A cure for GAS?

[BatUtilityBelt]

I was narrowing the candidate guitars for the cool set of humbuckers I bought from @Buddha Pickups and this Liquid I bought brand new for a whopping $139.95 back in 2014 was in the lead. So I took it out to further my analysis.

It doesn't get much play, and in the past I have attributed that to the pickups being clear, but lacking character. But playing for a while, what stuck out to me was that the action was higher than I remembered - ok, but not amazing.

I sighted down the neck and it was perfectly straight (with barely any relief at all), just what I hoped. So I lowered the bridge to lower than I like, and started looking for high frets. Little did I know I was going to spend all morning at that... Taking turns between plucking, fret rocker, leveling, and crowning high spots I swear I found maybe 20. Ok, not 20, but it seemed like it. A little game of whack-a-mole. But after all that, every note up and down sounded perfect. Then I raised the action back up a bit to where I like (to play harder).

Suddenly, this guitar is far better than I ever remembered! I tweaked the pickup heights and angles, and spent a couple hours playing, just amazed by the transformation a bit more attention can make! It even seems to sound better (more than my pickup adjustments would account for).

I already have too many great guitars, but I still spend time watching the market for a few. Today I finally realized obsessing on tweaks can be at least as rewarding as finding a great new guitar. And it was quicker and cheaper. I'll probably still swap the pickups and upgrade the pots, but honestly that's just icing at this point.

[dabbler]

Good for you if that works! All I have learned is that, if a guitar is solid and can hold tune, a good setup (to include fret leveling if necessary) can make even value (the term I prefer instead of "cheap") guitars play like a thousand bucks!

But a strat is not a tele is not a 335, well you get the idea and I happen to like variety. It is the spice of life after all!

Aaaaand it makes me gather variations like this:

[Partscaster]

Body Front.jpg
Today I finally realized obsessing on tweaks can be at least as rewarding as finding a great new guitar.

I agree. little upgrades, maybe swap a few necks around based on ideas for one reason or another, Maybe new tuners where needed, etc.
Makes for great sense of time well spent, and playing quality improvements.

[toomanycats]

Great lesson here @BatUtilityBelt!

I'm in a similar situation as yourself, owning way too many guitars, yet always still GASing for something intangible.

Quite often I'll pull one "out of the pile." It's usually an instrument I got a great deal on years ago, had a hot honeymoon with for a few days, come to the conclusion that I was not entirely satisfied with the tone and playability, spent a frantic few hours tweaking, and then hastily cast aside for the next acquisition.

More often than not I say to myself upon revisiting these instruments, "Who is the idiot that set this thing up?"

9 out of 10 times I'm able to make such instruments sound and play much better when they're revisited in this manner. Somehow I have a much more sober and objective perspective long after the time of the original purchase. The other day I had exactly this experience with my Sterling by Ernie Ball Sub Silo 3, turning what seemed like a lump of coal into a diamond with a couple patient hours of adjustments and careful listening.

[mickey]

Every time I feel the need for a cure for gas, I pull out something from my collection that says "Gretsch" on the headstock and after playing that one for a time, the gas pains go away.

[jtcnj]

A diamond in the rough.
Congrats on polishing it up!

[peskypesky]

All I have learned is that, if a guitar is solid and can hold tune, a good setup (to include fret leveling if necessary) can make even value (the term I prefer instead of "cheap") guitars play like a thousand bucks!

This.

Once I learned how to do set-ups and fret-work, it was a game-changer. I can make pretty much any modern-made guitar into a player.

[uwmcscott]

Looks like a winner to me, and yes my acquisition GAS can usually be easily filed by cracking open the case of something I haven't played in a while. Even just a good cleanup of the fretboard/new strings makes a big difference.