A diverse clutch of guitars or one REALLY nice one?

[Maggieo]

I mean, who wants to buy my weird and beat up American Standard Telecaster with the Ilitch noise system, Alnico 3 pickups, and a full Hipshot drop tuning and bending rig with the locking Schaller tuners and roller string trees and Callaham bridge?

::raises hand::

[Larry Mal]

Well, I'll let you know if I ever sell it, because I basically have TWO Telecasters like that.

[leokula]

I like owning a lot of guitars. I have zero interest in going down to one really nice one- and what would it be, anyway? I already have nice enough stuff that there's no real way to improve on it all that much. If I had a bunch of Squiers, sure, selling all that and getting a Gibson ES-335 would make a lot of sense.

But what if I already have that? (I have an ES-330.)

I def agree on the 335 being a great choice if that has to be your only guitar.

But the 330? Shit, that *IS* *THE* guitar! Didn't know you had one, that's awesome!

[Larry Mal]

I do have one:



(I don't have the Rickenbacker anymore.)

I thought that the ES-330 would eclipse everything else I have, but it never actually did that. Now I don't think that any particular guitar is going to eclipse the other ones, these days I think that a Fender Bullet I've been rebuilding from nothing might get a lot of use since I'll actually leave that out on the stand with the kids running around, which clearly I would never do with the ES-330.

Although the ES-330 is wonderful... it's a super inspiring guitar to play, fits me like a glove, takes me in places that other guitars don't.

[garyfanclub]

Conflicted. Very conflicted.

Sometimes I pick up my 75 Tele Custom and go “you know what? This guitar is freaking great. I don’t need any others.” And sometimes I pick it up and it doesn’t do anything for me in the moment. I love the idea of one guitar from a minimalist perspective, but could never but it in the practice for both artistic and sentimental reasons (some guitars are heirlooms).

The truth is, they all feel different, inspire a different play style, or fit a particular mood. I approach a Tele far differently than a Jazzmaster or a Rick, both because of the way they feel AND the particular and inherent characteristics of those instruments.

What I’m saying is that they’re different lenses to look at your art through. If you’re good with one, great! If you’re inspired by a change of perspective now and then, and you can afford it, it’s nothing to feel bad about.

[SAVEStheDAY]

I want all the guitars and all the amps.

[Beltone]

If I absolutely had to, I could go down to one guitar, but it would not be without regret. I would miss having an acoustic available for unplugged sounds. I would miss having a whammy bar and the surf, reggae, and funk sounds I can easily find on my Jag. Also I would need to change the strings to make my go-to more of an all arounder again.

Although there's a part of me that would love to have one more guitar (semi-hollow or hollow) and then one more after that (a Les Paul), I have stopped searching. I have three electric guitars with a range of pickups that cover the spectrum from jazz to hard rock with very little duplication in tones between them. I don't play any metal style so a shred or 7+ string guitar is unnecessary. If I did go with a semi-hollow or hollow it would mean less playing time for my favourite guitar. Why would I do that? My acoustic is not perfect for me, but it's high quality and I inherited it from my Dad. So there's four. Hopefully I stop there. We'll see in a couple years if I was able to stay disciplined or not!

[StevenO]

I have to say, some of the best guitars I have are super ordinary. Earlier this year, I bought a pink glitter hardtail super Strat and it's one of the nicest guitars I own. Mind you, I also gave it a good set up, a fret dressing, a rewire, new nut, new string trees, and new tuners, but still... For the less than $200 I have in it, it's really a wonderful guitar. Definitely not getting rid of it.

[parry]

I could do with one really nice one.

And to me, REALLY nice doesn't mean that it has to be vintage or expensive. My one really nice guitar is the MIK Sheraton I rebuilt about two years ago. That thing just has "something" magical about it.

[Larry Mal]

I'll also say that while I have a lot of really nice guitars, the maintenance of them is pretty constant, I think, wow, I haven't played my Gibson Marauder in a while and I'll write a song with that!

Then I pull it out and it's all out of whack and I have to spend some time dealing with that instead of actually doing the things I got the guitar to do.

[redchapterjubilee]

I find myself in the same sort of camp, arguing with myself over the amount of guitars I have and whether or not to consolidate up.

In 2009 I started my first band. I had played drums in bands for 20 years prior to that, but this was my first band playing guitar and singing my own songs. From 2009 - 2018 we played tons of shows around the country. In 2018 I moved from Texas to Asheville, NC. I went from galloping to a dead stop. I travel back and forth to TX to make shows still but that's going from 70 shows a year to 7 shows a year. Now I'm sitting on seven different Jazzmasters of American and Mexican build. I don't need seven Jazzmasters. Heck, I didn't really need them when they at least got played out a bit. Now they largely gather dust in my music room.

So lately I've given thought to turning seven into three. I'll probably start a band here at some point and would likely regret consolidating. And I'm 44 now. Will I get $4000 enjoyment and use out of a vintage guitar before I give it up? Dunno. So right now I'm just thinking about it. But it wouldn't be hard to turn some of those AVRI's and AV65's into a vintage guitar. I scheme more than play these days

[thenewromance]

I'd say 'both'. Having at least one nice guitar is super important, no matter how much it cost. My nice Strat was 500€ new. It's great. However, having other guitars helps you appreciate and differentiate. Most importantly, they sound differently. As mentioned above, some days that nice guitar doesn't do it, so you need a Tele or a semi-hollow or a Jaguar with humbuckers. I don't think that's a problem. I own four electric guitars and a bass. That might fluctuate in the future, but I believe it's a good number (for me). Personally, I wouldn't want to go two-digits, and I don't want to go down the 'quantity over quality' road where you expand into Squier/Epi/Chinese custom-made territory simply to have an encyclopedic selection of every major model but not a single 'dream' guitar.

In the end, though, do what feels good to you.

[Fiddy]

A diverse clutch if you can afford it, one if you're a broke ass?

[postchrist]

i don’t think really nice has to mean expensive at all... wild deals can be had on incredible instruments if you’re in touch with yourself as a player enough to know what you’re looking for in an instrument. i feel like my happy medium is one or two “really nice guitars” and a handful of cheap oddities that bring something else to the table... “really nice” being anything i’m inspired enough by to want it to be my main guitar(s). i currently have a 50s epiphone archtop acoustic(with a dearmond, so often used into an amp), and a parts jazzmaster... the rest of the ones that pass through my hands tend to end up on permanent loan to friends. i tend to be a huge fan of odd cheap guitars though, and have gone through a fair number of nashville tuned/baritone/hack xii types.

somewhat unrelated, a friend of mine and i were talking last night about how danelectro just hits such a sweet spot in this department... they bring the weird for about what one wants to pay for the weird. i’d love a fender electric xii, but to justify owning one it would have to be my main guitar... but for $250-300 used on a dano i could easily justify keeping a twelve around. maybe my ideal would just be what i have now and a handful of modded danos.

My one really nice guitar is the MIK Sheraton I rebuilt about two years ago. That thing just has "something" magical about it.

this is nice to hear!! just picked up a 90s mik sheraton for my sister that just blew me away in the shop, glad that feeling lasts with some... thing is such a beauty.

[mcbrandt]

I could easily go down to one electric and one acoustic, as I only have two of each. If I was forced to only have one, i'd probably get a better quality, hybrid-esque acoustic/electric nylon string, so i could use my small amount of pedals in the house, but also just take the guitar out back and play acoustically under my redwood tree which is one of my favorite things to do.