Gear minimalism as a thought process...

[Surfysonic]

My cup runneth over at this point. What got me here are a few factors: interest in new gear/impulse purchases, modding enjoyment (fun and educational), and eventual plans to demo new and modded gear on YT. Lately, I've been doing my best to whittle the gear down.

surfy, you're one of the people between here and SG101 that I always look forward to reading posts from. How did I not know you're on YouTube?!

Oh, thanks, that's very kind! Well, I've been on YT off and on over the years. TBH, I haven't done anything for over a year now - my wife works from home full time currently so it's a bit tricky to do any video recordings and not disturb her if she's in meetings. When she starts going back into her office 2 days a week, I'll try to focus on making more (and by more, I mean better, lol) content.

My current gaming addiction, Final Fantasy XiV, has been taking way too much of my time, too.

I do plan to do more - hopefully, soon!

[zhivago]

For many, many years I have said that the magic number in my book is three. This way you can keep the guitars being played instead of gathering dust. And for me, one of the three is always an acoustic....makes for tough choices.

I don't think I could count my acoustic, or bass, as part of my 'magic three'. They just don't see enough play time to warrant counting for that much in my life.

The spare Jaguar has already sold. The Tele shouldn't take long I expect. That will leave me with said magic number. We'll see how long that lasts. I'll be a feat in itself to resist some things (that IBM Coronado on Reverb right now, for example).

I get it, the acoustic and bass can feel secondary at times...I go through phases where I mostly play acoustic guitar, so it's a bigger deal for me. In fact my acoustic guitar is the most expensive guitar I own.

[Chippertheripper]

I don’t really venture to osg much, except for an occasional flip through the classifieds, but this thread hit a spot.
I do have an abundance of gear, and it’s taken some time and a bunch of $ over the years, but I think I finally have a decent handle on balancing what I want and what I “need” against what I can afford.
That said, it’s an amp each for home and playing with the band, a real small live board and a little bigger one for home/studio work, and probably 3-5 guitars, with a bass and a baritone and an acoustic on the side for fun.
That’s where I’m headed.
The logistics of finding those right tools for all those jobs isn’t massive, but it’s a good hill for me to climb, just like some of you all here.
I needed this thread at this moment in my life, as this little journey towards deciding on what’s to be considered “the essentials” and letting everything else go isn’t easy.
One of the things that I keep verbalizing about selling stuff I like and love, but doesn’t necessarily fit my pragmatic ethos is “yeah, that stuff is rad, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time with it, but it’s time for someone else to enjoy it.” Mostly it feels like I’m trying to convince myself of that, but deep down I think it’s the right path. It’s just not easy.

[JSett]

In fact my acoustic guitar is the most expensive guitar I own.

Knowing you have a black '56 staple LP makes me fucking scared how much your acoustic is worth

[Sauerkraut]

There is definitely something super appealing about gear monogamy. We really love the Jonny Greenwoods and the Steve Howells and the Brian Mays and (of course) the Willie Nelsons of the world. It's really romantic. I gotta say that guitars I get the most enjoyment from playing are the ones I've messed up the most.

Jonny Greenwood regularly uses at least three different electric guitars (Tele plus, Starcaster, Les Paul), and he owns and plays such a huge arsenal of other instruments and effect pedals, he's hardly a gear monogamist. I don't know Steve Howell, but a google search shows him holding at least three different guitars. That leaves Willie Nelson and Brian May. Willie Nelson definitely counts, but he is a singer-songwriter, rather than a lead guitarist/soundscaper or whatever you wanna call it. Brian May seems like the classic example of the one guitar type, but even he reportedly used a bunch of different ones in the studio. In his case, I'm guessing his motivation for playing his Red Special 99% of the time live is a mix of stubbornness, eccentricity and above all pride (and I don't blame him, it's a cool own build). I guess Jeff Parker is another example, he plays his ES-335 almost exclusively. But even then, when he plays with Tortoise he'll play some of his band members' guitars when it suits the song, and he's big into effect pedals.

