Having One Main Guitar

Phostenix

Phostenix

Power User
In the interests of simplifying my life, I've been on a quest for the last few years to have just 1 or 2 guitars.

I was watching a YouTube video the other day where John Mayer tells the story of his black Strat & at one point he talks about how this guitar is so connected with him now because it has been his main guitar since 2004 (IIRC). It's the idea that people know that this is the guitar they hear on the recordings or have seen him play for years on stage & that the guitar itself has as much history as he does. This guitar has been there through everything with him.

I don't name guitars or feel that I'm in some sort of relationship with them, but I did find this aspect of the one guitar idea appealing in a way I hadn't thought of before. The idea that you have a shared history with the instrument in a way that you don't when you have a stable of gtuitars that are constantly being rotated.

I thought it was refreshing in a world where a lot of artist interviews are filled with going through "the collection" & a lot of players can't even remember which guitar got used on which track or where certain guitars ended up because there are so many of them.

Here's the video:

 
Agreed - quality over quantity!

This basic thought process led me to the Steinberger ST-2FPA. One tuned to B standard and one to D standard (coming soon [read: Black Friday], capo-able to E standard) is all I need!
 
John Mayer is a great guitar player, and it's nice to know that he can have that kind of attachment to a specific guitar... It's how I feel about my American Deluxe V Stratocaster... I will be buried with that guitar!
 
Irony. I went to YouTube to check out a couple of videos of John playing this guitar (not a huge fan) & seached for Bold As Love, since he says that was the first song he used the guitar on. The first video I click on, he's playing some other Strat. Cue the sad trombone.

http://sadtrombone.com/
 
Jeff Beck swapped his Yardbirds era Esquire with Seymour Duncan for a modded Tele with Gibson hbs and regrets doing it. Not that the Esquire would be something he'd likely play a lot today - but it was the guitar he used constantly throughout those legendary years and tracks.

Seymour Duncan doesn't seem that keen to give it back to him either ... funnily enough :)

My first 'good' guitar was a s/h seventies LP Deluxe I got in the mid 80's - I sold it in the early 90s and regret doing it now .... but bills are bills and I needed the dosh and had a couple of other guitars by that stage.

Letting an old friend go is the only similarity I have with Jeff Beck unfortunately!
 
I have a few guitars, certainly not a 'collection', but a) My 'main' guitar has changed over the years. Sometimes I've even gone back to an old main love. b) some guitars seem to bring out different things in me. my old '58 Denelectro is just plain gritty and bluesey. it just 'wants' to play that way. And I love it for that - but it has neither the upper fret access nor the tone for some of the other stuff I do.

So, I've got 3 'main' guitars now, and, whenever possible, I gig with all three. The Danelectro, a Godin Radiator, and a 70's or 80's Mexican strat - a strange beast with NO pickguard. The pups are mounted straight into the body, and the jack is routed onto the SIDE of the body. I thought this was some bizarre custom job but it's stock - I've since found a few more online.

Reluctantly, I've made the Strat my most 'main' guitar. Reluctantly because I don't like the scale length, being more used to Gibson/Danny scale. And because it's much heavier than my other two (which are both semi-hollow). It's become the main for one reason only: it's the most versatile. Well, another really important reason: in recent sessions, it just sounded the best on playback - it's sure got that classic 'glassy' strat sound (Ironic, because in the beginning, with my II set up for my Danny, it sounded like crap). It's also damn good looking (tobacco sunburst tigered maple, with the whole top clear because there's no pickguard), but I've never cared too much about that.

By the way, I've seen Mayer play at least 2 other guitars: a white strat, and something else, another Strat, another color. Blue? Can't remember.
 
Phostenix said:
How 'bout the part where after all of that, he gets the guitar & there's a problem with the wiring?! Hello, QC?
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Yes indeed, pause for thought...rewind... Fast forward. You wouldn't expect that, but putting in the fridge was a cool move :D
 
Funny, only today I was thinking how nice it would be to just have one guitar and really connect with it. I've fallen into the trap of building up a collection and never really knowing which one to play at any time, unless that is I am looking for a specific tone. Maybe if I was a better player I would spend more time playing than collecting? If I spent more time playing than collecting then I would be a better player! Go figure.
 
I used to have 30 or so nice guitars. I have had to sell a lot of them over the past couple of years. I find that I pretty much use 2 or 3 now. And that's fine. They all play great and sound great. The older I get the more I realize I just don't need a big collection anymore, even though I miss some that I had to sell.

I like being more streamlined, and having the Axe FX II has really helped. I just don't need much else.
 
