Player, Collector, or Hoarder?

I read this thought provoking little article LINK

It resonated with me, since I am in the process of preparing to move next month and I'm faced with the stark reality of shifting 30+ guitars and all the associated gear.

Looking at them all removed from their racks, laid out neatly on the floor, hard shells on bottom, gig bags on top, they take up an area of about 1.2m x 2.5m (4' x 8'). I seriously began to question my sanity.

Do I need all of these? Will I play them all? When? etc. etc. Lots of doubt and even a bit of guilt.

In my gut and soul, I love the guitar. In my life, it's been a constant source of both pleasure and frustration, at times income, and even refuge from the miseries that life can throw at you. It's always been my touchstone and my anchor.

But I now wonder if the rampant GAS which has overtaken me for the past, oh, 7 years or so, has been a good thing or is just plain indulgent. I certainly treasure them all, especially those that I've actually performed with, and those that I've "rescued". Lately though, I'm thinking that it may be time to scale 'er back to something more practically manageable.

For years before the GAS rampage kicked in I had 5 guitars. I could likely double that and perhaps add a couple more and end up with a nice selection of instruments. Perhaps buy something new'sh from the proceeds of the sale of the rest? With a few exceptions, most were bought in the $100-300 range. Individually not too much but all totaled there is a fair bit of coin invested, primarily in peripherals and parts.

So howzit with you? Does GAS still have you by the short and curlies, or are you starting to wobble a bit under the load?

Kinda looking at Mike and Don here too...

I gave up on trying to control my egas when I hit the 100+ mark and ran out of room. Best way I know to slow egas is to let the wife actually find out how many you have...lol

As long as they make ya happy - keep em and get more if ya like them.  For me, there are only a few left that I really would like to buy and they are all expensive and hard to find, so my collection has hit a plateau. 
Although I am still adding to the pile with the guitars that I build and keep for myself

sarcaster wrote:Although I am still adding to the pile with the guitars that I build and keep for myself

Ok, Pat... nice to see you, mate, by the way, but I'll just say this.... 12 string Spectrum.

Barry, I have the same range of conflicting emotions running around at the moment, and I'm not even shifting!

Of course having all of these instruments is an indulgence; it cannot be anything else but it is a fairly harmless indulence and really, when all's said and done, a relatively inexpensive one! Yes, I know there are all kinds of numbers quoted for collections, but these are inexpensive guitars when compared to just about anything else out there, and most if us paid pennies for the bulk of the collection, eh!!

My dilemma is that I don't play much anymore, and I have three or four inside the house on the walls that I can take down to ply if and when the muse strikes, so maybe I should rationalise the ones I have under a tarp in the shed by sending them out to Don? Like Barry, I like 'em all and they all have a story to tell, like the Pantera I went to France to uplift.... or the Spectrum GT that spent 3 months + getting from Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Clarendon, NZ.... the Electra Lady that was bought for me by an American friend who has since passed on.... the Genesis prototype found under a pile of Indonesian and Chinese rubbish in a NZ pawn shop..... far too much emotionally tied in any of these to actually sell them - though I really should, as they need to be played hard, eh!! - I figure I can assuage my conscience a little by "lending" them to Don; he already has my Vantage VA900 out there so......

Arthur.... have you really got 100+?! Bloody hell, man... !!! 

Oh, the Electra Phoenix X195 that just turned up on my doorstep one day is quite precious to me, too!! There's not too many that don't have some story attached to them, eh.... the Spectrum LX that needed a string claw, which was found in a Channel Island music store parts box.... the APII U-60 which was broken in half .....

*heavy sigh*  There's not much hope for us, really is there?! Perhaps Don has more chance than us because he doesn't play?! He just likes the way they look so he doesn't have that whole "I can only play one at a time" thing going on??

I have to agree with Pat on the further acquisition front, too; I only really would like a couple more but that's unlikely to happen because of price and availibility of the guitars in question, so that's me done!

So, to recap.... yes, it's an indulgence, but who feckin' cares?! It's OUR indulgence!!

Oh, that's a great article, Barry; thanks for sharing!!

A pleasure mate. Thanks for the thoughtful reply.
And Arthur? You and Mike make me look like a flippin' amateur!

Trying to be guilty... 

Very much so guilty...

just plain guilty.

mortarman120gang11c wrote:I gave up on trying to control my egas when I hit the 100+ mark and ran out of room. Best way I know to slow egas is to let the wife actually find out how many you have...lol

Holy Toledo Arthur... say it ain't so. 

The missus finally found the trapdoor??  

I would like to add something useful to this conservation, but I've got nothing.

As others have stated, some of them cost peanuts but that does not make them any less special. I still have the first one here that I got for my youngest son when he first started to play. Nothing flash but still his first. Then there is the Maton that I bought from his music teacher when he left town. Once again, nothing too special, but still has it's own place in the pile. As John mentioned in his reply his VA900 is here as well. That along with my VA set plus a spare and a couple of VHS455s have pride of place in the house. There comes a time when we all need to take stock of what we have and then work out what we need to get by with.

