Q for the old farts...when did you realise that

[AndersonTech]

There's a lot to be said about finding what one guitar can do.

Having 4 guitars out at one time last weekend was unique for me. (The main reason was so my friend could check them out.) Usually, I'll play only one guitar per session - concentrating on the music more than the gear.

Having the means to acquire different gear at any one time can be somewhat counterproductive - even for experienced players. You have to maintain a balance between exploring new territory and maintaining/improving your existing skill set with the gear you already have.

I think that's why so many older players don't like gizmos with a lot of knobs and are happy with one familiar guitar plugged straight into one simple amp with just a few knobs among the two. As I said before, there's nothing wrong with that.

[moogerfooger]

got my first guitar in the mid 60's a tasiko or something like that -I was mainly a keyboard (organ) player in those days -- my first real guitar was a 74 strat which I still have --- had as many as 25 at one time --- now down to 8 -- my main line up is a 69- ES335 -- the 74 strat -- a 72 tele deluxe --- a 70 LP standard -- I usually take all 4 for band gigs and use them according to what the song calls for -- however I can play the 335 all night -- same for the tele -- if I have to.

[cratz2]

Hrmm... I'm 33 and started playing my sisters guitar when I was six. I got my first two electrics from a family friend when I was 8 or 9. One was a Funky Tiesco and the other was a Sears or Montgomery Ward not-quite-a-strat guitar and they were both hideous but I kept the Tiesco for a lot of years. I remember playing along with the theme to the Dukes of Hazzard with that guitar.

I got my first decent electric, an older Fender Strat, when I was about 12 years old after I had my mom listen to Yngwie Malmsteens music and convinced her that electrics could be used for quasi-classical music. I mostly wanted a strat because David Gilmour and Mark Knopfler played them and they were two of the three guitarists I most wanted to be like... the other was Ace Frehley though I wasn't as crazy about his sound. Then a couple years later I got more into metal and traded the strat for a Kramer with a Floyd and the hole bit. That was the only electric that I had until I was probably 16 then I got another Kramer, a Stagemaster which was pretty outstanding and a great deal, but still not what I was really looking for.

At that point, I got rid of all my guitar stuff except for one acoustic. Since then, I've probably been through 40 guitars... mostly Fender and Squier Strats and a handful of Tele and LP knockoffs.

Right now, I'd say that I have all foreseeable bases covered. Several strats, three tele types, a dual HB arch top strat, a very nice nylon string and a decent steel string. Actually, I think I need more work in the amp department but since I don't gig at all, I can't currently see justifying the price.

I don't currently own a super strat type guitar - an 83 Ibanez Roadstar is the closest I come. I'd also like to get a nice Les Paul at some point but probably my next decent guitar will be custom built super strat. I've just got so used to vintage type necks and frets that while I love the versatility and playability of them, they just never feel right.

I think as long as income and space allows, I don't think I'll ever quit getting more guitars. I'd like to get a nice Ric or two and a Gretsch. And a nicer acoustic... and probably 20 more Strats and Teles.

[SteelyD2]

Plus, when you get into the $5,000+ range, you've severely limited potential buyers when it comes time to sell an instrument. $3000 is my absolute max for a guitar or amp. $2000, plus or minus a few hundred, seems to be the level where you start seeing some pretty good guitars.

 

 

53 and, thank God, still counting.

 

I agree with the $3K limit. That point is what I consider to be my absolute limit of diminishing returns. These days you can buy a really good instrument for $1K, a great one (like an EJ Strat) starting at about $1.5K, and the options really begin to open up at about $2K for Gretches, Gibsons, CS Fenders, Ricks, Suhrs and the like. About the only reason I might ever want to exceed $3K would be for a VOS Gibson, and my '06 335 is still satisfying my Gibson GAS.

 

D

[BarneyGumbel]

I've gone the other direction. I've had numerous guitars at various points, but have settled on a G&L Commanche, and that really is the only guitar I need. Having said that, I do plan to eventually buy a Gibson 333. I can't ever see myself having a pile of $300 guitars - I'd rather have one or two really good ones that don't have any issues affecting playability.

