Jump to content
Heritage Owners Club

tully's Blog

  • entries
    4
  • comments
    18
  • views
    13453

Down sizing.


JeffB

3551 views

Ive recently sold a lot of gear including PA's, guitars, amps and cabs, pedals, recording gear, pick ups and anything that resembled an unused or unnecessary piece of gear.

Its been a rewarding experience. I havnt finished the purge and still have stuff to get rid of. It will happen.

There have been a few things that happened that I didnt really think about when I first started selling my gear.

One of those things is space. Room to move. No clutter.

Another is time. I dont have projects lying around to finish. Other people have them now. Theres no spare pick ups or wiring harness's to try in another guitar. No (insert guitar guy name here) pedal board to put together. No speakers to swap out and try and no box's of tubes to sample and obsess over.

I seem to have spare time and a very strong feeling of spare time. There are no projects occupying my vision or my mind

Space and time plus extra cash is a combination worth having over bits and bobs it turns out. It gives you options and time to think about the options.

My space is two rooms 8mtrs by 5mtrs each. Its not a little space. It takes a bit of effort to fill it up and reduce it to a small amount of space. It takes some effort to empty it also. But I did it.

This space I have is now too much space. I sit at my desk with a 5 space guitar rack next to it running along one wall and two amps running at 90degrees to it along another wall at the end and realise I take up less than 9sqm's of the 40sqm's in this room.

Its not cosy. It has been sound proofed so there is no outside noises, its very quiet and to be honest, it seems quite lonely and cold.

With all the gear gone this space seems to have less purpose. I think its more that it no longer serves my purpose.

31sqm's of redundancy and I want out of it.

Ive negotiated a deal with my 18yr old daughter. I have her sunny 10sqm room and we clean, paint, re carpet and make more cheerful this room I have inhabited for 20yrs. Probably have to burn incense or go through some kind of purifying ritual as well.

Hopefully she will get a few years use out of it before she moves out.

She didnt say no. She has already picked carpet, curtains and colour scheme.

Ive done like wise for my new little room.

I wouldnt have guessed a few years ago that I would be this excited and happy to have less gear and less space. I also would never have guessed that there could be so much spare time in one day.

Even though guitar takes up all my work day and most of my down time I feel less defined by it. Its a great feeling.

 

Have a sensational day.

 

 

10 Comments


Recommended Comments

This is an awesome post. I really admire your effort, and you inspired my downsizing. My wife thanks you, I thank you. I feel happier with less. I read a good quote:

 

"When you are discontent, you always want more, more, more. Your desire can never be satisfied. But when you practice contentment, you can say to yourself, 'Oh yes - I already have everything that I really need.'"

-Dalai Lama

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment

Right ON, Jeff. While I haven't gone as completely crazy as you have, I AM slowly but surely paring down my stuff that I've started hoarding over the years. At one point I had 25 guitars, I think. Nuts! I'm down to 17 or 18, including 1 Bass and a few acoustics. I was just looking at some of them on the wall the other day, thinking, "I REALLY don't need a few of these!!" A couple more might be on the chopping block soon. Keep on Rockin, brother.

Link to comment

I had a funny moment today.

I went looking for a nice desk, filing cabinet and book shelf to go into my new room. Just checking stuff out.

I need a smaller desk to fit in the smaller room

I saw a home office package I really liked and it was the right size. It was set up as a display.

Sitting on the shelf at eye level was a home crafty looking sign that said "All you need is less" !!!!!

Really struck a deep and resonating chord. I walked out and came back home.

What a funny sign to put in a retail store showroom.

 

@ Beagle216

Love that quote. Thankyou.

Link to comment

Less is more, to quote a cliche, and in this case it's working for you. It's always interesting to read your inner meditations.

 

As for myself, I live in 2 rooms, each 12' X 15'. In a space that small, you don't keep anything you don't use. I've been getting rid of books and putting them on kindle. I am replacing CDs with MP3s. I have 5 guitars and that's almost too many. Mostly, if I don't use it, I lose it. In this space, it's a necessity.

 

For about a year and a half, I've been working from home, so, since that started, I save 3 hrs a day in commuting time. Like you, I have a lot of time on my hands, in which I could be doing very productive things, instead I've been watching tv. My challenge now is to decrease tv watching and read/walk/play guitar more. It's a challenge to sit with so much space in time, watching yourself procrastinate and find excuses to not do what needs to be done. Life needs purpose, and we're the ones who have to come up with that.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment

Thanks for sharing, OP. Like many others that your post will resonate with, I too have found downsizing liberating in many ways and "rightsizing" as a (attainable) goal, empowering. A reoccurring theme in life, if you will. One of my fav movies, "Into The Wild" and one song in particular from its soundtrack, Society, are poignent commentary IMHO. Even though they are merely a movie and a song; little more than forms of entertainment.

Enjoy the time with your youngster before she leaves the nest :)

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment

@ myoldfriend.

"Rightsizing"!!! Beautiful. Thanks for that.

Ive been contemplating that term ever since you posted.

It is the correct term for this thread?blog. Pondering the difference between downsizing and rightsizing has had a positive affect on me.

Cheers

Link to comment

I still love accumulating new gear! I love reading your posts Jeff it always seems like every endeavor you take on is rewarding. I have been building guitars with some guys lately and learning a lot, I'm enjoying the new direction but gear is piling up, maybe soon I will have to downsize as well!

Link to comment

Hey Marty, some things Ive taken on have been plain dumb and the rewarding part was extracting myself from the situation :)

 

Maybe start a blog or thread on these guitars you have been building. I'd be into it.

Link to comment

Never occurred to me that changing rooms would mean being with out a room for a while.

I havnt had a place to be for a week or so and no end in sight.

The decontamination process of my old room has begun.

Carpet half removed, ceiling and one previously dark brick wall painted, lighting done, electrician done 1/2 the power unwiring and 1/2 the rewiring, double glazing deglazed, doors that hadnt opened in 20yrs set free and made to swing again.

Me being me I got right into it and ended up paying the cost in pain killers and sent to sit on the side lines.

Meanwhile curtains are 3weeks away and carpet another 2weeks.

If I was trading rooms with a teenage boy It wouldve been done and dusted 2months ago and cost nothing.

Im sitting in here now and its really bright. Its quite light and airy. I dont know why I didnt do all this while I inhabited the room.

There was a bar in here made from the same bricks as three of the walls. It was about 10ft long 4ft high and about 4ft behind it. I made panels that closed it in and made the perfect amp isolation both. You could crank a 100w JCM800 through a412 in there and talk easily at conversational levels in the room

Ive knock all that down. I thought of all the people I knew who were envious of this facility and how the room had been used by others just so they could record their guitar tracks. Theres been some cool amps shoved in that cave and had mics stuck in front of them.

It all seemed important and crucial at the time. I cant remember even one of the songs or tracks.

So much energy spent, so much important business going on. I dont even know who some of those people were. I cant even remember some of their faces. Wonder who they were.

It was an intensely busy room and no real sign of any production for all the time that was spent in there.

Couple of songs I can remember that I like. They couldve been recorded in any room.

 

Im hanging out for the move to be complete so I can be in another room and spend intense hours doing nothing.... I really hope I dont let it work out that way.

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...