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Searching for THE tone? Wanting a variety of tones to meet different needs? Collecting? Dealing? All of these approaches are entirely legitimate to me.
- The first approach calls for discarding existing instruments as you travel the elusive path towards tone perfection. And it's probably legit to say that our tastes and ears will evolve "as time goes by". The alternative (for the electronically enthusiastic) could be to invest in a Kemper profiler amp - but even if it "comes close" there are probably some audible diifferences in many cases between the "original" and the profiled sound
- The second approach is more my situation. I have 8 guitars, and I will probably cut them down to 5, but
- I can't imagine getting rid my
- Martin JM for fingerpicking and trad folk
- Martin 12 string
- 1961 ES175D - one of a kind, both to play and for the inimitable "thunk" it has
- Peavey Omniac Jerry Donahue tele style - made specifically with extreme stringbending in mind
- Ibanez 2619 Prestige - a heavy beast but with a massive sound palate given the two trisound pickups - a real multipurpose tool for many styles
- I could consider selling
- (maybe) my 1978 Ibanez MC400 NT, but it is a piece of art and a beauty to look at
- Ibanez AR 420 which was bought on impulse at a price I couldn't resist. It also gives me a couple of sounds that the Prestige dosn't have (pure Peter Green territory is easily dialed in - this is much harder on the Prestige)
- 1986 Charvel model 4 - really designed for shredders (thin, flat ultra-fast neck), but first generation SSH with active mid-boost, and a good strat substitute - some sentimental attachment
- I can't imagine getting rid my
- Collecting - not really my bag, other than sentimental attchment to the Charvel
- Dealing - not for me
At the end of the day, whatever floats your boat
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06-12-2017 04:20 AM
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There's a guitar which is an instrument of music. It can be a real extension of one's body to make fantastic expressions of musical sound.
Originally Posted by vinnyv1k
Then there's a guitar which is an instrument of fantasy. It is something that holds an unreal ideal of something that comes from a magical imaginative world. In this fantasy, a person can command the adoration of strangers simply because effortless expressive magic flows from these objects. "I can get that gorgeous Greg Allman sound if I have that (magic phoenix hair wand) guitar!"
I've known collectors who genuinely believe with "this" guitar, I can play that [Wes, Joe Pass, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Eric Clapton...] sound.
Where do people get this notion? There's an entire industry investing billions into this. Ever read a magazine that didn't sound like they were selling you a must-have item?
I've known guitarists who have only one or two guitars. What do many of them have in common? They play them and even one is a handful.
Lots of guitars are great. You can indeed possess fantastic objects. But finding a person who puts more time into finding out what ONE guitar can do... that's a worker, a player or someone who loves their own music a whole lot more than something they can easily buy.
Can't buy me love. Guitars are a whole lot more reliable.
David
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I was really starting to worry about myself last week when I went out to pick up a sandwich for lunch and ended up coming back with a Les Paul. But, I feel better now because if 18 guitars is normal, I only have to sell one and I'll be there too. I am trying to do it, but I just can't decide which one to let go. Originally Posted by Stringswinger
Keith
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A while back I went to a Jens Lindemann (trumpet) concert and he had 3 instruments with him on stage for that single performance. Originally Posted by John A.
dave
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Meanwhile, over at the Mark Knopfler show. Originally Posted by DaveLeeNC
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"I was really starting to worry about myself last week when I went out to pick up a sandwich for lunch and ended up coming back with a Les Paul." Originally Posted by floatingpickup
Yet another ABSOLUTELY CLASSIC JGF line of the century!
Thanks for that. It gives us all something to strive for.
Joe D
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I never said that I was normal. You must have me confused with someone else. Originally Posted by floatingpickup
My experience tells me that if you are unsure about selling a guitar, do not do it. That is the stuff regrets are made of.
