How Many Guitars Do You Have?

[bkdavidson]

The Internet Grammar Police have asked me to transmit this message:

The title of the thread should be, "Do any of you guys own fewer than two guitars?"

I now return you to your regularly scheduled programing.

That is what caught the attention of the Internet Grammar Police? While this forum is an exception for the most part, at least 80% of what I read on the internet makes me wonder if native English-speakers still have the slightest idea how to speak English! I hope our international jazz guitar friends don't take offense to that, you guys tend to use English better than us.

[Little Jay]

One amp and one guitar. I don't do the G.A.S. thing. Nothing good comes of it.

Oh man, I am so jealous of you! You are my guitar-Zen-Guru!

[lpdeluxe]

That is what caught the attention of the Internet Grammar Police? While this forum is an exception for the most part, at least 80% of what I read on the internet makes me wonder if native English-speakers still have the slightest idea how to speak English! I hope our international jazz guitar friends don't take offense to that, you guys tend to use English better than us.

At most forums, the IGP simply don't have the manpower or other resources to enforce the rules. In consequence, forums frequented by persons under the age of 20 are de facto grammar-free zones.

[woyvel]

Yo, Lpdeluxe, like what do you, like, mean, dude?

[lpdeluxe]

Yo, Lpdeluxe, like what do you, like, mean, dude?

No, no, no: like this:

yO LpD, like what du U like, MeAn, dood???

[randyc]

This site includes numerous highly competent people that don't take themselves very seriously and have well-developed senses of humour. (Additionally, the level of courtesy - especially when sensitive issues are under discussion - is excellent !!)

[Archie]

Mine are tin -- oh, I thought you said sensitive ears.

[bkdavidson]

LPD, you spelled too many words correctly in that last post. Also, it seems you have an in with the IGP. Could you tell them to check out ebay and craigslist? I've read item descriptions on those sites that have almost made my cry.

Getting back to the topic, are we still at one person who only owns one guitar? That's amazing; I must commend you on your ability to resist being a guitar slut. Sometimes I want a second ES-135! I'm also G.A.S.ing for a tele (just a little bit in the back of my head) and a Carvin SH550.

[lpdeluxe]

LPD, you spelled too many words correctly in that last post. Also, it seems you have an in with the IGP. Could you tell them to check out ebay and craigslist? I've read item descriptions on those sites that have almost made my cry.

Yeah, I don't really have the touch.

As to craigslist and eBay, those are among the "grammar-free zones" I mentioned. Correct diction for eBay is something along the lines of "***RARE!!!*** Near mint '47 Stratocaster with Leo's own fingerprints in the finish!!!!" (embellish to your own satisfaction).

[randyc]

Well, I forgot to omit LPD from my list of complimentary characteristics - it's obvious that he has NO sense of humour !

cheers, John !

[lpdeluxe]

Alas, it's true.

[C.A.JO.]

Different axes = different sounds = different "palette".

I have 4 guitars:

- Gibson Les Paul Custom
- Fender Stratocaster
- Fender Telecaster
- Martin DM (acoustic w. pickup)

They have 4 distinct sounds, and 4 different feels to them. I use them for different situations and styles. I would like to add a semi-hollow to the collection. Maybe a ES-335, which I used to play. Maybe I opt for a more economic one... perhaps an Epi Sheraton. I haven't decided yet.

[bass2man]

You can never have to many guitars. I do a good bit of recording for fun with guys I have been playing with for 30 years and no matter how hard you try, playing country twang on a hollowbody just dont cut it..

I have:

1966 Fender jazz bass, 2005 Fender jazz bass, Specter NS-4 Bass, Laravee LV-05 acoustic, Yamaha acoustic ( Beach guitar), Gibson es-336, 1977 Gibson ES-175D, Fender tele, 1979 Squire Strat and a Gretsch G400C w HB....

I am looking for another archtop...looking at the Peerless cremona..anyone play one of these?

Music is my hobby so why not have some fun and enjoy it....a lot of my friends play golf and some have boats/fish...talk about expensive hobbies!

[tonedeaf]

You can never have to many guitars. I do a good bit of recording for fun with guys I have been playing with for 30 years and no matter how hard you try, playing country twang on a hollowbody just dont cut it..

I have:

1966 Fender jazz bass, 2005 Fender jazz bass, Specter NS-4 Bass, Laravee LV-05 acoustic, Yamaha acoustic ( Beach guitar), Gibson es-336, 1977 Gibson ES-175D, Fender tele, 1979 Squire Strat and a Gretsch G400C w HB....

I am looking for another archtop...looking at the Peerless cremona..anyone play one of these?