[GAS Man]

Do any of you think that without the Internet, your lust for gear might not be quite as severe? I mean, I used to visit guitar shops a lot, but with all of the information and all of the gear outlets online, it's almost like you can find something on any given day that you can start gassing for.

 

 

 

Absolutely!

 

The internet has cost me a ton!

 

Those trips to guitar stores used to be fun outings for me. And you'd see the product and maybe hesitate. But with the internet, that hesitation is over come by the daily temptation to punch in that order. I just remember missing one deal at a brick and mortar store on a MIA version of a high-end Yamaha SG. It was a beauty. Most of my other misses and purchases are all centered around the deals popping up every couple weeks or so on the internet.

 

If I'd been up on the computer at 4:00 AM, I'd have that Gibson GOW SG/EMG on it way to me for $599 too.

[Burgess]

I've gone the other direction. I've had numerous guitars at various points, but have settled on a G&L Commanche, and that really is the only guitar I need. Having said that, I do plan to eventually buy a Gibson 333. I can't ever see myself having a pile of $300 guitars - I'd rather have one or two really good ones that don't have any issues affecting playability .

I'm guessing you've not played a $300 guitar lately. They usually need a setup but as far as playability goes, once setup they often play as well as guitars costing 10X as much. The electronics and attention to detail is where the cheaper guitars fall short. Attention to detail will give you a better guitar but that won't necessarilly make it play better. One reason I have so many cheap guitars is because I quickly realized I play just as well on the cheaper ones as I do the premium models.

[wilmer]

I

[ashasha]

35 years old here, started out with a plastic 4 stringed guitar that I would bang away on in my diapers as my old man's band would practice. My favorite picture of all time is me sitting on the edge of the bed with my frickin curly mop holding my dad's 12 string Ric that looked just like McGwinn's. I had the bug early.

I bought my first guitar in the mid 80's for $15 from a friend. It was about 1" thick plywood with the most microphonic pickups I have ever seen to this day. It was so {censored}ty that it didn't even have a name on it.

Next guitar I bought about 2 years later was a brown bag special. Basically it was a Charvel knockoff body with a bag that contained all the hardware. That was my first experience working on guitars and resurrecting that thing was fun. I paid $25 for it and sold it about 4 years later for a few hundred.

In 1992 I bought a real Charvel and really started to get into playing. That sucker set me back about $1000 which at the time was a lot of money for me. I held onto that as my only guitar for a few years, added an Epi LP in there at some point and was pretty content.

Then came the Roland VG-8 which changed everything for me. I sold one of my cars to buy the VG-8 and a strat with the Roland pickups already built into it. This was 1994 I believe. I still have that guitar and the VG-8 and that was my only gear until a few years ago. To be perfectly honest I hated that guitar for years and only kept it because I had to.

About 5 years ago I started getting back into it and have bought 10 guitars in that time frame. I have since sold two of them because of either upgrading or whatever.

But at this moment I can say for the first time that I have the guitars that I want. I have the LP, the strat, the tele, the Ibanez, the Brian May, the EVH Wolfgang copy and the PRS ripoff along with a decent bass (that I can only play RHCP songs on).

I look around all the time at the sales online, check the SPAM threads regularly, but there truly is nothing that gives me the GAS anymore. I was really thinking about buying a hollowbody a few weeks ago, but nothing has come of it and it has faded. Right now I just enjoy playing what I've got and don't find myself wishing that I had this or that this isn't quite right or whatever. It truly is a good place to be right now.

[Ronzo II]

56 in December.

My first guitar was an Airline f-hole jazz acoustic that I got for Christmas right after I turned 11. My folks paid $50 for it, back when my Dad earned about $5,000 a year. That made me take it seriously, as did my second teacher.

My first electric was a Japaese "Marvel" -- red sunburst, chrome pickguard, generic japanes single coils found on Kents, Teiscos, etc. It was an egg slicer because of the high action and baseball bat neck. I paid $50 for that one too, having saved up for it from mowing lawns and other odd jobs, a quarter at a time. Boy, did it suck!

