How much money do you have invested in your studio?

[JTC111]

I just did an inventory of the gear I currently have on hand, including instruments, to make sure I have adequate insurance coverage. I only have a little project studio but I came up with a total of $40,490. Yikes!

[NL5]

Originally Posted by JTC111

Yikes!

It adds up awfully fast!

[WhiteStrat]

Originally Posted by JTC111

I just did an inventory of the gear I currently have on hand, including instruments, to make sure I have adequate insurance coverage. I only have a little project studio but I came up with a total of $40,490. Yikes!

I did the same exact thing--got an itemized spread sheet in spreadsheet format. Mine is real similar, just over $45,000, but I've got live gear in there too. A lot of stuff does double duty (mics & cables, etc) but I've got mains, subs, snakes, and a couple dedicated racks that's on my inventory for insurance purposes, but never sees the inside of my studio.

[JTC111]

Originally Posted by WhiteStrat

I did the same exact thing--got an itemized spread sheet in spreadsheet format. Mine is real similar, just over $45,000, but I've got live gear in there too. A lot of stuff does double duty (mics & cables, etc) but I've got mains, subs, snakes, and a couple dedicated racks that's on my inventory for insurance purposes, but never sees the inside of my studio.

Yeah, I know I underestimated the value of my cables at $1000. The snakes I have alone cost me over $500 and I have two milk crates full of extra cables. And I forgot to include the racks.

Oops.... I just realized there's a few instruments I left off my inventory list also. I'm up to $42,660 now.

[JordanD]

including instruments, about $400. i cant stop buying classroom instruments. thats where most of my budget goes, i've got an idea!

[pohaku]

Instruments and related gear jack up the value of my gear quite a bit, especially as some of my instruments and amps are now worth considerably more than what I paid for them. I suppose we could also distinguish between what one paid for the stuff and what it might be worth now. Some gear, like digital electronics, will have declined in value. Other gear like vintage instruments and some analog recording gear (microphones and certain preamps come to mind) may have increased in value.

Current value of my stuff is now over $110K, split about $62K for instruments and related gear (amps, pedals etc.), and the remainder for recording gear. That doesn't include the cost of cables and racks. If you ever add up how much you have sunk in just cables, it'll really scare you. Of course I've already admitted that I need a 12 step program.

Edit: oh, just remembered I ordered 6 preamps from Chance and I have a piano as well. I suppose that bumps it up to more like $115K. Occurs to me that I haven't included software in this either. As I don't use plug-ins, I suppose it's mostly Sonar with the (seemingly) annual upgrade.

[WhiteStrat]

Originally Posted by JordanD

including instruments, about $400. i cant stop buying classroom instruments. thats where most of my budget goes, i've got an idea!

What do you mean by classroom instruments?

[Rokket]

Money I actually spent? Or the value of what I have? Most of my stuff was gifted to me.

My investment: a new set of strings for my yamaha acoustic. $4.00

[JTC111]

Originally Posted by pohaku

Instruments and related gear jack up the value of my gear quite a bit, especially as some of my instruments and amps are now worth considerably more than what I paid for them. I suppose we could also distinguish between what one paid for the stuff and what it might be worth now. Some gear, like digital electronics, will have declined in value. Other gear like vintage instruments and some analog recording gear (microphones and certain preamps come to mind) may have increased in value.

That's a good point. I have some intruments that have appreciated in value but I used the amount I paid for each item, rather than current worth. If I buy a guitar for $2500 and it's now worth $3000, my money investment wasn't $3000, and the poll question is how much have you invested, not how much is it worth.

As far as worth, my studio is worth less than the amount I've invested because I don't have an even split between instruments and gear. I doubt the appreciation value of my instruments comes close to the depreciation value of my gear, especially the gear I bought new.

[JTC111]

Originally Posted by Rokket

Money I actually spent? Or the value of what I have?

Money you've actually spent.

Originally Posted by Rokket

Most of my stuff was gifted to me.

My investment: a new set of strings for my yamaha acoustic. $4.00

Oh man, I hadn't even thought about gifted items. I guess I'd say include them for the price someone paid to give it to you.

[pohaku]

Originally Posted by JTC111

That's a good point. I have some intruments that have appreciated in value but I used the amount I paid for each item, rather than current worth. If I buy a guitar for $2500 and it's now worth $3000, my money investment wasn't $3000, and the poll question is how much have you invested, not how much is it worth.

As far as worth, my studio is worth less than the amount I've invested because I don't have an even split between instruments and gear. I doubt the appreciation value of my instruments comes close to the depreciation value of my gear, especially the gear I bought new.

OK, if we just go with what I paid for my instruments and related gear, it would pull the value down by about $22,000. I have a lot of analog gear and older mics so I'm going to assume appreciation and depreciation on recording equipment is a wash. So I'm in for around $93K, not counting computer, cables, racks and software.