Music is my hobby so why not have some fun and enjoy it....a lot of my friends play golf and some have boats/fish...talk about expensive hobbies!

Talk about expensive hobbies? Try owning an airplane! I regularly put a nice new guitar in my gas tanks.

[randyc]

Talk about expensive hobbies? Try owning an airplane! I regularly put a nice new guitar in my gas tanks.

GREAT point even EXCLUDING maintenance/inspection costs!

That's an example that I frequently attempt to illustrate (when "cost" is suggested as a reason for owning cheap instruments). Even very EXPENSIVE guitars are just a tiny fraction of annual transportation, lodging and food costs.

For the cost of dinner for two, once a week for a year, one can own a fine instrument that will last for generations, gaining financial, emotional and historical value each year. Not to mention a few bragging rights

OR for the cost of a six-pack a week, one can own an Asian wonder that depreciates each year in financial, emotional and historical value

What's the point in buying a cheap guitar in order to save beer money? Wouldn't it be nicer to own an instrument made by a neighbor - an instrument played by those that we most admired when we first realized that this was "our kind of music"?

I know that this reasoning doesn't work perfectly for our European friends but it actually should. The artists that YOU grew up admiring didn't play Chinese guitars --- they may not have played American guitars either but they played quality instruments of emotional and historical significance, right?

randyc

PS: Cheers, former neighbor. Perhaps you should also mention the cost of spark plugs, for example, things that automobile owners take for granted as a part of the car that is never replaced, LOL.

[C.A.JO.]

I know that this reasoning doesn't work perfectly for our European friends but it actually should.

Care to elaborate?

I'm European, and I reason the same way as you - I buy quality instruments exclusively. Owning "the real deal" adds a sentimental value, which I think is priceless. Why do you insinuate that Europeans doesn't think this way?

[Archie]

Having lived in Europe half my life, and Canada the other, with many enjoyable times in the U.S. (and an American-born stepmother), I think I'm correct in saying that most of the Europeans I know favor quality over quantity.

[abracadabra]

The artists that YOU grew up admiring didn't play Chinese guitars --- they may not have played American guitars either but they played quality instruments of emotional and historical significance, right?

Presumably our heros didn't play Chinese guitars because China was still, and is still, slowly dragging it's people out of intolerable poverty, and didn't have the skills to produce competitive instruments. Although China has many many many problems, and although I have many many many issues with China, the acheivement of a single-party state transitioning a country from communism to a more-or-less market economy should not be ignored.

Again, I am not suggesting that the economy China has is perfect, far from it, but since they have embraced market principles to acheive much of this, principles espoused in the US and Europe and responsible in large part for the standard of living enjoyed by most westerners, I see no problem in allowing instruments made there to 'compete' in my mind with instruments from other countries.

If China can make good quality instruments, and one day factories there will start turning out instruments to rival western ones, I see no reason to boycott products made there simply because they are not made in the West, or because they weren't played by the greats.

[GuitaRoland]

The artists that YOU grew up admiring didn't play Chinese guitars --- they may not have played American guitars either but they played quality instruments of emotional and historical significance, right?

randyc

I have the real thing from the 50's as well as instruments from later on made in other countries than USA. Any guarantee for the quality of a guitar and its playability has nothing to do where it is manufactured in my opinion.

Don't we all know that lots of parts and even complete guitars often are made in other countries than its origin?

For the time being my arsenal contains of eight guitars but it varies from one year to another. Gibson Les Paul, Fender Stratocaster, Samick Sarc-902 (335 copy), Swing T-thru, SX SST57, HB DC600 and a very unknown Hamer copy under the name Glass which was a kind of prototype for a guitar that later was sold under another name. Just forgot - I also have a Shine W140 Telecaster. These guitars were made in USA, Japan, Korea and China.

/R

[Drifter]

I wish we'd concentrate on the quality and sound instead of the country of origin or the price tag, which are very subjective matters. There's no doubt that any of us would prefer a Gibson over a cheap Chinese replica if money wasn't an issue. Frankly, I don't care about financial backgrounds of other forum members or their personal reasons to favour certain brands, but I am interested in sharing knowledge about what certain guitars have to offer so that I can decide whether they might suit my demands or not. Everything else is strictly personal and nobody should feel the need to justify his or her purchase decision.

[Little Jay]

I wish we'd concentrate on the quality and sound instead of the country of origin or the price tag, which are very subjective matters. There's no doubt that any of us would prefer a Gibson over a cheap Chinese replica if money wasn't an issue. Frankly, I don't care about financial backgrounds of other forum members or their personal reasons to favour certain brands, but I am interested in sharing knowledge about what certain guitars have to offer so that I can decide whether they might suit my demands or not. Everything else is strictly personal and nobody should feel the need to justify his or her purchase decision.

