Ever consider giving up your instrument?

rcaz

You know, just to have a big change? Sell all your gear and put it into a new instrument?

I'm a guitarist, and a thought occurred to me the other day; at the moment I'm saving up to get synth and computer gear, while still keeping up guitar. If I had the money from selling all my stuff and then no guitar to distract me from practicing, I'd be much better at electronic stuff much quicker. But I'm not even stuck in a guitar 'rut' where I can't play anything that I like, and I'm not getting frustrated, I just want to use all the sounds that electronic instruments could give me. Maybe I'm listening to too much Autechre.

Now I'm not going to do this - way too drastic, I'd have to start playing in a band/writing songs from scratch, and it'd be impractical. I'm a musician, and the whole reason I'm looking for new instruments is so I can use new sounds, so it'd be silly to throw away all the sounds I've learned how to use up till now.

Have any of you thought like this? Has anyone done it? What was it like?

Magic Eight Ball

I think we all need trial separations from our instruments at one point or another.
Constant gigging and rehearsing can sometimes become a chore and we sometimes lose sight of why we play in the first place.

kfoltman

El Pr0n wrote: »

You know, just to have a big change? Sell all your gear and put it into a new instrument?

More like "sell all gear and give up any interest in playing music". I feel like that from time to time. But just waiting for it to pass (over a couple of days/weeks/months/years) helps.

MetalDawg

Sometimes I wouldnt have the time to play guitar for ages, being busy and all. But I dont think I'd ever jack it in entirely. I actually want to take up bass too. You might get frustrated with it, but if you learn new songs/styles you'll get over the hump, I hope.

Rigsby

Nothing wrong with trying out new instruments. Sometimes a change is nice. Certain instruments, like keyboards and guitar are an advantage when writing. However, I would not sell my existing gear in order to do so, in case later on, you change your mind. Personally speaking, I'd rather find one I really liked, and take it as far as I can. You can spend half a lifetime studying an instrument and still only be scratching the surface. It is all a matter of what you want out of it.

Quattroste

I've thought about selling all my gear and just keeping my best amp, guitar and effects. I believe I would be a better guitarist if I did this.

HOWEVER, I also believe that as soon as I had sold everything, I would start to build it up again.

Magic Eight Ball

Quattroste wrote: »

I've thought about selling all my gear and just keeping my best amp, guitar and effects. I believe I would be a better guitarist if I did this.

HOWEVER, I also believe that as soon as I had sold everything, I would start to build it up again.

I did something similar myself. Sold all my kits except one, all snares except two, all cymbals except two rides, two crashes and two sets of hi-hats.

It gets to be ridiculous alright.
Guitar players are the worse for it, everyone I know has stupid amounts of equiment and tec, and that's not including the amount of actual guitars!

Malice

That's an interesting question OP. I don't think I'd ever be in a situation where I'd want to give up unless I'd found something better to do with all the time I'd find myself with.

Quattroste wrote: »

I've thought about selling all my gear and just keeping my best amp, guitar and effects. I believe I would be a better guitarist if I did this.

How do you define best though? Purely on price? How much you use it?

Quattroste

Not purely on cost but it would be my most expensive amp that I would keep, Mesa LSS, and I'd keep the TC Elec Nova system for all my effects (but I would probably go straight out and get a good wah). The guitar would be the most difficult choice. Single coil, Humbucker, Semi hollow, actually, I don't like thinking about it

It's never going to happen. Its never going to happen. Its never going to happen. Its never going to happen. Its never going to happen. Its never going to happen. Its never going to happen. Its never going to happen.

I do actually really like all the guitars I have (even the one for sale, but that one brings nothing new). Each other one is quite different sounding and also comfortable/easy to play and of fairly high quality. I don't think I need another guitar though....... or do I?

rcaz

I'd like to do a gear purge, but anything of any notable value would leave a bit of a hole in my rig. I was pretty pleased at band practice today that I used ALL of my pedals at least once (except one, but I would've used it if I had another patch cable) and three of my four guitars. Anything that I could sell and still get on without (two of my guitars) would fetch such a low price that I may as well just keep them.

Zangetsu

Strange timing with the thread, came on to ask the same question!

3 weeks ago I got a Lanikai tenor ukulele to mess around on, literally no intention of doing anything serious with it. Now its my main instrument. I love every aspect of it and don't think I'll ever be separated from it. (At least till I get a custom build )

After 10+ years of guitar playing! Tis madness but the heart wants what the heart wants!

http://soundcloud.com/mmcmusic/random-noise

First go at recording it, not an easy task micing the little ****er :P

Gaspode

I once sold my beloved bass in a fit of pique after playing to an empty house in the Baggot Inn back in the mid-90s. Still regret it, it was a fantastic 1970s USA precision, and I havent had a guitar as nice as it since.

As a result I amass gear now and cant part with anything, even old strings are kept in a drawer, just in case!

Oink

I'd never actually SELL my 17 y.o Tak since it's a present from my dad, or the Ibanez I "borrowed" from the cousin 12 years ago, since I play on it 95 % of the time.

I do need to take breaks though. I hardly touched a guitar or piano at all in 2008. I think we all need breaks to clear our heads like that from time to time, otherwise we'd never get out of a rut.

And now I'm all happy and funkin it up again .

odonopenmic

Just an idea but instead of selling everything up, could you arrange a swap? Supposing there was someone who was looking to get more into the guitar and could swap you some electronic gadgets - say for 6 months or something. That way, you wouldn't be parting with your gear per se, but you wouldn't have it around as a disctraction either.

Personally, I feel that you could sell it all and you will focus on the electronic side of things but there will always come a point where you want your guitar back and at that point, you could end up spending a fortune just to get back to square one.