or is it the WANTING you can't resist. I suppose for musicians, the only way to tell is by how much you use all that equipment...I have a lot of rarely touched equipment...but I think that's for a different reason than the one you'll read about below.

You just may be a gear ADDICT...
For the addict, wanting becomes detached from liking. The dopamine system learns that certain cues - such as the sight of a coffee machine - can bring rewards. Somehow, in ways that are not fully understood, the dopamine system for the addict becomes sensitised. The wanting never goes away, and is triggered by numerous cues.


https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-55221825

I use everything I have. If there is equipment I do not use, I trade it in or give it away.

A lot of what I have I bought because I can. (And a lot of people can't. My way of saying I have arrived to the financial party. Finally.) Once I finish the project guitar I will have 8 guitars. And I only USED to be a guitar player. My hands are so bad I can barely finger the neck or hold a pick.

The band I was in played 3 times in 2019 to get video to make a promo and we barely had any work to be canceled for Covid concerns. I am still on the fence about continuing. It gets to a point where the reward falls short of the work it takes to get ready by a fairly large margin. And that doesn't even get into the health concerns about 10 people crowding into a little rehearsal space. We have a March date at a 2200 seat venue, but I doubt it will happen. With current seating restriction they can only put about 500 in there and that won't pay the 2 bands. And if they DO put 2200 in there, that is 2200 people who may carry Covid into the place with them. Not so sure I am willing to risk it for any amount of money.

My prized instrument now is my Nord. It just sounds so good! The other boards are 30 year old Ensoniq boards that I still have from back then, and they still sound great, AND don't take an advanced degree in engineering to use like the Motif I bought and quickly returned. That was nuts. I know somebody who has one and he simply can't make changes on the fly because of all the mode changes, page changes, splits, stacks and layers.... way too complex for me.

I normally give stuff away that I don't use. I know exactly what guitar I want to play and fortunately can afford it. I have a few guitars I rarely use but want to keep for various reasons.

I have acquired certain software that turned out to be less useful than I assumed.

I am not really addicted to stuff any longer. I could put everything I own in the trash and never look back. My wife on the other hand....

I use to think "the guy who died with the most toys won" not any more. You don't own that stuff, it owns you.

Billy

For me, my instruments are tools of my trade. I buy what I need, and want what I need.

I'm not a collector of musical instruments. Every instrument I have but one I play, and I plan on restoring the one I don't play (a 1925 silver plated King alto with the voice of an angel).

If I don't play it often, out it goes.

Now don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with collecting instruments. There is more than one right way to go through life.

One thing I do collect is music. I have an entire shelved closet full of music books. So many that if I want a particular song, it takes forever to find it.

I have a dream of scanning every song, putting them on a huge hard drive in alphabetical order, but that is so time consuming, it'll probably never happen.

Notes

You an outsource that to some kid with a scanner for almost nothing. You get what you want, and you get your closet back.

To store more equipment it!!

I buy a lot of stuff because I am an impulse buyer. The ADD is involved as I get a wild hair in my butt and decide that I want "this" and in 10 minutes I have "it". Whether that "it" is another guitar, that camera yesterday was a great example, some food I hadn't had in a while, a car... I was driving on a stretch called locally as the "Bedford Auto Mile". On that strip is a Toyota dealership. Parked in the used lot was a beautiful blue FJ Cruiser. I pulled in, parked my 2009 Ford Escape, and within an hour I owned that beautiful FJ Cruiser. And that is strange because if flies directly into the face of my inherent cheapness of Slovenians!!

The camera though I can justify because once I figure out the software Canon supplies to use it as a webcam I will use it to stream, as well as taking good quality pictures for a blog if I ever get to take my little trailer out. Just shooting pics is simple enough but the webcam thing is going to be a challenge. They have downloadable software but it wasn't working when I tested it. I will tackle that today.

But to the topic, yep I like the stuff I buy. I like the guitar collection despite being a dreadful guitar player anymore. When I do the studio revamp they will hang from wall hangers. And I'll take a picture with the new camera!!

Every instrument I've purchased with the intent of using it.

I generally won't pay too much for an instrument. Part of that is budget, but the other factor is that instruments are meant to be used, which means they'll get dinged up and damaged. I don't have the interest or the space for a collectible.

