Has anyone thought of scaling down to one, maybe 2 guitars?

Reinhard · 2012-10-18T09:30:45+00:00

I spoke to Nick about this a while back. It is nice to have a bunch of cool guitars and I have been fortunate enough to have owned all the models I lusted after growing up. Recently I sold my tele and strat. Iconic guitars, but I wasn't playing either of them. Looking at the rest of my guitars, I could honestly say if I randomly picked one of them and sold the rest I would still be fine. There would me more space, less strings to buy ? and that one guitar would get the hell played out of it. Of late I have thought of putting them all on gumtree and keeping the one that does not sell, kind of "Last man standing". Same goes for amps, but for some reason I can justify owning more than one, even though replacing tubes can get expensive. There was a guy on the LPF who had an obscene collection of guitars and when he sold it all off all that remained was an ES-345, an old Tele and a Marshall halfstack. The simplicity of that just seems so appealing. Anyone else get the urge to sell it all and have that 1 or 2 keepers? I am aware many may already have that 1 or 2 keepers and that's it, but for those with 5+ guitars, do you sometimes get the urge just to scale things down?

DaFiz

Nicholas L wrote
DaFiz wrote Gotta have an electric guitar for rocking. Gotta have the dreadnought for the acoustic stuff. Gotta have the old concord to carry on the bike and going to braais.

Nope I need three guitars at least. :-\

In that case I need one for each type of tuning I would be able to make use of ?

A very valid point... :?

arjunmenon

I've already gone down this road.
Went from a one time high of 11 to just 1 electric. I'm pretty happy with the way it's been working out for the past 2 years.
Every now and then i have a GAS attack for a Strat...but i wait till the feeling passes.

Keira-WitherKay

what we forget is that "GAS" is a hobby in itself, so that continual buying and selling is just like a junkie getting a fix ....... however the reality is we only need one genre specific guitar to the music we play .............. so if you play jazz you will need an archtop ...or if you a flamenco player then that nice nylon , or if you a shredder that lovely pointy headstock number .......... and i find no matter how many guitars i own i have my "go to" instruments for each genre i perform ... and tho i love buying tons of gear i will have my gig guitars which i do upgrade when i find something better than i have ......... and then my "collection"

so yes 2 guitars is very feasable........ if you can cure yourself of the "GAS" curse

Squonk

True what Keira says

I have a passion for Jazz, Flamenco, Metal, Blues, Folk and Prog Rock - So one guitar will not do the job.

The Nylon and Steel are all sorted.

I have a budget Archtop, would might suffice, with an upgrade.

Just to find a good metal guitar and a little something that will make me sound like David Gilmour ?

So 5 it will have to be.....

ZarK

Nicholas L wrote In that case I need one for each type of tuning I would be able to make use of ?

This used to be the case for me. :-[ For some reason my band tried to use a different tuning for every single one of our songs... Nightmare on stage! (Especially seeing as most of my guitars had floyd rose bridges...) ? If you need multiple tunings and backup guitars, you need plenty of axes in your shed...

P.S. I think if you own/have owned all the guitars you've always dreamt of having and you still have GAS, you're a collector... Nothing wrong with that! ?

Bob-Dubery

ZarK wrote
Nicholas L wrote In that case I need one for each type of tuning I would be able to make use of ?
This used to be the case for me. :-[ For some reason my band tried to use a different tuning for every single one of our songs... Nightmare on stage! (Especially seeing as most of my guitars had floyd rose bridges...) ? If you need multiple tunings and backup guitars, you need plenty of axes in your shed...

I've seen some guys (very recently Martin Simpson) use one guitar and retune between songs. I think it depends on the sort of audiences you play to and what the general expectations are in the musical area you're operating in. The stories in the songs that Simpson performs are important, so he covers the tuning with spoken introductions to the songs. That might not go down as well in a night club when you're playing covers of current hits.

It may depend on budgets as well. This year when I saw Simpson he had one banjo and one guitar and tuned as necessary. When I saw him two years ago, with his band, he had two of each. On the DVD he has two guitars, two banjos and a lap steel. Presumably when he's out with his band he has to hire a bus anyway, and once you've hired the bus you might as well fill the space with something.

