Jump to content

How to Stop the purchase cycle


Recommended Posts

  • Members

Is it just me or are there other sound pro's out there that once a year look at their books and say HOW THE F#CK DID I SPEND THAT MUCH MONEY ON GEAR! and promise to not spend another penny again (but your on hold with a vendor placing an order for more gear that you can justify but can't afford~)

 

No really 2 weeks ago i quit smoking and spending.....any bets on which will fall off the wagon first??

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I know EXACTLY how you feel. My partners and I have the same discussion every year... have for 25 years too!

 

It's getting easier for us now that we have really decided to back away from the touring type production shows. We have a good install business and though we still buy gear... at least it's pre-sold.

 

I am preparing to sell off a warehouse full of gear... yeah maybe a little sadness but that comes with the territory. I don't think the manufacturer's reps believe me yet... I've said the same thing before, but this time there's too many little butt-head sound companies with more gear than brains willing to give the stuff away to get the gig. No insurance, no permits, no licenses, no employees, no morals and no money.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

Originally posted by Audiopile

In answer to your question: How to Stop the purchase cycle?


1) Buy quality.

2) Don't cave into the flavor of the month fads.

3) Do what you can to keep your nice stuff "nice".

4) Limit your equipment inventory to cover about 80% of your jobs (depending of-course on your situation).


Good quality, well maintained, non-fad gear generally has a 10 to 20 year viable life expectancy.


Rent items that are required only a few times a year. One rule of thumb is equipment should go-out a minimum of 50 times a year, and optimum is 100 times a year. Much less than 50 times a year, look at what you can rent it for and local availability. Of course... it's all numbers. If you can rent something locally for a daily charge of 1% to 3% of the replacement value and you only need it 10 times a year, you're probably better off renting. If the daily charge is 5% or more of it's replacement value, and you need it 20 times a year, then you're probably better off owning it. Generally, I figure a viable piece of equipment is justified in owning if that piece of gear returns it's replacement value at least yearly. Some say equipment should return it's replacement value over a 90 to 180 day peroid. Of course depreciation and upkeep make a considerable difference in the justification formula.

 

Great advice, that's exactly how we made it work too. I still have a completely mint PM-1200 (no scratches or scuffs at all!) that I use for small & corporate gigs, sure got my money's worth out of that board.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I'm a small fry getting out of the "Peavey" class and all I seem to be doing is spend, spend, spend. Now I'm up to QSC, Ashly, Soundcraft, etc. Making the jump to quality stuff is very expensive. Still wish I can make the jump and buy some quality top cabs though, but my outboard is getting better. My day job is paying for my music habit. I buy a lot on Ebay and other used sites and I can justify my spending by saying that if I fail to make money, I can sell it all and break even at the least. Where I am, Peavey rules the club scene, but by having "better" names, I can get a bit more than the others. Maybe $50-$100 more per club gig. Some people have even come up and asked if Soundcraft is as good as Mackie!! I'm still waiting on the Drawmer and Crown and other goodies though! I think I have a plan for a nice club/theater setup, the money just doesn't come in fast enough to do it all at once though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I'm with billiam here, trying to get at least one foot out of the MI area in the project studio. Allen&Heath, Sytek, Soundelux, Microtech Geffel, Atlas, blah blah blah...hell I replaced a $90 mixer with a $3300 mixer, and that was only because it was B-stock...but it's worth it, from the first time you plug it all in and fire it up, you can see, feel, and hear the difference. My studio mate thinks I'm nuts...but me, I've just learned that going for quality straight away means good results now and less hassle later on. Buy once, cry once as they say!

 

Dan, think of the extra gear you can get with the money you save on cigarrettes! :D;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Hello, my name is Russell and I am a gear'a'holic...

 

Well Ok, my budgets may be way smaller than some of the senior posters, but there are still many people that think I'm crazy for spending as much on gear as I do.

 

I justify it to myself by saying ... buying quality is an investment!

 

Luckily I have a day job to pay the bills. My music is really just an expensive hobby. But then I still don't regret any of my major purchases :)

 

There's definitely no hope for me... Although I don

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Originally posted by URSavage

Hello, my name is Russell and I am a gear'a'holic...