Personally I'm a little skeptical of the one guitar thing. It can be, but is not necessarily a conscious, well-reasoned decision. It really depends on the motivation. Funny as it may seem, I found there's another reason some people only use one guitar: out of fear. A friend and bandleader only ever plays his Epiphone Les Paul, and over time I figured out the reason behind it is a fear of gear; he doesn't own pedals or even an amp (always borrows one) because he appears to be intimidated by them. It's not that he fetishises minimalism; when I add some effects to my guitar, he usually likes it, his demos are effect-heavy (plugins are less intimidating it seems), and he listens to music with plenty of effects. Plus he's used my guitars on recordings, though admittedly always at my request (that Les Paul just does not sound very good for a lot of things), and agreed that the result sounded better. Over a month ago, I lent him a simple overdrive and a delay pedal to try. Initially he seemed enthusiastic, but when I asked him the other day how he was getting along with them, he told me he still hadn't tried them. I think he's far from the only one with this kind of gearphobia. In his case, I find it's actually holding him back musically.

[Lost In Autumn]

I'll add that I'm fairly fascinated with Keith from 5 Watt World's approach, but I've since concluded that that sort of minimalism may not be for me. Since I started playing again, I've been on a bit of a tone hunt, trying to best nail down the sounds I hear in my head. I've got it close on the amp tip, a stereo rig with a Deluxe reverb and a heavily modded Blues Jr. My pedal scene is pretty tight, with about a dozen pedals, i just need to find the right leslie emulator. the guitar sound is where I'm still trying to find focus and that focal point shifts from day to day. I do, however, find the idea of one guitar to be patiently absurd. There are just too many tones and there is no way that one guitar can do it all. At the very least, I would need a baritone, a 12 string, a 5 string bass, a fretless bass, a bass VI, a semi hollow body, a solid body and an acoustic and even that I might find limiting.

I have found some things that have surprised me: I love the form factor of the classic jazzmaster, particularly the shape and tremolo, but I'm not convinced that I like Jazzmaster pickups- to my ears, they sound shrill and spiky, then I hear other people play them and they sound great. I don't really like traditionally voiced humbuckers, they sound muddy and indistinct; I do, however like humbuckers that sound like single coils, but more on that later. I'm not as fond of stratocaster pickups as I used to be: my all-time favorite guitar was a mid 80's MIJ Fender that had been more or less modded to early 90's American Standard spec, with a roller bridge, locking tuners, better tremolo and what is today, an EMG Vince Gill pickup set. When I returned to playing, I replicated that guitar to the best i could and found it lacking. I tried a legit Am Std Strat and was less stoked. Go figure... I also find that I don't have tolerance for 60hz hum- I've got a pile of Fralin P90's that sound awesome but for the hum. what I have found appealing, are Filtertrons & Firebird pickups, as well as WRHBs and gold foils. The search continues and eventually, I'll start selling more of the guitars I build, hopefully, instead of clinging to them....

[zhivago]

In fact my acoustic guitar is the most expensive guitar I own.

Knowing you have a black '56 staple LP makes me fucking scared how much your acoustic is worth

It was a gift to myself for my 40th birthday...so file it under "Mid-life Crisis"!!

[JSett]

In fact my acoustic guitar is the most expensive guitar I own.

Knowing you have a black '56 staple LP makes me fucking scared how much your acoustic is worth

It was a gift to myself for my 40th birthday...so file it under "Mid-life Crisis"!!

[JamesSGBrown]

I love how this thread about cutting down on gear resulted in the most expensive purchase of my life

[Jonesie]

At the beginning of the pandemic I was down to three electrics (Telecaster, Yamaha Studio Lord, Silvertone 1446) and was very happy. I hadn't been playing guitar for a few years, focusing on drums instead, but then I got bored and came back to the guitar. So I got an acoustic (Gibson G45 Standard), figured it'd help with songwriting. Well, then I needed a bass (G&L Tribute L-2000), obviously, if I'm going to have fully thought out recordings. Then the neck on my Tele went wonky so I bought a new neck and put it on there, but I wasn't really digging the guitar as a whole, so I bought a new body (MJT Body / WD neck) to have something I enjoyed more. Then I had a Fender Vaporizer that I wasn't using much and had been thinking about a Dano for a while, so I traded it for one of those (Danelectro Hodad). Then I sold a Sonor drumkit that I wasn't using and put the proceeds of that towards a dream guitar for me (Marr Jag). Most recently I had a few pedals that I wasn't using so I sold them along and bought another guitar (Dano Baritone) with the proceeds from that. My anti-minimalism has definitely been ramping up:

Maple Tele (6/2010)
Yamaha Studio Lord (4/2014)
Silvertone 1446 (7/2015)
Gibson G45 Standard (5/2020)
G&L L-2000 (12/2020)
MJT Tele (4/2021)
Dano Hodad (9/2021)
Marr Jag (11/2021)
Dano Baritone (1/2022)

Even though it's a lot of guitars I still feel like it gives a wide variety of sounds. The maple tele is currently set up with a Squier neck and is in Nashville tuning, so it's not like having two stock Teles. Otherwise I feel like there's enough differentiation to justify each guitar. I figure I'm not gigging, and it's not like I'm holding on to any great wealth of guitars, so it's just fun, and I have the space in my (small) house, so why not enjoy it.

