How many guitars do you really need?

[darkwaters]

1 Acoustic
1 Nylon String
1 Electric
5 Backups

[Hep To The Jive]

• telecaster
• telecaster
• telecaster
• telecaster

Joking! Ok for reals now, I need archtop electric, archtop acoustic, flat top acoustic, classical nylon, Gypsy jazz acoustic, 2 solid bodies ( tele of course, main and backup), plectrum banjo.

I'm missing the Gypsy jazz and nylon string right now, so total I have 5 guitars +the banjo. All needed for work, otherwise I would just have teles and maybe electric archtop.

Since I put together my teles myself I don't even crave for another electric, I created the perfect guitar that I love playing, that serves me well in any situation, and that doesn't exist outside of maybe some rare Fender custom shop, but I didn't see it yet. The best thing is that I know now exactly what my sound is and how to build it myself.

[Greywolf]

need? One of each
Classical
Acoustic steel
Dobro
Electric solid single
Electric solid PAF
Electric Semi

My current collection is 39 electrics and a dozen acoustics , 2 5 string fiddles, and a mandolin

[gvurrdon]

All I need is one solid-bodied electric.
I have three (I ought to sell at least one) and one cheap archtop.

[acoustic_archtop]

Here's what I've settled on for the moment:

Permanent

• 1929 Gibson L5 (16" Maple, Parallel Bracing)
• 1933 Gibson L00 (14.75" Mahogany, X-Bracing)
• 1930 Gibson L4 Round Hole (16" Maple, Parallel Bracing)

Provisional

• 1937 Gibson L10
• 1948 Gibson Super 300
• 1952 Gibson L4C

[jim777]

I need all the guitars.
I think I have 17 but I'm not sure. I did just buy a 4 string bass because my 5 and 6 string basses were lonely.
All the guitars

[rpjazzguitar]

Two. One that lives in the practice room and goes on gigs and another as a backup which lives in a different room.

But, lately I've been trying to do voice and guitar -- and I'm thinking about getting another which will sound better for that.

[BFrench]

at 75 only 1 acoustic, possessed!

[Hyppolyte Bergamotte]

I have a guitar museum, but I had to stop, otherwise my wife wanted to divorce..
HB

[benhatchins]

3 only, but thinking to get one more. That’s always a fun question because there’s never one answer. Some people stick with one, others keep adding more over time. It can turn into a collection pretty quickly. Almost like browsing qvc qvc.pissedconsumer.com/review.html and finding something you didn’t plan on getting. How many do you have now? It’s hard to stop once you start. Good topic.

[Jim Soloway]

I currently have 3 guitars, all electric, with a fourth under construction. I only play one of them and the one under construction is essentially a replacement for that one.

I most definitely don't need an acoustic. I buy one every few years and always give up on it within a few weeks. I also don't need and archtop. I have owned many and they never last.

So my honest answer is 2. One to play everyday and another as a backup/substitute for that one.

[Aiq]

Fretless 12 string? I have a Squier fretless jazz bass I am enjoying but that is just manical.

[Mark M.]

As I prepare for retirement I have been collecting the right guitar(s) for everything I’m interested in playing. So far, that includes:

3 steel string acoustics

3 flamencos

1 classical

1 good Tele

2 laminate archtops (Es175 and ES 330)

2 solid body electrics set up for slide. One tuned to open E, one to open G

2 resonator guitars, one tuned to open D, one to open G

1 Fender Jazz bass

1 mandolin

…and an oud arriving later this week.

Between all of these and the piano, I think I should be pretty busy.

[Tim Clark]

Two. My 1966 ES125 thinline and my backup 2024 Guild T-50 Slim, which is basically a quite good copy of an ES125.

[fastdancin]

O, reason not the need: our basest beggars
Are in the poorest thing superfluous:
Allow not nature more than nature needs,
Man's life's as cheap as beast's. . . .

--King Lear, II.iv

50 within a fortnight oughta' do.

[Sleeko]

Holding at 5, down from 9. Plus one very fine Fender American Standard Bass. You?

[Sleeko]

The guy I bought my last guitar from has 169 guitars, almost all of them Strats.
What do you say to him?

I'd leave him alone lol.

[Cunamara]

Brutally honest? One.

I don't gig much any more and don't expect to take up an active schedule- the market for jazz is so small that the community doesn't need yet another guitarist of limited talent taking up room on stage. I might play a handful of gigs a year. If I was a brilliant musician playing multiple settings, that'd maybe be a different thing and multiple guitars would be useful. But I am not and having more or less guitars is not going to make a difference.

But I don't live by the courage of that conviction and I have nine. Too many, honestly. 90% of my playing time is on one very versatile guitar (a semihollow dual humbucker TSO). The archtops, the classicals, the other solidbodies mostly sit in their cases. I pull my flattop out every so often. Most of my guitars should move on to someone who would make more use of them.

[Jimmy Mack]

As I prepare for retirement I have been collecting the right guitar(s) for everything I’m interested in playing.

That for me includes:

Guitars for recording: jazz, folk, classical, blues

Guitars for gigs and backups: 2 335's, 1 Casino

1 semi-hollow body bass guitar

1 Strat

1 Electric 12 string

And a couple of sentimental pieces I adopted along the way

[Avery Roberts]

One.

[GuyBoden]

One.

Seventeen.

[WilliamScott]

One. While others remain within reach.

[Stringswinger]

I will update my earlier post in this thread:

I need 2

I have 18

At one point, I had 23, so I am making "progress ".

[garybaldy]

Somehow it got completely out of control but I haven't bought a guitar for over 4 months now. My wife really should put her foot down though.