Two Guitars or Just One?

Subject: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: saulgoldie
Date: 07 Aug 11 - 11:31 AM

Need of money or space not being factors, should I keep two guitars? One would be for gatherings, knocking around and collecting dings and dents, and the other for performances and places where I can adequately protect it? Or should I just have the one that sounds the way I want it to, and just accept that it will not stay pristine? Is "pristine" overrated?

Saul

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: saulgoldie
Date: 07 Aug 11 - 11:36 AM

Also, is it rude to refuse to share a guitar when out and about? Or is sharing pretty much expected? That might be an excuse to carry one that I don't care as much about.

Saul

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: GUEST,999
Date: 07 Aug 11 - 11:48 AM

Saul,

There are very few people in this world I would let play either of my guitars. And that's that. People can think what they will of me. I had some guy drop one of my guitars years back. He was sorry. I was stuck with a repair bill. That will never happen again.

If it were me and I had the choice, I'd keep two guitars; you won't be stuck if one ends up in hospital.

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: Leadfingers
Date: 07 Aug 11 - 12:03 PM

A 'spare' guitar is always useful if you are out playing regularly or if you play in more than one tuning - Easier to swop than to retune !
   And my atttitude is "If you want to play a Martin at a session , bring your own!"

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: GUEST,999
Date: 07 Aug 11 - 12:05 PM

I feel that way, LF, about both the Martin and the Larrivee.

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 07 Aug 11 - 12:06 PM

I'd probably keep the two. It might be useful to have a spare, if you are switching tunings, and you might even find you prefer one for some things and the other for other things.

It's not rude not to lend an instrument to others, it's your right and choice.

That said, personally, I'm not fussed about pristine and am very relaxed (paralytic drunk might be an exception) about who I lend instruments to.

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: Will Fly
Date: 07 Aug 11 - 12:30 PM

Two guitars. TWO GUITARS? Just two? What are you thinking of, man! You surely can't exist with just two... Have you never heard of unrequited GAS?

I have 6 of various kinds, myself - a modest collection, IMO. Must get another one soon.

And, my good friends apart, I never allow anyone to play any of them.

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: saulgoldie
Date: 07 Aug 11 - 12:47 PM

Funny you should mention it, Will. I do have "more than two" guitars. For me, the issue is a little about physical space. But much more about "emotional space," if that makes any sense. Yes, I know of GAS. Trying to become more rational about possessions.

Saul

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: Bobert
Date: 07 Aug 11 - 01:06 PM

Man, geetars are like potato chips... Ya' have just one...

B~

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: GUEST,999
Date: 07 Aug 11 - 01:08 PM

LOL

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: Bill D
Date: 07 Aug 11 - 01:09 PM

I know several good guitar players who will allow 'people they know & trust' to play their guitars....and have known one or two who will seldom or never. Sometimes it just boils down to the occasion and surroundings....and the particular guitar. I DO know that any guitar player who picks up another's instrument without asking is likely to be crossed off the list!

(I have it easy... I play autoharp, and it's hard to hurt one.)

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: Beer
Date: 07 Aug 11 - 01:21 PM

I heard a musician once say that he doesn't let anyone touch his woman why should he let touch his guitar.
Point made I guess. I'm with Bill on what he said. I certainly wouldn't just let anyone play my guitar except musicians i know very well.
ad.

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: Crowhugger
Date: 07 Aug 11 - 03:52 PM

With money and space not an issue? What a wonderful contemplation! In that case I'd figure having only two guitars the person just hadn't met enough of them yet to fall in love with more, which I s'pose could be for many reasons, like busy with banjo or fiddle, or job or family.

Still, with no limit on money and space, only two from among six strings or twelve, blues drivers, fingerpickin' beauties, flatpick heaven...not to mention favourite tunings and the special feel and sound of each one...? [sigh] Sure, you can get by with one or two once you decide how to balance 6 and 12 strings vs nice one and day-tripper, dreadnought and (whatcha call the really buxom ones?) and so on.

But with money and space not an issue, that leaves time as the limiting factor, otherwise why just one or two? Okay, when it(they) is(are) your only true guitar-love(s), then it makes perfect sense to me.

