Necessity or Desire: Is your best guitar holding you back?

[DianeA]

Originally Posted by Zissou Intern

After reading a couple recent threads, I am wondering what drives your GAS and subsequent purchasing of new guitars. Was it merely desire for something different or better, or was your guitar holding you back? Could you not make the music you heard in your head, so you just had to have a better guitar?

This is a really interesting thread!
I didn't have nice guitars at first and never knew what I was missing. I loved using them to play the song I wanted to play and sing. I was a Mockingbird and just wanted to copy pretty sounds.
My GAS is inspired by going to jams where people have nice instruments that they know what to do with, and also inspired a lot when reading here how much people love their (insert a guitar name/model!).

[foxo]

No, I’m holding my guitar back. If the poor thing could speak it would ask for a better player.

[Aimelie]

Originally Posted by DianeA

This is a really interesting thread!
I didn't have nice guitars at first and never knew what I was missing. I loved using them to play the song I wanted to play and sing. I was a Mockingbird and just wanted to copy pretty sounds.
My GAS is inspired by going to jams where people have nice instruments that they know what to do with, and also inspired a lot when reading here how much people love their (insert a guitar name/model!).

That’s it in a nutshell. You don’t know what you don’t know. A great guitar opens the ears and the mind.

[Methos1979]

Originally Posted by Zissou Intern

After reading a couple recent threads, I am wondering what drives your GAS and subsequent purchasing of new guitars. Was it merely desire for something different or better, or was your guitar holding you back? Could you not make the music you heard in your head, so you just had to have a better guitar?

You certainly must be talking about my recent thread! In my case, purchasing guitars for me is always about a desire to try something new and different. I don't think I've ever owned a guitar that has 'held me back', with the possible exception of playing it live and amplified. There were/are some guitars that amplify MUCH better (or at least easier) than others.

[birdsong]

Desire. A purely hedonistic one to see, feel and hear different guitars. "Better" is such an elusive term, context-sensitive; and with contexts changing, so does the determination of better. It's a mirage in that sense.

That said, thanks to the informative posts and great variety of used guitars for sale here, I now have some guitars with necks that fit my arthritic, neuropathic hands better; fancy casein plectra that provide a better sound to my ears with the high-end hearing loss; and perhaps best of all, one guitar with PRS-style abalone inlays of birds.

[The Bard Rocks]

Once I got beyond the beginner stage, none have held me back. Gas started with the chance to play a guitar that was stunning, superb (and not for sale): it let me know how much better I could play than I thought and how much better I could sound. That let to a months-long search (decades before "internet" was a word), during which I discovered my mind did not retain an exact memory of what the special one felt and sounded. Eventually I got something I thought was close. It wasn't, it turns out, but it was still a very nice guitar and I kept it for 20 years, - until I decided I needed something louder as I was playing quite a bit more with others by then and just could not hear myself.

So if I was going to change instruments for something louder, I wanted something "better" as well. My finances had improved enough so I could do this. Which led me to look at boutique guitars, ones made by small builders. Another months-long search ensued and I happened to to play a luthier-made guitar that was really good. The internet had just arrived at my doorstep and I used it, only to discover that this same builder could make one for me, exactly how I wanted, for less that the used one I'd found in the store. That was a no-brainer.

It was not my first build. That was an autoharp made for me as I had requirements no company met. That broke the ice in the custom world, but I'd never expected to to repeat this.

But I did, and the process proved to be a LOT of fun, maybe even approaching the fun I have had playing it since. The AGF here of course has fueled this sort of thinking, as have the high end shows I have attended. And both have also educated me greatly, which I appreciate.

Subsequent guitars arrived, the idea being each would fill a hole or meet a new requirement for sound. Some are specialty instruments, not used daily, but when you do, nothing else sounds the same (12 string, resonators, baritone). They are surprisingly useful when recording. A couple are for specific situations and are going to stay around as long as I have that sort of use once in a while. But mostly I play a variety of music on one guitar for each practice session.

[buddyhu]

Originally Posted by jaymarsch

My guitar acquisition journey has been fueled by three things over the years:
Purchasing power: I earned more so could get a guitar that played and sounded better to my ears and hands.
Player Experience: I became a better player and had a better idea of what I wanted in tone and dynamics to enhance the types of music I most wanted to play.
Ergonomic needs: Old injuries (fretting hand/shoulder) had me exploring the small tweaks in neck specs and scale length that a custom build makes possible.
I am pretty much dialed in almost 30 years and 14 guitars later. :-)
Best,
Jayne

While a few details of mine differ, Jayne has nailed the 3 major influences for me. In 1970, as a high school student and casual player, I could never imagine paying $400 for a Martin, hence I bought and owned a Yamaha for 40+ years.