Having gear that doesn't get played is irritating, in the same way I feel about going to a house with a grand piano that's only used as a decoration.

I'd had the good fortune of being able to borrow instruments when I couldn't afford them, in some case being given them permanently. I've also been able to slowly build up a collection of instruments that I'd always wanted over time.

So instruments that don't get played go on my "sell or loan" list. It's especially gratifying when someone takes an instrument that was gathering dust, and gigs the hell out of it.

There are a number of instruments I've currently got (banjo, mandolin and a solid-body nylon string guitar) that really ought to be sold off, but I'm not quite willing to give up on the idea that someday I just might learn to play them compentently.

Similar in concept is that I intended to be serious with every woman I ever dated, but ended up having a bunch of them even though I could only play one at a time. Sometimes the Strat sound is just not right and you need to have a Les Paul handy...

Back in a younger time when I had NO desire to be married or even serious with anyone, I had a "stable" (for lack of a better word) that were all happy with being firmly in the friend zone. One liked sports. One liked music. One liked movies. Depending on what I wanted to do, I knew who to call. They all knew about each other, and in fact there were many times the 4 of us went out for dinner together. Which sounded like a good idea in theory, but ended up being 2 hours of "He is a wishy-washy guy who will never commit to ANYTHING" humor.

So all the guitars here know about the others and none of them whine when I play one or the other. I really want to get the studio rehab done so I can buy wall hangers and hang them up. At least that way when I run out of wall space I may stop buying them. Though I will still have 8 stands, so....

Love my guitar farm. Especially Ugly Puppy front left.

We all have our point of diminishing returns.

I buy good instruments, because my livelihood depends on reliable, good sounding gear. But I'm also practical.

For example. When I bought my Parker Guitars, I could have gone cheaper with the Asian made models, but they aren't made quite the same with cheaper tuners, the frets are not hardened stainless, and so on. So I got the USA models.

I could have gone much more expensive, the same guitar but with fancy finishes instead of plain wood and paid up to twice as much. But as mentioned above, I also gig with them and they will get beat up, so why pay extra for a fancy finish? Besides I buy them to make money.

So I get the best neck, tuners, pickups, piezo, cap, pots, frets, etc.. It plays like the one with the flamed maple cap, it sounds like the one with the flamed maple cap, but it cost about half as much.

The first one is stock, the second one I had Duncan P-Rail pickups with triple shot rings so I can get P90, Rail, Series Humbucker and Parallel Humbucker sounds with the flick of a couple of slide switches. Well worth the $20 extra Parker charged for the custom job.

And yes, I really, really like them. They play and sound so well, I no longer have guitar GAS.

Insights and incites by Notes

Well, this is an interesting topic.

From the earliest days, I, like many others, wanted the cool gear. However, being a financially disadvantaged musician.... Is that a redundant phrase? .... anyway, I bought what I needed to play. When I did buy anything, it tended to be the decent quality equipment. Gear that would last. Also being a bit tight with a dollar, I also was able to resist buying things on the spur of the moment. Well... mostly. A few notable exceptions do exist... I also tended to convert the old gear, and the seldom used gear into cash. As a result, over a period of 45 years, I have collected 4 nice guitars, 2 electric and 2 acoustic, 2 amps... a Mesa and a Spark modeler, and I'm on the fence now about selling my Line 6 POD2. I have a few mics and some other assorted gear. As far as studio gear.... same deal. One old (close to 15 yrs old now) computer running XP Pro 32 bit, and the accessory gear to make it all work.... I'll splurge on new hardware and software when the old one dies after I try to repair the old box.

I see lots of stuff I "WANT" but I have reached the point where I can say, nope... I don't need that, so I'm able to walk away. Same thing applies to trucks, guns, dogs, other misc toys, etc......

