What to do when your playing becomes stale...

robgilmo

Get very very drunk.

fendergibson

OP, I’d say download a daw to your pc/laptop and start making songs. Explore vst plugins for drums, strings etc and write your own stuff. 

Your guitar will become just another instrument in the mix....and you will explore new stuff. You will never get bored again :-)

viz

Learn the altered scale on the V chord and work out a few licks

markslade07

Buy an R8?

VimFuego

kinda adding to what octatonic said, try listening to new stuff. I've been listening to a lot of jazz recently (mostly sax stuff), and I find sort of by a process of osmosis the playing kinda permeates through you, so you find yourself adding some of the playing in your playing. 

ICBM

Break your left arm at the elbow and then spend the next few months learning to play again.

markslade07

ICBM said:

Break your left arm at the elbow and then spend the next few months learning to play again.

Seems a little excessive, but don’t see why we couldn’t give it a go.....

tone1

Either buy a pedal or watch some jamesjames on YouTube and learn a new song from him

pmg

Play covers for fun or reach for the oblique strategy cards

Teetonetal

Teach. Great way of moving your playing on. Or look at a totally new genre.

Rocker

To the OP: buy a bass.  Not necessarily an expensive instrument, get a real live teacher to show you the proper playing technique [string damping etc.], compile a song list on your computer/device and play along with these songs.  Play simple stuff, this is very likely to fire up your enthusiasm for guitar.  It did for me.

vertigo88

New strings

Kitsune

Funnily enough, I'm pretty stale judging by my quick play last night - having young kids will do that. Answer? Watch through some videos and play along, learn some things I've always wanted to but never got around to. Different styles.

Switch625

Pick up Rocksmith and learn new songs that you normally wouldn't consider.

EricTheWeary

You could watch the Andertons/ Justin Guitar Rut Buster series. As it seems designed to answer exactly this issue. 
I've watched and mooched along with the first couple. It's very watchable, not massive content but lot of ideas you could explore and in particular around use of practice time. 

impmann

Buy a guitar thats really difficult to play your preferred style of playing on... for example, if you play mainly gainy blues rock, pick up a Fender Jaguar with flatwound strings (heavy ones). It'll force you to play differently - then when you pick up your normal guitar you will automatically find yourself playing differently (and integrating what you played on the Jag but in a different way).

ESBlonde

Change the key of two songs you know well , and not from C to G but say C to F#. Then force yourself to use a different inversion for every chord in the original key (no open string chords allowed). This develops your skills and makes playing more enjoyable without you having to do too much.

JezWynd

I was in this situation a while back. Largely moved to bass and considered giving up 6 string completely as my playing was going nowhere. I'd always played a tele, usually with a bunch of pedals. I changed to a semi acoustic gibson with just a bit of delay to fill out the sound. It's completely reignited my love of guitar and got me playing stuff I haven't touched for years (more song oriented rather than electric jams). Change in guitar meant a change of strings too, from 9-41 to 11-52 w wound 3rd - very different feel and quite inspiring.

designerseye88

Play with others if you can, I stopped playing for nearly 10 years, I got the spark back when i decided to join a band, Never looked back. 
Even if you're not up for joining a band just jamming with some like-minded people can help. 

Another thing that helped me back into it was buying a new guitar, it just gave me a different sounds and got me excited again. 

Or maybe you'd benefit from a break. You might come back to it with a new zest for it. 

lovestrat74

Lots of great suggestions/ideas that I will definitely give a go - thanks guys !!

I think I have got my mojo back even before I bought this, but I cannot deny this has given me another lift