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I was practicing tonight and she nice I have had some sciatica flare ups and started using my Ibanez 2630 (it has an ES-335 style body and is more comfortable). The last few nights I have been doing that and it leads to playing it, my D'Agistino (an ES-175 lawsuit guitar that is the easiest playing guitar ever on the neck) and then finally the big chunk of time on the L5.
I have been thinking a lot about how much I love the sounds of these guitars. I have an Eastman 805ce too for the sake of this discussion. Guitars are great and I love them - I love seeing them, playing them and everything about them. However, I think we all can agree that all of our jazz heroes are basically one guitar players for the most part. They may have switched guitars during their career, or played different versions of the same kind of guitar (Wes, for example, choosing the L5 so he could pick up and L5 and be comfortable) but we don't really see them switching guitars on gigs or anything like that. I can think of some modern players who might switch to nylon string and back to a jazz box, or maybe George Benson who is known for planting one guitar at home but not wanting to take it out of the house (and that he has a whole bunch of guitars).
But anyway, as I practice these guitars, they all feel different. Different scale lengths, body sizes, different setups and string gauges. That is part of the charm - that there is a novelty that is fun when playing and switching instruments. And as much as the L5 is my dream instrument, I still like playing these other guitars and if I were independently wealthy I am sure I would have a whole lot more and play them too. But on the gig I only play the L5, unless it is a theatre gig where I need different guitars for the part or it is a classical gig where I need nylon string but I am really just thinking about jazz for this discussion. When I switch from the other guitars to the L5 my positioning is slightly off and I know that I am not as home on it as I would be if I never played all of these other guitars, at least not as much as I could be - the D'Agostino is a killer player and if I were deaf I would probably choose it due to just how easy it is to play. And it sounds very, very close to a "real" 175 amplifies. But the L5 is the sound I fell in love with 22 years ago and now that I have one you bet that I am going to use it to present my voice publicly, even though it is the toughest one to play due to my fingers feeling more at home on a shorter scale length.
So I present this to you all wondering what your thoughts are. How do you feel about having several guitars (beyond the utility of playing different styles or using guitars for gigs that call specifically for whatever type they ask for)? I think it makes sense to have a backup axe for when you need to have your main one in the shop. And something like the Ibanez 2630 is extremely versatile...humbuckers with a coil tap and reverse phase switch make it able to approximate most electric guitar sounds I will ever need professionally. But it's not the dream guitar and the time I spend on anything other than that L5 is time that I could be spending getting as good as I can at that instrument.
And do you think that guitar tone is part of your voice? Tone is in the fingers of course but we do associate so many guitar heros with a particular sound and that is the sound of their main guitar. Anyone else have these kinds of thoughts and what do you do about it? I am curious to hear any ideas about this.
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03-02-2017 12:42 AM
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Playing on different guitars makes me play differently which I appreciate. I don't struggle switching between semi, solid, archtop etc (nylon a different story...). If I did I would stick to one guitar.
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As a rock guitarist for decades, into everything from early Beatles to Zep to Slayer to Soundgarden, I've always been comfortable with the idea of multiple guitars, on a demo or at a gig. If I'm hearing a Strat tone, I want a Strat. If I'm hearing a Gibby in my head, I want to hear it out of my speakers, too.
When I imagine melodies on guitar in my head, I can hear what guitar I need for it -- because I hear the tone as well as the melody. I let the song tell me what it wants. I'd never own too many guitars, myself; even if I won beaucoup green in the Powerball, I'd still stop at maybe twenty, if not fewer. I reckon that would get me 90% of the way for anything I wanted to play ... and the good lord made pedals for the remaining ten per cent.Last edited by Thumpalumpacus; 03-02-2017 at 01:26 AM.
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I look at them as objets d'art, a tool as well as something to play and enjoy.
As far as tone goes, I'm very flexible. Like any other art form I "generally" see and hear what the designer intended, and do not generally buy something I do not like the sound of the system (myself and the git) leaving it to someone else if I don't like it.
Funny, in a rare move I recently bought a blonde Epi Sheraton that I very much disliked the sound of. A pup (a Seymour Duncan SH2 no surprise I generally don't like SD pups anyway) the PO installed is not for this git at all and it will be only the second of its type to undergo surgery.
