Gear minimalism as a thought process...

[s_mcsleazy]

so yeah. in all seriousness. i recently worked out there's 5 guitars i don't think i could sell. there's a few i'd keep around for fun but everything else feels like a bit of a waste.

5 "forever" guitars:

CIJ CAR jaguar
CIJ jagmaster
squier vm mustang (known as taffystang)
my squier jazz bass
my white "bunnymaster"

hard sells (aka, i'd sell it if i had to but really wouldn't want to):

squier toronado (rei)
green telemaster (zippymaster)
baritone jazzmaster (yanderemaster)
purple bilindastang (acestang)
plexi guitar.
squier mustang bass.

everything else, i think i could part with.

oh and as for amps, i wouldn't ever sell my twin, bassman, 4x12 and my champ 12. i could loose the 2x12, my old marshall 4x12 and my traynor.

[JSett]

Sounds like we're all due a clear-out

I have an almost (read: worryingly) empty diary next week so I might take the chance to go through the attic of doom and the garage of despair.

There may or may not be some for sale posts coming up

[MechaBulletBill]

i've got too many electric guitars (5) and i fucking love every one of them too much to get rid

[August]

an acoustic
a mandolin
a Jazz bass
a Jazzmaster
a Tele
a tube amp
six or seven pedals and a few outboard units
some keys

I've owned quite a few over the years, but something always goes when something better comes in the door. I'd like to add an OG single cut Starfire to the mix and get rid of the Tele. I played them for many years, but the Jazzmaster has just put me off the Tele thing permanently I think. I'm more of an essentialist with strong occasional minimalist compulsiveness.

[Semuta]

You know, I never post here, but this thread really speaks to me.

I currently have 5 electrics and 1 acoustic. I have 3 amps. More than enough pedals. The thing is I mainly play at home. I occasionally play with some friends but if I'm being honest that hasn't happened in a while.

I could VERY easily go down to 4 electrics. That would leave me with my Guild Starfire 4 (my first real guitar and a truly uniquely voiced one that feels like home to me), my Jazzmaster (which sounded like the ur guitar I always heard in my head the minute I plugged it in), my '64 or '65 Gretsch 6120 (which is the most inspiring guitar I own, heavily modded before I got it and literally irreplaceable while also doing/sounding exactly like I want a guitar of its type to do), and a very cheap Esquire (which plays on my minimalist sentiments while also being unworthy of selling off). I could also less easily go down to the Gretsch and the Jazzmaster. These are the two guitars that really speak to me. Maybe it's me, but I feel like when I pick up a guitar I spend a bit of time cycling through things I always play and eventually reach a space that's new and interesting. Out of my guitars the Jazzmaster and the Gretsch get me there quickest, with the Gretsch taking me there almost immediately.

If I'm being 100% honest I could be mostly happy with just my acoustic, which is an early 2000's Guild JF30 that sounds amazing.

However, what's also interesting to me is that the Gretsch has kind of taught me that a guitar is only one part of the equation. It's really the pairing with the amp that makes the experience. I was kind of cold on the Gretsch when I played it through a Vox-style amp or my Princeton Reverb. When I got a tweed-style amp it really opened up for me. At one point I was ready to sell the Gretsch but now I can't imagine not having it. I think too often we think of the amp and guitar as two separate components, but really they're so interactive that there is no right answer.

Anyway, the fifth guitar I own is an Epiphone Elitist Casino. It's pretty awesome. I have always loved that body style, I think it sounds amazing, it plays great, etc. However, the Gretsch does so many things so similarly while also being way more unique I can't justify holding onto it. It's interesting because many of my favorite bands/musicians have used Casinos and for years I thought it would be the ultimate guitar for me. Oh well.

The same is true of my mid-70s Princeton. Great amp, but I never really loved Fender amps (though apparently I love tweed amps).

All this to say I think we frequently hold onto things because we feel like we're supposed to love them, or we worry we'll need them someday. I won't be able to replace the Princeton if I wind up selling it since I got it for $800, but it's also sat with its cover on for over 6 months. Meanwhile, the burden of ownership weighs heavily on me. All this stuff takes up space, physically and psychologically. I get that no everyone understands this, but I like being as mobile as possible, if that makes sense. I don't even use more than 4-5 pedals anymore. I dream of only having 1-2 guitars and a small amp and no distractions. I don't have a ton of gear, but I find myself swapping things out just to hear how the same guitar parts sound through different guitars. Spoiler, they all sound like guitars. It's the interaction that's different.

Someday I hope to get down to a smaller setup. Maybe then people will stop thinking of me as a collector of guitar stuff.

Don't get me started on synths. I started to dabble in modular before coming to my senses and realizing that's a rabbit hole I don't have to explore.

Sorry for the long-winded post, but again, this is something I struggle with all the time. It occupies wayyyyyyyy too much of my brain.

[UlricvonCatalyst]

I do kiddy-on minimalism these days by keeping most of my guitars in my storage unit and only having one acoustic, one electric and two amps at home. Effects pedals are abundant, admittedly, but I still have more in the store than at home.

