# Instant G.A.S. (Guitar Acquisition Syndrome): I'm bit! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 8, 2009, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-g-a-s-guitar-acquisition-syndrome-im-bit/492402 "2009-04-08T16:05:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-g-a-s-guitar-acquisition-syndrome-im-bit/492402/1 "2009-04-08T16:05:24Z")
You know you have the worst case of G.A.S. when: - You don’t know how to play the instrument in question - It is made of materials you normally have no interest in - It looks exactly opposite of the look you normally go for - It appears to be ridiculously expensive and something you’d play/use maybe 5% of your playing time …and yet you MUST own it! :D:D Without further ado, I give you the [Halua Pamplona 1.5](http://www.halua.no/guitars.htm), a graphite-composite lap steel guitar. Yes, you read that right - and yeah, they must have a target buying audience of about 13 people globally. Clearly a labor of love… On the Gallery page is some great photo-porn of it and on the Guitars page are a couple of links to videos of this type of guitar being played. It sounds _gorgeous_… Hmm, how’m I gonna justify this with my wife? Never gonna happen. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-g-a-s-guitar-acquisition-syndrome-im-bit/492402/2 "2009-04-08T16:15:01Z")
An acoustic lap steel? Made of carbon fiber? **WordMan**? Did somebody hack your account? ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-g-a-s-guitar-acquisition-syndrome-im-bit/492402/3 "2009-04-08T16:17:10Z")
> [@Crotalus](#): > > An acoustic lap steel? Made of carbon fiber? **WordMan**? Did somebody hack your account? I know; totally. But I still find myself having to staple my credit card to my desk to keep me from using it… ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-g-a-s-guitar-acquisition-syndrome-im-bit/492402/4 "2009-04-08T16:26:30Z")
that;s ok, I’m still struggling to learn, my acoustic sat for most of a year untouched, I walked into a GC to buy some strings for it (cause, after all, its their fault I havent practiced) and walked out with a Warlock - so, now I can suck with volume, but the guitar looks cool, right? atleast you have the ability to play the darn thing… ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-g-a-s-guitar-acquisition-syndrome-im-bit/492402/5 "2009-04-08T16:52:01Z")
Well at least it’s a guitar. . . I was once tempted to buy an Arabic non-guitar thing, with 1) no frets 2) a metal “fretboard” and 3) way too many strings. The only reason I didn’t acquire it is that I was back-packing in Moroco at the time and would have had to carry it home across Europe. By train. Without a case. I do have a sitar which I haven’t even plucked at for probably a year \*and \*I’ve forgotten how to tune it \*and \*how to replace the (many) broken strings. FWIW an in-tune sitar with all its strings intact sounds fantastic. But it takes so much effort to re-string the thing. ---
**Author:** ![BigShooter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f07891/32.png) [@BigShooter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigShooter)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-g-a-s-guitar-acquisition-syndrome-im-bit/492402/6 "2009-04-08T17:28:38Z")
I’ve had dulcimer and banjo GAS lately… it sucks. So many instruments, so little money. ---
**Author:** ![RiverRunner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/977dab/32.png) [@RiverRunner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RiverRunner)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-g-a-s-guitar-acquisition-syndrome-im-bit/492402/7 "2009-04-08T18:00:59Z")
Guitar Acquisition Syndrome is a subset of the GAS with which I am familiar; namely, Gear Acquisition Syndrome. Music gear, computer gear, whatever, I have to be careful around it lest it attack me and follow me home. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-g-a-s-guitar-acquisition-syndrome-im-bit/492402/8 "2009-04-08T18:08:18Z")
> [@RiverRunner](#): > > Guitar Acquisition Syndrome is a subset of the GAS with which I am familiar; namely, Gear Acquisition Syndrome. Music gear, computer gear, whatever, I have to be careful around it lest it attack me and follow me home. True. But I find the Guitar-variant-strain of G.A.S. to be the most pernicious. Sure with other forms of G.A.S., treatment is required - but what’s a simple effects pedal? Or getting one of those knock-off Kentucky mandolins made in Korea? A couple of hundred bucks? But no, when you are diagnosed with Guitar-Variant G.A.S., lemme tell, the outlook is bleak. When you find yourself keeping a dealer at bay with promises to put money down, while negotiating with a friend who wants to buy a guitar of yours, but needs more info, and you are looking at selling a first-edition book - all to generate the enough $$ so you can convince your wife that you can cover the cost in a cash-neutral way…when you tell her, that is 😉 - well, there’s only so much surgery, chemo and physical therapy can do at that point… ---
