The guitars you don’t play as much but can’t bring yourself to sell them

[Ed66]

Originally Posted by Tannin

Ed66, once you retire you need more guitars, not fewer!

I feel this is sage advice; I need to start preparing my wife now to make sure this comes about.

Surely some AGFr's could offer suggestions on what I should buy.

[CopyCat]

I find these downsizing threads inspiring. I have thinned the guitar stash quite a bit but could still do some cleanup around the edges.

During the general COVID shuffle I sold a dread I really liked because I’m gettin’ old and it’s not as comfortable to play. But then I missed having a dread so have ended up with two. I want to let one go but am not quite ready. Probably later this year.

I’ll next slim down my electric gear to just one and sell off most of my pedals.

Most of my playing is on an OM. I have a 00 for the couch and a dread (oops, two dreads) for when friends come over and we sing. I am happy with this array.

I also have one nylon string. My first guitar when I was young was a nylon string and I played the heck out of it growing up. I’ve found I want one on hand even if I don’t play it often.

So I’ll never be down to a single acoustic. At minimum I’d have at least an OM and a nylon string.

[Boozehound]

I'm pretty good about playing all of my acoustics pretty regularly. Some more than others, but I also find that the particular 'favorite' guitars in my collection seem to rotate to some degree.

I do have 4 electrics that I almost never play (2 Les Pauls, a Strat, and a Tele) that I hold on to. One is sentimental - It was my first 'real' guitar that I got when I was 12. It's over 25 years old now. I don't really play it, but I'll never, ever, sell it. It's a 1996 Les Paul Studio, so it's not worth a whole lot anyways.

[Mike McLenison]

My electrics. A Variax, Gibson SG, Rogue violin bass...

[ewalling]

My Taylor T5 12-string. It's a work of art, but I don't really play it much. I'm pretty quick to sell instruments I don't play much, but I have no intentions of selling that one anytime soon.

[jtdavis]

I been playing 47 years and somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 guitars. I still have every guitar I ever owned with the exception of one that I sold early on, my first electric. Of mine I have five or six beaters and the rest are pretty nice instruments. My wife and kids know the ones that are worth a lot of money so I will let them sort it out after I am gone.

[Neil K Walk]

I try to play all the ones that are playable (I have about 4 in reach in my home office/spare bedroom) but my family is getting wise to me and know that there are least a couple more in those cases in the basement as well as another being built on the workbench that will be taking strings soon.

Seriously, I have an old Kramer that I never play anymore. The pots are shot and the hardware is corroded but it can still hold a note when it's not humming and popping. I imagine after I'm gone it will end up on consignment for much less than what I paid for it, but it was my first actual purchase and not a gift so I feel bonded to it somehow.

As for the ones I do play, I've always wanted to "upgrade" my Martin D-16GT to a HD-35. It still gets a lot of play though because despite it being my "gateway" Martin it still has good tone and I've tweaked it to my preferences. I'd probably take a bath on it in a trade but neither of my kids show an interest to hand it down to them.

As for the rest, as the saying goes "when I die I hope my wife sells them for what I actually paid for them and not what she thinks I paid for them!" I certainly don't want her to sell any that I made without getting them appraised. Who knows? I could be the Van Gogh of luthiers - only with both my ears still attached.

[RP]

For me it's part financial, part space in my smallish cabin and part a personal distaste for having things I neither use nor want anymore...

[mawmow]

My first solid wood, bought on my very fiftieth birthday in 2006 :
The 0,013" string gauge of my Taylor 510 (dreadnough) would
ruin my nails as I play fingerstyle.

[Dru Edwards]

Originally Posted by jtdavis

I been playing 47 years and somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 guitars. I still have every guitar I ever owned with the exception of one that I sold early on, my first electric. Of mine I have five or six beaters and the rest are pretty nice instruments. My wife and kids know the ones that are worth a lot of money so I will let them sort it out after I am gone.

Welcome to the AGF! You've got some great guitars. You should join us in the Electric Guitar sub forum too.

[JB200]

I only have a J-100, and I'm very happy with it.

[ataylor]

I'm probably overly sentimental about my guitars, especially acoustics.

I've only ever sold/traded one of my acoustics... and within 48 hours I bought it back from the friend I sold it to.

I've sold/traded two electrics — but the two electrics I have now are the same models of those I sold/traded, just nicer/lighter builds in colors/finishes I preferred to the two I let go.

The two most recent guitars I got — a Yamaha FG 12-string and a Gretsch Jim Dandy — are more niche guitars that I wouldn't feel bad about "upgrading" at some point, but in the meantime they're fun, relatively inexpensive guitars that I don't feel bad about not playing as much as my favorites.

[phcorrigan]

My Martin D-2832 Shenandoah. I planned to sell it after I bought my HD-28V, but after setting it up for sale I decided I really liked it, so now it's my backup guitar. It's the only guitar I bought new, and I really couldn't sell it for much more than I paid for it in 1985. It's a great sounding and playing guitar, in spite of the laminated back and sides.

I'm glad I kept it, because my HD-28V just spent nearly a week in the shop getting the bindings re-glued, so I still had the Shenandoah to play.

[jrb715]

I've a National resonator "Piccolo" model. Play it just a few times a year, but each time I do is a delight (in spite of my playing). It's going to stay as long as I own guitars.

[bendandsnap]

My first guitar is a Pono 0 parlor guitar with cutaway. I haven’t played it in years, but I can’t sell it since I learned how to play on it. Probably going to teach and give it to my nephew once he’s old enough.