When you have multiple guitars that are very similar...

jaymenon

Its easy to justify having a Strat, and a Les Paul, and a Telecaster, and an acoustic, and a nylon, and a 12 string, and a bass guitar, and a resonator, etc etc...  

Because each one is different.

Some of my guitars however, do very similar things in terms of sound / tone (and even to look at).

I feel this burning need to thin the herd, but if someone can please give me a valid and logical reason to keep multiple guitars that are very similar, that would really give me some peace of mind :-)

...and also keep me away from the classifieds section here (at least a little bit).

prlgmnr

Different tunings.

grungebob

Nope sorry. Find the one you have that does that sound the best and move the rest on. Unless you’re gigging and need the same guitar for a backup I don’t see the point. 

maltingsaudio

No guitar is ever exactly the same 

stickyfiddle

I intentionally don’t hold onto guitars that do exactly the same thing as another guitar, as one inevitably does it better so the “worse” one doesn’t get played.

scrumhalf

IT people say that data isn't properly backed up uintil it exists in three separate locations. Adapting that same rule for guitars completely justifies having more than one of the same guitar.

jaymenon

But they are all in the same location 

RaymondLin

To the average person, when you listen to music, it all sounds like guitar.  

Musicwolf

jaymenon said:

Its easy to justify having a Strat, and a Les Paul, and a Telecaster, and an acoustic, and a nylon, and a 12 string, and a bass guitar, and a resonator, etc etc...  

To whom does the justification need to be made?  If to yourself then you are among friends here and we can supply you with all the justification that you need.

If you need to justify this to your wife then may I suggest that Sir adopts the 'I'm looking after it for a friend' defence?  Or better still.  'I'm looking after it for a friend's wife who has bought it for her husband as a surprise present'?  That way you are also putting presure on her for not doing something similar.

Whitecat

If you are keeping them both because they are “good wood” then put very different pickups in one of them. 

jaymenon

Musicwolf said:

jaymenon said:

Its easy to justify having a Strat, and a Les Paul, and a Telecaster, and an acoustic, and a nylon, and a 12 string, and a bass guitar, and a resonator, etc etc...  

To whom does the justification need to be made?  If to yourself then you are among friends here and we can supply you with all the justification that you need.

If you need to justify this to your wife then may I suggest that Sir adopts the 'I'm looking after it for a friend' defence?  Or better still.  'I'm looking after it for a friends wife who has bought it for her husband as a surprise present'?  That way you are also putting presure on her for not doing something similar.

You sir - are my inspiration....!

DeeTee

I'm getting rid of my Tele because my Strat does the single coil thing that I want, so it's not needed. Perversely though, I'm likely to build another Strat. I'll have one with single coils and one with single coil size humbuckers.

I have never really understood people who have a lot of the same model without any difference in pickup types, but if it makes them happy, who am I to judge?

jaymenon

Whitecat said:

If you are keeping them both because they are “good wood” then put very different pickups in one of them. 

Tried that - AlNiCo 4 in the Axcess
BareKnuckle Mules (AlNiCo IV) in the Relic
AlNiCo 2 in the Burny

Honestly...? Still sound very similar...

Here are the four amigos:
[Imgur](https://i.imgur.com/XONMRJs.jpg)

sawyer

What! They're ALL different aren't they? Oh my God I'm living a lie!

HAL9000

I’ve got three T-types, and two S-types. I find I actually only play one of each and the others remain resolutely in their cases. Post lockdown two of the Ts and one S are definitely getting moved on. Absolutely no point keeping guitars that rarely or never get an outing.


(Doesn’t mean I won’t buy more in future though.)

guitars4you

As an overview I've often said that the logic of having a Strat, Tele, LP, 335 etc etc is fine, so all different - But having duplication's is of a less obvious choice/reason , unless it is as  a gigging spare or different tuning 

I think that if you have 2 Strats, then chances are you'll prefer A to B - On that basis A gets all the work and B is redundant so less of a reason to buy it - But a Strat and a Tele etc etc and you have different tools as required - The down side to this is that you might hate say any Gibson and only prefer say a Strat, so why not have a multiple selection of Strats

Yet a large part of me say's it will be great if I could get far closer to mastering one guitar 

HAL9000

Musicwolf said:
If you need to justify this to your wife then may I suggest that Sir...

...asks his wife how many handbags she needs. After all they all do the same thing don’t they?

Musicwolf said:

...better still.  'I'm looking after it for a friends wife who has bought it for her husband as a surprise present'?  That way you are also putting presure on her for not doing something similar.

You, Sir, are a genius.


For Christmas Mrs9000 bought me a mug which says ‘You can never have too many guitars’. For a while I saw this as a green light.

jaymenon

HAL9000 said: For a while I saw this as a green light.

...and then what happened?

monquixote

I think it's simple to answer.

Do you play them all?

In my view it's fine to have whatever as long as it gets played.

I generally just play my favourite of anything so it would be pointless for me.

jaymenon

Good point - one Les Paul just walking the fretboard plank...

TTBZ

I put this in another thread but I seem to really like the idea of having different guitars and tones available, but in reality I end up just making them all sound similar with pickup swaps or EQ. My "formula" for a tone I like seems to be mahogany guitars and alnico 5 humbuckers which aren't too scooped or low in output. The furthest I seem to stray from this is P90s in a similar type of guitar.