what an ass, I have a serious gear issue...

[James R. Coplin]

> Think 30 years from now... you could have lost all interest in music,
> but there's a good chance you'll still live in the same house.

I'm not so sure.  I'm in my second house and I can see at least one more in
the next 10 years.  With the current house market, I'm currently on the
short end of the investment with the bank.  Not a big deal, it will flatten
out and come back so I'm not concerned.  When everyone else fled to the
suburbs with their SUVs for McMansions with hour long commutes, I restored a
reasonable sized bungalow in the city and bought a Volkswagen Beetle.  Makes
me laugh hysterically actually.  I'd take my bungalow over one of the crappy
boxes out in nowhere anyday.  You can keep you 3000 plus square feet,
anything over 2200 is too big.  Around 2000 is ideal if you have a kid.
However, my house is worth less than what I paid for it if I had to sell it
today.  Luckily I don't.  

On the other hand, my studio is currently worth far more than I paid for
everything in it.  Granted, I've had an amazing run of luck and happened to
get into synths right before the explosion of the analogue craze.  Back
then, I was buying the analog stuff mainly because it was cheap.  The fact
that I loved the sound was secondary to what I could afford.  I just wish I
had purchased even more gear then.  Sales of my non-essential gear have put
my setup where it is today without too much historical cash layout.  Also, I
have had some instruments pushing 20 years now but my longest stay in my own
house was only 13 years.  Considering I just moved last year to my current
house, it looks like gear is going to win even if I chucked it all in
tomorrow!

Of course, I wouldn't really recommend gear as an investment.  You need luck
and a crystal ball for that.  Moreover, despite the huge increases in gear
prices lately, you probably still would have done better with a sensible
market strategy with stocks, bonds, property etc.  That being said, I still
can't believe someone paid $50,000 for a Roland System 700 on ebay recently.
I totally get that is a unique instrument blah, blah, blah.  However, I
could buy an amazing beautiful Steinway or Yamaha Grand Piano (which is a
*real* instrument) for less and never be disappointed in the choice.

James R. Coplin