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Vin, I think that part of it is that WHAT WE SEE ONLINE is GAS. There are zillions of players who are off playing instead of posting. Originally Posted by vinnyv1k
And before the internet, conspicuous consumption was a central facet of the lifestyle of The Big Rock Star so we saw a lot of pub on that too.
As for me, having wheeled and dealed for decades without playing much, the farther I get into playing guitar the less I feel the need to get another one.
Except when I do.
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Thanks Joe D. The crazy part is that it really happened that way. I guess I can't go downtown for lunch anymore. I am afraid it will happen again. Originally Posted by Max405
Keith
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Stringswinger: Originally Posted by Stringswinger
I never said that I was normal. You must have me confused with someone else.
My experience tells me that if you are unsure about selling a guitar, do not do it. That is the stuff regrets are made of.
Yeah, I miss all the ones I have let go. BTW, like you, I play them all regularly.
Keith
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beacuse i'm ugly and nobody loves me but this i can control
i have more than i need, but they are all different and are used in different. that's the blessing/curse of having diverse tastes and needs and doing a lot of recording. there isn't much redundancy or overlap with my gear and every guitar evokes something different or says something in a different way. which i find fun, useful and inspiring, personally. and as a visual and musical artist, i have a bunch of aesthetic things to ponder, fall in love with or hate and disqualify as the case may be.
but honestly, once you add a mic, effects, drums, bass and vocals some of the differences are smoothed out and sometimes it just doesn't matter all that much. but they are pretty, at least.
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I had a nice 63 335 ,not the reissue !
, sold it cos I was
playing a £200 ibanez jazz box ...
Strangely I don't regret it ...
So , not a gear addict , thank goodness
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Much like any addiction, usually you have to reach "Rock-bottom" to quit...
For GAS addicts, the opposite is true (at least in my experience)...
Instead I have hit "Rock-Top" with my latest acquisition, and no longer have the urge to
possess another guitar.
Aha..I hear you saying "bull-excrement"... Papawooly, you are so full of crap
your breath stinks, your eyes are brown, and your hat sits 6" off the top of yer head!
But I swear it to be true, not only that, but I'm thinking of donating an 1 Archtop/year to
a local high school jazz club (for at least a tax write-off, not a complete idiot)
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I think that's mainly a function of cost (decent saxes start well north of a grand), and many would own more horns if they could. That, and preferences are so heavily skewed toward Selmer Mark VI that having multiples is more about collecting than different horses for different courses. Maybe it's just the guys I know, but the trumpeters I know seem to all have quite a few horns (a couple of trumpets, plus a trumpet and a flugelhorn). I don't think guitarists as a whole are necessarily more polygamous than other instrumentalists; this forum is probably not a representative sample. FWIW, I have two electrics (down from 4). I don't need or want more. Originally Posted by henryrobinett
JohnLast edited by John A.; 06-12-2017 at 03:53 PM.
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I really need to sell a few .... LOL .... I'm in the neighborhood of 40
Just need to get off my butt and list them on Reverb or at least try Craigslist again.
Worst case is haul them down to Rainbow or GC and see what they'll give me for them.
I'm at the point with my house that I could even pay off my mortgage selling a few guitars.
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Message me before going to GC!!!! Originally Posted by Bluedawg
I really need to sell a few .... LOL .... I'm in the neighborhood of 40
Just need to get off my butt and list them on Reverb or at least try Craigslist again.
Worst case is haul them down to Rainbow or GC and see what they'll give me for them.
I'm at the point with my house that I could even pay off my mortgage selling a few guitars.
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It's better to regret buying a guitar than to regret selling a guitar.
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Originally Posted by AlsoRan
I think it was a good learning experience playing cover bands and basically one guitar, amp, and one or two pedals. You really learned how to get lots of sounds via your technique and tweaking knobs. I think today people think "what can I buy" first instead of "what can I do" to sound like <fill in the blank>. In the process of trying to dial in that <fill in the blank> sound, you discover your own sound and that's a great fringe benefit.
