In this thread i want to provoke an actual discussion, not just ask a question. What are the pros and cons of owning more than one guitar?

lets say i gig from once to three times a week, covering different songs by different artists, all blues/rock/alternative based rock and roll. i have a deville and a strat. i want to expand my arsenal so i can have a guitar for a different tone or tuning or for backup, etc.

iv seen collections and some ppl have a TON of the SAME guitar. (i know that not all guitars in the same model sound alike, but are the 15 identical guitars in your basement absolutely necessary??) i love the tone of my strat and it feels and plays great and if it was stolen i would immediately buy another one, but would i really like having two of them? would it be too much strat mojo? maybe a gretsch? maybe a tele? maybe just get a tricked out electric mandolin and just mess with everybody's head. idk!

i could see someone who relies on a strat tone to have a couple strats, but eventually there has to be some give. i could see me with maybe 2 strats and a les paul, or 2 strats with a gretsch power jet.

my question goes out to everybody, the seasoned veterans, the dedicated collectors and the average joe's like me. why do you have the guitars you have? what would you do different? why did you make that decision? ask your own questions perhaps.......


GO!

_________________
Guitars: American Standard Strat, American Vintage 52 Tele, Gretsch Power Jet

Amps: Frontman 212R, Hot Rod DeVille 212 w/ Vintage 30's, AC30 w/ Greenbacks

Pedals: Boss Tuner, XOTiC AC-Booster, MXR Phase 90, Line 6 DL4

i own different guitars to get different tones, i feel like my different guitars each bring somethign different and unique.

i use my sg and my squier strat for harder rock. they are best suited for that because of their humbuckers,IMO.

i use both of my american strats for some rock, but mostly blues. i really liek the single coil tone they give out.

my tele is also used for rock and blues, but mostly for rythem playing. im not a big country fan so i barely play country on it.

if i could do anythign different i would probably get a hollow body guitar like a gretsch or gibson es-335.

I have 4 Strats and they all sound different but my Jimmie Vaughn and 65 Strat sound the most alike.I have 26 guitars and love the difference in sound and the feel between them all.I think that to have a fully rounded sound in electrics everyone should have at least one of each-a single coil guitar,a humbucker equipped and a P-90 equipped one.Of course you could even go further and have hollow and solid bodied examples of each. As I play many genres of music and have played in many cover bands I needed to have at least a single coil and a humbucker equipped guitar to sound at least somewhat like whoever I was covering,it's very hard to get the ZZ Top sound from a single coil guitar or cover Little Wing with a Les Paul and get a Hendrix sound.

_________________
'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

First off, I'm a dyed in the wool Strat guy and have been since the late '60s.

In my gigging days however and for decades, my backup guitar was a 1967 Gibson SG Standard. I chose it for several reasons:
1. For all the obvious reasons, one should never go to a gig without a backup guitar.
2. It was light.
3. The humbuckers would give me that Gibson sound if I ever really had to have it.
4. It had the Vibrola.
5. Old SGs are probably the most effortless model of guitars to play.
6. Not too much can go wrong with them.
7. To show certain segments of the audiences that I do have and use Gibsons as back then, they were infinitely more popular and desirable than Fenders and oftentimes, you weren't taken as seriously as a player unless you had a Gibson, believe it or not.
8. I got it for nothing.

Over the years, I have gone through MANY 'high end' guitars of all the desirable brands. I used to have a mighty nice collection of said guitars. I'd buy, sell or trade on literally a daily basis. I honestly don't know how many I had at my peak. I do know that they completely filled an average sized bedroom. I even used to bring a different one each time to rehearsal just for fun and to bedazzle my band mates who genuinely got a kick out of it; never a repeat in the many years we were together. Yet, when it came to the gig, a Strat as my #1 and my SG as the backup.

Nowadays, I'm retired from gigging and our wonderful economy saw to the demise of my collection. After 43 years of playing, I'm down to one guitar (a Strat, of course) and an ancient 25W Premier amp that I put a 10" Jensen in and even these are shaking. Isn't life grand?

_________________
You dig?

Here are a few of my random thoughts based on 40+ years of guitar worship . . .

1. The only time I ever gigged without a backup guitar is when I was 15 and I couldn't afford a second. What happens if you break a string? Will you make your audience wait while you change it?

