July is Almost Over… and so is My Hope for My Gear Wishlist Coming True

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Still haven’t bought the HUSH X Live. Still thinking about it every day.

July.

Halfway through the year.

The rain is doing what the rain does in Davao, which is everything all at once, and I’m sitting here looking at my gear setup thinking the same thoughts I’ve been thinking since January.

I need new gear.

I cannot afford new gear.

Let me write about the new gear anyway.

This is not a review.

This is a wishlist.

There’s a difference.

A review means I actually have the thing in front of me and I’ve spent time with it and I have opinions based on personal experience.

A wishlist means I’ve been watching YouTube videos and reading spec sheets and convincing myself that each of these would change my life, knowing full well the most likely outcome is that I continue watching YouTube videos about them for another six months.

My wife knows about some of these.

Not all of them.

Let’s keep it that way.

· · ·

The List

Donner HUSH X Live

$439.99 USD · Roughly ₱25,000 – ₱27,000

I’ve written about this one already and I stand by everything I said.

The detachable speaker is the design decision that finally makes the HUSH line exactly what I always wanted it to be.

No permanent weight on the guitar.

No hunting for a separate amp or speaker when you just want to play something in the living room.

Clip the speaker on, play, unclip it, done.

Nice.

The five amp models — JC, Twin, 800, MES, AC30 — cover everything I’d actually use on a given day.

The Alnico V pickups in H-S configuration.

The neck-through seven-piece mahogany construction.

The Bluetooth backing track input.

Headphone out for the times I need to practice at midnight without waking the house up.

I’ve been watching Donner’s page for this since the announcement. And I’ve been calculating how many freelance writing jobs I need to land before I can justify the price to myself and more importantly to my wife.

The number keeps changing.

Usually upward.

Ahhh… such is the price of having a family and battling guitar and gear addiction.

Obstacle: extreme poverty.

Valeton GP-200X Limited Edition

Available at Azaka Music Hub, Davao City

Navy blue chassis with red knobs?

I’m sold.

But the longer I sit with the spec sheet on this the more I realize the color isn’t even the best thing about it.

140 amp models.

11 rearrangeable effect modules.

Artist presets from Bank 26.

The Bluetooth app for editing tones from your phone.

80 user presets to save your configurations.

USB OTG for recording directly into your phone or laptop.

All of that in one unit, at a price that is significantly below what similar units cost from other brands.

Jero at Azaka Music Hub has this one and every time I think about going in to look at it I stop myself because I know what happens when I hold a piece of gear I want.

The looking becomes the buying becomes the explanation to my wife.

So I’m keeping a safe distance for now.

Definitely going in soon though.

Obstacle: Azaka Music Hub is dangerously nearby

Donner HUSH-I

₱12,000 – ₱14,000 range locally

The more affordable entry point into the headless travel guitar conversation.

The HUSH-I doesn’t have the detachable speaker of the HUSH X Live or the full performance capability, but what it does have is a 50-hour battery, a headphone out for silent practice, a 24.75-inch scale on a headless body that fits in an overhead bin, and a price point that is genuinely more reachable than the HUSH X Live.

The HUSH-I is probably the one I’ll actually end up buying based on price and availability and because it is the practical choice.

Something about committing ₱25,000 to the HUSH X Live just doesn’t sound too practical for now.

Smart.

Responsible.

Boring.

All three.

Obstacle: the responsible choice is never as exciting as the irresponsible one

Here’s the real situation. The Joyo Jam Buddy II is still sitting on my desk doing its job every day and I genuinely have no complaints about it.

The Qable cables are holding up.

The gear I have works.

None of what’s on this list is urgent.

It’s all want, not need.

But I’ve been a musician long enough to know that the line between want and need is different for musicians…

Total Damage If I Bought Everything

₱50,000+

This is not happening. But it’s nice to have a number to feel bad about.

So that’s July.

The wishlist is the wishlist.

The HUSH X Live is still at the top of it and it’s going to stay there until either the price comes down or I find a way to justify it to myself and my wife at the same time…

I’m working on that.

What’s on your gear wishlist right now?

Genuinely curious what Davao musicians are eyeing this year.

Leave a comment or drop a message on the Facebook page. These things are always more fun to talk about in a group.