Yesterday, having spent a month or so with my Casino, I swapped it over for my Mustang. I've found this system works quite well as I've felt I've got to know my various electrics better by having only one available for long-ish periods.

[welshywelsh]

I've found with my pedals that I've refused to buy a bigger board, so anytime I've wanted to change things up it has had to be carefully considered. Any pedals that leave the board are sold, very much a one in one out deal.

I'm not sure what the equivalent for guitars would be....a stand that only holds 4 or something?!

[JamesSGBrown]

If I didn’t regularly play live and record I think I’d be fine with just my AV65 Jag, my ‘83 Greco P-bass and my acoustic, and I’d sell my amps and get something 2-channel with a good clean channel for pedals and a higher gain I’ve for when I fancied playing ‘rock’.

But as it is, 6 electrics, 1 acoustic, 2 Greco P-basses, 4 guitar amps, a bass head and 2 cabs, 3 pedalboards. And add synths and mics… but my 2 bands are active- one’s signed and actively touring and the other consistently puts out albums so I do kinda *need* all this stuff, or at least the music would suffer if I didn’t (though I could def live without my Strat and Tele)

[Downsman]

This has been a really interesting and thought provoking thread. Why do I have 9 guitars, two Bass VIs and one Bass? Especially since I'm in two bands and play bass in both, so the guitars are just for playing at home.

I think a big one for me, is that for reasons I won't go into, there were several years where I could literally carry on my back everything I owned. And now I'm at a stage in life where I can afford to buy things, and have space for them, and most importantly I've stopped feeling (as) guilty about owning stuff. The things I used to blow money on, drink being a big one, I've stopped doing.

So having these beautiful works of art on my walls, that I can also play with, means a lot to me.

At the same time, I'm aware I've taken this too far. I only have enough space to display 10 of them. I don't feel good about having two in cases in a cupboard. I'm still frugal in pretty much every other area of my life, I can't stand anything being wasted. So I've made a decision that it's okay to have those 10 guitar hooks filled, but no more. The two that don't get played enough have got to go.

So my Traditional 70s Mustang which I've been hanging onto in case I become the guitarist in a band (it's my lightest, most comfortable guitar to play standing up) is in the For Sale section now. There's no realistic chance I'm going to be a gigging guitarist any time soon, and I have plenty of other options that are all lighter than the basses I play. I'm not going to give up lusting after, and buying, new guitars. But it's going to be a strict one in one out from now on.

[sal paradise]

But it's going to be a strict one in one out from now on.

We've all been there. Don't be hard on yourself when you break that rule.

[Downsman]

But it's going to be a strict one in one out from now on.

We've all been there. Don't be hard on yourself when you break that rule.

Well, technically I've already broken it, as I have an NGD coming up for a Fiesta Red 60th Anniversary JM I just bought before the Mustang or my Gretsch 6119t have sold. But they were already listed on FB marketplace and Gumtree, so that kind of counts. Doesn't it?

[seenoevil II]

Guys, I think my brain is broken...or my third eye has opened...or maybe my first and only eye I ever needed has reopened...IDK

But, I only ever want to play my Guild full sized classical. Made of exotic woods in Hoboken, after long years in exile in Pennsylvania, it has returned home to my plangent strums in the Garden State.



Besides that brown machine, I want to play my pink machine. AKA Barbenheimer. AKA, Jamie's pink half scale guitar as I bought her at goodwill. Fret leveled and crowned with a new bridge saddle, she lives in my car with a set high tension classical strings to compensate for her short scale length. I play her at red lights and in parking lots. She has given me so many breakthroughs that I must keep her forever. Or else give her off to my niece like Bilbo gave sting to Frodo.



Maybe, and I mean maybe, I feel like playing my Firebird. That machine needs an amp (boo complication). But my Quilter is super simple. That thing has a similar brown sound to my nylon strung friends.

I'm going through some kind of something. Gear is very meh to me right now. Though I'd be crushed without my classicals. So the gear I think about nowadays is things like transducer pickups for shows and hardshell cases also for shows.

[eilrahc]

I always think I'd like to be a gear minimalist. I remember reading a thing years and years ago about how Chris Bell from Big Star was a "one guitar kind of guy" and I thought that sounded like a cool thing to be, and envisioned getting one really, really good guitar and for that to be enough for me.

The problem is that a) I often get bored of things very quickly, b) I'm terrible at getting rid of stuff, and c) I just like new things. Last summer I went and bought a new guitar, and on the train home I was looking at Reverb, so I've kind of realised that I could never do it.

[javier-san]

The lady and I just moved to a new place and that has me re-thinking the amount of guitars I have (amongst other things like books and records).

5 guitars
1 baritone
2 basses

I am not sure where to start, but I am considering downsizing...but the "guilt" of having too much stuff has really gotten to me.

[JohnnyS]

I'm back to 'too many'

8 Electrics
1 Bass
1 Baritone
1 Acoustic
2 Ukulele
1 Banjo
9 Amps
Many Pedals

At least 2 guitars have to go for me to feel good.