2. You may not always want to play in standard tuning. You could have another tuned in Dropped D, for example, or tuned to a chord, especially if you want to play different styles of Blues.

3. I'm not sure this is true, but it's been said that you can achieve all of the different tones you'll ever need with four guitars: Strat, Tele, LP and ES335.

4. I have a dozen guitars (and a bass or two) and some of them sound quite a bit like some of the others. Some of them stay in their cases and don't get played. If I could do it again, I would mix things up. I've always wanted a 12-string electric and have never owned one. I don't have an acoustic guitar anymore. Lately, I've been lusting for a baritone guitar. I would strive for different sounds.

5. Why do I have the guitars I have? I inherited a couple, got one as a gift, but most of the rest were my decisions. Part of it is I bought into No. 3 above.

6. The cons of owning more than one guitar? If you can afford another, I can't think of any. With that said, if you have a huge G.A.S. attack and you're spending the rent and grocery money on a new Custom Shop model, that would be a problem.

I guess I rambled a little longer than I planned. Good luck.

Ok to reinstate what Martian says you shouldn't gig with just one guitar, ever. Your tempting fate.

As a player you will benefit from focusing on one guitar only. You dont need a thousand guitars at all. My collection was squirreled away earlier this year. A good bit of it has recently returned and I feel like my fingers have been cut off. Where I would pick up the house guitar, plug in, record a idea. Today (and other days too) it has been pick up a guitar, sort of get an idea whilst I wonder how it would sound on one of them others. Plug it in, have a half hearted attempt at recording something useful. Grab one of the others, fiddle with some dials, have a cup of tea, play with one of the kids for a bit, have another go at being creative. Forget the original idea, give up.

To make things worse I seem to be on a real writing peak at the moment. I'm getting ideas from everything.

There's a reason why the greats had their no1's. Theres nothing quite like a goto guitar. As a guitar fanatic I'm not disciplined enough to just pick one up when theres 5 in the house. I'll have to drop a few round my mums and at a mates house.

_________________
No no and no

He who dies with the most guitars wins.

Buy and play whatever you can afford.

Arjay

_________________
"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

+1 I don't own two of the same model guitar. I like all kinds of guitars and even like cheap guitars. I play what I like and don't really care what brand it is or what it costs as long as it plays well and sounds good to me. As far as I'm concerned there are no cons.

_________________
Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

While it's certainly true that you could own 7 Strats and they would all sound slightly different it is even more true that a Strat sounds like a Strat sounds like a Strat sounds like a Strat. Strats have a sound that is unique to them and all you can really hope for is to create a variation on that theme to get the best Strat sound for YOU.

Same goes for Telecasters and so on. There are variaitions in the sound of different Teles but when you hear one on the radio you can still tell it's a Tele and whether it's got Texas Specials or Lace Sensors it doesn't stop you from identifying it as a Tele.

For a basic collection you should have one of each of the following:
Acoustic
Strat
Tele
Les Paul
Those will give you the basic sounds upon which most music is made.

As far as gigging goes, I won't go without a backup if I can help it.

_________________

Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

Pros:
A wide pallete of tones to choose from, whenever you want. And you may have some set-up for slide and different tunings etc.

Different tones may bring different playing approaches. May be inspirational...

Don't have to worry about breaking a string, cos you have a spare ready next to you.

The colors of the new Eric Johnson Strat look cool, so must be nice to have them all side by side leaning on the wall and stare at it

Cons:
When your second guitar becomes your first guitar.

You have to buy many packs of strings to string them all up

Some are going to be forgotten and will collect dust.

The money you spend won't make you a better player.

I have only one guitar it's been 3 years - a Tele; but would love to have another one. Mine has the Duncan Broadcaster bridge pickup which is raunchy and compressed with about 8k in ouput. So, another Tele with a slightly different tone, a bit more on the jangly side, to fill another sonic spectrum would be great to me. (and maybe a different neck pickup, like a humbucker or mini-humb. or P90).

Why the strat (my first)? - It' was the "obvious choice" everyone played them, not much variety at all around here, so I got a sunburst one.

As I got deeper into blues and 60s-70s rock, and to know more bands, guitarists and guitars, I feel in love with the Telecasters. So I promised myself that I woud have one. Jimmy Page, Albert Collins, Bernie Leadon, Robbie Robertson and Roy Buchanan are to blame the most.

