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

meltedbuzzbox

Voxman said:

daveyh said:

There’s a reason why the great guitarists are usually associated with one guitar.

There are several reasons for that.

First, a lot of players who are associated with one guitar couldnt originally afford more than one guitar until they started to do well.  Jimmy Page couldnt afford a guitar, and it was Jeff Beck that gave him the now legendary Dragon Tele with which he recorded all of Led Zep one and nearly all of Led Zep II.   

Second, perception...taking Jimmy Page again most folk will equate him to his 58 and 59 Les Pauls but arguably you could equally equate him to his Tele or his red Gibson twin neck.  

Third, if you only have the need for one main sound, then one type of guitar is all you need. SRV with his Strats and Angus Young with his SGs are a case in point.  

But if you are e.g. an amateur player in a covers band, chances are you'll probably need a few different guitars to cover a range of tones...typically as a minimum you'll need humbucker and single coil options, and possibly a trem.  So it's likely you'll need a LP or SG and a Strat or Tele 'type' options. 

You don't need to cover a range of tones in a covers band at all. Hell, half the bands get by playing the songs wrong let alone using the right gear.

JDE

Living the minimalist dream. Have owned over 100, easy. Now have just one. I think my perfect stable will end up being around 10 (5 electric, 5 acoustic), *if I get everything i want*. Fortunately I’m enough of a Buddhist to know that this scenario does not correlate with what I actually need. 

Doing the same with amps and am in the process of doing one pedalboard and keeping it. Pedal setup is very very difficult.... but easier if you just have one or two guitars or amps to mate them with.

Voxman

meltedbuzzbox said:

You don't need to cover a range of tones in a covers band at all. Hell, half the bands get by playing the songs wrong let alone using the right gear.

Ok, point taken...a reasonably decent cover band then! 

You do need different tones but to be fair, you can cover most stuff well enough with one guitar privided it has both single and humbucker options. For gigs where there's no time to change guitars such as a festival gig I tend to just use my PRS Cu24 with eg my SG or Yamaha Pacifica 611vfm as a backup. But if its just our band then I prefer to use my LP Custom and my Strat, or my SG and a Tele. 

I can also get away with just my LP or SG because I can get coil tapping with no volume loss via my Quasi Tap pedal. In fact, being able to kick it on or off means I can switch it instantly hands free even mid solo.

Also, it's my Vox Tonelab SE (or LE) that gives me the amp and effects I need anyway. 

daveyh

TimmyO said:

daveyh said:

There’s a reason why the great guitarists are usually associated with one guitar.

Clapton and his Strat! And Les Paul. And 335. And SG. And OM28. 

‘Usually’. 

We we could make a very long list of people who play a specific guitar/type way more than anything else

TINMAN82

There are fundamental distinctions between guitar being a hobby and fascination (with some players likely dabbling in various genres), a session musician requiring a lot of different sounds at hand to pay the bills and a guitar prodigy/ superstar who may only need one type of guitar to do their thing (SRV, BB King, Vai etc). Horses for courses.

I think most of us on here are firmly in the 1st camp.

TTBZ

meltedbuzzbox said:

You don't need to cover a range of tones in a covers band at all. Hell, half the bands get by playing the songs wrong let alone using the right gear.

Wiz. Nobody in the audience knows what a singlecoil sounds like vs a humbucker unless they play guitar, and even then they're not going to care too much if you haven't completely nailed the tone. I got on fine doing rock covers with my Les Paul - bridge for most stuff, neck for clean, middle gets hollow enough to approximate the singlecoil sort of thing. Variety in guitars is for my personal enjoyment, not anyone elses

monquixote

TTBZ said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

You don't need to cover a range of tones in a covers band at all. Hell, half the bands get by playing the songs wrong let alone using the right gear.

Wiz. Nobody in the audience knows what a singlecoil sounds like vs a humbucker unless they play guitar, and even then they're not going to care too much if you haven't completely nailed the tone. I got on fine doing rock covers with my Les Paul - bridge for most stuff, neck for clean, middle gets hollow enough to approximate the singlecoil sort of thing. Variety in guitars is for my personal enjoyment, not anyone elses

Absolutely, I think any tonal advantage in changing guitars in a pub gig set is easily outweighed by the loss of momentum introduced by bigger gaps.

TimmyO

I'm glad I kicked this off - some genuinely interesting replies 

Promoted in part by the philosophical mental meanderings that prompted the post I got out my trusty old Les Paul - a guitar that I've not played for more than a few minutes in some years. 

It was like putting on an old glove - my brain seemed to remember exactly how that guitar feels to play. It had fallen from favour because my overthinking brain had filed it under "less flexible than my other guitars" but you know what I think I like it far more than that. 

For the record I currently own:

Les Paul R7
PRS DGT gold top/dots
PRS McSoapbar gold top
Fender AVRI 60s Hot Rod Strat
Tele (bitsa with Oil City tapable pickup)
Morgan Custom
Tele self build (Kotzen alike)
Explorer self build (forum £100 guitar challenge)
Superstrat self build (not in playable condition due to broken expensive bridge)
Gibson J45 Vintage acoustic
Baranik booteek acoustic 
Squire Classic Vibe P Bass 

Hamstead Artist RT+ 20 combo
Princeton 68 Custom
Helix Floor

I have been through phases of being in "pub corner band" but for the last few years it's all for my own entertainment.

meltedbuzzbox

The flexibility and versatility always comes from the player not the guitar. It's best to always go with what you can play the best

Limehouse_Blues

I honestly miss the days of just having 1 guitar. All my best progress as a player was made during that period. Of the 6 electrics I own today I'd like to get down to 2: Tele and LP

bacchanalian

This thread makes a strong case that everyone just needs a DGT and an acoustic (and most don't need an acoustic).

