the changing state of your gear collection

Now that I'm home, I'd like to add one last thing. I have 9 guitars, 2, basses, 4 amps, and about 15 pedals. What else am I really gonna get? I've been playing guitar for 24 years. My thought is that I should spend my time learning and enjoying what I already have.
 
Now that I'm home, I'd like to add one last thing. I have 9 guitars, 2, basses, 4 amps, and about 15 pedals. What else am I really gonna get? I've been playing guitar for 24 years. My thought is that I should spend my time learning and enjoying what I already have.
This is kinda where I'm at. I used to buy instruments because I thought I needed certain things for gigs and recordings, and for a long while I did. Not so much anymore. I could easily lose half the guitars I own and not miss them. The only thing I want and can not afford is a nice jazz guitar.
 
In my 20 years of playing I've only gotten rid of three guitars -- my first one (an Ibanez Silver Cadet with a TRS Floyd), my '96 Epi LP Standard Flame (my taste for necks got chunkier), and my '04 sunburst MIM Standard Tele (was my third Tele and was sold to fund my Variax).

As I stand right now I have 12 functioning guitars (two regular Strats, a hardtail Strat, my Frankenstein Strat, my orange Floyded Prages Tribute Model Strat, two Teles, an Epi LP Custom, a Peavey Wolfgang, a MeanStreet Exile, an OLP MM1, and the Line6 Variax) and I'm still working on the Explorer.

I've been bitten by amp gas over the last couple years. I've had a '69 Bassman that I partially Blackfaced (and will fully Blackface once I find the box with the new AA864 turret board) for years. It's kinda my brother David's, too, so I'm going to rebuild it and give it to him. I've gigged with a PODxt Live for years. I now have a POD X3 Live to replace the PODxt since the power doesn't always stay on. Then I got the Jet City PicoValve when it was $99 (and modded it a bit) and a Jet City 2x12 cabinet. Then most recently I got the Bugera 1960 Infinium that I've been running through a Jet City Jettenuator into my Peavey 412MS, which may end up getting two WGS Green Berets in it to split with the Sheffield 1290s.
 
I have been on a slow decline over the past 10 years or so. I peaked at around 15 but they were mostly junk. I have refined it down to a nice core group of 4 main players. There are definitely others I would love to get but realistically I might only get one more. Either a custom jobby like a McFeely or a Kauer would be ideal but because I am a cheap bastard it will probably be a used Gibson of some sort. I am really happy with my current amp (Vox AC15) but I wouldn't mind trying out a few other small combos just to curb my curiosity.
 
Eight guitars and four basses. Though currently one guitar and two of the basses are up for sale.
 
The most I think I've ever had at one time was 10. Was down to 6 a few years ago, but am back up to 10 now if I include the partsocaster that I have half of the bits and the loaner from my drummer, 11 if I include my son's 3/4 size learner guitar as well.

Wife has banned me from buying any more guitars but she didn't say I couldn't build any. :wink:

Amp wise I've got 2 Trace Elliot 1 x 12" combos for gigging where I use one either side of the stage for spreading the sound and a Boss Microcube for practice at home. I also have a rack Marshall Valvestate 80W stereo power amp and a home built 2 x 12" stereo cab which I have considered selling but it has come in useful at odd times so I'm probably going to keep them. I do have a glut of rack fx and preamp units however that I could do with rationalising.
 
So if you downsized, what would you have in mind?
Keep the Washburn's, the strats, and the bass...honestly, they're the ones that get played...OR...sell off all or most of them, get a good strat, a good LP type, and a better bass, just keeping my acoustic...

Amp-wise I'm less ambivalent...if I were to do anything it would be a Marshall DSL15, keeping my SCXD...

Edit...and definitely keep the new G&L...that sucker's a winner...
 
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Hell, I thought my 5 electrics, 1 acoustic and 1 bass was borderline excessive! 20 to 30-something guitars? Really guys? :facepalm:
 
Holy crap! I though I had it bad at 21 guitars. I've had as many as 30 but definitely thinning them out these days.

I bought each one because it was special in it's own way. Makes it tough to decide which ones to sell. I'd like to get it down to 6 or 8 and leave it at that.
 
It's always interesting to me how often you get serious guitar collecting junkies or guys into amps, but rarely huge collections of both.

