For the last few years, I haven’t really WANTED anything. Throughout my teens and 20’s there was always something I was thinking about, saving up for, or berating myself for having recklessly purchased[1], but that’s tapered off in recent years. Maybe it’s maturity, or maybe it’s just that I have most of of the objects I’ve ever wanted. There are still a few guitars that I would go bonkers over, but they’re so rare that I’ll likely never come across them.
Lately I find myself wanting a particular guitar that I know I shouldn’t buy. It has nothing to set it apart from my other guitars save its coloring and scarcity. For the last year, it has been one of the only things I punch into eBay and actively search for with the potential intent to buy.
I think part of this psychosis is that I haven’t really particpated in active coveting for so long that I miss the process. I miss wanting things. It’s a terrible thing to say, really. I’ve never been a very good consumer of shiny things – it took me years to replace my crusty $50 TV and the stereo I’d had since high school, and my car is as utilitarian as it gets. But guitars are my single material vice[2]. I have so many of them that I tend to give them away, or at least loan them out indefinitely.
So after a year of half-heartedly looking out for a particular guitar[3], an gloriously tacky blue and pink Ibanez PGM100, I’ve discovered that Ibanez is reissuing it for its 20th anniversary. Clearly they did this just for me, so really, I have to buy it, right? The catch: it’s $2,000. That would be more than I’ve ever spent on a guitar. I’ve never felt like any guitar is worth that much.
I know I shouldn’t. I have too many guitars and this one is essentially identical to the one I already have, but for the paint job and limited edition status. It might be a collector’s item, but that trips me up because several of my guitars are collector’s items.
I’m going to be responsible. I’m going to be mature. I’m going to resist.
But that won’t stop the gnawing of the Gollum-like creature now living inside me. Maybe I can trade one of my other guitars in…
1.) These things tend, almost exclusively, to be guitars. This should surprise absolutely no one.
2.) No, music does not count.
3.) A guitar I once owned; I purchased it for $400 in Springfield back in 1998, but traded it in 2000 for not one but TWO other Ibanez PGM guitars.
I seriously sympathize with you! I’m still looking for an elusive model telecaster I want but never seem to find in my price range or when I actually have the money or the seller isn’t reputable, etc. $2000 is a lot of money, as you well know.
I’ve never spent more than $600 so far on any one guitar and sometimes I think about the really nice vintage guitars I could have had instead of the many many $300 models! I really am a strat player, and love my epi LP now, so really if I had my dream list it would be as follows: (all vintage or highest end models)
Gibson Les Paul
Gibson J-200 acoustic
Fender Strat custom shop
Fender Tele custom shop
Thats it, i’d stop there, but the price tag of all of those above new would run more than what my car is worth! And sometimes I just feel rediculous spending my money on these “things” when there are people starving, homeless, etc.
Will that stop me from buying more guitars (just bought another fender off ebay yesterday) ??? No probably not. ugh.
Economist John Maynard Keynes would argued that thrift is no virtue during a recession….maybe it’s my patriotic duty to buy an expensive guitar!