4 years later I bought the Mustang. What attracted me to it was that it was so unusual and comfy, like a Strat's little cousin, but still "straty" enough. And no Teles in the stores yet, by the way (at least none I liked). Then 6 months later I get my "dream Tele" and indeed it quickly it became my favorite - just felt like home. The Mustang starts to collect dust... I played it every now and then, but the guys in my band kept telling me "bring the Tele!" whenever I appeared to a rehearsal with it. In fact, the Tele beats the Mustang I had in every aspect I can think: playability, versatility, much more useful tones, cuts better through the mix...so it was clear to me that I had no reason to have the Mustang anymore. I still have the strat but it was put away to never be played again. If you are going to get a second guitar - choose carefully, very carefully. [/b]

man giging w/o a couple backup guitars is like be on a
tightrope w/o a net.
i have several guitars for many different reasons.
i dont use but 5 of them now, the rest are retired
and stored at a friends bomb shelter of a basement
and 1 is living at the bank.
all 5 sound different and play different.
some people just collect guitars that they like.
others, well 3 or 4 will get them by and they are happy
just having those.
if your happy with 1 guitar then stick with that 1.

Pros to owning more than one:
-It's good to have a backup plan
-Different sounds due to pickups, etc...
-You can have one specially setup for an alternate tuning or slide guitar if necessary.
Cons:
-Cost
-More space taken up
-Now you have to change the strings and all that stuff for 2 guitars.

I myself have a strat and a tele. The strat does strat sounds, the tele has the traditional tele bridge pup for tele sounds and has a mini HB in the neck so I don't need a Les Paul ^^ I have these specifically because I think I can get every tone I want out of these two. If I could change something, I might have tried something cheaper, AVRIs are not cheap <_< Then again, it's better than spending money on something lame like insurance or taxes or tuition etc....

_________________
I traded my car in for a microphone.

you can't beat a few guitars for different sounds , i have a strat , also an epi lp and sg400 (both modded) and the amount of tones i can get from just plugging into my jcm800 is mind blowing i have to say an sg is a must as well , excellent guitars and a very unique sound oh and very comfy as well

_________________

To me, I think that owning more than one guitar is like having more than
one color on the artist's palette.
I don't see anything wrong with owning more than one of the same guitar provided they serve a valid purpose: Body color can influence the mood of
the player positively or negatively and thus his or her playing style.
Some people may simply like to have a rainbow of colorful guitars as it were. I think it is something that appeals to them.

My personal plan is to have a very focused set of guitars and a bass
All of them, Black. Why? I am not at all into morbidity or goth or metal or anything of that nature, yet I like Black.
Now what is important to me is the technical specs - like others who love eyecandy, I like the nuts and bolts of the guitar, finding out what makes it work, how it sounds etc I am all for educating myself in those areas.
I think that a guitar that lends itself to customization is as worthwhile as a guitar that is already top notch tonewise. Customizing the pickups and circuitry and who knows what else in search of "that sound" is downright fascinating to me. (And I don't hear well at all!!!)

For electric guitars, I like the Strat, the Tele and the Les Paul.
I am just as picky about my accoustics as well.
Variety is a nice thing.

Also, a guitar for giggin' may be set up differently than one for recording/leisure playing. You may like to draw attention to yourself
with a wild paint job and some hot pickups on stage but at home you
want something else.
I think it has an awful lot to do with requirements that the owner deemed necessary and there could be instances where a small collection came about as gifts, spur of the moment on the road necessity that end up in
the reserves room.

Seems to me you and I have a few ideas already in common.
As for collectors - some people have more money than sense. Some have
emotional issues, others find it to be a hobby.
I certainly cannot speak for them but I think collectors are worthy of some respect as much as the pro or amature player as their historical contribution to the bigger picture only helped solidify the value of the guitars and the manufacturers thereof. Like classic car collectors, that stuff gets taken care of and a future generation will get to enjoy seeing and hearing them played and such relics do well to promote the company that made them and keep them in business. I'll likely never own a 1950s Strat but whether I played one or heard one being played by someone else, I bought my strat because I liked what I heard.

btw, like many others, it was Buddy Holley that introduced Rock & Roll and the Stratocaster to me. I love the tri-tone Sunburst but I still opted for Black. At least I am getting the solid maple neck/fretboard.
I may still get a Sunburst some day.
Who knows.