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Yeah, I see them as art too. One problem is that I don't humidify them as well as I should since I want to see them out and about all the time. I ran out of room on the walls (since I do want actual art hanging too so I got a seven guitar holder but then I didn't like that since I couldn't see anything except the sides of the guitars...so it was back to individual stands for the ones that aren't on the walls.
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Too many guitars distract me from really polishing up my playing.
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I like guitars. I like guitars a lot. I have a lot of guitars that I like. When I was gigging, I always took two guitars (as well as two amps) for the simple reason that Stuff Happens. But the guitars were selected for their appropriateness for the gig. Jazz - 175, backed up by Ibanez archtop. Rock - Les Paul, backed up by LP 55/78 RI. Country - Gibson ES-345 backed up by LP 55/78 RI. Variety (i.e. wedding or other casual gig) - 345 bub LP or Strat (this was in my pre-Telecaster days). Later my PRS Custom 24 became my #1 go-to for its do-evrything versatility. The point being, I had good reasons for choosing my tools.
These days, I still play them all, though not all at once. I find them inspirational and sonically rewarding. I get different ideas from different guitars. My hands appreciate the changes in scale length and neck width and depth and so forth, so that (I hope) the repetitive stress is lessened. Or maybe this is just an elaborate (and transparent) rationalization for the child-like glee I get from playing with my toys. My Puritan forbears would surely disapprove.
All that being the case, you can bet the farm that when Gibder or Fenson start cranking out the citizenk74 signature model, I'll be playing it exclusively in public.
Mainly at the Flying Pig Air Races.
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I think there is a difference between gigging and what you do at home.
Players seem to be faithful to their rig when gigging, especially if they are locking into a genre/band. Noone knows what they have at home.
But then there is also the question of economics. I accidently watched the rig rundown with Margaret Glaspy. Here she talks about recording her current record with a Fender Custom Shop guitar that her local store kindly lent her, but that she could never afford such an expensive guitar. She currently gigs with danocaster that is on loan from her boyfriend.
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This is an interesting discussion. I also love to swap between guitars at home, experimenting with different sounds and styles. When it comes to practice, though, I have always tried to play a guitar that is a bit more difficult and will stretch my hands a bit. At the moment that's an L5 copy. I also use a very clean amp sound which will make me very aware of any sloppiness. For playing live, I try to choose one guitar (and one amp) that will suit all the circumstances that I will find myself in. There's usually not much time to mess about swapping guitars!
Alan
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Too much playing distracts me from polishing my guitars...
Originally Posted by Bach5G
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I have about 12. Most of them are extremely playable particularly for jazz, but I have a couple that I just keep for the looks, well, that and I haven't found anyone to buy them yet...
I have a 1970 Electra SG-style bass I rehabbed, a 1964 Kay all-mahogany set up for slide, and a Regal dobro that I rarely if ever play, but they look really cool on the wall of the music room.
As far as my "sound," such as it is, I get that mainly from a Gibson ES-135 or Sunset Peerless, both of which are very well made and comfortable to play, but I can't see getting rid of the others. I agree they are objects of beauty, a testament to the elegance of design, where form meets function.
And I keep some, like the Tele, just in case my friends take me up on the offer to start that alt-country band I've been talking about for awhile.Last edited by Doctor Jeff; 03-02-2017 at 09:50 AM.
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Interesting discussion. I love guitars, and find different ones bring out and enable different ways of playing and hearing things. Speaking just of jazz playing: not a gigging concern for me, as I'll probably never be good enough to gig in this style. For playing at home, it comes down to both sound and ergonomics. These are my choices:
- Heritage H525
- Heritage H575
- Silvertone 1427
Depending on mood and day of the week, either Heritage is my favorite. With proper setups, these guitars play very well. Such fine P-90 and humbucker sounds from the 525 and 575 respectively. The old Silvertone is the deepest body of the three, longer scale at 25", and very different sound with P-13 pickups. Sometimes the body depth aggravates a left arm strain, so much as I appreciate this guitar, I have to be careful how much I play it until the arm feels better.
Just traded for a Gretsch Country Club, so now another contender will be thrown in the mix. It has a bigsby, so might get played more for roots stuff, less for jazz. Don't know yet.