I have around 60 guitars here and could cull that down to about a dozen and not really miss the ones that get moved on. The fun for me was watching my kids (and others) use them. Mind you, I have enjoyed the hunt to get them all together. Along the way I have managed to help a lot of kids (and some adults) out with instruments and gear so for me it is more than just guitars. I will always remember the look on one little kids face when I gave him his first amp. Just priceless and that look made it all worthwhile.

I'm not yet at the point that I want to get rid of them all, but it would need to be something rather special to get me to stick my hand into my pocket to get the money out to buy it.

I should also add that I will be moving in a few months as well, and can honestly say I'm not looking forward to packing them all up for the big move. I might move some on, but there will always be room for a few of the special ones in the house

Yep the Mrs busted me. No more sneaking them past the door to the secret UPS delivery spot. That's Ok, heck I ran out of room anyway so got to reconfigure and find a new delivery spot.....lool aint egas a blast... The economy has put a severe choke hold on the ole egas as well for now.

No thoughts of opening an Egas museum then Arthur? (100+ seriously  !!!)

Ole Damian is suspiciously absent from this thread, methinks... 

My original goal way back in the beginning was to acquire one of each model and color that Electra produced then along came Westone and Aria pro and Vantage and many others and Electra and Electra Westone had such a huge line up it made it almost impossible to reach the goal.  Alas an Electra Uncle Matt museum is a great incentive to fire up the ole egas again.......

I've recently thought the same thing, Barry.  I have maybe 20, which rotate through selling off and acquiring other ones.  I've considered selling half and only keeping enough to decorate the Cave. 

Problem is this... I have acquired too many which hold sentimental value (due to rebuilding them, as John had also stated) or I have too many hard to come by guitars that I may not find again in that condition. 

However I do play them all, live.  So I guess that justifies it a little?

Bottom line for me... if they bring you joy, doesn't disrupt your life, and maybe allows you to create... then I say God bless it.

Amen, my brutha.

The Chad wrote:I do play them all, live.  So I guess that justifies it a little?

Works for me.

It is a strange emotional connection though isn't it? Perhaps that's why some spouses get so bent out of shape. Hard to compete with this kind of passion.

As a less frequent visitor to this site than was previously the case (largely because it was feeding my GAS habit!), this topic resonated with me.

Player? Yes, not as good as I'd like to be. Collector? Certainly. Hoarder? Not sure - what's the difference between a collector and a hoarder? In my head, if I buy a guitar and it gets played (even if occasionally) it's part of a collection. If I buy one and put it in the wardrobe, never to see the light of day again, that's hoarding.

I've only got one in the latter category, a Dimension IV in it's case and in "as new" mint condition. The rest of 'em (currently 10-ish, are all MIJ, mostly Westone but an old Washburn Raven and a Vantage for company) are all players.

I have no difficulty justifying buying another guitar once in a while. I don't smoke, don't drink anything expensive (not quite true actually, the odd decent malt makes an appearance!) and can think of many more expensive hobbies. I now work on the basis of "one in, one out" to keep the numbers sensible.

But I'd surely like the choice of 100+, just not the cost of restringing them all!!

Hee, hee, yeah re-stringing the buggers can get pricey. Not to mention, cases/bags, straps, picks, plus specialized tools, finishing supplies, etc.

Pushes the intial purchase price up don't it?

I have been buying strings in bulk very often it seems and also at every turn of the season got to make those truss rod adjustments on my Bass guitars. But it gives me something to do and keeps me moving.

Yup!

i started out as a kid who wanted a guitar. i picked a Westone for my first one, good luck i suppose.

after 10 years or so and mostly by accident (mostly because nobody else was there), i was drafted into a band. as we began to play more shows, i wanted a backup guitar in case i popped a string on stage. by then Westone was a thing of the past and i settled for a second-hand Guild Burnside Blade. we went Koo Koo for about six years. we recorded and released a cassette tape with 6 songs, and a cd with 15 songs, all original tunes by us. we had a bunch more originals we never formally recorded and released.

a couple acoustics and a pair of electrics was the extent of my collection for the next 15 years. but then along comes the internet with craigslist and ebay….

about 8 years ago i quit my job to support my wife's career which supports our family. she travels quite a bit and i stay home and take care of our son. since then i've had lots of extra time on my hands and i took up collecting Westone guitars. i thought i would like to try one of every model they produced and i have come a long way to that goal. in the beginning i preferred the Matsumoku Westone models, but over time i came to like the SLM designed models too. 


in collecting Westone guitars my main thing is to restore a guitar to original specs and hardware if i can. so many have been bashed up and abused in various ways that it is hard to find one in really great condition. as we all know, finding parts can be a problem so the main alternative is just purchase another guitar and use the parts needed. this is where it begins to look like hoarding but it is more a byproduct of putting together a large collection. i have bought some guitars that are thoroughly trashed, but contained parts i needed. occasionally i have bought a guitar that turned out to be better than the project it was intended to provide parts for, so switch up and continue onward. at times i get tired of the many guitars that need repairs or need parts that i may never find. eventually i'll get rid of the excess parts and unfinished projects.
 
