Why having lots of guitars is a bad idea

maltingsaudio

UnclePsychosis said:

I just don't see the point in having loads of guitars. It's not worth the expense or the hassle (in terms of storage). 

 

Storing guitars isn’t the problem, storing the cases is!

UnclePsychosis

maltingsaudio said:

UnclePsychosis said:

I just don't see the point in having loads of guitars. It's not worth the expense or the hassle (in terms of storage). 

 

Storing guitars isn’t the problem, storing the cases is!

Genuinely a problem. 

I bought a Rickenbacker recently, the case is ludicrously big. Thankfully I have attic space but if I needed regular access to the case I'd be boned, and thats in a detached house with four bedrooms! 

Funkfingers

No matter how many instruments you own, it is always possible to imagine tones or positional moves that are unavailable from whatever you currently own (or can borrow).

Rickenbacker electric guitar string spacing enables some chord fingerings that were previously impossible and renders some familiar old chord shapes bloody difficult. (Well, it does with my long, thin, bony fingers.) IMO, it is worthwhile working a bit harder to have those additional chordal options.

I almost never change the controls on my main home amp. I plug in whichever guitar comes to hand and see what sounds can be extracted from it. If these sounds do not fit what I am trying to do today, I change guitar.

TTBZ

The incessant tweaking/comparing and back and forth was one of the reasons why I sold up and went down to one guitar. Was faffing about too much with comparing sounds and settings, spent more time doing that than playing! Realistically I can get all the sounds I need with a 2 humbucker guitar, I just wish I'd sold my SG instead of my LP.

I had a moment where I thought I "needed" other guitars but I hate playing anything that isn't a Gibson (maybe PRS too), and with Fenders I'm always trying to fatten them up to make them sound more like a Gibson anyway! If I get another LP then I'll probably put P90s in the SG - that's about as much variety as I like from my guitars I think.

ICBM

UnclePsychosis said:

I bought a Rickenbacker recently, the case is ludicrously big.

That was genuinely an - admittedly minor - factor in my decision to sell it .

Sorry .

At least it's sturdy enough to be actually useful as a case... my 4001 case is about the same size - longer, but thinner - and is so flimsy it's useless as a case as well. I should probably sell it, since I'll never actually use it - but it's "the original case" so I'm reluctant to.

Musicwolf

scrumhalf said:

I have quite a few guitars. I also have quite a few shirts.

I play/wear some of them a lot and rarely play/wear others.

I could function with fewer of each, but nobody has ever asked me why I need so many shirts, only why I need so many guitars. 

Go on then, why do you need so many shirts (I could tell that you were dying for someone to ask)?

SPECTRUM001

I play (at home) through my Vox AV15, and had pretty much settled on a couple of settings that seem to have hit the sweet spot.

Then along came my Mustang 90, with thicker increased output, and a need to realign the amp’s gain and EQ.

So, yeah it took a good session and a half to really get it set up for differing guitars. I used to use masking tape on the control panel, now a camera phone does the job.

Regarding multiple guitar ownership / usage -

In the nineties when I was in a signed band, we were young and broke. As were all the other bands we gigged with. You tried to acquire as good a main guitar as you could (I lucked out and found a beaten up 1978 Precision Bass - I still have it) and would eventually hope to afford a cheaper back up (so a Squier) as a touring spare.

The notion of having more gear was just not in our world, nor did we have anywhere to put it.

I stopped playing for twenty years, and when I started again, I was amazed that gear is now so much cheaper and (possibly) better. Having a regular career means I can afford to get more involved - and I have to say it is great. I am still not a particularly good player (I never was), but I get a lot of satisfaction from the subtle differences between different guitars - I guess because I can do...

Completely indulgent - but I love it and playing again has changed my life !!

So I am going to try out a Vox AC10c...

Alterlifeson

A programmable EQ pedal sounds like it should do the job - a preset for LPs, one for Fenders etc etc.

UnclePsychosis

ICBM said:

UnclePsychosis said:

I bought a Rickenbacker recently, the case is ludicrously big.

That was genuinely an - admittedly minor - factor in my decision to sell it .

Sorry .