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: olddude
Date: 07 Aug 11 - 04:23 PM

No way you can have just one. Like Bruce said, sooner or later your favorite will end up in the guitar hospital (neck reset or some crack yada yada yada) do you want to end up waiting a couple of months to play again ... not me ..

I agree with Bruce. There are a few I will let play my Martin. I am less concerned about my old Alvarez but the Martin ... I usually say politely no unless it is a music brother that I trust with my life

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: alex s
Date: 07 Aug 11 - 04:42 PM

Bobert, with all due respect, guitars are like CHILDREN. You can have more and more but you can never part with any of them.

My family at present consists of:
3 steel strung and 2 nylon 6-strings, 2 12-strings, 2 acoustic basses, 2 5-string banjos, 2 mandola/zouks, 2 autoharps.
And a fiddle.

I love me bairns....

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: Wesley S
Date: 07 Aug 11 - 04:46 PM

Two are better than one. I have three - and that's better than two.

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: GUEST,songbob
Date: 07 Aug 11 - 04:57 PM

No one has mentioned a reason I find "convincing" to keep multiple guitars -- tone. A rosewood guitar is much different in sound from a mahogany from a maple from a Koa, etc. And dreadnoughts vs. 0- 00- 000- shaped guitars is another distinction. Not to mention archtop vs. flattop vs. resonated (and we won't mention guitar-banjos, shall we?).

I have about five flattop steel-string guitars and have a reason for each. A Martin rosewood dreadnought, with its deep bass and chimey treble, a Chinese mahogany dread, for its crisper, zingy sound, a Martin 0-18 with mahogany's dry sound but a much different sound from the Chinese dread, another Chinese 000-size guitar (I think it's spruce top on sapele, which is sort of chimey, but dryer than the Martin rosewood dread, and my everyday guitar, which is a Gibson J-185-shaped jumbo in spruce and sycamore, a complex-sounding guitar with the bass of a D-28 but more chime on top and lovely mid-range tone.

And that's just the steel-string ones. I have the use of a nice old parlor guitar that's essentially a steel-string sized classical guitar (if you can see what that means), and a couple of classicals, both of which have significant cracks and need repairs to be at their best. Once the owner of the parlor guitar takes it away, I'll have to get one of the classicals fixed for real.

To show how much difference there is in tone, one wood to another, Jennifer, my wife, used not to want my accompaniment when singing, when I was using the Martin D- model. Once I got the sycamore jumbo, she allowed as how it was the tone of the rosewood guitar that she didn't like, not my playing (whew!). So even a non-instrumentalist can hear the difference from one tonewood to another.

So yes, unless both guitars are essentially the same damned thing, get more than one, and learn the strong suits of each. One for finger-picking, one for flat-, one for vocal accompaniment, one for stringband instrumentals, etc. Get to know which one does best for which kind of song.

Then start adding other instruments (uke, mandolin, banjo, autoharp, fiddle) as you expand your musical styles. Eventually you'll come to a balance point (though I'm not sure I've ever reached it).

Good luck!

Bob Clayton

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: Crowhugger
Date: 07 Aug 11 - 05:13 PM

No one mentioned tone? That makes me a No one [sniffle-sniff] or else I should've been more literal and less metaphorical: See "...blues drivers, fingerpickin' beauties, flatpick heaven..."

And also "...special feel and sound of each one." Does anyone else find that the richer the tone, the more you feel the guitar's resonance in your diaphragm while you play?

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: Don Firth
Date: 07 Aug 11 - 07:40 PM

I've been through about eleventy-fourteen guitars, steel-strings, 12-strings, and classics (mostly classics) over the years, and now I'm down to two classics, one flamenco, and three travel guitars.

Since I had to take to a wheelchair some years ago, along with a few range of movement problems with a shoulder, I can't comfortably play the classics or the flamenco anymore, hence the travel guitars. I've got to sell the two classics and the flamenco because they are very nice guitars (the flamenco, a 1961 Arcangel Fernandez, is much sought after and it's worth a pile of money) and they really need to be played.