Would I love to be down to just a few super high quality lifers? Absolutely, I'm just not sure I can get to that point currently without investing a lot more money even with the sales of what I have.

[JSett]

Well, having sold one, packed up another pending finding a buyer, and given one to a friend this is how things are looking:



...and a lot of empty Hercules hangers drilled into the wall.
Maybe I should buy a fancy guitar rack that ONLY holds 5 guitars and have that as a physical restriction.

[Jaguar018]

Like some of the other OSG veterans, I have consolidated some gear into fancier gear. My main pandemic purchase has been to upgrade my acoustic guitar. So now I have a decently pricey Martin which replaced my mid-tier Martin. I doubt I will ever go for a break-the-bank type acoustic as I don't play them enough.

My collection waxes and wanes. These days I'm just a basement player I have a lot of stuff that I don't particularly need, but I love the aesthetics of it all, and also coming up with gear projects to distract me from day-to-day events and the collapse of the world.

If you have been on any guitar forum long enough you have played all the mental games: I know my 'desert island' set up. I know, and own, the one guitar I love the most-- same for amps and pedals. Everything else that I own, the other guitars that sound different, the amps, and piles of pedals are all just for fun.

Each item seems to have an expiration date. I will sell it on when it starts to feel like it's taking up space.

ps: I have a 5 guitar stand that has six guitars on it and a separate stand for another one. That shit doesn't work.

[Larsongs]

I don’t get the need for restricting oneself from Tools that can help you do a better job? It takes a lot of different tools to build a House… Same can be said for Guitars…

I don’t see a need for buying 5-10 of the same Guitar either? Maybe 1 or 2 for back up if you’re a Gigging Musician.

I also don’t get the happiness or sadness thing regarding too many or not enough Guitars or any Thing for that matter...

For many years I was happy with 1 Guitar. Now I’m happy with several Guitars.. The number of Guitars had nothing to do with it.. Playing music has everything to do with it…

Happiness is something you need to find within….

[Singlebladepickup]

I don’t get the need for restricting oneself from Tools that can help you do a better job? It takes a lot of different tools to build a House… Same can be said for Guitars…

I don’t see a need for buying 5-10 of the same Guitar either? Maybe 1 or 2 for back up if you’re a Gigging Musician.

I also don’t get the happiness or sadness thing regarding too many or not enough Guitars or any Thing for that matter...

For many years I was happy with 1 Guitar. Now I’m happy with several Guitars.. The number of Guitars had nothing to do with it.. Playing music has everything to do with it…

Happiness is something you need to find within….

Some people find restricting themselves to certain tools or methods to be inspiring. There's also the whole thing about only keeping things that spark joy, and having too many material possessions can weigh on a person... Different strokes and all.

[seenoevil II]

There is definitely something super appealing about gear monogamy. We really love the Jonny Greenwoods and the Steve Howells and the Brian Mays and (of course) the Willie Nelsons of the world. It's really romantic. I gotta say that guitars I get the most enjoyment from playing are the ones I've messed up the most.

Personally I'm a little skeptical of the one guitar thing.

Clearly.

Ol' Jonny got a third ax, eh? Good for him. I stopped following them ages ago. Not only did he have a whopping 2 (now 3) guitars, but his tech also made a second Tele special out of a standard (with 25.5 v the og 24.75 scale length). My point is somebody as renowned for leads and sound experimentation had one guitar for most of one decade, and at the end of the third decade, is up to four.

And while I'm Steve Howell plays/owns lots of crap, everything good he recorded with Yes was done on that es-175.

And Willie shreds. Make no mistake. How else did trigger get do thrashed?

Then there's Joe Strummer, Marissa Paternoster, Deen Ween, Malcom Young, Rory Gallagher, Larry Carlton, Doug Martsch

I'm sure all of these people own more guitars, but they really only cared about or produced important output with the one. I also believe that their commitment to their respective ones isn't born out of their perfection, but rather their versatility. 4 of the above listed play a strat.

Eh, I stand by my points. You don't need guitarsenals to be a functioning or even exceptional guitarist. Some people accumulate them, others don't.