Do you think other hobbies have GAS like we do?

LooseMoose

I mean, are bakers forever changing bread makers or amateur dramatic-types regularly swapping cravats? Is GAS most prevelant in us, the unwashed, antisocial guitary-types?

ThorpyFX

Fishing and home audio is equally as GAS laden, as is photography

Heartfeltdawn

It's not much different in recording land with plugins and whatnot. 

richardhomer

Hi Fi and photography definitely.

I bought myself a DSLR about three years ago, having given up 'proper' photography years before and gone down the digital 'point and shoot' road.

I needed to photograph my son's last Christmas production at primary school - so I bought a long lens. I decided I may as well get a good one - which showed up the shorter 'kit' lens that came with the camera. So I've upgraded that now....

Ah, another addiction....

Megii

It's quite bad in archery - every year the manufacturers come out with new designs of bow, or tarted up versions of the old design, and tell us the stuff they sold us last year is superseded, and we won't be competitive without the new stuff. A set of 12 arrows can cost £400... All sorts of other smaller bits of kit - arrow rests, bowsights, stabilizers, etc. - also constantly being re-designed and upgraded. Some people end up spending a fortune.

spacecadet

I can vouch for the photography. Always looking at bodies and lenses. The other one for me is golf. I want that new driver thats gonna put an extra 40yds on my shot. 

Bidley

As a PC gamer I'm forever looking at endless PC components to upgrade my system with, for no real reason other than because I bloody want to. So no, it's not just guitar-playing.

BenSirAmos

Motorbikes. And all the gear that goes with them.

thomasross20

Surely car bods?

ThePrettyDamned

Fucking love reading, which means buying tons of books.

Does that count?

I do fishing, and that's GAS laden, although you really don't need it.... Sound familiar?

Alnico

For most of my adult life, until maybe 2009, i was Massively into rebuilding and restoring classic cars and motorcycles.

I can say in all honesty that ALL the guitars we see here are CHEAP by comparison.

A Gibson R9 costs the same as a Harley Davidson Engine - that's JUST the engine, forget the gearbox at £1,500 (For a decent one worth having, Andrews gears etc) and the rest of the cycle parts

A PRS private stock costs about the same as it does to dip, strip, repair and rust proof the bare shell on a Ford RS Turbo Series 1, which all but the museum pices now need due to age and rust.

A 1957 Fender Stratocaster will cost you roughly the same as it will to restore a Jaguar XJS to a proper, concours spec.

A 1959 Les Paul will cost you the same as an Aston Martin DB5 in Restoration condition, after which you will spend another £300k making it good again.

I got out of that world for a good reason. The stress and pressure of the cost of making these old machines good again is an absolute killer and whilst there is no feeling like driving around your hometown in a V8 1968 Cherry Red Ford Mustang, the hell of making that possible is all consuming and literally left me scraping around for fuel money, let alone pulling up at the pub looking cool as fuck but not being able to afford a single drink !!!

If you can afford those figures, good enough for you and there is nothing more beautiful than a properly restored or beautifully looked after original classic car, my favourite being the Mustang i owned, but if you don't have that kind of serious money kicking around spare then it's really tough trying to keep up with the boys and girls than can afford it and do such amazing work.

While i think about it, just the tools needed to complete this work cost an absolute fortune.

If you want to properly restore a car, expect to pay around £15k to kit your workshop out before you even go and buy a car.

Beautiful but insane !

Elwood

Watches - loafs of new stuff gets released. Classics are updated causing the same furore that happens when Les Paul's are updated.

Different watches for different situations so most collectors have differny types. Case candy, certs and straps add second hand value.

The main difference is watch collecters have a name : WIS ( Watch Idiot Savant)

MazzaG

People who love cooking generally buy every gadget going.

juansolo

My main hobby is running cars around race tracks... We're way beyond Dumble money... Started off in an MX-5, went to Westfields/Caterhams, then to a Radical, now to a Juno.

Which is why now I'm not working, I'm selling up.

rossi

juansolo said:

My main hobby is running cars around race tracks... We're way beyond Dumble money... Started off in an MX-5, went to Westfields/Caterhams, then to a Radical, now to a Juno.

Which is why now I'm not working, I'm selling up.