In high school I saved up $75 from gigs and bought a used Hagstrom II. I played the crap out of that; fraternity house gigs as a high school kid, recorded some stuff, too. Bought a Strat with the recording money, had to sell it two weeks later to buy an amp to replace the one that I blew up plugging it into a homebrew 6x10". Got a '65 Deluxe Reverb that supposedly wasn't working at all, unshorted the speaker cable and played it for years. Then I had to sell it when money got tight after buying a home. Started playing bass at that time, and gigging in between working all week as a systems analyst and photographing weddings. My ex-wife and my daughter had severe chronic health issues, so money was always a problem.

Moved to Florida 10 years ago, got divorced 7 years ago, and started buying cheap guitars and basses because the quality improved so much in the low end. Electronics I could always handle, so this was a world opening up to me. Including my recent CIJ Jazzmaster purchase, the total now sits at 15 guitars, 5 basses, a Steinberger doubleneck guitar bass combination, and 9 amps. Plus pedals, PA gear, mics, a remote analog tape recording setup, and a home DAW that gets a LOT of work, and brings in some cash.

The Steinberger doubleneck could be pried loose. If you're interested, PM me.

[csm]

56 years old, and I've been through zillions of guitars, starting at 10 years old with the World's Crappiest Acoustic. All I ever wanted to do was get the right guitars, and hold onto them. Generally I've been more successful with the former than the latter: some of the best instruments I've ever had have either been stolen, or loaned to the wrong people and never returned, or needed to be sold at times of financial pressure.

 

For a long time, the basic set of guitars I needed was: a pair of Strats, a Tele, a semi, a permanently open-tuned solidbody for electric slide and an acoustic. This has now expanded to include a resonator for acoustic slide, and a second slide solidbody for a different tuning. This covers me for all combinations of electric/acoustic and slide/regular playing, with a little bit of tonal variation on the standard-tuning electric stuff.

 

Two gigworthy amps (Fender Super Reverb, Vox Valvetronix AD120VT) and two practice amps (MicroCube for portability and versatility, Fender Champion 600 for tone) and I'm pretty much sorted. I'm not planning to buy any more amps or guitars in the foreseeable future unless (a) an outrageous bargain forces itself on me and (b) it beats one of my existing guitars at its own game, and will therefore replace it.

 

EDIT: Since this thread is worthless without pix (or so they tell me 'round here) ...

 

R to L: 1) Ibanez parlour-style acoustic, handmade in the 70s as a prototype for a line which never went into production; Ibanez AS50, 1981 downsized semi upgraded with SCHWEET Trev Wilkinson Platinum Series 'Lemon Drop' PAF-alike HBs.

2) Ibanez Destroyer DT150, action hiked and heavy-strung for open A; Ozark slimline acoustic resonator with internal transducer and lipstick neck pickup, open A; Epi Jr with Zemaitis-style engraved metal front and BareKnuckle Mississippi Queen HB-sized P-90, open E.

3) 1963 Strat, refin but reasonably unmessed-with; Jeff Beck Custom Shop Strat, 2006; MIJ Jerry Donahue Tele, 1996, with Montana Leathers scratchplate and BareKnuckle Yardbird Tele bridge and Irish Tour Strat neck PUs.

 

(Not pictured because they're out of the house long-loaned to friends: 2002 Olympic White MIM 50s Classic Strat with Kinman AVn Blues PUs; 2001 cherry red PRS Santana SE Mk 1 with Kent Armstrong HB-sized P90s.)

 

These may not be the only guitars I'll ever want ... but they're pretty much the only ones I'll ever need.

[guitar-fish]

Before finding HC:

 

After finding HC:

 

Any questions?

 

Oh, I started 10 years ago, at 32.

[Wayward Son]

Unfortunately, for myself, our small town has shrunk and several guys I used to jam with every Sat. night have moved on. There are aslo fewer venues with live music anymore so spending hours leaning new songs etc. sometimes feels pointless.