When I restarted playing the guitar after 30 years away from it, I HAD to be sure that I got bang for Buck as your say. So, I have limited gear bought mostly on Start Up and I use almost all of it.
Its quite limited, I don't want or need a pedal board 2 feet long, I dont want or need the latest, fastest, bestest Abbey Road DAW and I have the best Auto Accompaniment in the World.
What more could I ask for?
Ian

Bought a 1979 Gibson, in 1980 new off the wall. Have played it ever since. I still own my first real acoustic guitar a takamine. I bought a jazz base close 5 years ago and a used amp. I splurged on a nice acoustic about 12 years ago. It’s my “nice” guitar. Sold a 6 string acoustic last year, and a 12 String ovation legend I had since 1984.

I have simple stuff for my studio, a Presonus audio box 1818, a voiceworks, a old laptop, and a Presonus fader port 8.

Amps the previously mentioned bass amp fender 50 watt, a fender mustang II, a Gemini tower P/A, a kustom three channel PA, 2 10” powered speakers. Cheap harbinger ones. Two or three boxes of cables and stuff.

So I am careful not to spend a fortune on gear. I buy only what I will use and need. I just realized I am a tightwad!

I think I will just sit on that a while and feel cheap.

I moved earlier this year, so I sold off the gear I wasn't using as I was moving a fair distance. Ended up with a few thousand bucks in my pocket, and it made it easier to hook up my studio again after settling in - win win!

I do still have way more gear than I actually need, even if I do still use what I have.

down to 4 guitars. d35 Martin bought new in 1972 which i would never part with. 2018 OO17S Martin bought because a smaller guitar is easier to handle now i'm getting on. 1991 Aria TA61 (Gibson ES330 copy) heavily customised with seymour duncan pickups and coil taps that was my stage electric for many years. and a recent acquisition a Peavey Predator Plus (the one with the three a side tuners cos Peavey seem to call a lot guitars predators)bought off ebay a couple of years ago to give me strat type sounds when neeeded.

sold a concertina - never learned to play it, ibanez acoustic bass - the duo i was in broke up and my 'beater' crafter acoustic got sold as i no longer sail and don't need a guitar i don't really care about.

but all my old electric stage gear is in the attic. and my £70 Sound City 50 plus amp is now going for £5-600 on ebay so it can stay and appreciate.

My guitar skills might be considered as rank beginner so consider the source. I have a 1982 Peavey Predator with six in a row tuners I purchased used in 2007. I've enjoyed the guitar. It sounds nice and is an easy playing guitar.

You know, as I revisited this thread, I started to consider more the definition of "compelled". The definition of that word has a hint of being "forced" to it. Also an implication of buying stuff to try and "outdo" what someone else has bought. I don't know how many people here do that. I just buy stuff because I am a compulsive spender and like having pretty looking or pretty sounding toys. When the muse tells me to go upstairs and play, I have nice (to my eyes - which is all that matters to me) stuff to play on. But I don't know about ever being compelled to buy. Maybe that's just an overly semantic look at the question.

What's really amazing is that in every other aspect of consumerism I am so tight with my money I actually squeak!

There was a time when I could hardly move in my music room , cluttered with every conceivable musical product , resulting in a seriously hindered ability to actually make music. Enter biab . Chaos gonski and all is well with the world.
Mind you , my new found spacial existence seems to have corresponded with the demise and lost playground of the local music shop.

I guess because the first really good band I was in after I graduated from school was a road band, I never got into the habit of having more instruments than I'm going to play on the gig plus one backup in case 'the show must go on' after a failure.

There is definitely more than one way to do this.

Good ol' Rip Snortin' Notes Norton

From a financial perspective I'm fortunate - not wealthy by any stretch but fortunate. Throughout my gigging years I worked full time in mental health services for the state of GA and retired after nearly 40 years of service -- the state even paid my salary and tuition for grad school. So within reason I've been able to buy what I want and I was early into multi-track recording and buying vintage acoustic instruments before they went up exponentially.

Having blathered all that I can with all candor say I've never felt compelled to buy anything music related that I didn't think would bring me happiness. Sometimes nowadays with great sales like Waves Audio has I'll buy a $29 FX or two or three just to experiment with and if I don't like it I still enjoyed the experimentation.

Now bicycles? That's another story. Having once owned an outdoors shop we are hooked, ride every other day and have FAR more than we need and, yes, I feel compelled to buy more

Bud

Chances are good that had I lived in Georgia or you in Ohio we would have met LONG ago....