On Instrument/Art Collecting

 

Picasso, Guitar (1924). 

On wants versus needs in terms of musical instruments: 

It's been several years since I've bought a new instrument. I don't focus on that anymore, yet I see a lot of bassists collecting them–some with hundreds. It must consume your entire day–shopping around for them online, having them delivered, reviewing them on YouTube, and so on. Instruments can make a difference in production, but they don’t make a difference in composition most of the time. Instruments are different and unique and can create unique ideas, but once you take the idea and separate it from the instrument, it obviates the instrument. So you buy an 8-string or 12-string: They have a unique sound but once you start to track up a song and compose the song itself, and reduce it to chords and melody–something that you could play on a guitar or a piano, that bass doesn't mean anything. You could use a stock Fender Precision if you're just playing a simple supporting bass part, so it's not really that essential. You might spend a couple thousand dollars on an 8-string and use it on one or two songs and then never use it again because you realize that it was the genesis of an idea but you didn't need it any longer. 

What inspired this riff was the notion of how we use money for mindful purposes and how it’s woven into the narrative of one's life. Asking whether you need something is a way of asking how important is this thing is, and how central it is to my becoming a good version of myself?  As regards instruments, what is it actually for in terms of my overall musicianship? What are wants versus needs? I could want a lot of the basses I see on Pinterest, but would I really use them that much? 

This is the idea that I’ve had about making art objects: I love making art, but you start to collect a lot of objects, and you have to store them and ideally sell them. So I'm a little apprehensive about making more objects because it's just more for me to catalogue and manage, and it adds a heaviness to life. It’s like having a boat or plane that has to be stored, and you might use them once a year and add nothing to what you really want to do. What’s good about the digital world is that it is “weightless” and has no volume, although one could become a digital hoarder or software hoarder. #riff

1/7/2022

[1/7/2026: For me as an artist, it’s usually the design of something that attracts me. Perhaps this is why we collect instruments or vintage cars. We simply like them as a form of art/design, or some other compelling quality, such as its history and the visual wear and tear. My 1962 Jazz Bass is full of those things and it’s my favorite instrument, but it doesn’t always work as a sound on recordings. So there is also a functional element of instruments that is important and becomes a need, but again if you only needed it once, why do you want it otherwise?].