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Catch & Release
Josh_Cosku
Frets: 190
I just recently heard this term used for guitar buying/selling behaviour and it made me feel really good.
I always put lots of stress to myself about managing my GAS or feeling guilty after buying a new guitar. Or when my opinion changes about one of my guitars, saying "this is it, keeper" when I just got them but I ended up selling after 6 months. I wanted to have a life-time bond with 2-3 guitars and stop looking out.
I am thinking slightly differently now. I buy guitars and play them at home, rehearsal, gigs if possible and I am getting to know them by spending a good decent time. Eventually, I let them go to find/fund the next ones. This is still ok.
I think I am not going to find "the one", it doesn't exist for me. This idea started to become ok for me now which was not in the past. I am a catch & release guy
May I ask, do you really have a guitar which you can call "the one"?
I always put lots of stress to myself about managing my GAS or feeling guilty after buying a new guitar. Or when my opinion changes about one of my guitars, saying "this is it, keeper" when I just got them but I ended up selling after 6 months. I wanted to have a life-time bond with 2-3 guitars and stop looking out.
I am thinking slightly differently now. I buy guitars and play them at home, rehearsal, gigs if possible and I am getting to know them by spending a good decent time. Eventually, I let them go to find/fund the next ones. This is still ok.
I think I am not going to find "the one", it doesn't exist for me. This idea started to become ok for me now which was not in the past. I am a catch & release guy
May I ask, do you really have a guitar which you can call "the one"?
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Comments
That being said if you find one that ticks all the boxes and brings joy and is nice to play and works, why bother keep looking, may as well just count it as the one.
Your own needs and expectations - Even our own failings as a player
The above comments is based on me speaking as both a player, plus various chats I've had for many years with many customers - I've always said that you don't get to know a guitar inside out after any 30 min test drive - Be it at home or in a store - But many times, I can dismiss a guitar as not suitable within 10/20 seconds - And that is often just an un-plugged/acoustic test, as the feel is instantly not me - I feel that 1 guitar or 10 guitars, is a matter of opinion
Personally I like having different guitars - partly as I'm spoilt - Partly as I'm not sure if the one exists anyway - Partly as I like what different guitars bring to the table (I say partly, as in fact this is probably the biggest reason as to why I like more than one guitar)
I'm definitely not on a quest to find "one guitar to rule them all". I'm not sure I ever was, I just liked buying guitars. I was gradually going up the "most I've ever paid" ladder, and a couple of years ago I was looking at things like PJE, Huber, Anderson, Gibson Murphy Lab etc and thinking hmm, am I prepared to go £4k+...? Now in 2024, just about everything is £4k+ but I'm quite sure I've got no intention of ever paying that much. Which isn't to say I'll never buy another guitar, but now I'd be happy to drop back down to a much more modest price level.
So, I don't have "the one" but there are a few guitars I'd regard as "keepers" if I ever get off my backside and sell most of the others. And I don't think the ones I'd keep are anything special, or even great examples of that particular model... I just like the look, the weight, the neck shapes. They feel right. I might change some parts or pickups, just for fun, but basically they're "good enough".
I don't really keep books of my guitar sales but I reckon I about break even if you don't look too hard - some stuff I've taken a hit and some stuff I've made twice what I had into, it so it's basically a wash in my eyes.
Telecasters are nice, but not £199 of Squier Affinity JM nice.
The one acoustic for me is my Tanglewood TW45 D L X .slightly modded with Martin Liquid Metal bridge pins, I have had that one 20 + years now.
I don't think you have to spend a fortune to find the one.
Not "a small fortune", I mean several actual small fortunes amounts. Maybe.
................of each type"
I tend not to flip a lot of guitars though, most of what I have has been there for over a decade
* This is very possibly a euphemism.
1978 mender music master bass night when I was 14.
A friend persuaded me not to sell it when we were still at school, and I didn't sell it when I was about move to the USA to marry a girl. Lucky as she was a numpty.
I like having 5 different guitars instead of the one. When I get bored I play another. I played one guitar a lot last year. Now it's the most recent one.
The sweetspot for me is a well built expensive model from the usual suspects.
I have a strat which ticks all my strat boxes.
A nice tokai semi which tickes the 335 box.
My perennial SG which I did think about selling recently. The price I was offered wasnt enough to persuade me, it's worth more for sentimental reasons.
A jet tele which is tuned specifically for Hey you by floyd. I've changed the hardware and that's a good n enough tele for me.
A strat partsacaster which was more a learning curve, that'll be a back up for my blue one.
Finally a black tokai les paul which i need to sort the wiring out on.
I tend not to buy that many guitars. Just don't have the room, and I'd rather have a few decent ones. The eternal question of one to rule them all does pop up now and then. However they do all sound different.
I struggled to play reggae convincingly for years. It was only until I got a tele. I discovered the sound of the bridge pickup, is the perfect sound.
i do at times feel guilty about guitars in our collection which haven’t been played for 6 months or so sometimes.
Mainly because I love buying guitars but find selling them very tiresome indeed.
As a lefty, guitars are rarely in shops. 2nd hand models, even rare ones, tended to either be priced well above market value, or below. The latter was brilliant for the chance to try them & flip them to break even.
All was going great until my appetite for expensive guitars grew. The bottom has fallen out from the used market so I’ve found myself with 5 niche/expensive guitars that I couldn’t shift even at silly low prices. Luckily I’m not desperate to sell, although they are taking up space in my one bedroom flat.
Keepers is fun. I’ve had so many I’d never sell, and I don’t have any of them. Which is a shame. But such is life.