How do you guys give attention to more than two guitars?

[elsupermanny14]

For the longest time, about 6 years, I only had one functioning guitar which was my fat Strat. I finally got a second guitar a few weeks ago, an LP faded cherry, from a forum member. Now that I have two guitars, I'm finding it very difficult to give my guitars and equal amount of attention.

 

The Strat "feels" right. I think Strats are the most ergonomically built guitars. In addition, I'm 100% emotionally attached to it because I have had since 2002. It was my friend during high school, college, and now the grown up world.

 

The Les Paul is just freaking awesome. When I plug it straight into the amp, it get the the pure sound of RAWK. I love the Les Paul tone.

 

I'm wondering how you guys with multiple guitars devote time to more than two guitars? I'm still finding it very difficult to give both my guitars enough attention, and when I play one more than the other I feel like I'm cheating on the other one haha.

[=JL=]

Does your 5/8" socket wrench get jealous when you use your 1/2"?

[Surrealistic]

I just smile at the ones I'm not using or give 'em a little pat on the headstock. Seems to keep them happy. Well, I can't say for sure that they're happy but I haven't heard any of them complain.

[soundcreation]

I have 7 guitars I love playing and they are on a strict 2 week each rotation. Today was the end of my Carvin DC135's turn. I was really enjoying playing it but it's done...so back in the case and out comes my Orville by Gibson Les Paul. I know I'll have a great time playing it for two weeks.

 

The only exceptions are if I am recording and need a certain sound. Then I break out whatever guitar is needed for the sound I'm looking for.

[ashtray]

Just like if you have two or more kids - you ignore the ones you don't like!

 

But seriously - its like having a bunch of breakfast cereals to choose from in the morning. Or different pairs of socks. Or different color shirts. How do you choose which color to wear each day?! You just do. And some colors/cereals/guitars/watches you'll favor over other. Some you'll save for a more "special ocassion", and others will be like the 1/2 serving left of cereal in the box that you stopped buying. Its still good, so you don't throw it out, but you never actually eat it (use it) bc you stopped liking Cookie Crisp one day.

[Canadian Jeff]

Uh, some sit while I play others? They're guitars, we love them; they don't love us back.

[Doctor49]

you only feel like that cos you got a new one.

 

its like women, you'll get used to the new one and then you play the one you fancy most or the one thats nearest, depending.

[HeimBrent]

Different guitars for different moods/tunings/sounds. I don't have that many, although I'm theoretically up to two digits now, but I still find myself playing all my guitars all the time. Except for my first electric which is awaiting some body-work. Thing is; sometimes I'll play nothing but the cheap classical guitar I got when I started playing at seven years of age for a week, and then it might hang on the wall for a month without being touched.

 

Different guitars just lend themselves to different styles of playing. The two electric guitars I have set up for slide are set up that way for a reason. That's the application they work best in. If I want to play good old rock'n'roll I'll bust out my Les Paul or lawsuit SG and for the more 80s kinda modded Marshall-style I have an old Roadstar-ish think with an OBL in the bridge and an all maple neck.

 

And then there are the acoustics... Looking forward to see what sounds and feels my newest acquisition will have.

[billybilly]

I had 15 at one point and found I wasn't. I am now down to 3 and thinking about selling 1, leaving me with 2. I actually play more having less and in no way feel I am missing out or regret selling most of them. I did keep the really good ones, which were the only ones I played when I had heaps more anyway.

[elsupermanny14]

Does your 5/8" socket wrench get jealous when you use your 1/2"?

 

Well seeing as how domestic cars have not used standard sized bolts since the early 80s and I was born in 85, I have been committed (by default) to the metric sockets. They have never had a reason to get jealous

[ashasha]

I'm actually thinking about thinning the herd myself because I'm not getting any use out of about 5 of them right now. But the thing for me is that I do go through cycles where I'll be in the mood to play Fenders and love them and next thing I know I won't want to even look at one for months at a time. So just because I don't want to play it right this minute doesn't mean that I won't tomorrow.

 

It'd be a whole lot easier if I was GAS'ing for something new and had a reason to flip some of them, but I'm just so happy with where I am at and can just enjoy playing.

[GreatDane]

 

I have 7 guitars I love playing and they are on a strict 2 week each rotation. Today was the end of my Carvin DC135's turn. I was really enjoying playing it but it's done...so back in the case and out comes my Orville by Gibson Les Paul. I know I'll have a great time playing it for two weeks. The only exceptions are if I am recording and need a certain sound. Then I break out whatever guitar is needed for the sound I'm looking for.

 

 

this is very similar to what i do as well.

[Grantus]

I have three guitars. That's plenty (although I always keep gassing for more.)

 

I play the one I feel like playing, and I don't worry about the feelings of the others.

[HeatherAnnePeel]

I make an effort to use all of mine, but I do gravitate to about 5 of them more than the others.

[Bbreaker]

If I had entire days of no responsibility, I wouldn't have enough time to give to my guitars.

Guitars give me (us) joy. I have a lot of them.

