Have you considered paring back to just one or 2 guitars?

TimmyO

This has been on my mind recently. 

I, like a great many people, own far too many guitars. 
I liked the idea of having different types, and each of them is either a) great in its own way or b) something I built or had made and therefore won't recoup much outlay. 

Yet for some reason I have this urge to get shot of most of them - or rather to be someone who only has 1 or 2 guitars as having them around feels like a waste.

Maybe it's some sort of gear-focussed mid-life-crisis or something - has it happened to you? 

bodhi

Been thinking that for years.  I only have 3, though, so not too bad.

mgaw

regardless of my |NGD today I have offloaded quite a few and feel far happier only having 2 electrics (will probably go back to one) one Acoustic and my mandolin...they all get plenty of use, I invested all the proceeds from "slimming" down into some exceptional guitars and dont regret it for a minute.

meltedbuzzbox

Yup. I've been dwindling down the numbers steadily over the years.
I have 4 that I use all the time when recording so I am happy to be at that number as they earn their keep as it were. I am also saving a shit load in strings

Funkfingers

Whenever I navel gaze about this notion, my thoughts are not about the guitars so much as the money tied up in them.

To misquote Vivian Stanshall’s character, Sir Henry Rawlinson, “if I had all the money I’ve spent on guitars, I’d spend it on guitars.”

FarleyUK

Yep, only have two - both are Les Pauls. Used to have five, but discovered I got on much better with the lesters. 

SidNewton

I only have one guitar.... a Telecaster. 

jdbwales

I did this through a combination of financial hard times then having a family. I gig regularly and I’ve got one main guitar, one backup guitar and am just about to get a further guitar.

They’re all Les Pauls as realistically in a live situation I just get on better with them than anything else, and the main one (‘99 white Custom) is my favourite guitar ever. The backup in case of any broken strings/unforeseen nightmare is a LP Studio with similar pickups in it, and the incoming is a LP Junior style for a bit of home variation and as a backup to the backup/beater for gigs that may be rougher. 

To be honest, the third is a real luxury but I’ve always wanted to try one, can make use of it and work hard to provide for everything else so felt I deserved a treat. I don’t think anyone NEEDS more than two guitars. I’ve done the whole ‘let’s have loads of guitars that do different things, have different scale lengths etc’ and come to the conclusion that I play best on Les Pauls, they’re my feel and sound and work with the rest of my rig. Any other guitars I’ve taken to gigs such as Teles, SGs, I tend to give a whirl for a couple of songs then go back to the LP because it feels like home. 

I don't think it’s a midlife crisis thing, I think it’s more of a utility/comfort/dependability thing. I’d feel a bit guilty now having loads of guitars that don’t get used when I could spend that money on doing something my family.

Obviously people will have different opinions - some people have many guitars, pedals and amps of various stripes and huge cost, and never play past their living room - but for me I think the perspective of family and at one point (years ago) being so skint we couldn’t even afford to heat our rented house has changed what I see as needless as a musician!

brooom

I would love to, and maybe at some point I will... but i just love the ones I have and every time I sell one, I end up missing it.

mort

If you don’t need the money and you have the space to store them, I don’t see the problem.

Danny1969

I've actually got 3 now which is the most I've had in the last 10 years. I've got enough parts to build a 4th but 3 is enough I think. 
@jdbwales ;
I know where your coming from there. After my studio went bust I basically gigged for a living for 2 years and didn't spend any money on gear at all ... even made the strings last 20 gigs before I changed them. In 2017 I did 139 gigs on a partscaster and a Blackstar HT5 

The best players I know tend to be ones with the least gear ... purely because they spend more time playing the gear they have than buying new gear. I have friends who have huge collections of guitars and amps and it's the gear it'self which interests them rather than the playing. There's nothing wrong with that either, it's a perfectly valid and enjoyable hobby for those that can afford it 

IvisonGuitars

Yes, I’ve done this.

For a long time - in fact, not long after I found the old Music Radar classifieds - I had a revolving door of gear purchases, kept loads, sold some, bought others. It was a standing joke at rehearsals that I never had the same guitar more than two weeks.

After a while it dawned on my that my playing was at a standstill because I was constantly adjusting to the feel of a new/different guitar so I decided to stop all the horse trading, stick with two (a Tele and a Junior) and my playing progressed again. Been that way for about 2 years now, works far better for me.

SlopeSoarer

Danny1969 said:

The best players I know tend to be ones with the least gear ... purely because they spend more time playing the gear they have than buying new gear. 

That make so much sense. I must spend less time looking at gear: )

guitars4you

Funkfingers said:

Whenever I navel gaze about this notion, my thoughts are not about the guitars so much as the money tied up in them.

To misquote Vivian Stanshall’s character, Sir Henry Rawlinson, “if I had all the money I’ve spent on guitars, I’d spend it on guitars.”

not sure if that should be a LOL or Wiz - Like that quote

I think we've had such chatter before - I can't think of one famous guitar hero that is a one guitar man - So why should I adopt such a policy

To be honest I'd love to master one guitar - But it ain't going to happen - After all Tiger Woods has had to learn to handle 14 clubs 

SouthpawMark

That’s crazy talk. 

p90fool

I have far fewer than I had a few years ago, I've given five away in the last couple of years. 

I'm trying to get down to three or four, but I still have a gigging and a studio acoustic, an archtop, a Les Paul, a Tele and a Strat, plus a cheap backup Epiphone because I only want to have to worry about one expensive guitar at gigs. 

So I guess I only really have four electrics, but they all more than earn their keep. 

I would love to be a one guitar guy and almost exclusively am, but there often seems to be a job coming in where I need one of the less used ones.  

Jez6345789

I sort of have that feeling that if you have one or two guitars you master every little nuisance out of it and play the arse out of it till its part of you. And all of us tend to have too much GAS. 

I am probably at my height of ownership at this point but not in a bad way in comparison to others but after years of married life where buying a guitar was grounds for divorce let alone spending time on doing something other than family life was also a sin

So binning that one 15 years ago now was the best days work I ever did. So having reached 60 this year I am less inclined to be disciplined anymore going what am I waiting for,.I work for it so how many years left to enjoy these things. Still have relatively cheap tastes and nothing vintage is really in my price range but there are simply so many great guitars out there these days. 

So yes I get the idea just not ready to commit to it yet LOL: 

thegummy

If I sold the others I'd get back a relatively low amount compared to how much I spent initially and I'd possibly just spend it on day to day things and have nothing to show for it.

I do think it's quite possible and realistic to stick to two though - a Strat and a Les Paul for example. That will do most things.

I suppose you only really need one but I think you'd be missing out on a lot of options sticking to one, even a HSS

scrumhalf

Yes.

But which one or two? That's the problem.

TINMAN82

No, purely for the reason that I now have a Les Paul, strat and tele, each of which I love and wouldn’t part with. Likewise my Martin acoustic. 5th is a cheaper acoustic for playing in the garden over summer, too useful to sell.

If I was starting out knowing what I know now (agree with those who say less GAS = more time playing) I might have opted not to buy the tele. I’d have gone for all the others eventually.

ICBM

I will soon have two electric guitars - one with three pickups and a trem, one with two pickups and no trem. That's probably all I need. If I fitted a switch to the one with three pickups so I could get neck+bridge, I'd probably only need that one.

To be fair, I also have two basses (four and five string) and two acoustics (six and twelve string).