I love the idea that if I could stop thinking about gear I would focus more on playing. If I find myself day dreaming about whether I need a tele, I try to visualise enclosed pentatonic scales. 
Unfortunately, if I am not thinking about gear, I would probably think about the rusty spot on the roof of my car, the price of pvc facia and gutters, the price of fish fingers and also I need new jeans.

thegummy

bacchanalian said:

This thread makes a strong case that everyone just needs a DGT and an acoustic (and most don't need an acoustic).

I love the idea that if I could stop thinking about gear I would focus more on playing. If I find myself day dreaming about whether I need a tele, I try to visualise enclosed pentatonic scales. 
Unfortunately, if I am not thinking about gear, I would probably think about the rusty spot on the roof of my car, the price of pvc facia and gutters, the price of fish fingers and also I need new jeans.

Lol there does seem to be a bit of a fallacy where people are thinking that reducing their gear or not buying any more will make them play better.

If your day is completely busy apart from a few moments and you spend that time doing useful practice but waste a lot of it switching between guitars to do the useful practice on, then maybe. Or if you spend the time browsing for guitars leaving zero time to practice.

But if you switch between guitars playing something you already know, reducing guitars won't help because that's not the problem, the problem is playing things you already know. If you learned something new then played it on 5 different guitars it would be better than playing something familiar on a single guitar.

ICBM

gringopig’s blind test thread makes it clear that you only *need* one guitar for tonal reasons, although if you want the distinctive Strat in-between sound then it does need a middle pickup. (But you might get away with two humbuckers with a split to the inner coils.)

You don’t need any more sounds than that even for a covers band, there are only three or four electric guitar sounds an audience will recognise... and most of it is in the amp, pedals and the way you play.

CountryDave

I think there are probably a few in the same position as I am.
For many years I had one or two guitars (gigging through college, 20’s and 30’s) then , if I wanted another it was a case of trade one in.
Then the kids both got jobs and started paying their own way as far as their hobbies etc.
This combined with me joining a great band that gigged a lot and for OK money, meant I had the opportunity to treat myself to a few toys.
This in turn lead to a few daft years of buying stuff, trying it for a few weeks then moving it on to try something else.
Every time I came back to my main tele.
At the moment I have two Teles a modded Strat & and EBMM Albert Lee (essentially a hardtail Strat), plus the Revstar that is leaving the herd because for the eighteenth time I’ve realised that as much as I like the sound of buckers, they don’t fit what I do in the band.

In short, I can do everything I want/need on my telecaster, it’s just nice to have a few shiny toys.

Now I just need to get saving for a Princeton.

thegummy

ICBM said:

gringopig’s blind test thread makes it clear that you only *need* one guitar for tonal reasons, although if you want the distinctive Strat in-between sound then it does need a middle pickup. (But you might get away with two humbuckers with a split to the inner coils.)

You don’t need any more sounds than that even for a covers band, there are only three or four electric guitar sounds an audience will recognise... and most of it is in the amp, pedals and the way you play.

In that thread, was anyone confusing a humbucker for a single coil?

monquixote

thegummy said:

ICBM said:

gringopig’s blind test thread makes it clear that you only *need* one guitar for tonal reasons, although if you want the distinctive Strat in-between sound then it does need a middle pickup. (But you might get away with two humbuckers with a split to the inner coils.)

You don’t need any more sounds than that even for a covers band, there are only three or four electric guitar sounds an audience will recognise... and most of it is in the amp, pedals and the way you play.

In that thread, was anyone confusing a humbucker for a single coil?

Given a significant percentage of people believe the Stairway solo is an LP plenty of people do.

ICBM

thegummy said:

In that thread, was anyone confusing a humbucker for a single coil?

See for yourself...

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/154250/gringos-clean-test-can-you-pass/p1

Listen to the clips before reading the rest of the thread.

Paul_C

I've got four electrics, one acoustic, two basses, one mandolin and one uke, but only play one of them most of the time, so could happily get rid of the others (though two are not mine, so they could go home).

Sassafras

thegummy said:

ICBM said:

gringopig’s blind test thread makes it clear that you only *need* one guitar for tonal reasons, although if you want the distinctive Strat in-between sound then it does need a middle pickup. (But you might get away with two humbuckers with a split to the inner coils.)

You don’t need any more sounds than that even for a covers band, there are only three or four electric guitar sounds an audience will recognise... and most of it is in the amp, pedals and the way you play.

In that thread, was anyone confusing a humbucker for a single coil?

I was.
Which is strange because I'm usually not keen on humbuckers. I guess the amp, pedals and technique contribute more to the final sound.

thegummy

ICBM said:

thegummy said:

In that thread, was anyone confusing a humbucker for a single coil?

See for yourself...

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/154250/gringos-clean-test-can-you-pass/p1

Listen to the clips before reading the rest of the thread.

I listened to the clips at the time and remember thinking that I couldn't go any further than whether it was a humbucker or single.

Thought they'd be too different to confuse.

Though, in a pub setting and / or for non guitar players, any differences wouldn't matter as long as it was clean/distorted when it needed to be.

I think any use of pedals or setting of gear in a pub environment is purely for the person doing it. To kind of "play rock star" in a way but I don't mean it as patronisingly as that sounds.