This makes a lot of sense to me!

Back on topic: I own 18 guitars (but only half of them are serious gig-ready instruments, I just like to pick up some unknown instruments or salvage them from the trash-bin).

I am seriously thinking of cutting down the collection because it just takes up to much room in the house and at one point one has got to ask himself the question: what do I realy need? I find that 90% of the music I play is done on my ES-333 (transeferred to ES-335 -specs) and my Japanese ES175-copy. I could never get rid of my Contreras Classical. Next to that for the other 10%, which is mostly sit-in jobs in other bands, I would need a good steelstring acoustic and a strat and my cheap Chinese nylon-electro acoustic is very handy to produce decent enough amplified nylon-string sounds. So I could cut back to 6 guitars.

[mangotango]

That is what caught the attention of the Internet Grammar Police? While this forum is an exception for the most part, at least 80% of what I read on the internet makes me wonder if native English-speakers still have the slightest idea how to speak English! I hope our international jazz guitar friends don't take offense to that, you guys tend to use English better than us.

"Native English-speakers"?? You talkin' to me??

Speaking as an "international", by which I assume you mean "non-American", who does cope reasonably well with English (because I are one! ), it almost dismays me sometimes that our language, which gave the world Shakespeare, Wordsworth and Milton, is nowadays reduced to "Microsoft North American English", almost as standard. As a result, I find it difficult to take remotely seriously a regular poster on another guitar site (thank goodness), who lectures on inaccuracies in something as esoteric as Melodic Minor Theory, when his diatribes show clearly that he has difficulties with speaking and writing his mother tongue.

However, the world changes and moves on and it's important to recognise that. After all, schools have preached content over form for so long now that it's hardly surprising that even here, Proper English is not what it used to be. And since we're bombarded with culture from the other side of the pond 24 hours a day, it's no wonder that our children talk as though they've been immersed in The Disney Channel or (Heaven forbid) The Jerry Springer Show. Then again, I'm here to learn an American music and correspond happily with people from the other side of "The Special Relationship". So - no biggies. Like, whatever.

Anyway, here's a little story that you might appreciate in this regard (please regard my tongue as being firmly in my cheek here):

A young American student arrives at Oxford to study English Literature at the University and on his first day is struggling to find the library. He sees a passing Don and calls out "Yo, old dude. I'm here to study English; can you tell me where the Library's at?". The Old Academic replies, "Young man, since you are here to learn English, let me administer your first lesson. One should never finish a sentence with a preposition, such as 'at'". "Well pardon me, your highness", responds the student. "In that case, can you tell me where the library's at, ASSHOLE?"

[lpdeluxe]

To misquote Winston Churchill (another master of language), "ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put!"

Truth to tell, I break that rule (and other misguided grammar "rules" based not on English but on Latin) all the time.

On another topic, I think RandyC may have been acknowledging the higher price of American made instruments in Europe, rather than attacking the practices of those who live there.

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

I find it difficult to take remotely seriously a regular poster on another guitar site (thank goodness), who lectures on inaccuracies in something as esoteric as Melodic Minor Theory, when his diatribes show clearly that he has difficulties with speaking and writing his mother tongue.

Don't get me started on "Teabonics"!

[mangotango]

To misquote Winston Churchill (another master of language), "ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put!"

Truth to tell, I break that rule (and other misguided grammar "rules" based not on English but on Latin) all the time.

On another topic, I think RandyC may have been acknowledging the higher price of American made instruments in Europe, rather than attacking the practices of those who live there.

No no no, wasn't having a go at Randy C (or at anyone, honest), just a little humourous (I hope) reference back to bkdavidson's comments about the Internet Grammar Police. Y'see, I work for an American company here in the UK, and my job inolves, amongst other things, drafting contracts. I have to be fairly precise about the language that I use, so can occasionally be a bit fussy about this sort of thing. Additionally, I have a legal background, so words are my stock in trade. I do however try not to be too heavy about it - it's a big old world and everyone therein different. Which is why I was indicating the cheek with the firmly-lodged tongue.

Ending a sentence a preposition with? How shocking! Next thing, people will be trying to boldly split infinitives and then where will we be?

With regard to randyc's comment, I would say that American guitars are so intrinsically bound up with the image of jazz and indeed all music of American origin; as a result, they are in ridiculously high demand over here. That demand, increased by the general lack of availability and the cost of importing them, causes the very high prices and thus the number of people having to turn to guitars of Oriental origin.