Thinking About Selling All My Electric Guitars

[mjh42]

I have 5 instruments. 3 acoustic. 2 plug ins. The plug ins are a Godin Multitac and a Risa Teleuke--magnetic pick ups. At 5 instruments I'm kind of at a point of something new comes in some thing old has got to go. I think about selling the Teleuke---I'll never be great at it.....but when I turn on my Delta King 12, I love that tube amp warmth. I do play the Godin through it sometime but usually use my Fishman. I'd sell the Tele before Godin that is for sure.

Everyone has to choose their own path. I can understand moving on equipment that is not used. I've done that a lot with no regrets.

With electric guitars......I'd likely keep at least one and one good amp to go with it for as long as I could.

I'd keep Godin for as long as I could. Nice to have one instrument I can plug in and play through and amp and with effects.

I'd keep my best acoustic until the end.

[mrjop1975]

If that is what you are thinking of doing, then go for it. You do you as I always tell people. I can in all honesty say since I rarely plug in the 3 acoustic/electric guitars I have, I may wind up selling mine off. No point in having them if I don't plug in, and I think it is the same thing you are dealing with.

[Chickee]

I do this round and round at least four times a year. I don’t know why, but I try to justify in my mind how having a lot of gear is just plain wrong.

The reasoning goes something like this-

You don’t need all this stuff.
You don’t play enough.
You’re getting too old for this.
You’re hands are starting to go.
One electric and one acoustic is plenty.
They deserve to be played more.

And then I come back to my senses.

fd

[gfirob]

I have one electric guitar and I use it to add variety to my occasions playing out. I try to split about 50/50 acoustic electric. I also play informally with a small band and most of the time I play electric with these guys. I have a vintage National too, and I think of the electrics like that, as another voice.

[glaze3]

I sold off all my electrics and amps 20 years ago. I was always in at least 3 bands since the early 80's and never really played much acoustic. I got married in 96' and pretty much quit the whole music scene, but held on to my gear for a while because it was just too hard to get rid of. When we started having kids though it was the first stuff to go. I probably didn't pick up a guitar for 10 years or more until my son took a guitar class in middle school (what a can of worms that opened) I remember telling him that I used to play and seeing the look of disbelief on his face. I decided to buy an acoustic and for the next 8 years that was all I played, and never thought about electrics. Last year that all changed when I was offered a LP standard from a friend. I have since sold off all but 2 acoustics and have accumulated 4 electrics and 3 amps to go full circle.

I'm probably about 80 to 20 electric to acoustic playing time right now and there is no way I could ever go back to acoustic only again. I know this is probably opposite of most here, but man being in your late 50's and jamming again feels so good!

[BoneDigger]

Honestly, I have been considering selling most of my electrics and keeping three: LP P90, American Strat, ES335 clone. But I keep getting cold feet.

[1neeto]

Down to 5 electrics, 3 acoustics (4 if I count my 12 string project). Been toying around selling, but every single guitar I own is quite different.
Electrics:
Squier strat SSS configuration
Tokai Love Rock (Les Paul copy)
PRS SE Mark Holcomb (24 fret shredder hard tail bridge)
Sterling Majesty (24 fret shredder floating trem)
Ibanez 7241 (7 string hard tail shredder)
Mustang looking thing 4 string bass.

Acoustics:
Taylor 214
Breedlove Wildwood Organic
Yamaha Dynamic Guitar (1962 nylon string but can take steel strings too).
Ventura 12 string (project guitar)

If I had to thin the herd, I would keep the Tokai, strat, bass, and Taylor.

[EllenGtrGrl]

At age 59, my chances of getting in another rock band (well, at least one that isn't a Mom & Dad band that plays nothing but oldies and/or classic rock ) are slim to none. My band fix for the past 3 plus years, has been playing in a church band (my current setup for this is my Guild OM-120, and Fishman Loudbox Mini Charge amp). As a result, my electrics have been getting little to no play time for a long time. I live in an apartment, and it gets kind of cluttered, having multiple guitar cases stacked against the wall (6 guitars seems to be my limit).

As a result, so long to my Fender Tonemaster Deluxe Reverb in the summer as trading material for another acoustic guitar (at the present time I just have a Yamaha THR5 amp for electric guitar - I hope to get another, preferably high gain amp that sounds good at low volume [to keep my neighbors happy], but would be suitable for gigging, if the remote chance to do so occurs). I missed having a nice hollow or semi-hollow electric guitar (most of my gigging [even in heavy rock bands] was with semi-hollow guitars), and like the OP, decided to downsize my electric guitar inventory. As a result, my Fender Vintera 50s Telecaster, and Fender Vintera 60s Modfied Jaguar HH were traded last Wednesday, for an Ibanez AS93FM (ES-335 style guitar), and the cost of refretting the Ibanez (with Jescar EVO Gold fret wire - I'm allergic to nickel, and Jescar EVO Gold is hypoallergenic [I use Ernie Ball Cobalt electric guitar strings for the same reason]). So, I now have 1 electric guitar, and 3 acoustic guitars.

