How Much is Enough?

Ajouté : 2026-05-13

[00:00:01]Hey everybody, it's Mark from Gear's Guitars and I'm here to talk about the age-old question, how much is enough?

[00:00:08]Notice I said I'm here to talk about it, not to answer the question, because the answer is too complicated. But, I got my thoughts to throw in there and I hope you do, too. So, let's talk about it.

[00:00:20]Well, um I'm here at a guitar store and guitars have a unique relationship with stuff.

[00:00:30]Unique from even other musicians. Um unique from other stringed instrument musicians, you know, a lot of times a violinist or a mandolin player, or even a bassist, will get an instrument that is their instrument and they interact with this thing. Saxophone players are famous for this. They get the horn and they work on the sound of that horn.

[00:00:52]And um you know, a lot bass There's a bass player who have only had one P bass their whole life and that's all they play. They just played bass, they play on that or mandolin or violin, but for guitarists, it's kind of different and uh it opens up the larger questions of what how much is enough in life in general and this idea that, you know, we, you know, as guitarists, we like to have a lot of guitars and pedals and accessories and amplifiers and I'm as guilty as anyone. But, I'm going to talk about the kind of the pros and cons of that, too. Now, the uh overall idea of do you need stuff?

[00:01:30]Uh lately, there's just this kind of um idea of like, you know, hold it in your hand, does it bring you joy? If not, throw it away, you know, that kind of like all I have and I know people say everything I need is on this little phone and I don't need a record collection and I don't need uh you know, uh guitar amplifier. I don't need a you know, I just have all this kind of the the miniaturization of um of stuff.

[00:01:55]And just a trend away from stuff. So, I'm going to push back on that a little.

[00:02:03]Um I think we need stuff. Here's my theory. I believe that we are evolved from a primitive version of ourselves.

[00:02:11]Uh that we used to live in caves and that kind of thing.

[00:02:14]Um and that there were two we are the children's children's children of those who survived. And there are two reasons why uh those uh creatures survived.

[00:02:26]Number one is they learned to make things like art. So, you know, the the desire to make art and the desire to make yourself a tool or you know, something to make your life easier, they're kind of similar desires, you know? And I think that um those who made things survived and those who weren't interested in making things didn't survive. And um we are meant to collect things.

[00:02:52]Because our ancestors are the ones who kept things for when times got tough.

[00:02:57]And when times got tough, oh, we have extra food or we have a you know, weapons or tools or whatever it is that we've kept around all this time. And now it's going to come in handy.

[00:03:07]So, we have something in our minds that kind of draws us to the idea of creating and collecting.

[00:03:19]And it's something, you know, time after time, season after season, all around the world, humans kind of share these desires.

[00:03:28]So, when it comes to music being a musician and being a guitarist, creating and collecting is kind of the name of the game.

[00:03:34]So, that's why I think that it's it's not the [clears throat] abhorrent thing is not to to have a lot of stuff. Um the weird thing is to want to have nothing.

[00:03:45]>> [sighs] >> Follow me here. So, those are the pros. It makes us feel good. We are we're attached to ourselves when we have things nearby that we can create with and things that we can have extra of stuff. This is the idea of psychological advantage. If you have something that other people don't have, it literally makes you feel better about yourself and your situation.

[00:04:10]So that's the trap that we fall into as musicians and and um guitarists specifically that we collect up a bunch of stuff and it doesn't necessarily make us happier.

[00:04:26]Now, I think it makes me happier and so um just the joy I get out of, you know, finding an instrument and playing that instrument is something so fun that I enjoy repeating that over and over.

[00:04:39]And then you do part with some eventually or you change your mind about what you like to play and how you like to play it. But the joy that we can get from music and through playing these musical instruments is rather enormous.

[00:04:57]It's life-changing.

[00:05:00]Now, the other part of this is your relationship with money and your relationship with stuff in general. Some people are like, I just have a lot of stuff around and it just makes me feel better. I want the one guitar and the one amp and that's it and that's fine.

[00:05:13]But it's also your relationship with money.

[00:05:16]Because you can tie up a lot of money in this stuff and some people um don't have excess money and they don't um or they'd rather apply that to other places in their life and that is a thing. Now, some people just have excess money and so they just start buying up guitars.

[00:05:39]The joke is hoping, you know, um what was that? I think it was Bill Burr, is that the name of the comedian? You know, when he does that skit about Guitar Center being the the um um saddest place in the universe because someone Well, this thing fill the hole in my heart. This is the thing that's going to fill the hole in my heart. And you know, often it doesn't, you know, the the the want for stuff is not going to fill your soul.

[00:06:05]>> [sighs] >> But there's a balance. And so, um some people have excess money, as I was saying, and some people just want to collect up a bunch of stuff. And I think that's okay, too. Some people are hoarding stuff.

[00:06:18]And um of course, we talk about this uh here in the guitar world, there's plenty of guitars out there for everyone. Even though um there's just and pedals, there's plenty of pedals and guitars for everyone. And as our day-to-day life changes and that there's a less of a need to have that thing at hand, that we have this box at home that does that that does everything, that's our entertainment and it's our work and it's our everything, >> [gasps] >> then maybe there's room in our lives to have a collection of things.

[00:06:54]Maybe there's room in our lives to explore the relationship between um stuff and happiness because I think it's great to be happy without anything, but um to have a few precious things, um it really is a great experience, too, and it can't be discounted. So, of course, you of course this guy's talking about buying guitars, he owns a guitar store.

[00:07:21]He's here to sell us this stuff. It's not quite just that, and it's not really that. I think people are sometimes shocked by the amount of time I spend not selling them things or here on YouTube, for example, I never say buy my stuff. I'm just here to talk about music and guitars and all that fun stuff and and I'm not going to pressure anyone into buying anything and that's your own decision, but through my personal experience I would say yes, I have too much stuff. I could get rid of half of it and be equally as happy and equally as equipped. You don't need every kind of guitar. Although I joke, I have you know, 23 guitars. I just have one of each.

[00:08:06]You got to have a Stratocaster and a Telecaster and a Les Paul type thing and a hollow body with a you know, a 335 kind of thing and a 330 kind of thing and then a big body hollow body and then a nylon string and then a you know, a 12 string acoustic, 12 string electric and you know, it goes on and on.

[00:08:26]Um and I do I'm fortunate enough to have enough of work in music as far in between performing and recording that I do play these instruments often and um make use of them. So that makes me very fortunate and um but you can find that kind of thing in your life. Visit with your instruments, play them. If you have an instrument you haven't had you know, played in a while, go visit with it.

[00:08:54]Um and if you have excess stuff do move it on and don't get wrapped up in the money thing of like, oh I paid a thousand dollars for this and I got to get my thousand dollars back or I can't take five hundred dollars for this now.

[00:09:08]I'm going to wait on it.

[00:09:11]Um that goes back to that relationship with money and how money and stuff can kind of can um can be a what's the word for it? A disturbance in the equilibrium of our life, but for people like me, perhaps you too, it can help give us that equilibrium in our life. When you come home and you sit down for that few minutes you get to yourself and you pick up a guitar and strum it.

[00:09:42]It's pretty cool.

[00:09:44]And when you use these instruments to entertain people and to communicate with people and to interact with people also pretty cool.

[00:09:52]So no surprise I'm pro buying a lot of stuff but that's my presentation on that.

[00:09:59]Of course please do you know leave comments and this is not just comment baiting. Come on tell me what you guys think. I'm I really want to know about your relationship with stuff too and thanks for watching watch all the other videos here on YouTube and we'll talk to you soon.