 

Well Ok, my budgets may be way smaller than some of the senior posters, but there are still many people that think I'm crazy for spending as much on gear as I do.

 

I justify it to myself by saying ... buying quality is an investment!

 

Luckily I have a day job to pay the bills. My music is really just an expensive hobby. But then I still don't regret any of my major purchases :)

 

There's definitely no hope for me... Although I don

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

If I had a nickle for each time that I told my wife " If I can just get this piece, I'd be set"....................... I'd probably be out right now looking for more gear. LOL I think that it gets worse with the more knowledge that you obtain. You start to realize the difference between low end, middle of the road and high end gear and the results that quality gear has on your sound. When you get to the point that you are buying $1500 cabs, a Behringer setup is not an option. The flipside of this is that the turn around on gear is alot less too. I'd say that the best way to not spend money is to keep a running inventory of your gear. Use what you need. Rent, sell or install the rest. Every once in a while I see something that I want. I start to take an inventory of what I have and don't use. That goes up for sale and helps me to afford my other "Habit". Namely, the new gear that I'm about to buy. That keeps things lean. I'm sure that if you looked around, Dan, there's a boatload of stuff that you are not really using. Just a thought. I'm small potatoes. I'm not really in your league, anyway. Good luck on not smoking. I quit 10 years ago and now I'm fat as {censored} but I can breathe. LOL

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

And hopefully that hobby pays back a little! I figure the people around here spend about $10 a day for beer and smokes, that's a conservative number. So lets say that is like $4000 a year. Add weed and other "hobbies" and that total could be near $7000. At the end of the year I still have my rig AND the memories of the gigs that I got paid to do and even free food and beer sometimes. I like my "hobby"!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Audiopile - Couldn't agree with you more

 

I don't mean to hijack Dan's original post because I know that being a professional trying to making a living from something and a having it as a weekend hobby are two VERY different things.

 

Being in business myself (computer software) I completely understand where he is coming from in terms of spending your HARD earned money wisely. I think it comes back to having good experience within your industry, understanding the full life-cycle cost of any piece of equipment and knowing what you can charge and where your core business is.

 

 

But as for the hobbyist I'm a lost cause...

In saying that, I have had many hobbies and music is the only one that comes close to paying for itself. However this is irrelevant to me as I would do it regardless.

 

As a true gear'a'holic I love every part of spending money on my music hobby.

* I enjoy the process of researching to find the 'best' products.

* I enjoy evaluating the options and comparing each piece of equipment against the other.

* The thrill of finally making up my mind and committing to purchase.

* Unpacking that NEW toy and playing with it for the first time

* The pride of looking back on my audio pile and knowing that it's all mine and each piece has been carefully selected, looked after does its job superbly well... (Well apart from the bits soon to be upgraded

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Originally posted by billiam

And hopefully that hobby pays back a little! I figure the people around here spend about $10 a day for beer and smokes, that's a conservative number. So lets say that is like $4000 a year. Add weed and other "hobbies" and that total could be near $7000. At the end of the year I still have my rig AND the memories of the gigs that I got paid to do and even free food and beer sometimes. I like my "hobby"!

 

You know, that was one of my pieces of logic for starting to play guitar... "Why would I waste my money on beer? I can spend my money on a guitar and an amp, and get all the free beer I want!"

 

Now, many thousand dollars later... I realize I should have bought the beer! :) :)

 

Addendum: I don't know what the hell happened, but I posted this and it ended up in a random thread in the Bass Forum!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Dan I know how you can stop me, dont return my phone calls. Just kidding, its me Victor down in Key West. I still come here everyday trying to learn about new gear. Im lucky my wife just does a solo act, but I still want the best smallest system I can get. I need to figure out the recording part of it now. What I have is great for now a yorkville ap812 powered mixer with the yorkville nx20 speakers and a sony cdr33 recorder and a Godin acs slim guitar. I got sold an ovation with a fender passport when i walked into a music store before i knew about this website. I got my first computer a year ago just to learn about sound equiptment. The more I learn the more expensive it is, boy i really feel sorry for you guys who really know whats going on. I dont even know what those thousands of dollar things do when I look at the catalogs, but my mind is telling me i gotta get them. The only thing that stops me is the fear that next month they will come out with something better thats half the size and price. Like this computer i bought.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

Originally posted by URSavage

 

As a true gear'a'holic I love every part of spending money on my music hobby.