Will I regret trading the Fenders? It's hard to say. I've done this in the past and have had times I've regretted doing so, and times where it's turned out to be no big deal. It certainly is no problem for me, having just 1 electric guitar at the present time - even during my rock band days, I only had multiple electric guitars, to have backup guitars, and guitars that served for songs that required a different guitar sound (I always gravitated towards 1 guitar as my main player). The thing is, I have no space for guitars that end up being dust collectors (and that also includes acoustic guitars).

[Steve DeRosa]

Donations gratefully accepted...

[EZYPIKINS]

Whittled my arsenal down to 2 acoustics, 2 electric's, ans 1 bass, 1 Mandolin.

After last year, building back up.

Let me know what 'cha got.

[rmp]

I have 20+ guitars, 6 are acoustic, the rest are solid body, semi hollow, hollow bodies.

They all impart their own voice. Every time I decide I probably should cull the herd a bit, I will start playing one of the likely candidates just to kind of help decided, "should it stay, or should it go", and during that check, I remember why I bought it and the idea of selling dies a cold and lonely death.

This is why I have over 20 guitars..

Plus when you pile on top of the idea of selling all the BS that you have to go thru to list it (Fees, scammers, jerks who just want to low ball you into the ground) yea...

keeping em...
all set..

[sonisbetter]

I do, but which? The Strat, Tele, or LP? The Twin Reverb or the Tweed Deluxe? Plus I just bought another pedal, and am eyeing a Marshall 18W. Then again, I've got a 19 year old who might take it all -- though he's got 3 guitars already...

[Rolph]

I just sold an amp I've played almost daily since early 1970! A '64 Fender Blackface deluxe reverb. I have seller's remorse.

[Vigier]

I played bass in various bands in the late 80’s,90’s & 2000’s & also did a lot of session work (film scores,radio jingles,artists recordings,live tv etc),playing bass had taken me all over globe,anyway I last played bass live in 06 & around 2010 I had a mini stroke (bought on by untreated high blood pressure)& also developed a heart condition after having a electric shock,I was 40 years old & due to the issues I’ve mentioned I was off on long term sick from work,after a length of time my pay dropped from a full wage to basic pay,my 2 daughters birthdays were approaching (both born in November) & so was Christmas so I made the decision to sell all my bass gear as it wasn’t been used anyway,so that’s what I did & I’ve never regretted doing so,my girls had **** good birthdays & we got through Christmas no problem,I always figured I’d just replace my gear when things got back to normal.I did keep hold of my 52 black guard tele(I’d acquired as a session payment in the late 80’s),my acoustic & piano so I still had some stuff to aid my recovery although it was a slow process as I was left with a slight weakness on my left side an some memory issues.the gear I sold was a 91 Warwick thumb bass neck through body(the golden age of the company is considered pre 92),a Vigier arpege custom fretless graphite neck through body,an Ampeg SVT 400t bass head with matching cab,a late 80’s Trace Elliot combo (uk made,when they were good)& a Peavey cab with a 18inch BW speaker & 2 10inch scorpion speakers in it,my current gear is the 52 tele,a fender custom shop postmodern journeyman relic strat RW,a Gretsch G6228 player series jet,a Taylor T5z,a Charvel DK24 MIM,a Sire H7 Larry Carlton 355 copy,a Harley Benton fusion 2 with a flamed roasted maple neck(b stock,£200 bought for modding),a Taylor 312ce 12 fret,a Eastman AC330 12 string,a Yamaha LLTA,a recording king lap steel,a Rift PR18(British build boutique brownface clone)a Headrush pedalboard,a effectrode PC2A tube compressor(the Gilmore one),a keeley Monterey,Dunlop Jerry Cantrell wah,Boss WAZA Air headphone amp & a variety of other pedals & wireless transmitters/receivers.Oh I still have my piano.I have been told I’m on a one in one out policy now by the wife which is fair enough,I never did get another bass though I’m on the lookout for a Status series 2 neck through body preferably an 80’s one & an I’m going to replace the piano with an electric one as I’m getting fed up of the keys sticking at certain times of year due to temperature changes.

[Brent Hutto]

As a non-professional, non-gigging, non-recording living room hobbyist I don't really need a house full of instruments. So once I know what my favorite is, I get rid of any "duplicates". So I've got one acoustic guitar and one mandolin, each of which I've had for more than a decade. There's also a nice piano but that belongs to the family, not to me personally.

I'm fairly recently into electric guitars and it took me a while to figure out which one is my favorite (my Telecaster) so I do have two others that didn't make the cut, so to speak, when I was trying different styles of guitar to find the one I liked best. One of them I keep as a travel guitar so I don't need to take my Telecaster on vacation trips and so forth. Although honestly, an electric guitar in a heavily padded gig bag isn't exactly delicate like an acoustic so there's no real reason not to toss it in the car if I'm going to be away for a few days.

The third guitar I'll eventually get rid of but it only cost a couple hundred bucks and therefore isn't really worth enough used to make trying to sell it and ship it somewhere worthwhile. I will probably hold on to it until I find a good home or it somewhere locally. It does kind of annoy me because it violates my "don't keep multiple instruments you're not playing" dictum.