Your reason/justifcation for buying more guitars? help!!

Question to people who own lots of guitars. How do you justify to your family and yourself on buying more guitars? - I used to own 20 guitars all in standard E tuning ...of which i woke up one morning and realize i basically only played the same 2 out of the 20 guitars- conclusion sold all of them and now own 3 custom guitars in different tunings - 1 in Standard E/ Drop D, 1 in Eb/ drop C#, 1 in D standard/drop C ---each guitar has a purpose and gets used equally because of the tuning- trying to convince the misses on buying one more guitar? but she asks why? I have been dealing with gear acquisition syndrome all my life, it got better after i had kids but now it's BACK!!HELP!
  • They are cheaper than imported sports cars.
  • they are cheaper than fine mechanical watches
  • they are pretty
  • they make me happy
  • what guitar???
 
Honestly, I've bought way too many and finally found the spec that I love. I'm now selling them to fund purchase of custom made Sugi (Ibanez / Hoshino) JCRGs.

So, buy ''em until you figure out what you like, and then find a builder to make them to your exact specs.

- I'm stockpiling guitars to sell to fund creation of my signature model
 
Buy the guitar you want. Sneak it into the house and hide it. Play it only when the warden...I mean wife, is out, then hide it again. After about 6 months or so, bring it out and put it the stand with the rest. A Hercules multi-guitar stand works best for this. Keeps it from standing out in the crowd like a sore thumb. Pick it up and play it. When the warden (dammit, wife), comes and says...and you know the look...'is that a new guitar???'. Your reply and DO NOT HESITATE...practice this in the mirror...'this old thing, no, I've had it for years!' Then look away and keep playing! Oh, you could also say after that...'are those new shoes and did you get your hair done?...you look great and I love the shoes!'
It's the kids that notice and then would blow my cover :tearsofjoy:
 
Wife was playing bass for awhile so buying a new guitar meant she got another bass!! Making my expensive habit even more costly. For a few years now, I've had more an interest in building guitars than buying them. Eventually my little workshop will be ready and see what I can come up with.
 
I've been playing for 21 years but in the last 4 years I've built out my collection beyond a single electric guitar, a single acoustic guitar, and a single bass guitar. My reasoning was that I was a gigging bassist, so I needed three basses: a Precision, a Jazz, and a short-scale beater for bar gigs where I was going to be getting a little sloppy. No regrets. For guitar I decided I needed an acoustic, a Strat, a Tele, a HH Gibson of some kind, and a HH PRS SE. Ended up with a regular Tele and a Thinline Tele with WRHBs, and had an older acoustic that I like to beat around. That makes for 10 stringed instruments. It was an intentional build-out to get a bunch of different sounds and feels but all within a relatively familiar wheelhouse.

GAS is all about novelty-seeking. You're curious about something, so you buy it to try it. And you enjoy the research process as well as the process of "how does this new gear fit into my musical activities". The issue is when your musical activities consist primarily of researching/buying/thinking. And the cliche phrase "tone is in the fingers" is absolutely true - if you spend all your time thinking about guitars and comparing guitars, you're going to make less compelling music. But spend time on an instrument and then you learn how it wants to be treated to get certain sounds, and then you do that until amazing music comes out. I see my instruments as friends... and I'd rather have a couple great friends than a bunch of acquaintances that I only have shallow small talk with.

Do what you wish with getting more guitars. What I don't understand is how/where you store them. How you keep them all in playing condition. What you do with all the cases. I have 10 guitars/basses and 5 or 6 cases and it takes up so much room... and I have an entire converted 2-car garage to play around in.
 
I have about 45 guitars now. I don't play out anymore, and I've sold all of the ones that I didn't truly care for. I'm an average player, but I just love guitars. My wife loves my collection, so no need to justify anything.

Lucky man! Your wife and my wife are different in that way lol.
 
Honestly....I don't. At least, not much.