Why three travel guitars? Well, I didn't really like the fingerboard on the first one I got (nylon-string), so I had Sam Radding (go-guitars.com) make me another one, specifying the fingerboard dimensions and string spacing. Sam is very accommodating and likes to keep his customers happy. And just for kicks, I got one of his steel-string travel guitars. Although I like the nylon strings and play classic as well as accompany songs, I like a change of sound from time to time.

Once, after a performance in which I used one of the nylon-string travel guitars, an audience member asked me afterwards if it was some kind of period instrument. No. I told him what it was and why it didn't look like a regular guitar.

But that got the imp that sits on my shoulder muttering to me. Period instrument. Hmm. . . .

I'd heard about them before, but I had no idea of what they were like. The Baroque guitar. And then, it turns out that a young woman in this area plays one in an early music group (she also plays lute and modern classic guitar). So I heard one, saw it, and learned something about it. Fascinating!

Small, not much bigger than my travel guitars, and I could play one while sitting in the wheelchair, and it wouldn't bother my shoulder. It has some interesting characteristics. They're set up to take ten strings, but they're usually strung with nine. But the strings are doubled (called "courses") like on a lute. Or a 12-string guitar. They have 5 courses. They are tuned like the top five strings of a modern guitar. No sixth string or "course" (so folks who are hot for dropped D tuning wouldn't be happy with them). They are tuned, bottom up, A D G B and E. So chord fingerings and such would be the same, but you don't have a low E string (or strings). The A, D, and G are doubled and tuned in octaves like the low strings of a 12-stringer, the B is also doubled, but both strings are tuned to the same note, and although one could double the top E, most people leave it single, like on a lute. Called the "chanterelle."

Interesting instrument. And they are often fairly ornate.

This is a photo of someone playing one, so you can see what they look like and get an idea of their size:   CLICKY #1

And here is one being played by the young woman I mentioned:    CLICKY #2.

I need one of these like I need a wart on my nose. But what does need have to do with it?

Get thee behind me, Satan! And PUSH!!

Don Firth

P. S.   By the way, here's Elizabeth Brown again, holding forth on her lute:    CLICKY #3.

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: Musket
Date: 08 Aug 11 - 04:16 AM

I have a number of guitars, some expensive ones, some not so.

I have to admit that any I don't wish others to play, if I go to a singaround, I tend to tune other than standard. If I take a cheaper one, I am more than happy to tune it normally and let others borrow it if they are careful.

I am still in the novelty phase with my latest toy, a carbon fibre Rainsong. I am not sure I want others playing it. Yet when I think about it, it is possibly the most mechanically robust guitar I own...

Songbob makes a good point about different sounds. The Rainsong has a very bright sound but if I wanted a more mellow sound, then the Fylde every time. It is not very often these days I get to perform a set on stage, (other than with the band) but if I do, then I have three guitars on there with me. The Rainsong tuned normally, the Fylde in DADGAD and my trusty old Jim Harley dreadnaught as a backup for strings breaking or refusal to stay in tune with either of the other buggers.

With the band, the Rainsong is now providing the acoustic sound and my trusty Strat' for the electric.

So I reckon if you can justify two guitars from a budgeting angle, then do so. Make sure the sound is very different to the other one, or use one for exploring different tunings. Either way, your overall experience will be enhanced.

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: Silas
Date: 08 Aug 11 - 04:30 AM

I can't imagine having just one guitar. I have several, but my 'essentials' are my Martin DX1 that I take to the more crowded sessions because it is very robust and sounds amazing and the best guitar that I have ever heard to accomany melodions, I have a HD28V that I am in love with that I use where the session is not too crowded or it is a 'stage' type of club, and I have a smaller parlour size guitar that I use for writing my litte songs on. Then there are the others - permanently tuned to GADDAD etc. I don't mind lending the DX1 to most people, but the HD28V I am a bit more choosey as to who I lend it to.

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: Will Fly
Date: 08 Aug 11 - 04:37 AM

On a more serious note than my previous post, here's why I have the guitars I have.

The Martin - a composite, electro-acoustic, cutaway guitar with a spruce face and HPL back and sides, and fitted with a Baggs iBeam. Great for amplified small band work and, because of its clarity and even tone across the spectrum,excellent for recording.