**Author:** ![RiverRunner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/977dab/32.png) [@RiverRunner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RiverRunner)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-g-a-s-guitar-acquisition-syndrome-im-bit/492402/9 "2009-04-08T20:58:44Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > True. But I find the Guitar-variant-strain of G.A.S. to be the most pernicious. Sure with other forms of G.A.S., treatment is required - but what’s a simple effects pedal? Or getting one of those knock-off Kentucky mandolins made in Korea? A couple of hundred bucks? > > But no, when you are diagnosed with Guitar-Variant G.A.S., lemme tell, the outlook is bleak. When you find yourself keeping a dealer at bay with promises to put money down, while negotiating with a friend who wants to buy a guitar of yours, but needs more info, and you are looking at selling a first-edition book - all to generate the enough $$ so you can convince your wife that you can cover the cost in a cash-neutral way…when you tell her, that is 😉 - well, there’s only so much surgery, chemo and physical therapy can do at that point… Heh. I have a friend who is as far gone as you. The good part is that his wife can’t bug him too much about how many guitars he has – she is big-time into horses. I don’t know how they haven’t gone bankrupt. RR ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-g-a-s-guitar-acquisition-syndrome-im-bit/492402/10 "2009-04-08T21:45:02Z")
The big thing keeping my GAS in check right now is the impending piano purchase. From my shopping thus far, there ain’t much in the $10,000. range that’s worth the having. If, and I say if, just in case she without whom I could not live is reading this, I have to raise the stakes, I can’t have spent anything on a git-box in the meantime. I [want](http://www.boesendorfer.com/index.php?m=16&lang=en). I’d [settle](http://www.kawaius.com/main_links/grands/rx_3.html) for. I can [afford](http://www.smcpianos.com/products/sig50/index.htm). By the way,my friend Mark did get one of the Godin [5th Avenues](http://www.godinguitars.com/godinpress5thave.html) that I was so close to buying last June. And even though he’s got crappy lightweight strings on it, it sings beautifully. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-g-a-s-guitar-acquisition-syndrome-im-bit/492402/11 "2009-04-08T22:37:25Z")
What’s really sick about my GAS is that I don’t even go for variety. Almost all my guitars are Stratocasters of nearly identical features other than color and trem/no trem. **Wordman** , even if your credit card is stapled to the desk all you really need is to be able to read the numbers! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![NoCoolUserName](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5fc32e/32.png) [@NoCoolUserName](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoCoolUserName)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-g-a-s-guitar-acquisition-syndrome-im-bit/492402/12 "2009-04-09T03:46:02Z")
[QUOTE=WordMan] …some great photo-porn of it… [/QUOTE] Dude, you crack me up. That is one nasty lookin’ piece of plastic. How can you even consider it? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![bink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/439d5e/32.png) [@bink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bink)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-g-a-s-guitar-acquisition-syndrome-im-bit/492402/13 "2009-04-09T03:47:48Z")
I have a smaller, four-stringed variant: UAS. It’d been in remission until a couple days ago… ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-g-a-s-guitar-acquisition-syndrome-im-bit/492402/14 "2009-04-09T13:09:07Z")
> [@NoCoolUserName](#): > > Dude, you crack me up. That is one nasty lookin’ piece of plastic. How can you even consider it? > > 🙂 It’s…it’s a sickness. I’ve tried man, I’ve really tried. 😉 What’s funny is that at any given time, I only have about 6 - 7 guitars as part of my (wait for it…you know it’s coming) my _guitarsenal_. I just come across the next GAS target and figure out how to flip one of my current guitars for at least my cost or maybe a small profit and apply those $$ to the next one. This was great when I was on my GuitarQuest™ - where I just wanted to try a bunch of different variables - designs, neck sizes, pickup types, etc. - so I could feed my GAS and experment… …and I think that Halua thingie is kinda cool - maybe because lap steel is so foreign to my that the Design Canon isn’t fixed in my brain. A solidbody in my brain can’t vary to far from the Gibson and Fender standards, but this type? I have no pre-set notions…not that I’ll ever get one, but I’m just sayin’ And \*\*River Hippie \*\*- I hear you; I have 3 different P-90’s guitars and 3 different Les Paul variants and I am building my second Parts-o-Caster Tele - the bottom line is that there are a ton of overlaps across my guitars - but I can explain why each is uniquely essential to what I want to do 😉 …and if I staple the card to my desk I can’t get at the three-digit security code on the back… ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-g-a-s-guitar-acquisition-syndrome-im-bit/492402/15 "2009-04-09T13:17:30Z")