Treating myself to a new piece of gear has kept me interested in playing. I get asked to mix once in a while so I have been slowly putting together a PA. Built a fairly high end pc for video editing as well as a Canon XL1s. Then I needed a Mackie Onyx board for audio which gave me a recording capability. Now it's mics..... I guess I've got the affliction/addiction.

At least it keeps me from plunking my a$$ in front of the TV.

Just wish I had learned all this theory stuff when I started.

[Bbreaker]

I began playing guitar around 1965 or 66.
Three of my cousins had very good guitars but they were way too cumbersome for a 12 year old. They suggested that I get a Fender Mustang.........uh, I hated it. So, in my 12 year old wisdom, I urged my mom & dad to buy me a Magnatone Zyphyr and Magnatone MP 1 amp. My dad wanted me to get this used scratched up Gibson........a 335 dot (remember this is 1966). I said it was too big for me.
I did the HS dance/party/battle of the bands thing as I became more of a guitarist and began to notice that my Zyphyr was not cutting it. I also began to notice these guys playing 335's; Tele's & Strats. I thought they didn't play better than me but they sounded a lot better than me. Then, there was this kid playing his Strat with a UniVibe and 2 blackface Super Reverbs. Whoa!!@!@#$#@, that was orgasmic. The kid was a real guitarist. Not just stuck in Ventures; early Stones & Beatles music. He was into Mike Bloomfield; Jimi Hendrix and Wes Montgomery. I was floored. He sounded great and played great. Remember as a kid thinking you were the best(?) and then getting owned(?)
It was a wake up call.
Practice, practice, practice.......

[Bbreaker]

..............My first quality guitar was my 1969 ES 335. Still have it.



It's just surounded by some other good guitars.

[iplayanesp]

guys i scared i see you guys started buying more and more as time goes by, im 17 and i have 30+ guitars(my dad and i both play). i actually dont spend much, i am a hunter and find crazy deals with my dad and we sell them in order to buy stuff we are Gassing for. so... we are usually able to afford what we want and make a little extra money doing it.

[Wayward Son]

Bbreaker......Wow thats one expensive couch.

 

Here's my little fun corner.....crappy lighting down in the dungeon.....

 

 

Have to add one more of my current fav

 

 

I might have to add this one.....I thought it was kind of homely at first but I'm warming to it. Curiousity is killing me though to see how it sounds and plays.

 

[guitar-fish]

I began playing guitar around 1965 or 66.

I began breathing right about that time...

[voneville]

I guess I'm still young! I'm actually finding myself wanting less guitars and looking for one that has THE sound My Vantage is filling the bill nicely right now.

[sylvesterlowery]

Not to mention that there's no salesperson staring you down or otherwise annoying you. I kind of got the bums rush recently at a local shop when I picked up a Sheraton off the rack. I thought that only happened to kids I always hated going to the high pressure POS guitar shops back in the day. Fortunately, we had Heights Guitar back then. Great shop.

What store was it?
I want to know which to avoid. The closest to me is Great Southern Music.

[Fendercaster]

I'm 57 and started out on my father's Sears nylon string acoustic. Shortly after that, I got a cheap Japanese electric, which I didn't keep for very long. I kinda lost interest for a while, then bought a late '60's Yamaha acoustic in 1970. In 1975, I bought a sunburst Martin D35, playing a lot of bluegrass, New Riders, Will the Circle be Unbroken album stuff. In '78, I was hired for my first band and got a new LP Custom. By 1980, I wanted a guitar with a tremolo, so I bought a '61 Strat (it's been a good investment!). I also bought a '61 ES355 around this time. That did it for the next ten years, when I bought a friend's PRS Custom 24. Then I bought a Roland GR-1 guitar synth and needed a guitar to mount the transducer on, so I got a '78 Tele. Then the Variax came out a few years ago, so I had to have one of those. I started to do some home recording, so I got a Squier bass. The last year or so has been my biggest binge, thanks mostly to Ebay. I've added three lap steels, a Gretsch Electromatic, a Fender resonator, a G&L ASAT Tribute, a Fender TC-90, a Fender Jazz bass, a Fender '62 reissue Tele and an Ibanez AF75T. I love hollow/semi-hollowbodies, but I think I'm done for a while. I'm just glad that some of the guitars have appreciated in value and are worth leaving to my heirs.

