Wade's Satisfaction Categories?

[ramsa]

Need? Want? Desire? GAS?

Different guitars to fill different "empty slots" in what you need? For my playing and lifestyle...

There's:
1. Main Dread (Multifunctional "Go-To" Instrument)
2) Another Dread/Back-up (Wood too pretty to resist owning)
3) Smaller Body "Fingerstyle" (Cedar Top/ Couch Guitar)
4) Road Beater (The "I wouldn't lose sleep if it was lost/damaged" Guitar)
5) Electric Bass (Recording Hobby)
6) Electric Hollowbody (For Fun)

Could survive just fine with only #1, and maybe #3...

Got different slots to fill?

[SongwriterFan]

Originally Posted by ramsa

Got different slots to fill?

Every guitar has its slot.

Just because I haven't put a description to that slot yet is immaterial.

[ramsa]

I find myself rationalizing the slot definition after the purchase, or GAS pains.



Trying to get back to basics nowadays.

[Thin Crust]

I will always have at least one more than I need.......and one less than I want. It's a curse, just ask my wife.

[schooner]

Originally Posted by ramsa

Need? Want? Desire? GAS?

Different guitars to fill different "empty slots" in what you need? For my playing and lifestyle...

Got different slots to fill?

I have found that my acoustic guitars have all fallen into cartefully researched, entirely rational slots:

1. Alvarez Dreadnought. Filled the So Long Ago I Can’t Remember The Model But Played It For A Long Time niche. Sold it.

2. Larrivee D 60. Filled the Wow! Quality Really Does Matter But My Left Hand Is Not Really Comfortable. Wah! niche. Sold it. Now it’s in the Wish I Had It Back niche.

3. Taylor 614ce. Filled the I Love Maple And I Can Play This Thing Like A Demon, But OMG Look At That Ugly Finger Joint In The Neck Niche. Sold it.

4. Gibson Songwriter. Filled the I Love My Les Paul And This Neck Feels The Same, I’ll Buy It Because I’m Upset With Taylor Due To Their Paint Grade Neck But I Feel Like I Am Wrestling A Cow niche. Traded it to some guy for a small bodied Gibson and some dough. I think that is a niche too.

5. Gibson CJ 165. Filled the Fits Me Like A Glove And Fun To Play But I Don’t Want A Blues Box As My Only Acoustic niche. Sold it.

6. Taylor RS GS. Filled the Got Rid of The Electrics Because I’m Concentrating On Acoustics, Taylor Now Has Scarf Joint Head Stocks So I’ll Try Again, Hold the Phone! This is Fantastic! niche. Will be buried with this guitar even though DMZ wants it back.

There are a couple of others in there that fill the I Won't Admit To Owning Because My Wife Reads This Forum Now And Then niche.

[Made In Canada]

I really feel I need two guitars.

Here is why.

I just dropped off one guitar for repair, and it will be 1-2 weeks before it's ready. Even if a guitar is dropped off for just a setup and can be ready in a day or two, my work schedule may not allow me to pick it up right away. So, I'll always wany another one to play while the other is in the shop. I don't like not playing at least a little everyday

Very often I do one week stints in another state for work and like to bring a guitar to play in the hotel room, there isn't much else to do in the towns I usually end up in and I get to play a lot. I would be afraid to leave my Martin in the guitar room all day, so I bring my Recording King. So I think you should always have one guitar you're not afraid to travel with, leave out of the case sometimes, lug around town or in the popular term a "beater".

So guitar #1
My Martin 000-15S- My baby, good for fingerstyle and strumming with as beautiful a tone as I need. The guitar I was looking for after a year of buying and selling. I may one day own something that sounds nicer but it will always be close to my heart and I'll never sell it

Guitar #2
My Recording King RO-126
Does not have as much tone as my Martin but has a more comfortable neck.
Not much of a strummer but a nice fingerstyle guitar. If stolen or damaged I would be very upset, but not nearly as much as the Martin...which I would be devasted emotionally if it were ruined or lost.

Guitar #3
My Sigma Dreadnought- A sleeper of a guitar, beautiful solid wood with a lot of Martinish style to it. Louder than my other two guitars and I can strum it like it stole money from me....which is it's main purpose. A gift from my girlfriend and potential future wife...so it has some serious sentimental value and would hate to lose it and would never sell it.

I can't think of why I would need anything else. although as I mentioned in Wades post, that I would someday like the Martin that the Recording King does a respectable job of imitating...but it's still not there. I would someday like that spruce topped or all Koa 000/OM that will do fingerstyle like a choir of angels.

All 3 guitars I own now get played and all have a solid purpose. If I had the 4th guitar I mention, the Recording King would end up not being played much except for situations like travelling and I couldn't imagine needing/wanting anything else after that except an electric. I never want to own more than 4 acoustics and 2 electrics at the most, a beautiful guitar that rarely gets played is a sin to me.

[ramsa]

The less expensive travel guitar is a great way to not worry yourself sick about theft or damage, and still get to play on business trips.

[TBman]

I really only need 2. One for serious recording and one beater. Instead I have 3 beaters and 5 for recording. Of course I need only one more, which would be my dream guitar - short scale, perfect neck profile, deep bodied, but a OM size tone monster.

[wthurman]

I have lots of slots, but I find that more and more variation is the key.

Here are mine (bold = acquired):

1. Journeyman play-out all-around great guitar: Taylor GS-RS

2. Guitar that responds more to the nuance of play: Beneteau Concert Standard

3. Nylon string - classical or not - Kel owns one so I'm good.

4. Resonator - totally optional

5. Twelve string - totally optional

6. OM or other small-body OR a CA that is impervious to humidity. Totally optional.


Funny. I'm in no hurry at all. I truly love what I have enough.

[rnantel]

There are additional benefits to having a "beater" than just for travel. I have a very inexpensive Takamine Jasmine (http://www.jasmineguitars.com/S35.html)
which plays great.

Because it was low cost, I keep it out on a stand in the living room during the humid summer months. Because of the easy access and not having dad fretting about possible damage to this instrument, my kids will often pick it up and play it.

My nine year old has become passionate about playing the guitar largely because she had easy access to this guitar.

[grantgsc]

All of my slots can be filled in direct relationship to my debt-to-income ratio. If I have the bucks, I can dream up a new slot!

[stratokatsu]

Slots? All of mine. All of yours. All that are still for sale somewhere.

Actually, for me it reads something like...

Strat
Danelectro
P-Bass
(We don't need no stinking humbuckers!)

Then...

Main Dread - Martin MMV
Next Dread - Taylor 410ce
Main Fingerstyle - Taylor GA3
Next Fingerstyle - Martin 000-15
Only 12 String - Takamine XXXXX???

There are other guitars that don't come in 1st or 2nd, so the jury is out whether they will survive the sales block of summer.

Then there are the "cute" things like my Diddley-Bow, lap steel and mandolin, all of which stay.

[Ovaltitan]

"She Who Must Be Obeyed" has decreed that I be limitted to four guitars. So I have:

1. an 855-CE for thumping out rhythm
2. an R Taylor fingerstyle and light strumming
3. a nylon string for classical and certain jazz lead
4. a composite for hacking, traveling and leaving on the boat

This, of course, leaves me without an electric like an ES-175, Strat or PRS Hollowbody. I got rid of the Tele to make room for the R Taylor. Somedays I regret that decision.

Other daysI consider going against the Edict On High from She Who Must Be Obeyed, then I remember what happened last time I tried that and the years of therapy it took to recover. Not even an ES-175 is worth that.