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Since you define it up front as addictive, the whole perspective becomes negative. In fact, there are many shades of guitar "enthusiasm", outside the extremes of hopeless addiction and one is all I need.
I've long recognized the dangers in this, being an addictive person by nature. Yet long after substance abuse and bad habits have been put aside, intense guitar and amp enthusiasm remains. For the simple reason that guitars and amps are fascinating to me. Always have been. This curiosity comes from the better part of me, and co-exists with a desire to play, learn music, play better, find new sounds. As long as I don't own too many things, don't gamble with money I don't have, don't turn into a hoarding packrat, and most of all - keep the focus on playing and learning music rather than just on the tools - it's hard to go wrong.
MD
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I have a lot of guitars because I bought my first guitar in 1970, 47 years ago. I believe I've only sold two guitars. About every 3 or 4 years or so I seem to get an itch to buy one. I have 11 guitars (in addition have a uke and a bass guitar). Truth be told, I'd be happy with just 4... a tele, a solid body with humbuckers (I have a Godin for that), a dreadnought acoustic, and a nylon string acoustic.
For me, I just like to buy things and when it comes to buying things guitars are top of the list.
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Aren't some of you concerned about selling your guitars at a much lower price that you paid due to the current market?
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I fell off the wagon,another Gibson Les Paul Standard a 2012 a deal I could not pass up.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
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When I hear or see the word "addiction" I think of someone who has no control. I think of folks who buy or ingest stuff without regard to their financial state, loved ones or personal health.
I own about 22 or so guitars, I don't gig, I play mostly for my own enjoyment. I look at them like tools. A few years ago I undertook my own home remodeling. Well, I own at least five different handsaws, 2 routers, 3 table type saws etc. etc. Plus I received a number of tools from my Dad who was a real shipwright. Nearly all of my guitars have a different sound or purpose. For example I only own 1 Gibson Les Paul, two telecasters (one single coil and one humbucker) 2 Strats (one with a vintage neck and the other with a True Temperament neck) etc. etc.
Like another poster above mentioned, and I believe it was Joe D, I don't take vacations, I don't golf or shoot guns, I like to play guitars and I'm single.
When I was in my 20's (70's) I was too poor to have more than two or three at a time. That is not the case today. And I'd rather hang onto them then sell them at a loss or deal with the hassle.
I had a girlfriend at one time who had a thing for purses. Now mind you I couldn't tell a Coach from a Hermes but she could and her handbag collection put my guitar $$$ to shame. Myself, I thought it foolish but it was her hard earned money, she didn't live outside her means and she derived pleasure from it so I was not going criticize her for spending money on something I wouldn't spend $100 dollars on. Now she has moved on to parasailing and hiking. The used purse market is a lot like the guitar market.
If purchasing and playing guitars interferes with your financial future, your family or your job. Then it is a "addiction". If not than it is just another expensive hobby or in the case of working musicians, another tool in the tool bag.Last edited by rob taft; 06-13-2017 at 12:04 AM.
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It's clear Alexander the Great wasn't a guitar player or the story attributed to him about conquering "worlds" would have looked like the following: (Changing the word "world" to "guitar")
Alexander wept when he heard Anaxarchus discourse about an infinite number of "guitars", and when his friends inquired what ailed him, "Is it not worthy of tears," he said, "that, when the number of "guitars" is infinite, I have yet to master a single one?"
Last edited by archtopeddy; 06-12-2017 at 07:49 PM.
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I love guitars, they make me happy! I wanted to try every kind of guitar, because I'm curious. And you have to own a guitar for a while to really get to know it. So I've had a lot.
Before the internet got so big, you could buy and sell guitars and make a profit if you knew what you were doing. I did that for years, always getting better guitars. Now I have about a dozen, and each is as nice an example of it's type as you could want, the result of 35 years of trading up.
I walk into a music store or look online and it's not so much fun, because I don't see anything better than what I've got.
Poor poor me.....
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