[Mkoris]

I posted about my Gibson LP Costum earlier in this thread but now i have noticed how lots of people tell the whole story of their guitar experience and i feel compelled to add the missing parts of my life with guitars that i left out in my first post.

So here goes.

When i was 2 years old in 1967 my sister who is 4 years older than me got a guitar for her birthday that i stole from her and made it my possesion in no uncertain terms. If she tried to take it from me to play with it i would fight her like my life depended on it. Needless to say, it became mine and my parents got her a flute instead.

When i was 7 my parents got me a semi-acoustic Egmond which i sold when i was 8 i believe, but i regretted it dearly the same day and cried for days untill my father bought it back from the people we sold it to.

I kept it untill i was 13 when i had a school-buddy who actually taught me to play guitar. He had 2 big brothers who were semi pro musicians at that time and later became pro. In that period i bought a Hondo LP copy which was rather crappy but looked cool with maple fretboard and maple body.

My Egmond was so beat up at that time that it was worthless and we used the parts for some guitar building project. We also build a see through acrylic strat copy with an old H

[Armitage]

I started playing when I was 14 (I'm 48 now) and it didn't take me long to start building a guitar collection. I got no help or support from may parents, they kept giving me a hard time actually, but I earned my own money and did as I pleased. By the time I was out of high school I had a dozen guitars a Marshall half stack and a Fender combo.

Now I've got 66 guitars! I don't claim it's 'reasonable' but they make me happy!

[Bbreaker]

I remember going to Bath Music/Guitar City in Brooklyn, NY in the early 80's and buying a 1955 Cadillac Green Gretsch country Club for $150.00. It needed a neck reset but it was still in good playable condition.
$150.00 for a vintage guitar. My long gone early 60's Epiphone Coronet was $75.00. I didn't have a lot of money to spend in those days. I still don't.
Vintage guitars were available and not at an eye gouge price.
I traded for my '56 LP Junior which was $400.00 around 1982. My '62 SG/LP Jr was $325.00.
When prices got crazy, I decided to hold on the the keepers. I thought $1200.00 for a '59 LP Junior was crazy... now look at their price.
When I spent $2265.00 (my highest purchase price ever) on my Gibson Historic 1957 Faded Cherry Les Paul Custom, I had an uneasy feeling that I took too much money away from our household. The fact that I got 12 months to pay (from a GC credit card promotion) helped but it was an extra bill every month.
I could never afford my gear at todays price tag.

[theManfromAlabam]

I started playing at age 13...my parents were both alcoholics so they weren't as into us kids and our interest as they should have been, but that's another story...my parents divorced when I was 15, my dad passed away four years ago, my mother is a recovering acoholic for some thirty years now...she now lives with me and I care for her.

 

Anyway my first guitar was a Teisco something? and my first new guitar I purchased myself (financed) at age 15, it was a braziliaburst 78 Dean Z Standard...a few years later I purchased a 75 Ibanez Explorer and a 76 Ibanez V ({censored} I wish I still had them) I then purchased a used 78 Gibson LP Standard which was my main guitar until I purchased my first Fender (I traded my unused "mint" Dean Z Standard for a new 1993 MIA Standard Tele) dumb move, but my 1993 Tele is my holy grail...I've purchased and sold off about 30 or guitars since, not to mention numerous amps and effects.

 

I was a serious guitar player for a period of about four years. These days I just play for an hour or so every few days, I wish I was into taking lessons and learning more as I am into aquiring new gear.

 

I get a bigger boner fixing gear and buying and selling as I do playing...I think about starting my own music shop all the time...I seriously think about taking that risk all the time.