Thinking of selling most of my guitar gear

[maguchi]

I dunno if this is a gear rant or what, but anyway. I've had most of my guitars in storage since september when I went on holiday, I think? I keep the Strandberg 8 out in case I feel like playing it, but I've honestly played for maybe less than an hour this year. I'm just not drawn to it at all.

I always wanted to think that I was a guitarist, but I've never felt creative or particularly skilled on guitar. If someone asked about my hobbies, I'd be hesitant to mention the guitar. I've played for more than 20 years but you'd never guess from my playing. Guitar feels like I have to perform physically and a lot of the time I've spent with the instrument has been drilling whatever I'm working on with a metronome. Such fun. It doesn't help that I've got tinnitus and distorted guitars seem to make it worse.

I'm even thinking of selling the FM3. I mean I could just use plugins whenever I actually felt like playing or even grab a Tonex One or something. I'm going to give the FM3 another try with my synths, but I wasn't super impressed last time. I could always get a VP4 if really liked FAS effects.

TL;DR: I've realised that guitar is a chore for me and makes me feel inadequate. Thinking of selling it all and getting more pretty sounding bleep machines.

Yeah that can happen to us sometimes . Maybe sell only some gear if you must, don't sell too much. You might wish you still had it later.

Consider switching up what you play and put together a plan with some repertoire as well as technique. If you read or want to read, spend 20 minutes a day on that. Maybe just 20 minutes of technical stuff (scales, arpeggios, triads). Keep the technique to one key a day and do the next key in the circle of 5ths the next day. I also spend 20 minutes a day on improvising to backing tracks.

Playing clean instead of distorted can be a acquired taste. It can be a pleasant sound too if distorted guitar doesn't sit well with your tinnitus.

Good luck on your journey.

 

[Aleksi]

Thanks for the kind words everyone!

This is less of a cry for help than me coming to terms with who I am musically. I always thought of myself as a metal head (and I still love a lot of metal) and playing guitar is what you do when you're into metal. But it must have been nearly 20 years ago that I last wrote a song.

But I find that I just enjoy making electronic music much more. I love the sounds and all the ways I can manipulate them, I love how I can just jam by myself and have it sound like actual music instead of someone going chug-meedley alone on a guitar, I love how I can tell the machines what to do and just chill out to a two hour generative ambient piece while slowly changing things.

I just watched Thomann's video on hypnotic techno and I can't wait to get off work and play with my synths.

 

[Eagle]

One consideration is ( if it was me) I own lots of gear that I simply wouldn’t ever replace if I sold it. I bought lots of pieces over the years that have seriously increased in value . While I am happy to own them for what I paid I would not pay what they go for now. So in effect if I sold them I would never own one again.
Some of these I hardly play but they don’t stand me much. Would I miss them? I can’t really be sure. The other thing is as a tech I have played and worked on thousands of guitars over the years so all of my instruments are exceptional examples of their type or I simply wouldn’t have bought them in the first place. Most were opportunistic buys that I wasn’t looking for at the time. I always had a list in my head of the pieces that I wanted and waited for them the come to me. The best instruments I have ever played are those I have. Difficult to replace but half hardy get touched.

 

[Ed DeGenaro]

I think it's the feeling that I'm incapable of creativity on guitar. I like playing metal, but if you ask me to write a riff I'll just go djent-djent-harmonic or 0-0-5-0-7. And playing tightly in time while recording or god forbid double tracking anything is a nightmare

The most enjoyment I get from guitar is laying on the reverb and delay and playing sparse single notes. But I feel like synths are better for that anyway.

Well the thing is that doing anything for fun that isn't fun isn't worth doing.

I got lucky because I like working on the things I suck musically at more than literally anything in life.
More than getting paid for musical endeavors, sex, food, etc...

If I enjoyed synths and ambient stuff on guitar I'd do just that. Instead of trying to shed and it not being fun,

 

[FuzzyAce]

Thanks for the kind words everyone!

This is less of a cry for help than me coming to terms with who I am musically. I always thought of myself as a metal head (and I still love a lot of metal) and playing guitar is what you do when you're into metal. But it must have been nearly 20 years ago that I last wrote a song.

But I find that I just enjoy making electronic music much more. I love the sounds and all the ways I can manipulate them, I love how I can just jam by myself and have it sound like actual music instead of someone going chug-meedley alone on a guitar, I love how I can tell the machines what to do and just chill out to a two hour generative ambient piece while slowly changing things.

I just watched Thomann's video on hypnotic techno and I can't wait to get off work and play with my synths.

Sounds like you know what you want.

One thing I've really discovered over the years about myself (especially the last 3 or 4) -- whenever those creative interests pop up it's best to follow-through on them while I'm in the mindset, and not overthink things. Letting things workout organically. If that means sacrificing guitar for something synth related for the sake of creativity, then so be it.

 

[spawnofthesith]

I've always ended up regretting mass sell offs

I sold -everything- and quit playing guitar entirely for a year and it was a terrible mistake

 

[FuzzyAce]

I've always ended up regretting mass sell offs

I sold -everything- and quit playing guitar entirely for a year and it was a terrible mistake

I can't imagine having quit guitar for a whole year. I can't imagine quitting for a month.
It's just become so ingrained even if I lost my hands I'd learn elbow slide guitar or perhaps use my feet.

 

[Aelred]

Fwiw, I gave it up for decades. What was the easiest thing to do when I picked it up again?

Drop D and power chords with 1 or 2 fingers. Instant old-man metal! Next easiest?

Ambient noodling and toying with effects (and buying more gear to achieve better tones).

Combine the two - "metal" power chords into a looper then ambient noodling over it - and that's where I've stayed.

Maybe I should've bought a synth instead.

 

[spawnofthesith]

Fwiw, I gave it up for decades. What was the easiest thing to do when I picked it up again?

Drop D and power chords with 1 or 2 fingers. Instant old-man metal! Next easiest?

Ambient noodling and toying with effects (and buying more gear to achieve better tones).

Combine the two - "metal" power chords into a looper then ambient noodling over it - and that's where I've stayed.

Maybe I should've bought a synth instead.

Wow you basically just described my band