MD
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40+ years ago, I had 29 guitar cases against my living room wall....today I have two gig bags - one for my Tele and one for my Cordoba GK Studio. I've been playing Telecasters since I got a used '68 in about 1971 and just don't feel comfortable with anything else. Anything with over two knobs makes it difficult to adjust tone on the fly. If you pick up a Tele (in my case) or ...(fill in your favorite here)....I just feel more like playing. My tone comes from a combination of me, the guitar, and the amp - there's a wide range of sounds available between the tone controls on the guitar and the controls on the amp and once I get everything set for 'MY' sound, I don't change it - I just don't care about sounding like anybody else. I used a '72 Super Reverb for about 35 years with my Tele and I don't think I ever touched the amp knobs except the volume and, maybe, a little reverb, depending on the room. If I get the urge for a different guitar, I just build a Tele of a different color, swap out the neck and pickups and keep playing. Remember, every great guitarist (Joe, Herb, Barney, Wes, etc.) sounded like himself regardless of the guitar.....it's in the fingers and time on the instrument. YMMV
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I'll never be down to one guitar, because I like both steel string and nylon string sounds.
But I think fewer is better, more and more.
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One guitar...............but which one?
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Tele!!!! Originally Posted by Jabberwocky
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Oh no, not the 'Tele' again; the answer to everything, apparently. Sorry but I really don't share the love for these planks of wood.
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To each his own - I feel the same way about archtops. Every one I've ever had (and there have been some good ones) seemed too big to comfortably hold onto and I had to work extremely hard to get any tone out of them and then it sounded 'boxy' to me. Also, I would never take a high dollar archtop into most of the places that I've played over the past 50 years. Teles can protect you as well as make beautiful music. Everyone has his/her favorites. Originally Posted by A440
Oh no, not the 'Tele' again; the answer to everything, apparently. Sorry but I really don't share the love for these planks of wood.
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It seems as though there's a growing consensus in this forum towards owning fewer guitars as the preferred choice. On the other hand, I'm the type who loves his rather large collection of guitars.
The question is why I'm so interested in acquiring gear, and I think the answer lies in personality traits which I've displayed since childhood. As a child, I collected stamps and coins; as an adolescent it was comics (to the point where I bagged and cataloged hundreds if not thousands of books); later it was CDs; and for the past 20+ years, it's been guitars.
Besides the urge to collect stuff that I enjoy, why else do I have all these lovely instruments? Sometimes the spark which gets me out of a practice or playing rut is the joy of feeling a different guitar in my hands. Being that most of my instruments are acoustic, each produces its distinctive tone, so even fully carved instruments from the same manufacturer with the same specs regularly sound totally different from one another.
I find guitars beautiful and fascinating. Could I wind my collection down to 2 or 3 guitars? Certainly, but it would be heartbreaking.
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I love guitars, but I play only one regularly.
I go by two things -- 1) how it feels physically to play, which is mostly neck dimensions and 2) whether I can get my sounds.
I like an unusually thin neck, in every dimension, and one of my guitars is a standout in that one respect. I had to change the pickup and I have to process the tone with a pedalboard, but I can get to the goal. I use it for a wide range of styles, essentially by tweaking the knobs on the guitar and pedalboard.
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Last edited by Bluedawg; 03-03-2017 at 12:13 AM.
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Klatu expresses perfectly how I feel about my gear and where I come from. Originally Posted by Klatu
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I am a one guitar man. had never thought of it before but recently realised most of my favourite players are one guitar guys.
There is a video on u tube of Joe Bonamassa running through a pile of sounds from a les Paul. He does not touch on half of them. I think that it is a fun aspect of one guitar.
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If I had to choose I would probably take my Ibanez 2630. It has a good jazz tone and is just so damn versatile. That is real life though, needing one guitar for every gig. In some idealized reality it would be the L5 if I was just playing what I want to all the time. Originally Posted by Jabberwocky
Skip, how do you like the Cordoba? I just got a GK Studio a few months ago and I am really liking it. I took of the scratchguard and it opened up the sound a bit more too. I haven't played it much amplified but in a couple weeks that will change because I have some larger classical wedding gigs with other instruments where I will need the volume. One thing I have noticed about it is that it's very susceptible to heat and humidity changes...I need to get it a humidipak asap.
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My perspective = Many Guitars. Wife's perspective = one guitar....
Last edited by icr; 03-03-2017 at 11:08 PM.
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