I'm a little in both camps I suppose.

I definitely fall into the amp and guitar range.

I will never admit how many guitars I currently own. I always respond with "Four". As in I have only four guitars. I have been dumping those that I do not play but that is not the problem. The problem is that for every guitar that goes another one or two show up. Whether I buy them or build them. Over the last few years I have purchased only a few stock electrics. The rest have been personally built by me for me.

What I have noticed is that I am slowly building a stable of acoustics and archtops that seem to take up a tremendous amount of space. Still though, I love them and I play them. That is the rule... If they are not played then they are out the door.

Amps... So I have a few. Many tube heads of various wattage. Then there are the GK guitar amps that I believe that I only keep for sentimental reasons. I played the hell out of those amps in the 80's. They were at over a 1,000 gigs and I recorded hundreds of hours in the studio on so many different projects with them. I think that makes it rough to get rid of them.

Truth be told though, I have not used the tube amps in months because the Fractal Axe FX has been getting all the glory.

Yesterday I finished up another guitar. I am 99% sure that it will stay with me. I start another project last week and I see three different guitars on ebay right now that I may bite at.

I believe that if I had to get down to 15 electrics I could easily and quickly choose which ones but I just do not see that happening.

Hell, I thought my 5 electrics, 1 acoustic and 1 bass was borderline excessive! 20 to 30-something guitars? Really guys? :facepalm:

So I turn 51 in October... I have been collection 1-3 guitars a year since I was 13 years old. It really does not start out like a hoarder scenario. It just kind of gets that way over the years. I have purged in the past. As many as 40 pieces. Yet... add a few years to that and we are in the same boat again.

My name is Scott and I have a problem.
 
I have got 3 Electrics left and one semi-acoustic.

I used to have about 10 electrics, but had to sell the other ones because of finances. There are three I really regret selling, all 3 rare guitars that now cost you thousands to get:

- A custom shop one-off BC RICH ASM-1. (see superstrat thread)
- A custom shop BC Rich Eagle Archtop from the Bernie Rico Sr. era. Even the colour was unique
- A prototype Ibanez:

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My collection was revamped a couple of years ago; there is nothing (other than the banjo) that I have had more than two years. It is also larger than ever. I now own a six-string acoustic, a six-string acoustic electric, a twelve-string acoustic electric, and two six-string electric guitars.
 
Oh.....I do have two amps two and my pedalboards. One amp is the gigging amp (AC15) and then a small SS practice amp. This is the lowest I have been in gear in probably 15 years.
 
I don't know that I have ever owned more than 4 or 5 guitars at the same time. That being said, I don't think I could ever remember all of the guitars I have owned over the years.
 
I'm at 15 guitars, 5 amps, a decent pedal board and a PA for the acoustics. I'd like to cut back to 7 guitars and 3 amps but the ones I would be willing to let go of still make me happy and I doubt if I could get enough bucks to make selling them worthwhile so I guess I'm stuck where I'm at.
 
For many years I just had one electric guitar and amp and one D28 dread.
Then I took up bass, which culminated in an upright and I sold the last electric bass I'd cycled thru.
Later I added a couple of banjos, a fiddle, a mandolin, and a dobro. I wasn't in a band so I had the time and enjoyed learning about those instruments. I still own most of em.
Then the electric guitar bug hit again later in life. Now I have 6 electrics, 2 basses, and 5 or 6 amps. Nothing fancy just trying different things. My spare bedroom is full. I need to rid myself of some of it but I always regret it later when I sell an instrument.
 
I'm kind of small potatoes collection-wise.

At the present time, I have 3 electrics: 1954 Gretsch Country Clubs w/Dynasonics; 2013 Gretsch Country Club w/FilterTrons (that's my baby - it's going nowhere!), and an MIM '69 reissue Telecaster Thinline. I also have a 2010 Les Paul Special w/P90s, that's on layaway. The other stuff got sold during the money crunch that resulted this year, as a result of my bout of dermatitis. I'm just using some junky old Crate GX30 watt solid state amp at the present time. I don't want much more guitar-wise other than a decent acoustic (I'm kind of leaning towards getting another 12-string), and maybe another Ric 360, or a Reverend. Amp-wise, I'd like something with channel switching, and the capability for some seriously high gain grind, in the 15-30 watt range.
 
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