Multiple Guitars for One great one?

[414CE Koa]

Hello All,

I have been going back and forth about something and I am not sure how a I feel and thought I would see what the veterans and experts think of this situation. I have accumulated a large collection of guitars over the years. More than my signature below. I have felt for a while that time has come to downsize a bit as I tend to favor certain ones and leave others sit. I recently came across a potential opportunity to own a discounted NEW Gibson Custom Shop Korina V. It was probably the best electric I have ever played! The feel, playability, sound, history, all was 110%. It is discounted because of a finish crack along the neck joint. So I have two questions: Would you trade 6 or 7 guitars you are not using for this one great one? and second would a finish crack like this be more of an issue than I think it is and not even worth considering:

https://photos.google.com/u/1/search...kt7dbMA1JkspIf



Thank you for reading!

[Steve DeRosa]

Those korina V's/Explorers don't come up every day (or even every year...) so if it's worth it to you I say go for it - just make sure that the "finish crack" is exactly that, and not the beginning of other issues...

[nostatic]

agree with Steve that finish cracks are largely a non-issue unless they are actually a symptom of something else going on.

I'm in the "one great one" camp, but here I am with almost a dozen instruments. BUT in most cases I have one great example of a particular type of instrument and it is more that I play different kinds of gigs and am working on different styles of music at the moment.

For examples, with basses I have the "great one" 4-string fretted electric (the Fodera). I do have a P-bass back up but will be selling that as I picked up a Nordstrand short scale (31") fretted that will cover that need. Then I have two Rob Allen fretless 4-strings, one 34" scale and one 30" scale. My main gig these days uses only those basses as the bandleader really wants an upright but I don't do that any more.

For guitars, I have one acoustic, one Thinline, one arch top, one "Strat", one "Tele", and one Beard square neck resonator. No multiple of anything, and I may end up moving the Strat or the Tele but they really sound different. No different wood acoustics as I don't play enough acoustic to warrant it. The Thinline and the arch top have different vibes and I'm woodshedding jazz guitar at the moment so I tolerate some overlap there.

This rationalization moment has been brought to you by GAS.

[Puddleglum]

I have one good acoustic, one good electric, and one good mandolin. My world is complete. YMMV.

[Brent Hutto]

My advice is if there's a really good guitar you want and you can afford it, then buy it.

And if you have 6 or 7 guitars you no longer want, get rid of them.

But don't connect the two things together. New guitars come and unwanted guitars go on their own merits.

P.S. On a more practical matter, liquidating 6 or 7 guitars may take a year or more. You can't do that before getting the Korina anyway.

[BoneDigger]

There are a lot of musicians known for playing a specific style of electric guitar. To me, if you know what sound you want, and you don't need to branch out, then find the one and lose the lesser guitars. However, if you find that you like variety, go with the lesser guitars. It seems simple, but it rarely is.

I have been selling off a ton of my equipment lately to buy some nicer guitars, but less of them. I have sold quite a few Eastmans and Epiphones to get some Martins. I still have a moderate number of electrics, but I'm not quite done thinning.

[Bob Womack]

I did exactly that. I had gone through a phase of picking up some different "sounds" for the studio tools by picking up matte finish lower-line models. However, the quality of the lower-line instruments niggled a bit. On vacation I found a Gibson Les Paul I wanted, 7.8lbs and gorgeous sounding. I only had so much cash so I assembled a couple of other guitars and traded with a small amount of cash added.

I also came across a 12 fret short scale Taylor that just fit me so I traded three far less expensive guitars, including a matte "V-Factor" V, for it, even.

If you find one that speaks to you, it is best to nail it down. Do consider a second opinion, say an independent luthier/tech, on that neck joint. I'd love to see pics of your V! The link doesn't work.

Bob

[414CE Koa]

Thank you for your thoughts everyone! I'm sorry I thought the link worked. Lets try there:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_k8...usp=share_link

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11uS...usp=share_link

Let me know if these work. Thanks!

[Chickee]

Originally Posted by 414CE Koa

Thank you for your thoughts everyone! I'm sorry I thought the link worked. Lets try there:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_k8...usp=share_link

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11uS...usp=share_link

Let me know if these work. Thanks!

I saw this guitar on Facebook this morning. Was the guy joking when he mentioned they want $10k for it? That neck joint issue looks precarious at the very least. But I’m a scary Mary when it comes to cracks and guitars….If it were me I would not be interested unless there is some historic value attached to this guitar.
fd

[Horseflesh]

I would have to be a much, much, MUCH better player before I could truly appreciate having an arsenal of similar instruments.