My Ian Chisholm 00 model. A small-bodied guitar, 12th fret to the body The instrument facilitates complex fingerpicking and, like all Ian's guitars, has tremendous projection.

Ian Chisholm mid-jumbo. The massive bass response and huge projection makes this ideal for sessions and for accompaniment in duos and trios.

Ian Chisholm tenor guitar - for a mix of folk, jazz and lyrical lead work. Beautiful, clear tone which lends itself to vibrato and great for improvisation because of its viola tuning.

G&L ASAT solid body (Tele shape) fitted with P90 p/ups - for serious electric work, and played in every band I've been in since 1987 - rock'n roll, funk'n soul - and now the ceilidh band.

All different - all with a purpose.

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 08 Aug 11 - 04:47 AM

Three are better than two.

I have a Lowden O-25, and two Martins - an OM-28 Marquis and an HD-28V - as well as a Fylde mandolin. All bases more than adequately covered.

I buy guitars to play, not as museum-pieces, so I take any or all of them to any session, singaround or gig that I get involved in. I used to lend them until the (then brand-new) OM was lent to someone at a gig, and it came back to me with gouges on the side where it had rested on the zips in the leg of his cargo-pants.

NEVER AGAIN, SO DON'T ASK!

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: bubblyrat
Date: 08 Aug 11 - 05:30 AM

Two or more for me, definitely !! The Avalon in cedar is very loud (it's a Loud 'en !) and does me well for "sessions" etc : the Guild is quieter and brighter, and good for accompanying my partner , who has a Ramirez for when she sings in Spanish ! There's also a 6-string "Delta Blue" banjo, with which I am getting to grips ,and it is surprisingly easy to flat-pick tunes on ! Not everyones' cup of tea though , I imagine !

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 08 Aug 11 - 06:02 AM

Many are not enough! But I'm very wary about letting people play my Hagstroms or my Martin or my Mugens.

I'd like to try one of the Rainsong dreadnoughts. Grand Concerts (etc) always disappoint me in terms of outright bass thud, even my quite belting Martin OM1.

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 08 Aug 11 - 06:05 AM

As a spectator I notice lots of guitarists who only PLAY one bring a second, presumably in case they break a string and don't want to stop to change it in the middle of a set. Or they could have changed their mind about alternative tuning and not bothered with the second guitar. When I saw Peter Green a few years ago he alternated his two guitars, his "instrument technician" retuning the other while he played.

RtS

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 08 Aug 11 - 06:24 AM

"I'd like to try one of the Rainsong dreadnoughts"

I have. Predictably, very disappointing in terms of tone - thinner even than a Taylor - but, in terms of indestructability and visual impact, very nice.

I won't be selling one of mine to buy a Rainsong but, if someone gave me one, or even sold me one cheap, cheap, cheap, it would do as a 'travel' guitar for taking away on holiday/playing on the beach/by the campfire etc.

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: Zen
Date: 08 Aug 11 - 06:55 AM

Two. A Godin archtop for playing at home and at sessions and a Taylor T5 electroacoustic for plugged-in gigs and recording.

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: Midchuck
Date: 08 Aug 11 - 08:09 AM

Three guitars is probably ideal. One really nice one to play alone or with good (and sober) friends in your living room, or in concert settings with excellent acoustics and everyone really listening (if you're lucky enough to ever get to play in those circumstances; one "everyday" gigging, party, singaround, etc. guitar; and one beater for wandering around in the rain, half drunk, and tripping over tent pegs at festivals (actually, I don't do that any more, so maybe I only need two).

That being said, I now own:

2008 (?) Manuel & Patterson 00-12.
2002 (?) Apollo jumbo 12-string.
Late 2002 / early 2003 Huss and Dalton CM Cutaway. (Essentially an OM with dreadnought depth and soft cutaway.)
2007 Rainsong OM1000.
1996 Collings 000-2H.
Alvarez-Yairi Jumbo Baritone Acoustic (now for sale).
Trinity College Tg-202 12-fret Cutaway 000
"The Loar" LH200 small-body sunburst (now out for repair after the bridge cracked. Probably sell it later.)
1970s Guild D25M (kept in Bozeman, MT, to avoid having to carry a guitar on the plane).
Guild M20 Reissue (early '00s).

