names:

Basses: (all are four string except where noted)

Starfire - black Ibanez Iceman

Vortex - black Dean Metalman V

Trixie - gothic black Epiphone Thunderbird

Babylon - red Davison Warlock copy

Malice - black BC Rich Warlock

Ibaneezer - black acoustic Ibanez

Sin - 5 string black Yamaha

Goliath - purple Peavey Millenium II

Firestorm - white Ibanez Iceman

Guitars:

Lyle - a sunburst Lyle guitar made sometime in the '70's

King - black and red BC Rich Warlock

Angus - red Epiphone SG

Bubble - Applause by Ovation acoustic

After I brought the 6th bass into my friend Marko at Morgenroth, he told me that I had GAS. My immediate response was, "uh, what?" but he then explained to me that it stood for Gear Acquisition Syndrome. Even after I kept going with my purchasing of basses, specifically, I can say that I definitely agree with this observation. Having so many basses doesn't make me a better bassist, just like having four guitars doesn't make me any kind of guitar player. I kind of like to think that the reason I purchase these instruments is because I see them in pawn shops, discarded and forgotten, and that I'm doing them a service by adopting them and taking care of them. I feel like the Angelina Jolie of musical instruments. Call it what you will, but Disney movies like Toy Story made me think that all objects might have a soul and interact with other objects when we humans aren't looking. That when some kid pawns his bass so that he can afford his rent, the bass gets lonely and wishes for someone to come along and love them. So, in that regard, I don't have any problem buying more instruments because I know they are going to a home that loves and cares for them like they deserve to be.