Condensing down to 1. THE guitar

Voxman

So, it looks like GAS is way more contagious than the Coronavirus!  

Sync

The electric guitar is the wrong instrument to do this. So many variations in neck, body, scale length, radius, woods, sound/style, pickups etc. 

It's not like classical orchestral string instruments where you may only have one violin or cello and within reason are achieving a broadly similar sound; but that could easily cost you £5k-£20k at a performance grade. 

ICBM

Sync said:

The electric guitar is the wrong instrument to do this. So many variations in neck, body, scale length, radius, woods, sound/style, pickups etc.

Very few of which make any real significant difference to the sound of the instrument in a live or recorded mix.

Pretty much the only exception are the Strat 'in between' sounds - they really can't be done convincingly by a guitar without three roughly equally-spaced pickups. (Although you can get reasonably close with two pickups and some clever wiring.) There's also a fair difference between low-wound single coils and high-wound humbuckers... but not as much as you may think between single coils and low-wound humbuckers.

The difference in the sound to the player and the way it might alter how you interact with the guitar is a different matter.

rossi

DB1 said:

This is an interesting thread. I'm currently struggling with the need to collect and the need to get rid of guitars and play just one or two and learn to play better! Below is what the 'guitar room' used to look like (and that's just one side of it!) but I'm down to half a dozen now. I keep thinking I've found 'the one', but I haven't yet. The pic was taken about three years ago, and I've bought and sold over a hundred since then. I'm a sick, sick man.

However, I've got a 1976 Antoria L5 copy which is superb, a 1953 ES-295 and a 1963 Guild Capri, all are which are lovely guitars. Then there's an R6, A Taylor 322e, A Tele, etc - I just don't need them, but they're very nice. ~Then I'm off to see a 1955 ES-150, which I really don't need. Then there's a B&G Little Sister Private Build thingy turning up in a couple of months.

It's a battle between GAS and learning - I don't think I'd be happy with one, but the three that I mentioned are (at the moment) as close to perfect for me as they can be.

Just treat it as two separate hobbies ...or send some to me to offset your problem.

markslade07

How come @HarrySeven hasn't chipped in yet?

simonhpieman

markslade07 said:

How come @HarrySeven hasn't chipped in yet?

Probably busy trying to stop laughing uncontrollably at the idea of just ONE guitar.

Voxman

Here's a nice little vid I found on why you need 4 guitars (Strat, Les Paul, Tele, 335).  His 335 has crazy hot pickups but generally yeah, I think he makes a good point that it's not just about the different tones, but it's how each guitars persona brings out something different in players, & that's exactly how I feel too.  

SimpleSimon

I managed it briefly for a bit (about 18 months), having worked down to just a PRS DGT, then a Brent Mason came along at an unreal price and before I knew it I had a telecaster and more surplus guitars again. I'm just about to embark on another declutter due to downsizing houses...…..

HarrySeven

simonhpieman said: 

markslade07 said:

How come @HarrySeven hasn't chipped in yet?

Probably busy trying to stop laughing uncontrollably at the idea of just ONE guitar.

Indeed. I couldn’t do it. So many guitars, so little time...

Dan_Halen

Not sure what’s wrong with collecting for collecting sake. People do it with all sorts of other stuff. Part of the fun is the thrill of the chase and nothing wrong with that as long as you keep within your means. 

Also don’t put a lot of stock in the ‘I’d practice more with just a couple of guitars’ thing. My playing time is just that and my GAS time is on the way to work, at lunch etc when I have my phone, access to the internet and time that I wouldn’t be practicing. When it’s time to play guitar I then have a bunch of wonderful options to choose from.

gibsongretschfan

Voxman said:

Here's a nice little vid I found on why you need 4 guitars (Strat, Les Paul, Tele, 335).  His 335 has crazy hot pickups but generally yeah, I think he makes a good point that it's not just about the different tones, but it's how each guitars persona brings out something different in players, & that's exactly how I feel too.  

I agree with this entirely. Although I do have a PRS Custom 24 for some more modern rock tones and an arch top for jazz gigs. 

Unless your wanting a full on 7-string djent sound those really have all your bases covered 

Voxman

gibsongretschfan said:

Voxman said:

Here's a nice little vid I found on why you need 4 guitars (Strat, Les Paul, Tele, 335).  His 335 has crazy hot pickups but generally yeah, I think he makes a good point that it's not just about the different tones, but it's how each guitars persona brings out something different in players, & that's exactly how I feel too.  

I agree with this entirely. Although I do have a PRS Custom 24 for some more modern rock tones and an arch top for jazz gigs. 

Unless your wanting a full on 7-string djent sound those really have all your bases covered 

I have a PRS Custom 24 too, but for me it was about pure gigging convenience to have a single guitar that gave me humbucker and single coil tones without having to switch guitars. I'm not even sure that a 335 is "necessary"..lovely to have of course, but for me a 335 and a Les Paul are very similar.  

Clarky

for me it's a 24 fret super-Strat, double locking bridge, HSH pups 

Kebabkid

Some sort of superstrat, trem, SSH or HSH (with coil taps) works for me as a workhorse but I'd prefer a LP, Tele, Strat and Superstrat and something jangly like a mandoguitar or electric 12 string.