I am astonished that anyone could complain about the power of the Rainsongs. My OM is my basic gigging guitar, and I can make it heard pretty much anywhere, all across its range.

Peter

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 08 Aug 11 - 08:15 AM

Well on what I have. A Fylde Falstaff that I've been intending to get repaired for at least 10 years (bellly's come up), Jay Turser accoustic/electric and an Ibanez 5 string electric bass.

I don't play guitar as often as I do GDAE tuned things and almost never take a guitar out with me. It does depend on where I'm going but I rarely want more than two instruments with me and for me two out of tenor banjo, octave mandola, mandolin. perhaps even G/D melodeon tends to be more useful.

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 08 Aug 11 - 09:01 AM

I have two. One is my treasure and it rarely leaves the house. Another is smaller and cost less. It's the one I take to church.

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 08 Aug 11 - 09:33 AM

"I am astonished that anyone could complain about the power of the Rainsongs"

Not power that I was complaining about, Peter. It was the tone (or lack of it) that I disliked. I've played a couple, both sounded very thin, very little 'body' to the tone ('gutless' is the word that springs to mind).

But that's IMHO, and I fully understand that we all have different ears and our ears hear and like different things.

In terms of finish and playability, however, they were faultless.

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: Midchuck
Date: 08 Aug 11 - 09:47 AM

I have three or four conventional wood guitars with better tone than my Rainsong, and three or four with worse, or at least no better.

But I can't take the better wood ones anywhere without lugging a heavy hard case. And I have to be careful never to leave them out in the sun or in a vehicle which is in the sun. And in (Vermont) winter, if I travel with them I have to leave them in the case, when I bring them into a warm place, until they come up to room temperature, or the finish will crack. And I have to keep readjusting the action height with changes in humidity. And if I'm playing on stage and a drunk climbs onto the stage and I whack him with the guitar, or a bottle is thrown at me and I block it with the guitar, it will probably damage a wood instrument.

AND most people aren't sensitive to nuances of tone to notice the differences in tone quality. And when it's coming through a PA at a gig, or being played at a party to accompany dirty songs being sung by drunks, virtually no one is.

So the Rainsong works better for more of what I do, than the more expensive wood ones.

Peter

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 08 Aug 11 - 10:00 AM

"most people aren't sensitive to nuances of tone to notice the differences in tone quality"

But I don't buy guitars to make "most people" happy, Peter, I buy them to make me happy, and I do notice!

But I hear ya buddy - there are a great many positives with Rainsongs. Sadly, for me, tone is absolute top priority, and those positives don't make any Rainsong = either of my Martins or my Lowden. If I lived in an extreme climate, or if I plugged in a lot (I do some, but mostly unplugged), or if I wanted an instrument to double as a cricket bat, I'd probably have a different POV. :-)

Whatever your choice, play and enjoy!

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: Rob Naylor
Date: 08 Aug 11 - 10:06 AM

Wasn't it Martin Carthy who said that "A man who knows how many guitars he's got doesn't have enough"?

Not been playing very long, but I have:

- An Epiphone Les Paul "Black Beauty" electric

- A Martin DX1CE, spruce top, HPL back and sides, as per Will Fly's

- An Ian Chisholm mid-size Jumbo, spruce and cocobolo. Wonderful for finger-picking

- A Vintage V300 acoustic "folk" guitar

- A Washburn travel guitar


The Washburn's for sale, as I've decided that the times its small size is critical are very limited.

The Vintage is at my sister's in Scotland, for collection prior to my annual winter ice-climbing trip, where 24 of us hire a group of chalets for the week. Not worried about it getting trashed on one of these meets, really. They can get rowdy.

I've lent out both the Chisholm and the Martin fairly indiscriminately, though I should have known better than to lend the Chisholm (no scrtch plate) to a guy who I well-know tends to play "exuberantly" with a pick. There are a few pick marks on it, but they've only dented the finish, not "broken through". He won't be using it again, ever.

The Epi hardly leaves the house now. I'm only keeping it from sentimentality really, as I play virtually exclusively acoustic these days.