[WhiteStrat]

Originally Posted by pohaku

OK, if we just go with what I paid for my instruments and related gear, it would pull the value down by about $22,000. I have a lot of analog gear and older mics so I'm going to assume appreciation and depreciation on recording equipment is a wash. So I'm in for around $93K, not counting computer, cables, racks and software.

Which almost certainly puts you right back at the $100K mark...

[pohaku]

Hey, I'm 55. I've had a bit longer time to accumulate all this stuff than many of you.

[WhiteStrat]

Originally Posted by pohaku

Hey, I'm 55. I've had a bit longer time to accumulate all this stuff than many of you.

...(and I think I speak for all of us) we're not being critical. It may sound like jealousy, but it's not the sniping kind--it's the quiet admiration kind!

4 years ago--I had one guitar, one mic and a laptop. Today? 15 guitars, 60 mics, and well...tons of other stuff I couldn't have even understood! And I'm 41--I might just catch up with you in 14 years!

[JTC111]

Originally Posted by WhiteStrat

What do you mean by classroom instruments?

I swear if you get him started I'm gonna find you and smack the lollipop right out of your mouth.

[guitar zero]

Odd that this post came up tonight. Just last night I updated my spreadsheet and it totalled out at around $16,800. I'd like to thank all you guys who've spent more. It shows my wife that I've got some serious catching up to do.

[pohaku]

In 14 years I'd say you have a much better than even chance of passing me by.

[JordanD]

Originally Posted by WhiteStrat

What do you mean by classroom instruments?

things like recorders, flutophones, conn song flutes, hand drums, bells, train whistles, claves, and various other cool little things. my favorites are my hohner toy accordion(it sounds so cool), and theres lots of things, but i wont get started i actually dont like the term classroom instruments, i think of them as "pure" or "innocence" instruments. they make me feel like a kid again, and they truly are just fun and heart warming.

[Massive Master]

How much money do you have invested in your studio?

A lot more than my wife would ever understand. Business or not.

[JTC111]

Originally Posted by pohaku

Hey, I'm 55. I've had a bit longer time to accumulate all this stuff than many of you.

55 is my cut off point. I have to get as many toys as I can by then. That's when I retire and start living on a fixed income. I wonder what I'll be buying in the next 7 years. I'm pretty sure there's an Olson guitar in my future at some point... probably a Lowden too. The Olson might be my retirement gift to myself one day.

Off topic... I'm doing something interesting right now. I put out a cd in 2002. That was before I put together my project studio so I was recording it in someone else's studio. I was very involved in the production and the mixing of it and by the time it was done I was so sick of every track, because I'd heard them about a thousand times, that I really didn't want to listen to it. And except for an occasional track that someone might ask me to play for them, I haven't listened to the whole cd in at least 4 or 5 years. For whatever reason, tonight I decided to give it a listen and I'm patting myself on the back because it's pretty damn good.

[JTC111]

Originally Posted by WhiteStrat

4 years ago--I had one guitar, one mic and a laptop. Today? 15 guitars, 60 mics, and well...tons of other stuff I couldn't have even understood! And I'm 41--I might just catch up with you in 14 years!

Someone has a good day job, huh?

[JTC111]

Originally Posted by Massive Master

A lot more than my wife would ever understand. Business or not.

Someday she's gonna find the receipts under your porn.

[JordanD]

Originally Posted by JTC111

For whatever reason, tonight I decided to give it a listen and I'm patting myself on the back because it's pretty damn good.

you should put up a track or two,please. i'd like two hear it!


oh yea, and i just got a stylophone, its so neat!

and my friend in kuwait, whois kuwatian royalty, sent me an Oud for my birthday which is in a few days and it came today. supposedly its a sin to listen to it, and especially because im jewish. it sounds so mystical that its scary. it sounds plugged in, but its not. im writing these songs about demon flowers and toxic seeds growing in me now. mountains replacing my bones, mirrored eyes,gods that float around in space, and lighting is actually an intelligent inter-dimensional creature we djust dont undetrstand.

[WhiteStrat]

Originally Posted by JTC111

Someone has a good day job, huh?

We all joke about how our wives would drop dead if they knew how much we spent, and while that's also true in my case, I gotta give credit where credit is due. My wife and I both have "good day jobs" (hers is even better than mine, but I covered the fort while she went to law school) and I couldn't do it alone.

Yeah, I can afford to go off the deep end a bit, but if it were just my income that wouldn't be the case.

I just wish she'd get an expensive hobby--then I'd feel less guilty!

[JTC111]

Originally Posted by JordanD

you should put up a track or two,please. i'd like two hear it!

Three tracks can be heard on my website. One, "Not Even Rand-McNally," plays automatically when you go to the first page of the site. Two others, "Melted Toys" and "Eddie's Car" are available on the MP3 page. There's also a rough demo version of a song I wrote in response to the government's Katrina inaction called "Dry Ground."