# What is GAS??



## Coolsax01 (Dec 17, 2015)

Hey All!

I am new to the SOTW fourum, but as I peruse the threads out there, people talk about GAS. What is this? Inquiring minds want to know...

Thanks,

Eric


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## JazzManCan (Sep 3, 2013)

Gear Acquisition Syndrome!


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## NakedConnArtist (Dec 21, 2013)

Empty pockets


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## AmandasDad (Sep 2, 2011)

It's what I constantly have!! :shock:


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## Coolsax01 (Dec 17, 2015)

LOL!!! I get it now. I should have guessed...


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## Stuckond (Jul 8, 2011)

Gear acquisition syndrome.
I can quit whenever I want.
I have 9 saxophones and 31 mouthpieces to go with 15 ligatures and 9 boxes of reeds, as we ignore the...


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## patmiller (May 28, 2009)

Get Another Saxophone!


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## Saxy in San Diego (Feb 26, 2015)

Most of the threads on this site.


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## musekatcher (Dec 8, 2015)

Divorce-able cause. A distraction. A disease. Sucker bait. I just realized, I own more instruments than my favorite music stores.....


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## Captain Beeflat (Apr 28, 2003)

Stuckond said:


> Gear acquisition syndrome.
> I can quit whenever I want.
> I have 9 saxophones and 31 mouthpieces to go with 15 ligatures and 9 boxes of reeds, as we ignore the...


I too have 9 saxophones but rather more mouthpieces than you.....so relax, you do not have GAS....it's all a question of degree.
My New Year's Resolution has been to stick with one horn & one mouthpiece.....so far, with success.


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## Captain Beeflat (Apr 28, 2003)

Stuckond said:


> Gear acquisition syndrome.
> I can quit whenever I want.
> I have 9 saxophones and 31 mouthpieces to go with 15 ligatures and 9 boxes of reeds, as we ignore the...


I too have 9 saxophones but rather more mouthpieces than you.....so relax, you do not have GAS....it's all a question of degree.
My New Year's Resolution has been to stick with one horn & one mouthpiece.....so far, with success.


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## click (Apr 17, 2009)

In my opinion GAS for saxophonists is acting upon the belief that gear in itself will make your music significantly better.

Viz: listen to that guy's sound. I need his (horn, mpc, ligature, reeds, neckstrap, matching metal strap hook and eye, lefreque mouthpiece to neck bridge, sonic pebbles, p-lig, magnetic coils, cork grease, and hair gel), then I can sound like that.

Collecting mouthpieces or horns because they are interesting is benign.

GAS is delusion. 

Of course indulging yourself beyond your means is a bad thing in any arena.

So compulsively getting more stuff is a problem regardless.

With fine old altos from the 30s going playable for a couple of hundred bucks, getting one of those (let us say), is not necessarily a sign of GAS.

On the other hand, having your favorite saxophone custom plated in rhododendrium because of the more natural sound it will produce is GAS.

Franklin Roosevelt collected stamps. He did not have stamp acquisition syndrome. He could afford his hobby and did not let it wreck his life, but used it for a wholesome diversion.


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## MLucky (Oct 1, 2014)

It's important to realize: we're all well-trained consumers. We all see millions upon millions of dollars worth of messaging every year selling us on the idea that the key to happiness, prosperity, popularity, status, and sexual satisfaction lies in buying things. More and more things. You can never own enough things. We like to think that all of this advertising, branding, and other corporate messaging doesn't affect us, but there's a reason companies spend hundreds of millions on marketing: because it works.

GAS exists in many different forms. There are people who compulsively buy shoes, camera lenses, cycling equipment, cars. Is it harmful? On the contrary, it's extremely important to the health of our capitalist system. If people only bought what they needed, the economy would collapse.


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## jazzbluescat (Feb 2, 2003)

*urp* ..Pardon me. Chili con carne.


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## xax (Feb 4, 2003)

*gas*
/gas/
noun

1. A disease first contracted by Adolph Sax, perhaps on a trip to France. It caused him to invent waay more saxophones than he or anybody else knew how to play or even could even find.

It came to the USA at the turn of the last century, by way of New Orleans in a boatload of brasswinds which included saxophones. Since then, it has been endemic to all new and vintage saxophonists and their saxophones.

Thru the years it has spread to most other instruments and their users...but take solace in the fact that bad as it is for we saxophone players, the worst cases are found amongst guitar players where it manifests as the well known condition of being "guitarded"...


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## saxphil (Mar 30, 2007)

xax said:


> the worst cases are found amongst guitar players where it manifests as the well known condition of being "guitarded"...


In my now defunct band 12, 13 and 14 replaced 11.
My hearing has been saved.


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## Gresives (Jul 22, 2017)

It's Gear Acquisition Syndrome


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