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?

[deleted]

I did scale down to one electric guitar from 4... Great idea at the time. Bad idea now... I think 3 is a good number. But 3 different ones....

DDR4LYF

chris77 wrote ...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 ??? :-[

This is exactly me!!!

DDR4LYF

I know a couple people who think that you should be good enough before you buy good equipment. I don't know if that just comes out of jealousy for people who aren't as well versed as them, but have great equipment. I think that if you are going to use it (even if you can't use it very well yet) or it will make you happy, then go for it.

Have any of you come across this mindset?

Bob-Dubery

DDR4LYF wrote I know a couple people who think that you should be good enough before you buy good equipment. I don't know if that just comes out of jealousy for people who aren't as well versed as them, but have great equipment. I think that if you are going to use it (even if you can't use it very well yet) or it will make you happy, then go for it.

Have any of you come across this mindset?

Yes. I have it. I tell myself that I don't need and can't justify two high end acoustics and I should sell them and buy a Tak.

But I don't listen.

Shibbibilybob

Buy a high end Tak!
I have one and it's awesome...way better than me.

I am nowhere near as good as my gear. Never have been. But it makes me smile ?

Big-G

In the past, I did have a few people tell me that I 'didn't deserve' my bass, or basses, as I wasn't good enough, and would be a much better sound engineer, but for me, it is the very fact that I became a 'gearhead' that I managed to improve. Having four basses with me at band practice so I could swap and change the tone and feel of a song was a great learning curve for me, and definately made me a better player, as I could understand what actually helped a song, and what didn't, in terms of tone.

Having said this, most of the people who said I didn't deserve such nice toys, are probably the same people who say that bass is bass, and having one P-bass for everything is sufficient?! Having owned 18 basses or so now, I would say that perhaps two of them sounded the same, and the rest ALL differed!

And this is without even mentioning playability, which again can very much change the feel of a song, as with different basses, a different feeling is created, so your style is altered, even if only ever so slightly?

Psean

DDR4LYF wrote
chris77 wrote ...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 ??? :-[
This is exactly me!!!

Haha. Me too ?

Psean

DDR4LYF wrote I know a couple people who think that you should be good enough before you buy good equipment. I don't know if that just comes out of jealousy for people who aren't as well versed as them, but have great equipment. I think that if you are going to use it (even if you can't use it very well yet) or it will make you happy, then go for it.

Have any of you come across this mindset?

Yip. I have it a bit. When I really think about it that way, I should only have a guitar, an amp, and a tuner. But then I stop thinking like that and buy more stuff because I enjoy it.

Wizard

Psean wrote
DDR4LYF wrote I know a couple people who think that you should be good enough before you buy good equipment. I don't know if that just comes out of jealousy for people who aren't as well versed as them, but have great equipment. I think that if you are going to use it (even if you can't use it very well yet) or it will make you happy, then go for it.

Have any of you come across this mindset?
Yip. I have it a bit. When I really think about it that way, I should only have a guitar, an amp, and a tuner. But then I stop thinking like that and buy more stuff because I enjoy it.

If I thought like that, I'd conclude I shouldn't have a guitar at all !
So ... crap logic.

Psean

Wizard wrote
Psean wrote
DDR4LYF wrote I know a couple people who think that you should be good enough before you buy good equipment. I don't know if that just comes out of jealousy for people who aren't as well versed as them, but have great equipment. I think that if you are going to use it (even if you can't use it very well yet) or it will make you happy, then go for it.

Have any of you come across this mindset?
Yip. I have it a bit. When I really think about it that way, I should only have a guitar, an amp, and a tuner. But then I stop thinking like that and buy more stuff because I enjoy it.
If I thought like that, I'd conclude I shouldn't have a guitar at all !
So ... crap logic.

Haha. Me too

vic

Most of us have way too many guitars and gear ! Get rid of most and rather invest in stamps !

?

AlanRatcliffe

Vic wrote Most of us have way too many guitars and gear ! Get rid of most and rather invest in stamps !

Go ahead, make my day! I'll be the one snapping up all the bargains. ?

aubs1

Vic wrote
Most of us have way too many guitars and gear ! Get rid of most and rather invest in stamps ! ?

Hahahahaha LOL, good one Vic ..... Anyone waiting for mine, don't hold your breath!!! ?

Greg

I've been thinking about getting rid of my low-end guitars and having 2-3 high-end guitars. I LOVE the sound of my 6120's Dynasonics... I've latched onto them as "my sound" and all my other guitars, while I love them and the sounds they make, I tend to play them differently according to what they sound like, but with the Dynasonics, I feel my "voice" is more true. Also, the quality of the 6120 has really brought out every bit of imperfection in my other guitars. They all feel and sound of lesser quality to me now. They're not BAD by any means, but the difference between the 5120 and the 6120 for example is VERY apparent.

But for the sake of versatility, perhaps having a few changes of guitar isn't a bad idea at all...

And what about touring? Do you really want to take your R70,000 vintage Gretsch Black Penguin with you on a mini-bus tour of all the seediest venues across SA?

Currently I use my 6120 for more public and reputable local shows, TV performances or any other video performances and I use my 5120 for smaller, less publicised gigs and for touring.

Whether or not I need my Strat, Epiphone Les Paul or Ibanez DXQM470NUMBERNUMBER is something I'd really have to think about, but in the back of my head I can hear my dad saying: "don't ever sell your stuff, you never know what it'll be worth one day."

costafonix

I've already started to scale down, but won't be going as low as one or two, but definitely less than what I have now. I've put the proceeds from the sale of 2 guitars towards a PA system, so I've used the scaling down as an opportunity to upgrade other equipment that I need.

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