Retail therapy.

[bass_dinger]

1 hour ago, Earbrass said:

I do miss GAS

I understand that sentiment, I think. 

 

For me, it is about the thrill of the chase - finding an obscure bass guitar, getting it restored, researching which piano I want. 

 

But once I have it all, I then need to sit down and play it, and learn to master the instrument.

 

Last night I opened up a box of stuff which I ordered from Kitronik.co.uk and got bored while I was taking it out of the box....

 

Retail therapy doesn't work well, for me!

[SumOne]

[DTB]

19 hours ago, neepheid said:

 

Right, but you derive no pleasure from having a warm house, yeah?

Ooooh that’s a bit harsh isn’t it? 😁 said with a smile and not nastily. 

[neepheid]

4 minutes ago, DTB said:

Ooooh that’s a bit harsh isn’t it? 😁 said with a smile and not nastily. 

 

Not at all, just pointing out that while on the surface of it, adulting is boring and awful, it's not as if it doesn't yield any benefit whatsoever.  It's just that sometimes those benefits/worths are taken for granted because they're not shiny or dopamine inducing.  If I'm guilty of anything, it's the terse way in which it was expressed.  Scottish stoicism at its finest, doesn't necessarily mean I'm being a meanie...

[DTB]

I get what you saying totally, but even though it keeps my house warm, and provides me with hot water, eventually, (i miss my old hot water tank), I would rather spend £2400 on music stuff than a new boiler. 

My last house related purchase was a washing machine because I ‘broke’ the old one washing my motorcycle rags that had fully synthetic gear oil on them and then everything else that got washed after stunk of oil. That really annoyed me because the money I had saved servicing both bikes myself was about the cost of the new machine. 

[SumOne]

On 20/02/2026 at 17:51, Chris2112 said:

I've recently spent a load of money on things that were just no fun at all. A new combi-boiler yesterday, car insurance the same day, and today I was off to the dentist to have a molar removed after it was damaged whilst I was getting a wisdom tooth taken out last year. 

 

I decided to spend some money on myself other than just paying these 'cost of living' charges. Well, I have been saying for a long time that I wanted a fretted jazz bass and the Flea signature model always intrigued me. I'm not a RHCP fan but the spec always sounded like the sort of thing I would enjoy and have a lot of use for. 

 

Bass Bros to the rescue. Let's hope it's as good as it looks! I bought a fretless CIJ jazz from them in October 2024 which I play all the time, so it'll be nice to have a fretted model to sit next to it. 

 

 

I'm in a similar boat:  Car insurance, MOT, parking fine, and root canal all paid in the last few weeks.

 

I suppose I am grateful I have the money to pay for those things that seem to me as boring essentials. There are plenty of people around the world without the luxury of owning a car or being able to go to a good dentist.

 

Those sort of on-going monthly 'nothing to show for it' costs make the cost of a new (second hand) Bass seem relatively insignificant though and it's something that tends to last and hold value so feels sort of an investment instead of just waving goodbye to money.

Edited 11 minutes ago by SumOne

[martin8708]

There is nothing new about retail therapy , it’s just got a whole lot sophisticated in the last 10 ish years .

Even in post war Britain , people would get a certain glow from buying new goods , new appliances , new clothes .

I am just as guilty of buying stuff to get that warm fuzzy hit of new stuff arriving on the doorstep .

it was particularly bad during the photography phase when film was king , big bucks on big lenses / bodies / motor drives .

Thank goodness digital killed that off . 
If the equipment that is bought is used and appreciated ,all well and good . I generally use most of the gear I buy , so your not chucking money down the drain .

Buying is just too easy . back in the pre internet days , you trawled the classifieds in NME / MM papers and made the journey to London to buy the instrument in question ,  now we just press the buy button from the comfort of your sofa . 
Eventually you hit the point when you realise buying one more guitar does not make you a better player , it just means you have one more guitar . 

[TimR]

No. I'm a tight-wad. The only time I buy something is if I run out of it, or I've spent too long trying to fix it when it broke. 

 

My last bass lasted 25 years and after 2 years of saying there's nothing wrong with it, I bit the bullet and bought a new one.