If I don't play one for a while and then pull it out to play, it's a renewed love affair. The return of a somewhat forgotten love and the feeling why you chose it in the first place. I'm going through this with my graffiti yellow American Standard Strat. I'm playing at extremely low volume so that I can hear the strings against it's maple fretboard and squeezing out all these exaggerated bends. I get lost in these ridiculous phrases that seem to be a small time consuming moment but they are re-discovering time capsules. I get lost in the experience and realize there's more toys to play with.

I have loads of toys that I don't give the proper time.

I have one wife and don't give her enough time.

I can't justify it.

These things just happen.

Sure I'd love to spend days just playing all these wonderful guitars, but I gotta make ends meet.

More so in this {censored}ty economy.

I've acquired so many cool guitars through the years. Kept some and foolishly let others go.

I didn't have a goal or plan to have the amount of guitars that I have. It's like I was 13 in 1966 and these cool guitars followed me home through the years.

I'm in the mind set of downsizing and it's a difficult process.

I'm toying with the idea of parting with 2 Strats but when I play them.....it's no way.

When you're a kid in a candy store, you don't think of the dentist.

You just enjoy it.

I'm at 106 guitars.

I had well over 130 guitars a few years ago.

Maintenance, or not dwelling on it, is the joy of the toys.

You won't know of the experience unless you're in it.

[aliensporebomb]

When I was doing the documentary soundtrack it was pretty easy to stick with the one guitar I had with the hex pickup since I was doing a lot of hex guitar and midi guitar to do it. Now that I have two guitars with that pickup I'm staggering the wear a little. But I have a bass and 3 other guitars that sometimes I wonder if I should let one go but like bbreaker said: you play it and it's "no way would I get rid of this".

 

Someday though I might have to downsize where I'm down to 1 or 2. Hopefully not for many years.

[BeanoBoy]

 

I have 7 guitars I love playing and they are on a strict 2 week each rotation. Today was the end of my Carvin DC135's turn. I was really enjoying playing it but it's done...so back in the case and out comes my Orville by Gibson Les Paul. I know I'll have a great time playing it for two weeks. The only exceptions are if I am recording and need a certain sound. Then I break out whatever guitar is needed for the sound I'm looking for.

 

 

Ver similar to what I do as well.

[Bbreaker]

I just thought of something that Billy Gibbons answered when asked what's his favorite guitar?

................"the one that's in tune".

I'm sure Billy's thought of maintenance and downsizing.

[mistersully]

i hate it when i get their names mixed up... if i accidently call my les paul by my tele's name it seems to ruin the moment.. it goes out of tune and doesn't seem to want to be played any more

[Help!I'maRock!]

you don't.

 

i have 9 guitars. 4 main electrics, 2 acoustics, 2 basses, and a baritone. they're not all equal and they don't all get the same amount of time. it's about what sound and feel i'm going for, and what i want to learn that day.

[Bbreaker]

i hate it when i get their names mixed up... if i accidently call my les paul by my tele's name it seems to ruin the moment.. it goes out of tune and doesn't seem to want to be played any more

 

I don't think this is an issue with your Steelphonic.

Every time I play mine, I consider myself fortunate to own such a beautiful and unique sounding guitar.....and it's eye candy.

[thecornman]

I tend to have a number one that gets the most play and rotate my number two depending on my mood at the time! The number one spot does change on occasion too. I always take two to band practice because I like to have a backup there for myself and my rhythm guitarist in case one of us has a problem.

[this is paul]

Honestly, it depends on the person. I have one cheapo that site at our practice space, my 2 main guitars for the band (Strat and Toronado), a cheaper Martin acoustic (newest and guitar I play most at home), and then a few others. The others hardly get played but they aren't technically mine (one was my dads, two my brothers who gave them to me).

 

I may sell my cheapie, but the $200 wouldn't do much for me. So I doubt it's worth it. For me though, I don't even need the 6 guitars I've got lying around.

[Presc]

I only have two - I tend to go through phases where I primarily play one over the other. I definitely am a proponent of a smaller collection. The more guitars you have, the more overlap you have, and the less useful another guitar is. When I got my a second guitar, a 335, it was HUGELY useful because now I had humbuckers! A Les Paul would be great, but it's not as useful to me because an LP and 335 can cover a lot of the same ground. For me, it's always made more sense to have a smaller collection of high-end stuff because of this.

 

I've got my third on the way, a Tele. I'm curious to see how it fits in.

[BydoEmpire]

I recently paired down and it's been great. When I had more guitars, I'd have a copule that sat in the closet for months at a time. I'd pull them out every so often just to change things up, or if I wanted to use a specific guitar for a song I was working on. Elixers were pretty much a must for me. I could leave a guitar in the case for months, pull it out, and the Elixers still felt good. For the most part I had about 2-3 guitars I played a lot, the rest stayed in their case 90% of the time)

 

I'm down to two right now (SRV strat, LP Traditional - which were my most-played anyways) with one more on the way in a couple weeks, and I've really enjoyed digging into those guitars.