Elk Blog #2- Gear Acquisition Syndrome

When you tell someone not in the "tribe" about you having GAS, they might offer you a Tums or Pepto. However we "Noodlers" know what this is, and it has destroyed marriages and credit ratings from here to Siberia.

Many of you reading this know what GAS is, and those that don't I will explain it tastefully as I can.

"GAS" Also known as Gear Acquisition Syndrome. GAS is something guitar players have when they are chasing a sound, that could be the sound of Eddie Van Halen, or the sound in their head which is likely a derivative of EVH lets be honest.

Here is a great example of it. GAS is when someone wanting the new magical guitar widget that does a cool alien fart sound that you hear in your head and they NEED IT RIGHT NOW no matter the cost. You will trade all your pedals, cabs and amps for this unicorn. Now maybe it's the holy grail or it's a dud and you flip it on Reverb 24 hours later because you hate yourself. The GAS symptoms are obvious when you do it 4 times a week and your Fedex guy knows you by name and reminds you to take your Lipitor. My Fedex guy is Felix, he's from Jamaica and he's a cool cat.

So growing up I wanted a Mesa. My first Mesa was a Dual Rectifier Rackmount head which sounded amazing, I used it with Triggered on our EP in 2005ish. It was great but wasn't exactly what I heard in my head. I'm not naive and know that James Alan Hetfield has more going than a Recto and ESP guitar. However on a retail employee's budget in 2004 I wasn't buying a Diezel and a vintage Mesa Mark II C+. Below is the "List", the list of amps I went through until I arrived at my current love interest the Friedman JJ jr.

Mesa Rackmount Dual Rec

Mesa Road King

Mesa Dual Rec Chrome Chassis

VHT Pitbull CL with EQ

Marshall DSL 100

Marshall DSL 50

Bogner Shiva

Suhr Badger

Marshall JCM800

Marshall JCM 900

Marshall JMP-1

Marshall JCM 800 Modded

Mesa Single Rec Modded

Mesa ElectraDyne

Peavy 5150

Friedman Smallbox

Friedman JJ jr.

If I listed Pedals, the internet would crash, economies would collapse and I would enter a program in Vermont where I therapeutically listened to cows burp to calm my panic attacks.

I ended up with the The Friedman JJ Jr. It is a fire breather and also can be tamed with the right tweaking, but it is a set it and forget it amp. Best part is I can record at home with it and it's making the writing and pre-production for the Zero Year record super easy.

Exploring whats out there is a lot of fun, however the more time tweaking amps and pedals and guitars and waiting for Fedex is less time writing music, being in the jam room with friends or just having fun playing. This fact I learned with the Mesa Road King which was like trying to operate an Apache Helicopter and the owners manual is in Korean.

Let me know your your gas stories in the comments. This is a safe space.