When I started taking lessons in 2011 (as I began retirement) and heard and played some of my teacher’s guitars (old Martins, a Goodall, a Santa Cruz, an old Gibson, amongst others), i realized that spending big bucks could open some doors tonewise, and give me greater comfort and ease when playing. And I had more money to spend than I did in 1970…a lot more.

Can I claim that better guitars were a necessity if I wanted tp progress as a player? Probably not. Do I enjoy playing nicer guitars, and do they support me in improving? Definitely!

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by Zissou Intern

After reading a couple recent threads, I am wondering what drives your GAS and subsequent purchasing of new guitars. Was it merely desire for something different or better, or was your guitar holding you back? Could you not make the music you heard in your head, so you just had to have a better guitar?

Are you asking rhetorical questions ???

The desire for better is simply part of the human condition always has been always will be (and is often simply called progress)

The other specific and usually multiple reasons people have a desire for a "better , new , or other" guitar are as likely as numerous and different as the people involved , and can't be shoe horned into two simple categories ....
A guitar can't really "hold you back" BUT a better guitar can definitely help move you forward

[Zissou Intern]

Originally Posted by KevWind

Are you asking rhetorical questions ???

The desire for better is simply part of the human condition always has been always will be (and is often simply called progress)

The other specific and usually multiple reasons people have a desire for a "better , new , or other" guitar are as likely as numerous and different as the people involved , and can't be shoe horned into two simple categories ....
A guitar can't really "hold you back" BUT a better guitar can definitely help move you forward

My questions were not rhetorical. I asked because I was curious to know the different reasons people on this forum bought different or upgraded their guitars. It's not necessarily "progress" to own a better or more expensive guitar. Lastly, I think a guitar can definitely hold you back. But thanks for your insights.

[Bridgepin]

The hunt is what's exciting.

[Zissou Intern]

Originally Posted by Bridgepin

The hunt is what's exciting.

I agree, "the hunt" is exciting and imbedded deep in our DNA.

This is such a good thread! So many interesting replies and stories. It makes me feel lucky to be at the beginning of my guitar journey. Being a beginner can be frustrating at times, but I have the rest of my life to learn and play guitar and explore different instruments. I can't wait to meet them all.

I love Jayne's description of her process! It's a path of growth and evolution. We are always growing, changing and evolving, and our guitars along with us.

Originally Posted by Jim Owen

I’m not sure that any guitar I’ve ever owned has held me back. What has held me back is systemic lack of focus. A guitar won’t cure that.

But having a few nice guitars helps. If practicing on one starts to unravel, I pick up another. I’m old enough to know that buying another won’t get me practicing any more in the long run.

I think some of the best advice I got right at the get go was to keep your guitar out on a stand and every time you walk by, pick it up and play it for a few minutes. I have two of them in the office, and I love going back and forth, sometimes playing the same song or practicing the same chord progression or exercise on one then the other just to hear the different way it sounds. Sometimes if I'm doing something tricky that isn't working on one, I try it on the other and I'll figure out a better way to do it.

So you know what that means... We have a two guitar minimum on these forums at all times.

[BluesKing777]

There is another angle to the question.....

Playing places, playing with other people.

They don’t mean to, but people DO treat you differently if you have a ‘professional’ standard guitar. And if you play your best, they can tell that you are ‘serious’.

My example that set the lifetime standard was when a teen, I had a ‘sort of’ Strat copy and played in a beginner band with some locals.

Then I bought a used Fender Telecaster! And got ASKED to join this 50s sort of R&R band because the guitarist/singer loved Telecasters and envisaged a duelling Tele kind of thing. But he said to the other guys that I was obviously ‘serious’.

But I DID sound so much better with the Tele (and Fender amp).

And all these years later, I am still ‘serious’! I DO sound better when I play nice acoustics! And......I just stopped playing my hand made custom 00 deep body made by a local luthier for ME! Still can’t believe it



BluesKing777.

[s2y]

My 28.6" maple jumbo baritone is perhaps a body size too big. The scale length is probably too big for me, too. Otherwise, what I have is as good as it gets. Planning on adding a few things before I consider my collection complete.