I have similar attachments to my 1989 Stratocaster Plus

To me it is the quintessential stratocaster. I find most other strats very "ice-picky" and brittle in comparison to mine. This is obviously biased. My strat gives me get rock tones however, I also like jazz...and I am not Wayne Krantz. In the future I will need something else. For years, this guitar has been my number one. I have grown up with this guitar and spent many late nights in my room practicing. However I think I am moving past this. My ears and changing and I want more tone. This is what has drawn me to FAS. Now that I have my rig done, I can spend the rest of my (life) money trying out guitars and searching for the perfect "cross-pollination" between the comfortability and tone I find in my strat with something much more versatile
 
I'm not a collector myself. I have 3 electrics and 1 acoustic. I don't like owning stuff that doesnt get used. All 3 electrics I built from Warmoth. 2 strats and a Ernie Ball EVH type guitar(they don't do those anymore because they were asked to stop by Ernie Ball;-(). 1 strat has all single coils, the other has 2 humbuckers and a floyd with 2 coil taps and a down only trem with a Dtuna. The later is my main guitar. Love it. Has a Pau Ferro neck and fretboard and a mahogany body with flame maple top. Insane guitar on all accounts!
 
When I was younger I had one main Strat. I thought SRV was cool how he used that same beatup Strat for almost everything his whole career. So I convinced myself that MY Strat was cool too and that I'd always use it, like it was part of my identity. Truthfully, I couldn't afford more guitars anyway, so that was part of it.

I used it to write songs, record an album and play my first few hundred gigs.

Eventually I started trying different guitars. At first everything but Strats felt weird in my hands, I couldn't get used to them despite how cool some of the tones were. Then I tried a few high-end Strats. What a shock to discover that MY Strat was pretty crappy playing and sounding by comparison.

Years went by, I kept buying more guitars and one day I realized I had way too many. I used some of them regularly but there were several more I hadn't even taken out of case in ages. Didn't seem right. I'm not a collector, nor were these collectables. All 'players' guitars. Someone aught to be playing them if it's not gonna be me. So I decided to sell off a bunch. Sadly, my old Strat was in the 'never gets used' pile. I struggled over the idea of selling that one, but in the end it was only a scratched up piece of old wood taking space in my closet. I still have all the memories from those days, I didn't need the piece of wood to go with it.

These days I'm a promiscuous guitar slut. Especially post Axe-Fx. I stopped buying amps and pedals so all that GAS went straight into guitars.
 
piofusco said:
I have similar attachments to my 1989 Stratocaster Plus

To me it is the quintessential stratocaster. I find most other strats very "ice-picky" and brittle in comparison to mine. This is obviously biased. My strat gives me get rock tones however, I also like jazz...and I am not Wayne Krantz. In the future I will need something else. For years, this guitar has been my number one. I have grown up with this guitar and spent many late nights in my room practicing. However I think I am moving past this. My ears and changing and I want more tone. This is what has drawn me to FAS. Now that I have my rig done, I can spend the rest of my (life) money trying out guitars and searching for the perfect "cross-pollination" between the comfortability and tone I find in my strat with something much more versatile
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Mine is an 89 Strat Standard. did change the pups to fat 50's a while back-I have these 2 USA Deluxes that I try to make my main guitars because, well, there USA Delxues and I love the colors. But everytime I migrate right back to my 89 (bought new) with the same old sunburts tobacco whatever and swimming pool routing. It just plays like butter and feels like, well, my guitar.
Great thread here Mr OP
 
A while ago I bought a PRS Custom 24, as can be read in THIS thread. Normally I tend to get "used" to the feel of my guitars, but this beauty is something special. Almost every time I pick her up, I'm surprised by how well it plays and sounds. Since I have the PRS I have barely touched my other guitars, so I think I'm really bonding with it. I think I'll take this one to the grave...
 
Objector said:
A while ago I bought a PRS Custom 24, as can be read in THIS thread. Normally I tend to get "used" to the feel of my guitars, but this beauty is something special. Almost every time I pick her up, I'm surprised by how well it plays and sounds. Since I have the PRS I have barely touched my other guitars, so I think I'm really bonding with it. I think I'll take this one to the grave...
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I can understand that. It was whilst playing my PRS CU24 that I started thinking about having just one guitar as the PRS sounds great and plays so well. And I'm a confirmed Musicman player for many years now.
 
.... and it's good for global warming. I have five guitars and a bass but the steelstring acoustic I got from my grandmother in heritage. It's a beast to tune, I almost break my fingers every time, those rusty old tuners. I need to get it fixed.

I'm working on making the 8 string my main guitar. Always grabbing for the tremolo-arm, and there it is - gone :cry
 
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