The Long Term Relationship Project - An early New Years Resolution

Faded

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Apr 26, 2012
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Like many of you here, I enjoy often buying and sometimes selling instruments. Whether to try something new, get a certain sound or I've just got a bad case of GAS. Its gone on like this for years. My wife likes to say I'm exceptional at making money and just as good or better at spending it. I'd have to agree.

But to be honest, I'm bored with the chase. Bored with the constant "what's next?" of collecting. It all just seems a little draining after doing it for years. I've had hundreds of guitars spanning every price bracket since I started playing as a teenager in the late 90's. From vintage Fenders and Gibsons, boutique brands to Private Stock and core PRSi. I'm just a bit numb to it all.

I've always been a player and have a number of albums to my credit, but the gear and tone chase seems to have overtaken my creativity so a change needs to happen. I never thought creating music would be supplanted by consumerism for me, but here we are.

Enter the long term relationship project...Earlier this month I went to my local dealer and purchased a Silver Sky and a core 10 top DGT. These two, along with a Collings acoustic and a vintage telecaster are my keepers for 2025 (and perhaps beyond). Everything else is going to be or has already been sold. My commitment to this project is to end 2025 with the same instruments I begin the year with. Something I've not done since I was a kid.

My hope is to develop a real relationship with these instruments. To find out their strengths, appreciate their flaws and practice real contentment around the gear that I am fortunate enough to own. I am looking forward to gaining back the energy I spend looking for the next best thing and putting it into more productive creative outlets.

Some of this may seem odd if you're the type who's had the same few instruments for decades, but for those of you out there who can relate...wish me luck!
 
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I finally sold a couple of guitars this year, first time in 10+ years... I was on the other side of the fence. Definitely had them long enough to determine what their strengths were. One I used quite a lot live and recording, and another that I just never connected with in a strong way. The sale was spurred by a chance at a great amp, which fortunately worked out, and moving the guitars to get the amp was definitely worth it. But, on the guitar side of things, it's going for the same result as you - worry less about having a specific guitar for every situation, pick the best ones and just use them.

Although I still have, uhh... more guitars than we need to talk about, in case my wife ever sees this.
 
I've found that after 35 years of playing, buying and selling etc... I'm ok with the few guitars I've had for a decade or two...all PRS at the moment....love the scale lengths and weight and ergonomics ....it just wound up that was as I'm not against F and G or whatever makers...
 
In terms of a certain tone I never seeked to buy a guitar. It was the guitar in total, despite one, I kept all.
The search to the tone occured subtle in coincidence, since 2020 conciously. The prefered amp setting with reduced mids, rolled back lows, and presence highs was defined over the years, though using modelers.
But being confident by the rennaissance of real amp and cab made me to spend some effort in defining the right speaker(s) for me.
Mission accomplished. GAS mitigated.
 
I've sold 2 , given 28 (mostly hand built) away , I've thought many times about thinning the herd more at this stage. I've decided I enjoy them far too much. I played 7 different instruments through the day yesterday , spending an hour or so with each ..all were candidates for departure.. fell in love all over again with each of them ... the new amp seems to make everything sound delicious
 
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Good luck. Lol

I have kind of been in coast mode. Not really in the need of a new or new to me guitar.

My problem is stumbling across good deals on guitars I want or like.

This summer I found a Vela super cheap.......how can I pass on a super good deal on a guitar I've been kinda wanting??? Or.......my buddy sends me a link to a super cheap 08 CE and offers to help snag it.....how can I pass this up????


Then, just last night I was only scrolling through fbmp and another cheap ce pops up 40 minutes from my house.........I'm "trying" to resist here but geeeeez.
 
I'm down to the fewest instruments I've had in over 20 years. Every one, while maybe not "permanent", fills a sound and feel and is a keeper. I know there is ONE more guitar in my future, but as it will most certainly be either "new to me" or "made for me" PS to get what I want, there's no rush to get there. Beyond that, I'm extremely happy with all of my guitar and bass gear currently. I played for about 4 hours last night and never once wished for a sound I couldn't achieve.

Should I see a doctor?
 
I wish you luck with your project @Faded.

I started making the decision that I needed to start thinning things out about a year ago. I knew this was going to be difficult for me. I haven't sold any of my gear in quite a number of years, at least a decade. The other thing is that I don't want to sell my gear at give away prices just to get rid of it. I have good quality stuff and am willing to give someone a fair price but I am not selling it for lowball prices.

I managed to sell 3 of my high end guitars this year. One of them was sold to a friend who I know will play the heck out of it. It is a guitar he could never find one he liked and he fell in love with the one I had. I sold it to him for less than I could have sold it for on the open market but I didn't have to deal with tire kickers and it went to a friend. I will probably get to see him play it on stage and that will be cool.

I have never sold a PRS guitar that I bought. I have a nice stock of them, better than most shops I have walked into for a long time now. I have told my wife many times that I know I really have what I want in the collection because I never see anything in a shop that I feel like I am even a bit interested in because I can think of multiple guitars I have at home I like better. When she talked me into doing the private stock build I decided that is the last guitar I will buy in my life. My goal now is to just slowly sell off what I am not using or gravitating toward.

I have had a lot of excuses for keeping a lot of what I have. My biggest one is that if I take a spot in a band I want to have the guitars to get the tones for the genera I am playing. I have been in a number of different genera bands and like to have the right guitars. As things have worked out over the years I took a spot in a country band a few years back. I gravitated to my PRS SCHB II for the gigs. I used the acoustic tones in it as well as clean and driven electric tones. I just pulled my picking hand back towards the bridge and I was able to pull of a convincing enough tone for some songs where a Tele was used to record them. I pulled a wide range of tones out of that guitar. That kind of goes against my excuse for keeping more guitars.

I have a stack of amps that I need to sell off as well. The issue there is that I am still attached to a few of them even though they are not getting used. I was going to try to go down to two or three. I may get there some day but I am planning on selling most of them. I know this is going to be a long road for me. I didn't buy them all in a year so I am sure it will take more than a year to sell them at a pace I am comfortable letting go at.

Pedals is my biggest struggle in the past few years.
 
I've been uncomfortable with how many guitars I have for a while now. And as the OP intimated, I've been feeling that the shear quantity is preventing me from have the kind of intimacy with each individual guitar that I'd like to have. Looking at a room full of nice guitars seems to actually distract me from the reason I have them in the first place.

I used to tell myself that I'm a player, not a collector. Clearly, that is no longer completely true. As the value of these have gone up, I started referring to them as my OCD IRA.

So I've made myself a list; the 'good' guitars, the 'great' guitars, and the 'exceptional' guitars. The exceptional ones are the ones that are fantastic instruments but also have a real personality and almost feel alive. They aren't necessarily the nicest or the most expensive.

So it seems easy to say the 'good' ones should go. That's only about 10% of the total number. Probably at least half of the 'great' ones should go too. That will be harder. But if I could do that, I'd still have at least two dozen guitars... in my one bedroom apartment... that I share with my partner...😖
 
I’ve reached equilibrium in my guitars and amps. I have a PRS to get whatever sounds I want, and to complement the other players sound in a 2 guitar band. My HG70 head is on Reverb, along with an SAS. I can’t carry heavy amps up stairs easily, so there are one or two more decisions there. This is a good time musically in my life.
 
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