At least it's sturdy enough to be actually useful as a case... my 4001 case is about the same size - longer, but thinner - and is so flimsy it's useless as a case as well. I should probably sell it, since I'll never actually use it - but it's "the original case" so I'm reluctant to.

ha! 

I'm not complaining at all, it needs to be that size to protect the instrument. But its going up in the loft and I'm going to buy a Mono case which will be far more practical day-to-day I should think... 

zedhex

I think there's a lot to be said for concentrating on one particular style/sound and getting the best out of it. I don't think it's possible to have a huge range of guitars and be able to get the best out of each one of them. 

It makes me wonder what the bare minimum is. Do I need more than an LP, a 335, a Strat and maybe a Tele?

Philly_Q

I think the only downside for me is that they take up too much space.

Sassafras

What else are people gonna do with their money but buy loads of things?
You can't take it with you and you shouldn't leave it to your grasping relatives.

ICBM

zedhex said:

It makes me wonder what the bare minimum is. Do I need more than an LP, a 335, a Strat and maybe a Tele?

Not even that... the bare minimum is one guitar. If it's something with two or three fairly different sounds like a HSS Strat, and it has a tone control, you can get close to most electric guitar sounds.

Currently I have three electric guitars - a Strat-type with mini-humbuckers in the bridge and neck, a Rickenbacker, and a humbucker PRS Hollowbody - which is probably at least one more than I need.

I admit I also have three basses - fretted, fretless and a five-string which is for sale - and three acoustics - 6-string, 12-string and a cheap one with a magnetic pickup which I use for electric-acoustic hybrid sounds...

thegummy

One of the great things about using amp sim software instead of actual amps is that the tone you've used for a recording is automatically saved with the song so if you have to do an overdub it's so easy.

Surely, though, just noting or photographing the settings is a lot better idea than the extreme option of buying an amp for each guitar? Even if you are very wealthy, would you not still want the option of using the same guitar with different amps?

Re: the concept of having a lot of guitars - I totally get and am in to having lots of different guitars for different sound options. I don't think there's any reason at all for that only to be true for session players - if your own music covers a lot of different genres then it makes just as much sense.

What I have never understood though, from a musical point, is people having more than one of the same guitar (with the same pickup type etc.) It just seems redundant to me.

Saying that, I do know people outside the musical world who generally get enjoyment from owning things and just like to have things so I assume that's the people who have multiple similar guitars and that's the reason. It's just never been my feeling, I only like things with a purpose.

One last thing on the topic of having sound options available; when I was a keyboard player, before getting in to guitars, it became an obsession of trying to have access to every type of sound I could imagine in hardware then later in software. I realised I was going over the top and could get by without that mentality so I have been keeping on top of it with guitars and have it down to 2-3.

Fez

I use amplitube for recording and amps for practice and live.I enjoy the difference between a Strat and a Les Paul.

Yamaha77

The problem is solved by having 10 Telecasters with different configurations and embracing the differences. Leo and Co got it right first time around in the 1950s. 

crunchman

Go digital.  If I use the Kemper as an example, you could have a Performance set up for each guitar.

The other nice things with the Kemper is that it will always sound the same.  Your Laney might sound great now, but when the valves start to go off, it won't sound as good.  When you replace a valve, the new one might have different gain and the amp might not sound the same.

slacker

I currently have 4 electrics, gretsch les paul ric and strat. they each do a certain sound plus there's some overlap. The amp always has the same eq. I do tweak overdrive settings but I have a few.

it's been a while since I've done recording but I would tend to record a track with a combination of gear. I'll find a complimentary sound either with the same gear or swap stuff out.

until lockdown I rehearsed once a month and the other guitarist and I would bring one guitar and a pedalboard but each day bring something different. we would make it work. 

prowla

Just to be clear, 10 guitars is not "a lot of" guitars.

ICBM

prowla said:

Just to be clear, 10 guitars is not "a lot of" guitars.

I think almost anyone who isn’t a member of a guitar forum would disagree with that .

For most people it goes -

A guitar
Two guitars
A lot of guitars
Why do you need so many guitars?

Ten guitars is like the biblical ‘forty’ - an arbitrary large number somewhere between more than you can count on both hands and infinity...