My wife and I don’t have a lot of money. But somehow, over the past couple of years, I’ve somehow found enough of it sitting around in our bank accounts to make a few gear purchases. Recent purchases include a couple new microphones, a very nice mic preamp, and a sweet Telecaster electric guitar (it’s not actually, technically a Telecaster…).

But recently, I’ve started to feel a bit of a reckless pull—towards whimsically buying whatever I want, when I want it, when it comes to music equipment. I might be in trouble.

For the past eight weeks, I’ve been talking about buying another mic preamp in order to better handle recording live drums. It seemed like the most logical next purchase for my studio, though I knew that I also likely ought to own a Les Paul, in order to round out my guitar sound/palette…

But I’ve also known for a while—since about March—that there was a good chance that I’d be needing to buy an electric bass guitar. Why? Because I had a friend who, for six years, conveniently let me house his bass at the studio. In March, he came by to bring his instrument back home. The clock was ticking.

The need for a bass came to a head when, just a couple weeks ago, the bassist I had lined up for some session work fell through. I needed somebody to thump out some lines pronto; and, although there was an offer on the table for me to borrow a quality instrument, I knew my time was better spent elsewhere. It was quicker to run to Guitar Center, buy a bass, and drive back to the studio than to drive all the way out to a different friend’s place, grab his, and come all the way back. The decision was made.

Here’s a picture of what I got…

2011 G&L Custom JB Bass