I had the most ridiculous year in terms of the gear I bought, so much so that I now need to figure out a way to curb my expenses in 2018.
Here's the hardware I got:
1) Strandberg Boden 8 Custom Shop - Definitely a keeper. Fabulous build and great sonic character.
2) Replacement Kemper (traded away the previous one) - I needed one for simple jams and gigs.
3) Mesa Boogie Mark V:25 - Pint-sized tone machine!
4) EVH 5150III 50-watt - A great "tiny" amp with a huge sound
5) Diezel VH4 - A real monster. Not a fan of the cleans, but the high gain channels are awesome
6) VHT Sig:X - I love this amp. Covers so much ground and sounds good at almost any setting. Cleans to die for.
7) TC Electronic Mimiq - An interesting pedal if you're running a dual amp setup, I didn't much care for it in the FX loop of either a digital processor or an amp.
Damage Control Glass Nexus - Oh man, a dead simple pedal with great sounds. It's like an analog multi-FX in some ways.
9) Damage Control Demonizer - Great as a backup, but I wouldn't want it as my main tone engine.
10) JHS Electronics Buffered Splitter - Works as advertised. Splits and buffers your signal
11) EHX HOG2 - This is a crazy pedal. The synth stuff is nice and it also works really well as an octave pedal. Midi controllable too.
12) Zoom B3 - A decent bass processor on a budget.
13) ISP Decimator G String - It's okay.
14) ISP Decimator - Ditto
15) Pedal Train Terra42 - Too big and the bag really sucks. I would not buy a board like this again, especially when there are no options for a replacement bag. The zipper on mine is already coming apart.
16) Waldorf Blofeld - A real fun mini-synth. This one can handle 16 channels of midi input, so you can really go crazy with it.
17) Rivera Silent Sister Iso Cabinet - I find myself using this more with the top off nowadays during the day time, and even created a profile using it (search for ZHT Teutonic Xmas on the Kemper Rig Exchange). Not too shabby, but you really need to have a way to deal with the resonance of the cab, even with the lid off. Would I buy again? Probably not.
18) Suhr Reactive Load x 2 - Great reactive load box. Have a lot of fun with them, and they interact really well with the guitar and amp.
19) Universal Audio Apollo Quad with Octo Satellite - Just got these as a Christmas present to myself. Had to after my RME Fireface 800 died. It works real well, very low latency and extremely nice preamps with the option of modelling real analog hardware through unique plugin modelling and adjustable impedance.
20) Fender HM Strat (Traded away) - Man, if I run into some money, I'll buy this back. But looks like the guy isn't selling.
21) Ibanez RG2228 Prestige (Traded away) - Great guitar, but I didn't need two eight strings. I think.
22) Gretsch Renown 5-piece kit with hardware - Beautiful drumkit, very professional sound. Hardware I got thrown in was nice too.
In terms of software, just:
1) Some UAD plugins - I liked the free ones, thought I would buy a few more while their annual sale was on.
2) Izotope Ozone 8 and Neutron 8 - A nice package of plugins. EQs, compressors, limiters, spacial treatment, etc
3) Sonarworks Reference 4 - This was definitely the best purchase of the year imo. It lifted a blanket from my speakers after years of struggling with mixes and tones. I will be leaning on it heavily in 2018.
What I want in 2018:
I have nothing on my 2018 list, I need to keep it that way