My SSH Tyler is delivering really well for me but I recently played a HSH EBMM Silhouette Hardtail and was mightily impressed by the neck, playability, sounds and versatility.

gibsongretschfan

Voxman said:

gibsongretschfan said:

Voxman said:

Here's a nice little vid I found on why you need 4 guitars (Strat, Les Paul, Tele, 335).  His 335 has crazy hot pickups but generally yeah, I think he makes a good point that it's not just about the different tones, but it's how each guitars persona brings out something different in players, & that's exactly how I feel too.  

I agree with this entirely. Although I do have a PRS Custom 24 for some more modern rock tones and an arch top for jazz gigs. 

Unless your wanting a full on 7-string djent sound those really have all your bases covered 

I have a PRS Custom 24 too, but for me it was about pure gigging convenience to have a single guitar that gave me humbucker and single coil tones without having to switch guitars. I'm not even sure that a 335 is "necessary"..lovely to have of course, but for me a 335 and a Les Paul are very similar.  

I suppose a lot of people use them for their convenience in a giving situation, as have I, but from the perspective of why I have one in my tool box its because its the only guitar I have with 24 frets and runs a little hotter and a little more modern than anything else I have.

Yeah, a Les Paul and 355 on the bridge pickup into a semi distorted amp can cover a lot of the same ground but I find the guitars to diverge from each other from there, especially on cleaner tones. Although, if you are using hotter pickups then the nuances are probably less noticeable 

ICBM

gibsongretschfan said:

Voxman said:

Here's a nice little vid I found on why you need 4 guitars (Strat, Les Paul, Tele, 335).  His 335 has crazy hot pickups but generally yeah, I think he makes a good point that it's not just about the different tones, but it's how each guitars persona brings out something different in players, & that's exactly how I feel too.  

Unless your wanting a full on 7-string djent sound those really have all your bases covered 

Not remotely. You're missing so much with the Boring Four.

Rickenbacker (not even including 12-strings), Gretsch (especially with a Bigsby, which sounds totally different from a Strat trem), anything with a Floyd, all the quirky/weird stuff with low-output pickups...

There's also too much duplication - not just Les Paul and 335, the Strat and Tele can cover some of the same sounds, as can the Tele and Les Paul (different ones to the Strat, obviously). If you had to pick four guitars to cover "all the bases" it certainly wouldn't be those four.

Georg_Figel

when it's about having just 1 guitar, I'd say it's a HSS Strat.

And you could add a Freeway 10 position switch, which gives you all the versatility you could want.

gibsongretschfan

ICBM said:

gibsongretschfan said:

Voxman said:

Here's a nice little vid I found on why you need 4 guitars (Strat, Les Paul, Tele, 335).  His 335 has crazy hot pickups but generally yeah, I think he makes a good point that it's not just about the different tones, but it's how each guitars persona brings out something different in players, & that's exactly how I feel too.  

Unless your wanting a full on 7-string djent sound those really have all your bases covered 

Not remotely. You're missing so much with the Boring Four.

Rickenbacker (not even including 12-strings), Gretsch (especially with a Bigsby, which sounds totally different from a Strat trem), anything with a Floyd, all the quirky/weird stuff with low-output pickups...

There's also too much duplication - not just Les Paul and 335, the Strat and Tele can cover some of the same sounds, as can the Tele and Les Paul (different ones to the Strat, obviously). If you had to pick four guitars to cover "all the bases" it certainly wouldn't be those four.

I have TV Jones pickups in my 335 so I can cover some Ricky territory. 

If I could only have 4 guitars it would definitely be those four, anything more is a luxury to me

JerkMoans

After dipping my toes in the water with the odd alternative or two, everything currently homes in on this bad, bad boy.  Now updated with a MojoAxe compensated tailpiece, it's light, comfortable, resonant and does everything I want out of an electric guitar.

...so it will probably be up for sale in the Classifieds by Thursday

skullfunkerry

Alnico said:

I've wanted to do this for years but it's my Firebird that stops me...I just couldn't live without it but it won't do everything.

I could sell the other 4 to fund one really good guitar, a Soloist or similar would be perfect but I'd still have to have the Firebird. I can't live without a Floyd but don't want to live without a fixed bridge either and my Firebird is THE one for that.

I could have two guitars but probably not just one.

If I had to have just one and had no choice then it would be an Ibanez Jem, almost certainly the Sea Foam Green model because it needs no parts upgrading, isn't the most expensive of the range and it's a cool colour. 

This is similar to how I feel: not so much having ‘the one’, but I definitely feel like I’d like a fixed bridge and guitar with a Floyd.

When I was living in Derby & gigging regularly, all my guitars were fixed bridge. After moving and going through some life changes I wanted to draw a line under some stuff and have a fresh start, so all my gigging gear went, and I ended up for a while with a Modern Player Tele. It started to feel like it was fighting me though, so I got something a little more suited to the stuff I was playing... now I have two Floyd guitars (Jackson Soloist and the orange flake Performance) and one with a fixed bridge (PRS SE).
Of the two Floyd guitars, the Jackson probably gets more play: the Performance has a fantastic neck, but the Jackson does too, with a smaller more comfortable body and no heel joint), but I can’t get rid of the Performance - it looks so cool... so I’m stuck with three as a minimum. I could get rid of one of the Floyds if I had to though...