I've only ever bought 6 guitars in 15 years of playing on and off. I still own 5 of them.

I get guitar crushes all the time, but....they usually fade with time. I'm lucky to have several very nice shops not that far from me...it's not quite LA or Nashville, but there's still a lot available. So, I've played a LOT of guitars. Demoing a lot, "shopping" without a goal (and hopefully being respectful enough to not piss off the sales guys), and at least trying to understand the difference between a crush and something I really, really want in my life makes it easier to justify the expense when something truly special does come up.

I've also never wanted to be a collector, and I've never been dead-set on exactly matching someone else's recorded tone. I take inspiration from music I love, of course, but I don't have their hands, skill, or mind anyway. I'm not going to exactly match it even if I bought their actual rig.

But, beyond that....if it fits in the budget, then it fits in the budget.
 
I started playing at 7 years old around 79/80 and was in 2 major metal acts in the 80s. I got my signature Ibanez based off an RG750 and done to my exact specs. Then when I went solo and did my instrumental albums I signed with another major guitar company that I can't speak of for legal reasons. And finally had a signature LTD in the 90s.

I had over 100 guitars around the year 2000, then shrank it down to 40 and now 8 guitars.
I have a prs clone and an Epiphone LP custom plus one each of my 3 signature guitars.

If I want a guitar it usually is for a need, and not GAS. I currently do not own a true strat style guitar and I am going to build my own from buying parts for exactly what I am after.

I just tell my wife what I am up to and she always says "Have fun".

I am trying to stay below 10 guitars so I am guessing after I build the strat I will be done.

Once you find what you truly like, you somehow don't need more than a primary and secondary for each type of guitar you play. That is my philosophy, after learning what suits me. It also helps to have a cool wife who supports you and your hobby and or profession

James
 
I have about 45 guitars now. I don't play out anymore, and I've sold all of the ones that I didn't truly care for. I'm an average player, but I just love guitars. My wife loves my collection, so no need to justify anything.
Exact same for me. Same number of guitars. I play out, but I have so many guitars because I love them and I'm a collector. My wife knew this about me before we were married. As long as the bills are paid, and we live in comfort....she's totally fine with it. I don't ask where those shoes came from, she doesn't ask where the guitar came from.

If I WAS asked - it would be: different wood, different sound, different finish, different weight, different purpose.....I'd just keep talking until she lost interest in the discussion.
 
Number one: I don’t buy guitars. However I do make them. It’s a retirement project to understand how each component affects the way an electric guitar feels and sounds. That’s all the justification I need. Every guitar is a design variation on its predecessors. My biggest constraint is storage space. Last month I gave five guitars away to charity to create more space.
 
Related question: Is it worth owning more than one electric guitar for different tunings? I go between E standard and open B/C sometimes and I’m not sure if switching between those often is good for the guitar.

I have one six string and am debating whether to start looking for another, upgrade the pups, or just out the money toward an eventual FM9 or Axe3.
 
Related question: Is it worth owning more than one electric guitar for different tunings? I go between E standard and open B/C sometimes and I’m not sure if switching between those often is good for the guitar.

I have one six string and am debating whether to start looking for another, upgrade the pups, or just out the money toward an eventual FM9 or Axe3.
I've never thought of whether changing to really different tunings is hard on the guitar, but since the VC in the Pitch Block is so good (I have the Axe III), I use it rather than a different guitar. For open tunings, I'd probably feel better with having a guitar in that tuning, and set up for it (trus rod tension, action.)
Since changing a floating trem guitar to a drop tuning takes too long for me, I now keep the one in my pic in drop D. If I gigged, I might have to consider a backup, but I easily get hours and hours out of a set of strings with no breakage.
I even use the VC to simulate a 7-string guitar: Drop the VC 5 half-steps for the parts of the song played on the low strings, then bypass it for the solos, or any parts where I'd need the higher strings. That works pretty well, and has saved me from wanting to add a 7.
 
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