I know it gets joked about a lot, but do you actually have to hide GAS purchases from the wife?

Drew_TNBD

Curious really. I've seen it lolled and kek'd about all the time, but don't know if people are being serious.

I never hide purchases from the wife. She doesn't from me either. She is a proper bookworm - no seriously, she is worse with books than I am with pedals! I often can't get into the bathroom because of piles of dodgy looking manga comics!!

She's a little OCD with it, and not in a Fulltone kinda way. But I don't get cross or anything, it's one of her more endearing character-traits. Reading books + tits = high chance I will find you attractive.

Anyway, we don't hide our hobbies or our purchases from each other. But it seems some people actually do. Makes me wonder why you're even with someone if you have to hide intrinsic parts of your personality to accommodate them.

DesVegas

My wife is pretty cool about it, my expenditures aren't too large and she bought me a gibson studio for our wedding day last year

joeyowen

Mine (Fiancee) is generally fine about it.  Although I'm not stupid with gear and spend what we can afford.  She does like having things too mind

I think if I was using the credit card to do it, she wouldn't be too pleased haha

mike_l

No. I'm not married though.

EVen if I was, I wouldn't hide anything.

vasselmeyer

No, because I always use money earned from gigs or from flipping gear for GAS purchases, rather than "family" money. I can't really see the point in pissing off someone you're supposed to trust implicitly (and vice versa) by lying to them.

strumjoughlamps

[voicesinsideofhead]must not agree with @Drew_fx, MUST NOT agree with @Drew_fx[/voicesinsideofhead]

ahhh bugger it... I agree and after a thread the other night I posed the question to the wife if women like that do exist as I have never known it in any of my relationships. we might discuss the whys of a purchase and the 'is it really what you want' but never 'I had the hide it from her indoors' or 'I got the stare'.

VimFuego

I don't hide purchases, musical or otherwise.

Alnico

My other half is my best friend, she supports everything i do regardless, we both support each other like that.

I'm buying a Feline this year and she's looking forward to 'Us' getting it as much as i am. She's my Audience to practice to, my Roadie (sometimes), my Groupie and my biggest fan.

If i did hide something from her she would wonder what was wrong.

She collects Gem Stones and has them made into custom jewellery, she reads books on an olympic scale and has her hair professionally done every few weeks. We both work hard and pay a lot of bills so whatever we can manage for ourselves is always cool but we do plan these expenses together and make sure we both know what's going out on what.

The only sticking point we have is that she would gladly spend £3k on a Caribbean holiday and i don't want to because of the guitars i could have bought for it - what's wrong with a week in Scotland ? That usually causes a few huffs but other than that we are cool.

Axe_meister

The odd impulse pedal purchase sometimes does not get mentioned. It just appears on the pedal board but she doesn't notice anyway. But the purchase is not hidden.

Drew_TNBD

Alnico said:

The only sticking point we have is that she would gladly spend £3k on a Caribbean holiday and i don't want to because of the guitars i could have bought for it - what's wrong with a week in Scotland ? That usually causes a few huffs but other than that we are cool.

I'm the same when it comes to holidays. If it aint Japan, I'm generally not interested. But we did go to Malta last year, and it was actually pretty awesome. Even though flying out there I was annoyed at the money we spent, because I could've spent it on an amp.

Turns out I did spend it on an amp anyway, and just drank a bit less a few months later! But still...

xHymnal

dont have to hide it because mine looks on the forum to see what i'm buying or selling

boogieman

I don't hide stuff. We buy personal things with our own money, so it's no business of mine if my wife wants to buy shoes or jewellery or of hers if I buy pedals or guitars. We pay for holidays jointly, I never see travelling as wasted money: holidays are awesome.

Bogwhoppit

I make the judgement that most of the time its 'pub man banter', I'd better hide it from the wife (wink wink). Saying that, I did tutor a guy once who really did hide some of his guitars around a friends house. If his wife knew she would have gone ballistic.

He was a fairly successful builder with a lot of spare income, and although she never worked, he was always moaning about the money she spends on 'women things'.

dindude

Never had an issue, when I have a new acquisition I don't hide it, she usually asks the price as I'm un boxing "out of curiosity", and the pedals have become a bit of an in joke as they are all "£50", but honestly I think it's so she feels less guilt about the clothes she's just bought! We both work hard, earn decent money, and never go without the basics.

I was doing a recent review of all the gear I had bought and sold in the last few years and came to realise that my "hobbie" of GAS costs me between £1k and £1.5k a year, that is in lost money for flipping gear etc, not assets purchased. 

For the enjoyment I get out of it over the course of a year, I'm fine with this. If I played golf, or went scuba diving, I'm sure it would costs me more.

boogieman

I know a pro guitarist in his 60s who still lives with his dad. He has a serious DVD collecting habit: he literally buys them every week. He smuggles them into the house so his old man doesn't notice. Genuinely very sad I think.

equalsql

I'm pretty lucky as my wife collects shoes, handbags and coats at a prodigious rate.. I think she figures that as longs as it doesn't get out of hand (which is subjective as I own 20+ guitars) and I'm happy then things are cool.

She does sigh rather loudly though when I mention getting more kit.
 

xHymnal

They just dont get that it's all part of the creative process those extra 100ms of delay time are the difference between albums for me :P

TheMarlin

I have a friend who is a serious collector, but lives in a small house.  Guitars are squirrelled in every crevice. nook, and cranny.  He always buys the same guitar case for his guitars.  So, he leave with an empty case, telling his wife he is off to practice, and comes home with a full case.  He then sneaks the excess case into the loft while his wife is away shopping.

My wife is OK with my collecting.  However, the collection is shrinking at the mo....job related...

Marlin

xHymnal

boogieman said:

I know a pro guitarist in his 60s who still lives with his dad. He has a serious DVD collecting habit: he literally buys them every week. He smuggles them into the house so his old man doesn't notice. Genuinely very sad I think.

This is sad. 

Unless it's all porn, in which case completely understandable. 

samzadgan

Never hide it, we have joint bank account and we share everything...if i didnt have that kind of relationship i probably would not have married her.

We talk about stuff we want to buy and we give each other advice...granted she doesnt know much about guitar gear (although she is learning and surprises me sometimes), but she still does advise on asthetics and gets me to think logically about purchases.

She also has things she spends money on, and she doesnt hide it from me either.

 

DrBob

I must confess that I have done a bit of buying & selling 'on the quiet' but if truth be told I think it's more because I'm a bit embarassed about quite how mental it can get rather than out of any actual need to hide it from the wife.

With the exception of my Tyler that I'm currently trying to flog I think that pretty much all the gear I have has either been a gift from her or she has at the very least helped me to buy.
She's tremendously supportive/indulgent but I think she just wishes I'd spend more time actually playing them than discussing them on forums.

Oh, wait !....