There's all kinds of trade-offs. Martin Carthy, as far as I know, doesn't drive and gets around the UK using a mixture of lifts and public transport. So there are constraints on what he can take on the road with him. Richard Thompson, who does make use of various tunings, regularly tours with a single guitar, and in recent times has taken just one electric and one acoustic when he's out on the road with his band (he's got lots at home, but tours with rather less). These guys might prefer to have multiple guitars with them, but they have practical constraints around what they can actually physically travel with. Simpson and Thompson use a lot more guitars in the studio than they take on the road. The decisions are not necessarily made only on sonic or musical grounds.

aubs1

Naaahhhhh, just 1 or 2 guitars ... :? That thought never crosses my mind, and hopefully never will!! ?

singemonkey

Keira WitherKay wrote however the reality is we only need one genre specific guitar to the music we play ..............

guidothepimmp

On a serious note though, I've had moments where I desperately felt the need to downscale.. Buuut it really doesn't bother me.

Do I need that many fiddles? No
Do I play them all? No
Do I really like guitars? Yes

People surround themselves with things they like all the time, and, my wife thinks they're great decoration pieces so I'm quite happy to be a guitarwhore.

We spend our lives working, stressing and all those other daily things that lifes to short to worry about how many guits are reasonable.
I have no stress rewarding myself with things that make me happy. Even the building, I really enjoy it, so I'll continue building guits which means guitars coming in albeit in a different manner.

Whatever happens will happen. If I sell off fiddles, so be it, if not, no stress.

And no, I'm not a hoarder ?

singemonkey

Shibbibilybob

I really have thought about this.
I have a nice tidy collection of 4 electrics and 2 acoustics.
One of those electrics being a Cort s2550 which I intend to make a gift of to my 6 year old nephew when he's ready.

The other three are the "essentials"...a Gibson LP studio (with some savage modifications?ush/pull pots, bareknuckle nailbomb and seymour duncan jazz pickups, and a Roland hexaphonic midi pickup), an ash strat and a Prs Custom 22.
Now all of these have their little characteristics that make me wanna keep them.
The Gibson has the midi, which makes it an obvious choice for keeping.
The strat is the guitar I pick up and jam with most naturally, so that stays.
The prs is in all honesty the most dispensible...but also my favourite ☹

In truth I could and probably should sell two of the above three, but I would struggle to choose which two.

The acoustics stay!

aubs1

guidothepimmp wrote Do I need that many fiddles? No
Do I play them all? No
Do I really ~~like~~ LOVE guitars? Yes

People surround themselves with things they like all the time, so I'm quite happy to be a guitarwhore.

We spend our lives working, stressing and all those other daily things that lifes to short to worry about how many guits are reasonable.
I have no stress rewarding myself with things that make me happy. Even the building, I really enjoy it, so I'll continue building guits which means guitars coming in albeit in a different manner.

Whatever happens will happen. If I sell off fiddles, so be it, if not, no stress.

And no, I'm not a hoarder ?

+1 I could'nt have said that any better ...... :applause:

guidothepimmp wrote .........and, my wife thinks they're great decoration pieces so I'm quite happy to be a guitarwhore.

My wife could'nt care less, as long as it makes me happy! ?

chris77

Someday yes, but not today. ?
Mind you, I've got no need for another guitar, no money to buy one with and not even enough space for the ones I already have - and yet I find myself scanning all the clasifieds daily and can't walk past a store or pawn shop to see what they are offering ??? :-[

BMU

I had one bass, one guitar for 15 years. Now I have 2 & 7 respectively. Not because I collect, just because finding the ultimate 'one' is a journey.

I've thought of selling maybe 4 of them. But for the measly price that 2nd hand gear fetches, I'm not sure it's worth it. They're worth at least that much as wall art.

souljahboy

I sometimes think that we have much more access to gear, financially speaking, than the great guitarists we try to emulate (Jimi/SRV/et al). The idea of having one guitar and making it work for you is really romantic. If you look at the legendary guitarists, they all had one guitar (or one type of guitar) that they used to achieve a sound they could call their own.

However

Would I scale down to one guitar? No, and that is because I need different guitars to achieve/cover different sounds/songs

Is there a need to scale down to one? Not now, maybe not ever

When would I ever scale down to one? If I give up my day job in pursuit of becoming a world famous guitarist, I would decide what sound I want, take one guitar become completely intimate with it and aim to achieve that sound.