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: eddie1
Date: 08 Aug 11 - 10:35 AM

Re "Lending out" guitars, I heard a great reply many years ago which I have used often with my Martin and Lowden.

"Sorry but it's only insured for me playing it!"

Eddie

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: Musket
Date: 08 Aug 11 - 01:25 PM

Interesting aside going on re Rainsong guitars.

I love the clean sound from mine, an OM1000 cutaway. The bass is very strong and rich and the treble end is clear. the comments I get re the pureness of the sound are testament to the claims of the manufacturer.

I can understand the philosophy, as I used to design vibratory tables for industry as part of a former life. (My PhD is in just that, mechanical vibration.) The comparison with guitar design is a good one. I used to brace the tables for strength at the cost of losing overall fundamental power and specific resonance loss at certain harmonic frequencies. The same with guitars. The idea of carbon fibre so as not to need bracing ensures all frequencies are amplified in the sound box almost equally. (Not really exactly, but near enough...)

So the sound is more like with a piano, every note having a similar tonal quality.

That said, such a clean sound can lack a small degree of warmth, I admit. But when I swap to it from the Fylde, the fresh clean sound can make the Fylde seem a bit too far the other way...

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: PHJim
Date: 08 Aug 11 - 01:49 PM

I have three flat tops, and don't lend them to perfect strangers, but make a decision whether or not to loan them on a person by person basis. I loaned my favourite guitar to a young lady on Saturday for a show we were doing. She didn't have her guitar, but I had seen her play before and knew that she was not a basher. I have a good friend who has a junky guitar and has asked me to use my guitar. Seeing the scratches on his guitar and knowing how he bashes it, I said,"No."
I have put some scratches and dings on all of my instruments, but I don't want anyone else doing it.

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: tonyteach1
Date: 08 Aug 11 - 01:50 PM

I have two of everything steel string - nylon electric because pupils borrow them although my Martin D15 stays firmly in my hands I am also short sighted and clumsy so pristine finishes are not likely to last very long I have gits and a bass and two pianos and a wife who is very tolerant

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 08 Aug 11 - 03:21 PM

"I love the clean sound from mine, an OM1000 cutaway. The bass is very strong and rich and the treble end is clear. the comments I get re the pureness of the sound are testament to the claims of the manufacturer."

I'll have to check it out at Ep'th FC some evening, Ian - might just make me eat my words? :-)

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 08 Aug 11 - 03:57 PM

I'm one of those very rare guitar monogamists. Now, the one guitar I own is a very good one (1969 Martin D-18).

I would buy another (and another, and maybe another, ad infinitum) ONLY if and when I were actually making money by playing. I spent several years of my long-ago youth trying to make a living with my guitar, but eventually gave it up.

I might add that my 42-year-old one-and-only shows visible signs of wear and use but no truly nasty scars. I'm quite unconcerned about keeping it in "pristine" condition, and am usually happy to let someone else play it, if it's someone I know and the environment is reasonably under control.

I have to agree with the many GAS sufferers contributing to this discussion that two guitars are NOT too many! If and when I start using my instrument to earn a "retirement income," I will surely consider buying myself a new toy, most likely something with built-in electronics and which will be able to withstand a modicum of abuse. A Rainsong with a pickup might be just the ticket!

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: Brian May
Date: 08 Aug 11 - 04:14 PM

Like others above, I find 3 guitars are optimum.

For me (I don't seek to change any others' opinions), a dreadnought footprint 12 string, a dreadnought 6 and a 000 size 6.

Covers all my bases, and like Backwoodsman above, I bought them for ME, nobody else. It's nice when people like them, but is actually immaterial.

By all means (if you have the room), keep more than one - but ONLY if it suits YOU.

Have fun

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: Smokey.
Date: 08 Aug 11 - 05:17 PM

I think any more than twelve is self-indulgence.

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: PHJim
Date: 08 Aug 11 - 07:10 PM

My mother-in-law once asked me, "Why do you need more than one guitar? You can only play one at a time."
I said, "Why do you need more than one pair of shoes?"


I've had people with 2 or 3 TV sets in their home ask me the same question.