I have a decent Yamaha concert acoustic right now and I just have no desire for another acoustic guitar. Sure, there are differences, like a dread would be louder... But they just don't matter to me. One comfortable acoustic guitar is enough. (Well, I want a fifty dollar used Yamaha beater so I can learn to cut a nut.)

I bought a nice electric guitar last year, a G&L strat-style, and I am pretty much done buying electric guitars now. My starter tele is still around simply because it isn't worth enough to sell. It's going to take me a decade to appreciate the tele vs the strat... Or develop the skills to do something dramatically different with the tele, like a slide guitar setup.

Where I do like to diversify is where there are dramatic differences that I can appreciate immediately, not subtle wine cork sniffing differences that are beyond me.

For example I'm studying bass too, and I have examples of short, medium, and long scale basses, and fretted and fretless basses, and a mix of round and flat strings. I want to get a 5-string bass too and maybe even a multiscale.

You can't understand some differences without getting your hands on the hardware. But most of those instruments are cheap Craigslist finds, and once I figure out what my preference is I'd probably be happy getting rid of all but one.

[1neeto]

I’ve been mulling about this for a while now. I cut down from 15+ electrics to 4 (5 if I count the bass). But it’s hard to part from these last 4 because they’re very different. Funny thing is that they’re all imports, I actually got rid of my USA guitars, but kept these lesser ones. Same with my acoustics, they’re all quite different.

[Brent Hutto]

Originally Posted by Horseflesh

I would have to be a much, much, MUCH better player before I could truly appreciate having an arsenal of similar instruments.

I have a decent Yamaha concert acoustic right now and I just have no desire for another acoustic guitar. Sure, there are differences, like a dread would be louder... But they just don't matter to me. One comfortable acoustic guitar is enough. (Well, I want a fifty dollar used Yamaha beater so I can learn to cut a nut.)

I bought a nice electric guitar last year, a G&L strat-style, and I am pretty much done buying electric guitars now. My starter tele is still around simply because it isn't worth enough to sell. It's going to take me a decade to appreciate the tele vs the strat... Or develop the skills to do something dramatically different with the tele, like a slide guitar setup.

Where I do like to diversify is where there are dramatic differences that I can appreciate immediately, not subtle wine cork sniffing differences that are beyond me.

For example I'm studying bass too, and I have examples of short, medium, and long scale basses, and fretted and fretless basses, and a mix of round and flat strings. I want to get a 5-string bass too and maybe even a multiscale.

You can't understand some differences without getting your hands on the hardware. But most of those instruments are cheap Craigslist finds, and once I figure out what my preference is I'd probably be happy getting rid of all but one.

With a few details rejiggered, you're almost telling my story.

I haven't much messed around with learning to work on beaters and such but I have done a little of that. Enough to realize I need to allowed nowhere near a decent guitar with a file or knife in my hands! However, I went through a whole bunch of guitars before finding one that really suited me. Then I was done. It's been more than a decade now and it's still the one and the only one I own (aside from a very silly impulse purchase in the early COVID days, which I turned around and sold immediately).

In my case it was helped by coming across a deal that seemed good at the time and seems great 10+ years later. It allowed me to get a really, seriously nice acoustic guitar without having such a seriously nice budget. I could not replace that guitar now for 2x what I paid, maybe not for 3x. So that helps keep the GAS down since any potential "upgrade" over what I have would cost several thousand dollars.

Also like yourself, I do still have my "starter" electric guitar sitting around unused. It was the cheapest one I could find just starting out that felt and played really nicely for me. So it wasn't dirt cheap but still inexpensive enough that it just isn't worth the effort and shipping expense to try to get a couple hundred bucks net back out of it.

But I ended up with a Telecaster (made in Mexico, not USA) and it's all the electric guitar I could ever want. So that whole process took a lot shorter time with electric than with acoustic. Partly because it's easier to find a really slick-playing, good sounding plank with two pickups on it than it to find a responsive, singing, nice to play acoustic guitar. And maybe partly because this time around I didn't have the interest or the patience to play the buy-sell-buy-sell game for a couple years or more.

[rockabilly69]

I'll take multiple guitars over one, any day, specifically 1 Les Paul, 1 Telecaster, I Gretsch hollowbody. And that's a minimum. But then again I am a guitar repairman/tech, so a lot of times, I can get into guitars cheap and fix them up the way that I want them.