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Thread: Enough

  1. #1
    Forum Member ch willie's Avatar
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    Enough

    Like a lot of you, I like amassing gear. I read gear reviews on guitar sites, and I scope out the best shops with lefty inventories and spend a lot of time looking at guitars and basses, lusting after a lot of them. 99.9% of the time, I look at and read about gear that I absolutely don't need. Actually, I want a Ric 12 string and an ES-335, but it'll be a while before I buy anything big. Truth is, I'm really happy with my 8 guitars and basses, and I'd rather right now just enjoy playing them.

    I had an uncle who bought a new car every year, always lost a fortune on the trade-in. But he HAD to have a new car. He'd trade in a Lincoln with 7,000 miles on it for an almost identical new one.

    I wonder how much some gear heads are like my uncle.

    My mother has always told me. You don't need to buy anything new--just polish what you have, and it'll look new. That's true. I remember going into a shop and seeing a lefty AmStd Strat. It was identical to mine, but the lighting made it gleam and beckon. I remembered what my mother said (yeah I'm 56 and a mama's boy; wanna fight about it?).

    The guitarist in my band has twelve guitars, all but two really great. Six of them are new from trade-ins of perfectly good guitars, and these new ones will be traded before too long. He never settles on one guitar, so he never gets to know a guitar well, never gets into it's vibe.

    Yes, I know gear is tools. Many of us want to get our sounds to match our ideals. But I get a musical and emotional connection to my gear. I like sticking to the same guitars. I'm not a sessions player, so I can get by with that.
    If we'd known we were going to be the Beatles, we'd have tried harder.--George Harrison

  2. #2
    Forum Member Don's Avatar
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    Re: Enough

    I turn over some gear pretty quickly, but have some items that I've had for a long time. They're almost like old friends. I try to make sure that each item is different and gives me an experience that is new to me and that I enjoy.
    Still, I have enough gear, and play out so seldom, that I sometimes think I'm not getting the most out of my gear.

  3. #3
    Forum Member Old Ranger's Avatar
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    Re: Enough

    Ya know know, when I was in the business, I had more than one customer who would bring me a dozen guitars at a time for string change and re-setups. This would be done for anywhere from 25 to as many as 70 instruments. Point being is that they had amassed so many guitars that they did not have time to service them all. Thus they hired it done. I felt very bad for those people. It was like they were possessed by their possessions. Yes, very sad indeed.

    In reality, one is plenty. Two is a luxury. More than that, well.... I'll not go on.
    I forgot what I was going to say...

  4. #4
    Forum Member S. Cane's Avatar
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    Re: Enough

    I currently own 3 guitars.

    An American Stratocaster, which is my main gigging guitar, the Rickenbacker, which I use for specific sounds and is VERY fun to play live and a cheap Brazilian Stratocaster which is my "to hell with it" guitar, the one I take anywhere without any concerns, as a doublé for my more expensive US made one. I think owning only one guitar isn't quite enough if you're a regular live player, but two do the trick and give you enough backup.

    Guitars aside, I own just one tube amp and a small SS one I use mostly for home studies, and one pedalboard with a RAT, a Danelectro Overdrive, two or three electroharmonix boxes, a Boss DD3 and a crybaby. I don't need anything else.

  5. #5
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    Re: Enough

    All I need is this guitar, and...........


  6. #6
    Forum Member ch willie's Avatar
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    Re: Enough

    Bill, one of the greatest and funniest scenes in cinema.
    If we'd known we were going to be the Beatles, we'd have tried harder.--George Harrison

  7. #7
    Forum Member dirtdog's Avatar
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    Re: Enough

    It ebbs and flows for me. At one point I had a dozen guitars and basses - some good stuff too. Custom Shop Jazz, Taylor acoustic, Beard resonator, Gibson Custom Shop ES-137. Then sustained a hand injury and sold off or traded most of it. Half of the stuff wasn’t getting played anyways. Always had these for “just in case”.

    Started into steel guitar and went down that rabbit hole. Aside from an average acoustic (Epi J200) and two electrics (a Tele and a Gretsch) nowadays I’ve got a nice pedal steel, a vintage straight steel and an el cheapo lap steel. Oh and a Baby Taylor and a couple of ukes. But that’s it and they all get played regularly. I’m sure this will change over the coming years, but not at the rate of increase or decrease I experienced from say 2005 to 2015. For some strange reason, I’ve been looking at shred guitars. What?