I have great admiration for a guitarist who can take one guitar and use it to its full ability to create music thats good to the ear, but these kind of guys tend to get famous too quickly, sign a record deal, migrate to the pop genre and then buy 30 guitars to go on tour...

That said, if you wanted one guitar you shouldn't have joined this forum... ?

ZarK

We all have different personalities, circumstances and priorities, plus in my experience priorities can often change as well... Personally I'm looking forward to a simpler setup and potentially being able to bond more with significantly less guitars. (My Strat screwed with my approach to guitar, I'm telling you! ?) I won't have nearly enough time available during the next few years; won't even have a fixed base of operation to justify (in my mind) traveling with- or having so many instruments stuck in storage... Will I be replacing some of these axes down the line? When circumstances allow and the need arises, why the hell not? ?

singemonkey

souljahboy wrote I sometimes think that we have much more access to gear, financially speaking, than the great guitarists we try to emulate (Jimi/SRV/et al). The idea of having one guitar and making it work for you is really romantic. If you look at the legendary guitarists, they all had one guitar (or one type of guitar) that they used to achieve a sound they could call their own.

Dude, that's a bit backwards. The reality is that it used to be only pros who could have multiple guitars of any quality:

Jimmy Page: A number of Les Pauls, a Telecaster, a Stratocaster, a Gibson double neck, a danelectro, a Martin...

Eric Clapton: A number of Les Pauls, a 335, a firebird, an SG, then strats and everything else on the map

Jimmy Hendrix: Strats, Sgs, flying Vs.

Same goes for Slash, for Randy Rhoads, for Billy Corgan, for Kurt Cobain...

We just associate the person with a single guitar. Very few had just one or, a couple of identical guitars.

Nicholas-L

This thread has really got me thinking... (-_-)" I have one guitar and some wall decorations...

Bob-Dubery

singemonkey wrote
souljahboy wrote I sometimes think that we have much more access to gear, financially speaking, than the great guitarists we try to emulate (Jimi/SRV/et al). The idea of having one guitar and making it work for you is really romantic. If you look at the legendary guitarists, they all had one guitar (or one type of guitar) that they used to achieve a sound they could call their own.

Dude, that's a bit backwards. The reality is that it used to be only pros who could have multiple guitars of any quality:

Jimmy Page: A number of Les Pauls, a Telecaster, a Stratocaster, a Gibson double neck, a danelectro, a Martin...

Eric Clapton: A number of Les Pauls, a 335, a firebird, an SG, then strats and everything else on the map

Jimmy Hendrix: Strats, Sgs, flying Vs.

Same goes for Slash, for Randy Rhoads, for Billy Corgan, for Kurt Cobain...

Only pros who'd had reasonable sales or got a big name gig. Hendrix, Clapton et al didn't have multiple guitars when they first went into the studio. John Lennon was not the best guitarist in the Beatles, or even the 2nd best, but when Stu Sutcliffe quit John didn't become the bass player because he'd just bought a Rickenbacker and couldn't afford to buy a bass. Paul was not quite as financially straitened, so he bit the bullet.

Of course, a couple of hits later the Beatles had money rolling in, could buy what they wanted or got good guitars as gifts (George Harrison's rosewood Tele was a gift from Fender). At one time Keith Richards was constantly getting guitars as gifts, generally from boutique or high end, low output makers who hoped that a picture of Keith with their guitar, especially an on-stage shot, would boost their sales.

singemonkey

Yes, but they didn't define their guitar sound during that starting off period. Clapton's first pro guitar that he used live was a Telecaster, for Pete's sake. With a Vox amp. Hardly a combination that people think of with reference to him.

The proliferation of high quality guitars at lower prices means that many of us get to enjoy the variety of options that successful players like Keith Richards had. We're not stuck with one Hoffner that we have to mod to make playable.

John Lennon: Rickenbacker, Gibson acoustic, Epiphone Casino, Telecaster Deluxe, etc..

I currently have all my electrics under one roof for a change. By cycling through the four guitars while practising different things, I stay in love with each of them. Because each has been in it's case for a day or two and I've almost forgotten what it looks and plays like when I open that case up again. Each has very different and delightful characteristics.

Could I survive on one guitar? Of course. I could also survive on nothing but peanut butter sandwiches. Or wearing only a hessian sack. Nice to know if you're forced to. But who'd want that?

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