How many guitars...

[HANGAR18]

This question of "How many guitars do you have?" is becoming very difficult for me. Must be the perfectionist in me but I need to know, do I count electric guitars and electric bass guitars on the same list or do they get counted separately? Do electric guitars and acoustic guitars get combined into the same total number or do acoustics get their own count? Banjos and mandolins are easy. I only have one of each and neither one of those are guitars.

Not that I have that many guitars... at least not as many as some people I know. I strive for quality over quantity. But I have a couple of guitar buddies, one says he has 100 guitars and the other says he doesn't know exactly but it is in excess of 200 guitars. I can't imagine owning that many. I'm closer to 20, depending on how you want to count them.

 

[Tedder]

OK, sorry for the long winded post. I work weekends and have had several cups of coffee, which is my excuse.




My collection is small. I have 3 electrics, and acoustic and one bass. My wife is very anti-hoarding and she's a penny pincher to boot. I'm also not made of money (I mean, who is?). Anyway...

Recently, I decided to buy my first core, and because I can't buy a new guitar every 6 months before we even start talking PRS pricing, I decided to go big in that I was going to buy the perfect wood library so I'd at least feel like I kinda had a PS. This could be my only one for a long time. I was certain my wife would lose it over the price, BUT I was going to sell several guitars to fund it. She was cool with that. But then I found the perfect one before I started selling off the other guitars, so I convinced her to let me pull from savings to buy the guitar first. I could tell she wasn't so happy with that but she OK'd it.


I've since sold the other guitars save 1, which is still in the works of being sold. But my wife? She has come 180 degrees on why anyone could spend that much money on a guitar when they don't get paid to play.

There are 2 reasons for this.

1) She spent a year learning how to play guitar, and made decent progress, before ultimately giving up. She's a singer at heart, but now appreciates the skill set it takes to play guitar at any functional level.

And B) I started hosting a jam session at the house every two weeks. We now have drums and bass, as well as me on guitar. My wife and one other lady friend of ours has started singing with us, and it's turning into a cover band of sorts. So now she's seeing me and the PRS "in action". lol

Anyway, she was noticing how the PRS already has shiny spots worn on the satin finish, just the same as the Taylor T5z. She also noted that it took me 2 months to do what I did in one year with the Taylor. Given my background with PRS being my bucket list guitar, and her newfound understanding of guitars... she agreed I should have done this 10 years ago. Woohoo! I won her over!


I'm now learning how to build guitars in the basement, starting with kits. I just might have room to start really adding some guitars to the collection now. The downside? My wife now can tell the difference between all of the guitars so sneaking them in is probably off of the guitar case... errr... dining room table.

 

[SteveGlitch]

Gotta give it to supportive wives!!!

My wife knows me so well, she can "sense" when I am going to buy a new guitar.

I show her a pic of a guitar that appeals to me and then a couple weeks later be like "Be right back, I'm going to the bank." She responds with "You're going to go buy that guitar aren't you?"




Sounds like me though, 25+ electric guitars in hardcases in the guest room, not including gig bags lol I always forget how many acoustic guitars I have to the point I don't even acknowledge them anymore (Acoustics are in the living room and kitchen here).

 

[Victor Vector]

I love my supportive wife......just wish she would be born already.

 

[László]

OK, sorry for the long winded post. I work weekends and have had several cups of coffee, which is my excuse.




My collection is small. I have 3 electrics, and acoustic and one bass.

I only have 4 electrics, an acoustic and a bass, but could get down to 3, or even one, electric and not complain.

I've never understood the urge to collect a pile of stuff beyond what I think would be useful in my work. I also realize most here would think that's crazy talk.

 

[SteveGlitch]

I only have 4 electrics, an acoustic and a bass, but could get down to 3, or even one, electric and not complain.

I've never understood the urge to collect a pile of stuff beyond what I think would be useful in my work. I also realize most here would think that's crazy talk.

For me, I just wanted one type of every guitar basically but found myself having 4 strats and 3 teles, etc. Some consider it wasting money but I do use everything I have whether it's guitars or pedals or amps.

I envy anyone who just has one guitar, one amp and maybe a small batch of pedals for years.

 

[László]

For me, I just wanted one type of every guitar basically but found myself having 4 strats and 3 teles, etc. Some consider it wasting money but I do use everything I have whether it's guitars or pedals or amps.

I envy anyone who just has one guitar, one amp and maybe a small batch of pedals for years.

I generally owned one guitar and one amp from 1967-1991. When I first got into the ad music business in the late '80s, friends who were already doing this type of work recommended I get a Les Paul, 335, Tele and Strat (I had a '65 SG Special already).

Instead of the LP I bought a PRS, but also got the Tele, Strat and eventually a 335. I discovered that I sounded best on the PRS, and sold the others. I had only one PRS (first a Custom, later an Artist II) for a long time, and never used the SG Special (it now lives with my son, who's in the music biz in LA).

None of my ad clients even noticed I was doing everything on the PRS, regardless of the musical style they wanted. There was no need to own anything else, except from time to time I had a Rick 12 String around, because ad folks were requesting that sound for a hot minute.

I later added more PRSes and some other guitars in the '90s - just curiosity really - but in the mid-00s got back down to one PRS again. I never had, or wanted, more than five or six electrics. Four is a good number, but after getting a DGT recently, I could probably live with just that, and sell my PS electrics (which so far I haven't been able bring myself to do out of sheer love for 'em).

However, I need more than one amp to be able to do my work because I'd never hand a client a track done on a modeler - I don't like the way they sound.

 

[JasonE]

I am in both of these camps. I have a 3 bedroom home. I have guitars in all 3 of these rooms. I have a main room that is my music room and is the room that I work out of since we have been working from home for getting close to 4 years now. I converted the closet in this room to hold guitars, in their cases. I have quite a few in there but it is full so the overflow has made it to the other rooms. Thankfully my wife is okay with it up to this point. I probably need to make some hard choices and sell some of them. I have two setting our in my music room / office that I put back to stock that will be the first two to go. I have them all prepped for sale. I just have to make it happen.

I have to call myself out here... It has been two and a half months and those two guitars are still setting exactly where they were when I typed my post on December 26th. I don't see them moving anytime real soon either. I have just gotten used to seeing them there.

 

[FragileThunder]

When the latest horse trading is done, I'll be at 3 electrics, 2 acoustics and 2 basses. Though the number tends to flood then recede, I feel like this is about right for me. I've had as many as 7 electrics at once, and back in my real playing days I had a stretch for a couple of years where I had 11 basses but that all seems excessive to me, and even when I have that many I'm thinking WTF am I doing with all of these? I am not a collector though, just a hack player with evolving tonal goals. Once I get through NGD on Friday though, I feel like I am going to be in a really happy place with the guitars I am holding on to.

 

[veinbuster]

I only have 4 electrics, an acoustic and a bass, but could get down to 3, or even one, electric and not complain.

I've never understood the urge to collect a pile of stuff beyond what I think would be useful in my work. I also realize most here would think that's crazy talk.

It’s not crazy at all. Some of just converge on what works best for us on a different time scale. We’ve probably bought about the same number of instruments in the last 50 years. I’ve just been slower moving the ones that were interesting, but not the real me, out of the house.

 

[László]

It’s not crazy at all. Some of just converge on what works best for us on a different time scale. We’ve probably bought about the same number of instruments in the last 50 years. I’ve just been slower moving the ones that were interesting, but not the real me, out of the house.

Actually, that makes perfect sense!