 

I find feeling down is fixed with exercise and company, ideally both at the same time. Obviously not everyone can exercise, but a walk with the dog is good enough. Although, as I've never been depressed, it's easy for me to say. 

Edited yesterday at 22:44 by TimR

[MacDaddy]

4 hours ago, martin8708 said:

Eventually you hit the point when you realise buying one more guitar does not make you a better player , it just means you have one more guitar . 

 

You say that as if it's a bad thing...

[DTB]

Exercise is fantastic to battle depression. I have been very active, having done Kung-Fu most of my adult life until i was 40 when surfing replaced it, then slowly the pain started to creep in until it was a permanent fixture. I haven’t had a pain free day for 15 years. I still exercise a bit but it’s zero impact stuff. Although I am nearly 60 I am still 70kg and still have a six pack, my pain would be much worse if I had a belly and poor muscle tone, at least that’s what my consultant said last time I had to put one of those delightful gowns on at the hospital. 
having said that i have just gone for a laydown whilst I wait for my pain killers to kick in, much to my wife’s amusement, she’s busy crafting for our 5 year old’s hat competition. 
also the comment about company, all depends on how i feel. Generally i hate the idea of company, means less bass, but then when i have company i generally  appreciate it. Complex feelings. I am antisocial i guess.  

[Chris2112]

I've no idea yet whether or not my new bass will arrive on Tuesday (I'd hoped it might get here for Monday but that won't happen now, unless Royal Mail forgot to scan it when they collected it). Away on Wednesday and Thursday for work, so I might get to plug it in on Thursday evening. I only go away for work about once a year, typical that it would be now when I'm awaiting my new toy. 

 

I don't think I'm too bad though, I didn't buy any new musical gear last year. I'd almost run of our space in my bedroom and front room to keep basses and my wife was asking just how many more I'd end up with. I've passed over buying loads of great basses in that time since, basses that I didn't really need but really fancied for one reason or another. If I was looking a bass that wouldn't fill a specific role that wasn't already covered, it wouldn't be worth buying. Really, only the fretted six string and fretted jazz bass slots were left open. 

 

There are a few things that I have fancied but just won't touch now. I would like another Status bass but having enjoyed them for years, I wouldn't buy another now that the prices have inflated so dramatically. Not that I dislike them, but playing over £3000 for a Stealth that would have cost £1000 a few years ago is not my idea of a good time.

 

In this case, it had to be a fretted jazz bass and I was waiting for the right one to come along. I was probably a bit snobbish about jazz basses in the past, because I've always enjoyed boutique basses and other high tech, high-falutin' basses over the years, but when you slice it, the jazz has an unmistakable presence and tone that many boutique basses aspire to and cannot compete with. Since I got my CIJ fretless jazz (also from Bass Bros) I've barely played my Pedulla Pentabuzz. Maybe I need to sell that one...😂

[peteb]

22 hours ago, TimR said:

No. I'm a tight-wad. The only time I buy something is if I run out of it, or I've spent too long trying to fix it when it broke. 

 

My last bass lasted 25 years and after 2 years of saying there's nothing wrong with it, I bit the bullet and bought a new one.

 

I find feeling down is fixed with exercise and company, ideally both at the same time. Obviously not everyone can exercise, but a walk with the dog is good enough. Although, as I've never been depressed, it's easy for me to say. 

 

I'm certainly not a 'tight wad', but I've spent too long being skint when I was younger not to want to get value for my money. I've always kept my living expenses pretty low, so I live in a small house in an OK-ish area and drive an older car then I could afford. However, I wear reasonably expensive clothes, we eat well, we travel a bit and I have more top quality musical instruments / gear than I strictly need (although they have always paid for themselves through gig earnings, etc). 

 

I've always been pretty fit, although I can't exercise to the extent that I used to, due to a bad knee injury. However, I still do a bit and that is always a good idea. I have had a couple of fleeting issues with depression - in my late 30s after a period of chaotic romantic relationships and then in my early 50s due to relatively minor health issues. What brought things into focus for me was my wife having a serious medical incident that required an operation to save her life. You have to focus on what is important and not sweat the small stuff. 

 

Edited 1 hour ago by peteb