 electric guitars hit just about every button for fun with me. i have worked with electronics projects since i was a young kid, now i tinker with guitars. i started with cheapo guitars, fixing minor problems. then as time went on i started to do more creative things to customize, evolving into designing and building my own guitars from scratch. i even have started one where i cut the wood for the body from a fallen madrone tree (beautiful wood, looks similar to mahogany).


i love to play guitar. it is meditation, therapy, refuge, rehabilitation, exuberance, excitement, experiment. i love to play loud and rock out, or softer and journey through space, seeking sounds never heard before. i make "music" that is improvisational, intuitive, ambient, atmospheric. good for meditative moods. many guitars helps me create many textures for the audio collages i make.  i don't have as much time to plug in and play as i would like to have, but i still find that it is a helpful way to maintain my peace of mind. i don't have others to play music with these days, so i use looper pedals to jam with and create soundscapes.


i love to have many guitars about the house. after our remodel project last year i have a place to display 15 of my current favorites along with a row of little old tube amps and some pedals; pick a guitar off the wall, plug it into the pedal chain and the amps which are at the ready, power strips on and away we go…

gittarasaurus wrote:i started out as a kid who wanted a guitar...

Didn't we all?

...i love to have many guitars about the house. after our remodel project last year i have a place to display 15 of my current favorites…

*ahem* Said he, gingerly avoiding the obvious question, "15 out of how many?" Hmmm?

One of the reasons why I'm moving on a couple of my Westone Spectrums is because they're not getting played at all and I don't have a great deal of emotional attachment either.

I would never sell the following guitars because of the memories I have of them:

- 1982 Yamaha SF1200 - my first proper guitar, bought new
- Nylon string Spanish guitar - dragged out of a Las Vegas dumpster in 1981
- 1985 Westone Spectrum GT Blueburst - Used to belong to my late best mate

The following guitars are the ones I'm currently gigging and so are being used very regularly:

- 1985 Westone Spectrum FX Silverstone - Gigging guitar
- 1986 Westone Spectrum GT Silverstone - Backup for the above
- 2015 Fender Jaguar - Gigging guitar
- Line6 Variax - Office guitar/may be gigging guitar
- Schecter Electro-acoustic, used for open mics and the like

I use the following in practice just enough to warrant keeping them:

- Fender Telecaster Lite Ash
- Hagstrom F200 (was on the way out but now I've started playing it again)

So the only other one which I need to move on but haven't go around to is a 1967 Maton DC545.

My GAS is under control-ish. I think I'm more like a functioning addict.

Iceman wrote:Ole Damian is suspiciously absent from this thread, methinks... 

'cause I'm lying on the beach in the middle of the mediterranean. Guitars and such are far from my thoughts.

Westbone wrote:

Iceman wrote:Ole Damian is suspiciously absent from this thread, methinks... 

'cause I'm lying on the beach in the middle of the mediterranean. Guitars and such are far from my thoughts.

I can only speak for myself and compare to others but I don't quite fit in either or..
Let's see..

I'm not a professional nor semi-professional player, and nor do I generate revenue playing..
I don't consider myself a collector as I only have Dimension-IV's...
Definitely not a hoarder as I only have 7 guitars and 2 basses...

Definitely an enthusiast, but I am also addicted, so I'll quietly settle for my alias...

weird one this as its something I've been thinking about
I'm a rank amateur compared to you guys, only the 8 electrics (4 jap, 1 mats westone), an acoustic and a bass (mats apII SB), a couple of amps and a dozen ish pedals.
I have bought and sold a few on a one in one out basis over the last few years, but I'm now asking myself do I need the amount I have, I'm not currently gigging or even rehearsing with a band, I've a solo project I'm working on but its likely to all be home recorded and probably not gigged.
I definitely have my favourites. I even have a guitar I hate to play (90's SG special with a neck like a baseball bat that I WILL master!).  I certainly don't have the space or funds to move from player to serious collector, my question to myself is do I pare down to serious players only, maybe use the couple of question mark guitars to fund 1 serious guitar.
I also have my dads small collection (9) being offered to me on a semi regular basis, "take one Tone" "sell a couple and get something you like Tone" that sort of thing, which is lovely of him but not helping
Typing this and re-reading may have helped with a decision, serious players only, time for an exodus
PLAYER!!!

Player and Collector only. Any guitar I don't play regularly get shifted to "The Case" which means its on it's way out of the door.

I'll come clean, my usual gigging guitars are Teles and slabster Gibsons, plus a PRS SE. My Westones are a collection, BUT I have gigged with them all, and often rehearse with them too. So I am definately not a "Hoarder". One of them stops inspiring me, or getting too dusty, its on its way out,

Oh, I also have a Danelectro and a Squier 51. And some resonators and acoustics. I play them regularly too.

So I'm a player and collector. And unlike some collectors, I collect playable and useable guitars. Hence Westones.