* I enjoy the process of researching to find the 'best' products.

* I enjoy evaluating the options and comparing each piece of equipment against the other.

* The thrill of finally making up my mind and committing to purchase.

* Unpacking that NEW toy and playing with it for the first time

* The pride of looking back on my audio pile and knowing that it's all mine and each piece has been carefully selected, looked after does its job superbly well... (Well apart from the bits soon to be upgraded

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

;):cool:

Mark,

Well said. There are boat and plane guys around here too and lots of wanna be biker dudes and chicks. I figure if I had a boat or plane the following would probably happen:

Boat;

Probably end up in jail for DUI, spend thousands more on trips to the Bahamas(where I would probably again end up in jail for DUI), fishing excursions with no results (again a DUI or two here) and taxes, gas, maintenence, and a divorce lawyer, and BEER.

 

Estimated cost $ 300,000, no drivers license and workin at Labor Ready until I die.

 

Plane:

Again probably end up in jail a few times for FUI, couple of FAA investigations into a few dozen crashes (all alcohol related pilot errors) and possible Federal time (I was just carrying a package back for friend Mister DEA guy... really)

 

Estimated cost $ 2,000,000, 30 to life in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, disowned by all family and friends.

 

I think 10K on gear, my wife occassionally picking me up off the floor when I pass out after a recording or mix down session, and being able to pay for my kids Pop Warner football and actully watch them play (sober of course).........

 

Priceless

 

Besides if I did the above I wouldn't be around for the Honey Do lists and complaints about my gear spending.

 

CJ:D :cool::D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

Originally posted by Audiopile

6) Then there's the horse hobby neighbors (lots of them)... and my... how the bucks flow there. Of course they got lots of cool threads that go along with their horseypile (easy there Andy... but then I know you don't wear your hat and boots to work... well probably not everyday anyway).

 

Yes, you can spend a lot on any of these hobbies to get the newest, greatest etc., but if you buy quality anything and take care of it, it will last a long time and be WAY cheaper in the long run.

 

Horsie example... My saddle, bridle are 15+ years old, should last till I die... maybe longer. Cost per year is trivial. Current performance horse is 30 years old, her cost per year was trivial, last performance horse dies at 35 years old, cost per year (he was expensive when young) is trivial... and I don't own fancy clothes etc. Just the basic solid quality items. Same for sound systems.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Originally posted by Audiopile

...

2) Dodge Cummins Diesel dually one ton crew cab pick-up TRUCK...

 

I have a drummer friend who has one of them there fancy dancy Cummins Turbo Diesel Dodges. Every time I go over to visit he seems to be driving around the wifes old small ford pick-up (translated POS), guess its better than driving his wifes Miata. My point being... its a nice big truck but seems to always need work :) He sure as heck loves the thing though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Yes, I hang my head in shame as I collect my winnings laughing all the way to the bank.

 

I once had a woman who was way into the horseypile routine and she asked me not to park my rig next to hers at a show... she said it clashed with hers. Ha... I had a cheap looking (but a good) rig and with a horse that originally cost about 100x the value of hers. She was into "show" and I was into "go".

 

You're right, I am missing a lot of "opportunity".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I think it's always good to buy well-made, sturdy, durable things even if they aren't 'in' or if they don't look cool. I went ahead and spent over $1300 on a guitar and amplifier, and while it hurt, it won't hurt again because now I have a very solid platform to stand on. I think it was mentioned here by audiopile or agedhorse once; buy once, cry once. That's quite a statement to live by.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Lights, my new toys have to have lights! Lights that show the power is on or off. Lights that flash and wink. Lights that tell you if the lights are working right. Multicolored lights too, they all gotta mean something! Lights prove to the inexperienced that something amazing is going on in that $200,000 box and it takes someone like me to translate it to them. So cough up the money now, See, that blue light flashing is telling you so!:D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...