The secret of  making money from motorsport is to run someone else .its safer too .

mark_jwedge

Mountain bikes - another massive GAS associated hobby, new bikes, frames, chain sets, group sets, forks etc it never ends. Plus you get the regular occurrence of crash/fall induced GAS where you break something and may as well upgrade it now it's broken!

fretfinder

Fly fishing for sure. I've got about ten lovely fly rods and a handful of shiny reels. I don't chop and change them though, like I have done guitars over the years. I don't go fishing much either...

Golf is another one. I haven't played for a couple of years but used to regularly be seduced by a new (second hand obviously) wedge, driver or putter. I only ever thought I needed one set of irons though. But strangely I have two sets. 

It's great being a bloke isn't it!  

ajax

Women

xmrchi

Alnico;439318" said:

For most of my adult life, until maybe 2009, i was Massively into rebuilding and restoring classic cars and motorcycles.I can say in all honesty that ALL the guitars we see here are CHEAP by comparison.

A Gibson R9 costs the same as a Harley Davidson Engine - that's JUST the engine, forget the gearbox at £1,500 (For a decent one worth having, Andrews gears etc) and the rest of the cycle parts

A PRS private stock costs about the same as it does to dip, strip, repair and rust proof the bare shell on a Ford RS Turbo Series 1, which all but the museum pices now need due to age and rust.

A 1957 Fender Stratocaster will cost you roughly the same as it will to restore a Jaguar XJS to a proper, concours spec.

A 1959 Les Paul will cost you the same as an Aston Martin DB5 in Restoration condition, after which you will spend another £300k making it good again.

I got out of that world for a good reason. The stress and pressure of the cost of making these old machines good again is an absolute killer and whilst there is no feeling like driving around your hometown in a V8 1968 Cherry Red Ford Mustang, the hell of making that possible is all consuming and literally left me scraping around for fuel money, let alone pulling up at the pub looking cool as fuck but not being able to afford a single drink !!!

If you can afford those figures, good enough for you and there is nothing more beautiful than a properly restored or beautifully looked after original classic car, my favourite being the Mustang i owned, but if you don't have that kind of serious money kicking around spare then it's really tough trying to keep up with the boys and girls than can afford it and do such amazing work.

While i think about it, just the tools needed to complete this work cost an absolute fortune.If you want to properly restore a car, expect to pay around £15k to kit your workshop out before you even go and buy a car.Beautiful but insane !

Bloody hell, I was gutted when my old yam r6 needed a new ecu and immobiliser at a total of £450! It sounds like it nearly destroyed your bank balance and sanity!
@Alnico

Hertz32

Mountain biking, In a really big way.
a set of forks will set you back 1.2k easily, frame another 1k, gears £600, wheels another 1.1k If full suspension, then a rear shock is another £600 Tyres are 70 quid each ffs! Brakes can be 400 handlebars another 200... it al depends upon how much carbon fiber you want vs strength.

Don't forget you WILL need at least 4 bikes :P 
downhill

XC hardtail
Enduro
Dirtjump
All of which set you back thousands if you buy new top of the range stuff xD 

Alnico

Various 1970's Kawasaki Z650's, Z900's and a Z1000R all swallowed Thousands each,

The Harley Shovelhead Chop swallowed £10k

The 1972 Volkswagen Beetle had £5k

The 1970 Volkswagen Transporter had roughly £7k

The 1988 Jag XJS took £5k

The Mustang took £10k

The BMW E30 325i S had roughly £4k spent on it and still wasn't perfect

The 1989 Mercedes 190E was going to cost £7k in parts alone and then i sold that to buy a Porsche 924S...............

When that blew up, i just completely lost it and sold all my tools and gave up.

I honestly don't even own a socket set these days and if something goes wrong with our Ford KA, i pay a local Mechanic to fix it. At the kind of money that classic cars cost, i could buy so much guitar equipment it's frightening and whilst i will always love those machines, i don't love them enough to give up so much of my life to pay for them.

If i cane into serious money i would run to the dealer that was selling a 1967 Mustang GT500 but until then, a poster is cheaper and i still get to appreciate the art of the vehicle.

I cringe when i think of the thousands i wasted over the years on those vehicles which i could have literally invested in guitars that would now be worth so much more.

@ICBM has many times told of the 50's Gibson he didn't buy when he had the chance and that was roughly the kind of money i used to spend on a simple engine rebuild for some motorbike that would end up being crashed or traded in on something else........

Experience is a dish best served with sugar, to take away the bitter taste of realisation !