Your forever guitars

Chris_J

Forever is a long time...

I don't plan on getting rid of any of the guitars I have, but, can't say for definite that I wont.

My Lowden and Tele would probably be the last to go at the mo, but, that could change over time...

Tex Mexico

Nah.

Owning and playing new/different guitars is half the fun of being into gear. Makes you a better player, too.

Two stories:
1. There's a guy I know who has owned exactly one electric guitar and one amp his whole life. Will never part with it, not interested in buying anything else. He's also a pretty shocking guitar player and the guitar itself is falling to bits because he's never learnt to look after it. Nonetheless he believes having this guitar, which he's now had for about twenty years, is part of his "identity".

2. There's also a guy I know who for his 25th got bought one of those orange "buzzsaw" Zakk Wylde Gibsons. This is a guy who doesn't have a lot of coin, so really doesn't have the means to buy any new gear. He desperately wants to get back into playing and bands. However, he hates this Zakk Wylde guitar for how it looks and feels and sounds, but absolutely can't sell or trade it because it was a gift, even though it alone would cover the cost of a very nice new rig he actually wants.

Loads of my musician friends take the piss out of me for how quickly I turn guitars around, as if the idea of owning something for a long time had some kind of inherent merit. But I don't want to own something I claim I'll never get rid of, because that's the equivalent of lumbering your future self with a possession you may no longer want.

For that reason I'm also kind of not a fan of buying your child/baby/fetus some kind of high-end heirloom guitar. What if they don't give a shit about music? After you die, they're left with this expensive, fragile thing they have to look after and they can't pass it on because of the sentimental value. Nice one, pops.

Rob1742

I can’t imagine selling any of them. It took me years to get back the £70 Les Paul Copy I got when I was 13 years old, and I just don’t feel right moving something on that I really looked forward to buying.
i have a few that I don’t use, just stored, but even those I couldn’t bear to sell. I do have a hoarder mentality mind. 

punchesjudy

Loobs said:

This, bought it from some money I inherited from my Dad's estate who passed away earlier this year. Plan to never get rid of it. 

My dream thin skin that. Beautiful. 

Vinylfan

punchesjudy said:

Loobs said:

This, bought it from some money I inherited from my Dad's estate who passed away earlier this year. Plan to never get rid of it. 

My dream thin skin that. Beautiful. 

That is lovely.  

For me, it would be the Strat that I was given for a major birthday a couple of years ago.  Way above my ability to warrant something that high-end (its an Am Pro) but a thing of beauty to play and I can't imagine ever selling it.

Voxman

randella said:

Without sounding glib - all of them.  I've never sold a guitar, the collection just keeps expanding .  I think I just get to know them and then feel like I can't get rid.

Amps, on the other hand, I don't seem to have the same attachment to and plenty have come and gone down the years.

Pretty much the same here although I did sell my first two beginner guitars to go towards a Shaftesbury Les Paul Custom that was customised with Dimarzio Super Distortion in the bridge, Schaller tuners and a phase switch that was my main gigging guitar for years. Sold that when I bought my Gibson Les Paul Custom. Since then I've never yet sold a guitar and have 13 at the moment. 

StruanRobertson

MagicPigDetective said:

You only live once I thought. To hell with it, I decided to keep the strat and went ahead and bought the Les Paul.  Nobody seemed to mind and all was well with the world.

I agree with this. I worry a lot more about what my wife thinks about me buying guitars or chopping and changing amps than she does. She really doesn't care. I'm not re-mortgaging the house to buy them!

I sat down to try and explain why I was about to order a custom made guitar, and she was really happy to get involved, not worried about my obsessive and frivolous spending. She ended up persuading me to go for a matching headstock which I was um-ing and ah-ing over!

She also point out that in comparison to being obsessed with watching sport or playing golf every weekend, buying the occasional guitar and playing them at home is very much preferred.

munckee

StruanRobertson said:

I agree with this. I worry a lot more about what my wife thinks about me buying guitars or chopping and changing amps than she does. She really doesn't care. I'm not re-mortgaging the house to buy them!

I sat down to try and explain why I was about to order a custom made guitar, and she was really happy to get involved, not worried about my obsessive and frivolous spending. She ended up persuading me to go for a matching headstock which I was um-ing and ah-ing over!

She also point out that in comparison to being obsessed with watching sport or playing golf every weekend, buying the occasional guitar and playing them at home is very much preferred.

Missus munckee moans that other husbands hobbies mean they go out a lot, not stay at home making loads of noise and have equipment that takes up space in the house...

CHRISB50

None. I sold all my guitars ages ago. 

I regret selling my LP Custom but it’s only a guitar. 

NelsonP

Tex Mexico said:

1. There's a guy I know who has owned exactly one electric guitar and one amp his whole life. Will never part with it, not interested in buying anything else. He's also a pretty shocking guitar player and the guitar itself is falling to bits because he's never learnt to look after it. Nonetheless he believes having this guitar, which he's now had for about twenty years, is part of his "identity".

Have we met? ;-)

I still have the first proper guitar that I bought in 1988 - an Ibanez RG750. So that is probably my forever guitar, despite the fact that I don't actually play it that much thse days.  I also still have a 4 x 12 cab that I bought after chatting to Jim Marshall at the guitarist show. Even though a 4 x 12 is just about the least practical and most unnecessary piece of equipment for me to own these days.

Keeping these things is no more the sentimentally and pretty dumb from a purely rational point of view. Maybe I just can't be bothered to try to sell them. But they do both feel like part of my identity. Stupid isn't it!

Until recently that (and an amp head) was all the gear I had. The I got into amp modelling and owning more than one guitar and a whole different game started. No-one keeps digital things forever.

duotone

My Squier Protone Telecaster.  The first electric guitar I ever owned. I’ve had it for 22 years now.

https://equipboard.com/items/squier-pro-tone-telecaster-thinline--2

Loobs

punchesjudy said:

Loobs said:

This, bought it from some money I inherited from my Dad's estate who passed away earlier this year. Plan to never get rid of it. 

My dream thin skin that. Beautiful. 

It's the bollocks!