  8. #8
    Forum Member DanTheBluesMan's Avatar
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    Re: Enough

    forgot all about lap steels. Friend of mine plays one on some of their band's tunes, nothing fancy but man does he make it sing
    "Live and learn and flip the burns"

  9. #9
    Forum Member jrgtr42's Avatar
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    Re: Enough

    I've got about 25 instruments. Mostly electric, a few basses and a few acoustic (plus a lap steel.)
    I go through phases on each - I'll gravitate to picking one of them up only for a week or two, then move to another, as my mood strikes me.
    The only ones that really gather dust is a couple junker acoustics, that I keep around for jams or parties or something. I don't play those at home
    almost ever.
    I still want a few more guitars - I don't have a deecent jazz box (looking at the D'Angelico Excel) or anything with Filter-Trons or equivalent.
    I'd like a Gibson Les Paul Junior (single pickup only!!) and a custom Tele or Strat...
    but do I need any of them? Nope. I don't play out, and rarely jam with anyone ( I would like to do that more, though...) I don't need a lot of the gear I do have. But I can't think of getting rid of any of it.
    ********************************
    "Do you call sleeping with a guitar in your hands practicing?"
    "It is if you don't drop it."
    - Trent Lane, Daria, Episode 1-2.

  10. #10
    Forum Member Volumeknob's Avatar
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    Re: Enough

    I am a FLIPPER--- my gear ebs and flows-- 6 one week 30 the next- a BUNCH of amps-- 2 amps---the current stable has rather "stagnated" -- DAY JOBS have cut into my gear flipping -it is also (as I buy at SUIPER LOW prices) in a way a "savings account" I can fondle-- everything in here at the moment except perhaps my 1 acoustic -- would turn PROFIT over what I gave for it be it trade or $ -- the ONLY new guitars Ive purchased in MANY years were a Les Paul Jr 100 from 2015 (stupid cheap blow out end of year deal from Sam Ash-- and used ones are asking for 150-300 MORE than I paid new) -- and a recent Birthday buy of a Squire CV 50's Tele-- just because-- well I turned 50 and its a 50's CV anbd damit I wanted one--
    I also search out broken cast offs and repair fix and resell them --
    my current herd is in the realm of jrgtr's -- but again that could change tomorrow-- no but MAYBE next week :)

    Old Ranger has ridiculed my BUY ONE OF EVERYTHING ways (on other forums not here-- we go a ways back--) -- but I have made a tiddy second (third technically) tax free income from this "hobby" that I enjoy-- as does the wife when I take her to dinner from the FLIP profit on some guitar or amp-- which FYI gang REALLY cuts down on the bitching when your holding 30 guitars--- she doesnt MIND seeing them come in because she sees them GO OUT--Ive also-- flipped my way from a Squire strat and 2 peaveys -- to a NICE pile of personal gear including Gibson Fender Peavey Dean Jackson MESA and Marshall-----off profits/trades and upgrades--

    ALso I would like to say I have MET several real good down to earth Friends-- on forums-- and in person here in Central Fl-- who I met through GEAR sales/buying and we have been friends for many years now-- and I hope we remain so--

    1 guitar or 100 --a new car once in a lifetime-- or every year --- if its what makes ya happy -- lifes short -- enjoy
    The only time you really live fully is from thirty to sixty. The young are slaves to dreams; the old servants of regrets. Only the middle-aged have all their five senses in the keeping of their wits.
    T. Roosevelt

  11. #11
    Forum Member Laker's Avatar
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    Re: Enough

    Quote Originally Posted by ch willie View Post

    I had an uncle who bought a new car every year, always lost a fortune on the trade-in. But he HAD to have a new car. He'd trade in a Lincoln with 7,000 miles on it for an almost identical new one.

    I wonder how much some gear heads are like my uncle.
    I once knew a guy that traded his Cadillac every year for a new Caddy (lowest mileage I can remember was around 3500). He'd take his aged mother out for a ride in the current Cadillac and that was her weekly trip (I installed an 8 track player in his new '68 DeVille when I came home from Vietnam). I always thought that he was a pretty neat guy that he thought so much of his mother that he would give her that experience. So....cars guitars, what's the difference?. My guitars (or basses in my realm) have never been a reflection on any relative's life. I play 'em until I think I need something new and then put them in the closet. After a bit I give them another try, but my Precision bass (purchased new in '65) has been resting in the closet since '75 or so .

  12. #12
    Forum Member blackonblack's Avatar
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    Re: Enough

    I’m a person that views as guitars as a tool for a purpose. Have a number of guitars and each does a different thing. Not a flipper by nature. If I bond with it, it stays. If not it’s gone to someone who could. My oldest is a 79 LP that I got in 79.
    Mark

  13. #13
    Forum Member ch willie's Avatar
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    Re: Enough

    I see my guitars as tools too, but I've bonded with the ones I have. I went through a few guitars until I found the ones right for me.

    This thread was motivated by the way I grew up. We always had clothes and food and love. For many years, my parents worked hard to survive and provide.

    I learned to be frugal, and so I feel a bit of guilt over having the the 8 guitars that I have. Each one does different things, and I can try to justify it all day long. But they're paid for, and I'll keep them.
    Last edited by ch willie; 03-07-2019 at 04:53 AM.
    If we'd known we were going to be the Beatles, we'd have tried harder.--George Harrison

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