> [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](#): > > The big thing keeping my GAS in check right now is the impending piano purchase. From my shopping thus far, there ain’t much in the $10,000. range that’s worth the having. If, and I say if, just in case she without whom I could not live is reading this, I have to raise the stakes, I can’t have spent anything on a git-box in the meantime. > > I [want](http://www.boesendorfer.com/index.php?m=16&lang=en). > I’d [settle](http://www.kawaius.com/main_links/grands/rx_3.html) for. > I can [afford](http://www.smcpianos.com/products/sig50/index.htm). > > By the way,my friend Mark did get one of the Godin [5th Avenues](http://www.godinguitars.com/godinpress5thave.html) that I was so close to buying last June. And even though he’s got crappy lightweight strings on it, it sings beautifully. **Le Ministre** - best of luck with your piano search. Have you read either Piano by James Barron or A Grand Obsession by Perry Knize? Both deal with the purchase and construction of pianos. There’s another - maybe Steinway - that is like Piano, too. As a non-pianist I found them fascinating, although Knize’s book can be frustrating as she tries to figure out why her piano doesn’t sound the same as it did on the shop floor and ends up going to some pretty stupid lengths to solve a problem that, from a guitarist’s perspective, is no big deal… As for the Godin - remind me: how big is the neck - big and chunky or slim and fast? And if he doesn’t have at least 13’s on that bad boy, how is he driving the top? ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-g-a-s-guitar-acquisition-syndrome-im-bit/492402/16 "2009-04-09T13:35:39Z")
I don’t play my guitars nearly as much as I’d like to anymore, but that didn’t stop me from buying a Dobro a couple of weeks ago. I mean, for God’s sake, it’s actually _shiny_. I’m not made of stone! (The guy also didn’t want very much for it.) I can’t play it for very long at a time, because apparently there are muscles in the hand that are only used for playing the Dobro. I love it nonetheless. ---
**Author:** ![NoCoolUserName](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5fc32e/32.png) [@NoCoolUserName](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoCoolUserName)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-g-a-s-guitar-acquisition-syndrome-im-bit/492402/17 "2009-04-09T21:42:46Z")
[QUOTE=WordMan] …and I think that Halua thingie is kinda cool - maybe because lap steel is so foreign to my that the Design Canon isn’t fixed in my brain… [/QUOTE] OK, I admit that, while I love my Dad-in-law, he has an actual vintage National steel set up for lap and I’m hoping I might inherit it when he goes, and I won’t miss him THAT much… ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-g-a-s-guitar-acquisition-syndrome-im-bit/492402/18 "2009-04-09T21:50:46Z")
> [@NoCoolUserName](#): > > OK, I admit that, while I love my Dad-in-law, he has an actual vintage National steel set up for lap and I’m hoping I might inherit it when he goes, and I won’t miss him THAT much… _drool_ ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-g-a-s-guitar-acquisition-syndrome-im-bit/492402/19 "2009-04-09T22:38:29Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > **Le Ministre** - best of luck with your piano search. Have you read either Piano by James Barron or A Grand Obsession by Perry Knize? Both deal with the purchase and construction of pianos. I have both books, thanks to your recommendation. I haven’t finished A Grand Obsession yet, and owing to packing in a hurry, I won’t get to until I’m home in May. (Yes, I’m dumb enough to have packed the books I didn’t want to take with me while leaving the stuff I had specifically set aside to read while I have the time on the night table at home.) > [@](#): > > As for the Godin - remind me: how big is the neck - big and chunky or slim and fast? And if he doesn’t have at least 13’s on that bad boy, how is he driving the top? I’m a bad one to ask - I’m used to a classical width of almost 51 mm at the nut, so I find a Telecaster, which weighs in at 43 mm a bit narrow. The Godin is 46 mm at the nut. He has installed his own pickup on it, so the slackness of the strings didn’t affect the volume. What can I say? He likes to bend a lot. I went to bend a bit and put the same four-fingered squeeze I would have put on my classical and put her up about a fourth. Still a nice sounding instrument. You should try one out sometime, he said, enabling. Has anyone else noticed that musical instruments have not really declined in price with the economy? CraigsList and eBay might be cheaper, I don’t know, but the shops don’t seem to have any bargains right now. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-g-a-s-guitar-acquisition-syndrome-im-bit/492402/20 "2009-04-09T23:09:30Z")
Oh, I totally G.A.S. for that guitar - I regularly Google local dealers for those, for Fano’s, James Trussarts (a Steelcaster Deluxe), a couple of Gretsch’s, an Eastwood Tuxedo (black, not copper, thank you) - so many… It sounds like it has a wide-ish neck - is it deep like a jazz guitar or shallow like a classical? Cool about the books - if you got those off of a post of mine, does that mean you’ve read the Piano Shop on the Left Bank, too? A charming read and also insightful about matching pianos to players, from this non-pianist’s perspective… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-g-a-s-guitar-acquisition-syndrome-im-bit/492402.md?page=2)