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 08 Aug 11 - 07:55 PM

I think any more than twelve is self-indulgence.

I agree. That's why I only claim twelve of the fifteen guitars in my house. The other three belong, one each, to my wife, son-in-law, and grandson. Of course, none of them know how to play....

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: Smokey.
Date: 08 Aug 11 - 08:48 PM

I admire your restraint, BWL.

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: Musket
Date: 09 Aug 11 - 06:08 AM

Backwoodsman wrote ; "I'll have to check it out at Ep'th FC some evening, Ian - might just make me eat my words? :-)"

Ah but the excellence of the guitar can often be masked by the rustiness of the performer....

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 09 Aug 11 - 07:12 AM

LOL! Yep, that sounds like me!

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: John P
Date: 09 Aug 11 - 09:00 AM

I definitely suffer from Instrument Acquisition Syndrome, but, oddly, not GAS. I have a really nice guitar I perform on and a really inexpensive guitar I take camping and to work. Round it out with an old Martin tenor guitar and an electric guitar, and I'm pretty happy.

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: cooperman
Date: 09 Aug 11 - 09:16 AM

I have a high end guitar (electric) and used to practice on a cheap one to keep the wear off the good one.
Trouble is that you get used to the feel and tone of a guitar and when I played the better one for performances it felt strange to me. So now i'm on the better one all the time - just have to get a refret at some point!!

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: DrugCrazed
Date: 09 Aug 11 - 09:33 AM

I have the one, and part of me wishes I had another. Problem is I don't have the funds nor the space.

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 09 Aug 11 - 09:47 AM

Do you smoke?

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: DrugCrazed
Date: 09 Aug 11 - 12:48 PM

A random question, but no. I'm just a poor student.

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 09 Aug 11 - 02:05 PM

Not a random question, DC!

Let me say first that I've never smoked. But I had problems 'justifying' to myself the cost of my first 'expensive' guitar - a £1,395 Lowden. So I simply calulated the cost of smoking 20 a day for a year which came to roughly the same as the cost of the Lowden. Realising that a lifetime of enjoyment of making music on a fine instrument could be had for one year's-worth of coffin-nails, and the guitar wouldn't damage my health.

Had you been a smoker, I'd have suggested you stopped and spent your fag-money on a nice guitar (and at the same time made a very positive move towards improving your health).

I guess that doesn't work for you as a student, and doing without lager and baked beans probably isn't a choice you'd want to make! :-) :-)

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Aug 11 - 02:19 PM

I have several:

My darling baby never-to-be-parted-with, 1968 Martin D21, acquired from George Gruhn's store in Nashville in 1990.
Price was marked as 1200 dollars. When I paid for it, the great Gruhn himself said it was mislabeled--should have been 1500 dollars. I offered to pay the difference, but he said a deal's a deal: 1200 it stayed. It's been a good guitar for all the types of music I have played: bluegrass, folk, Irish/Scottish, Newfoundland, Quebec fiddle tunes, and more...

It's been adjusted several times over the years, as it aged. The work was always done by Bruce Dowd, a supremely experienced and talented luthier in Toronto. This one will go to my son, if he is interested, or one of my two granddaughters if they show any interest. Otherwise, I expect it will be a down payment on a vacation home for my wife after I pass on...

I also have another Martin: A D-18 12fret-to-the body model based on Norman Blake's similar Martin (a 1933 guitar, if I recall correctly).
A wonderful warm and very full sound! This one is my number two, but only because as a singer, I capo a lot, and need those extra two frets sometimes.

I have had a 1984 Marc Beneteau Dreadnought since the late 80's. It has a Baggs soundhole pickup. I used this one for Irish music gigs.
Very well balanced sound.

My go-to unfamiliar or potentially rowdy jams, guitar is a Blueridge BR-73, a nice smaller body guitar. This one I do lend out at jams. The others, not so much unless I know and have confidence in the borrower.

Hardly ever played is a 1962 Gibson B25-12, a small body 12 string guitar. Also a cheap classical guitar purchased on vacation in Spain in the 70's.
Lastly, a mexican 3 pickup (Nashville style)telecaster purchased on Ebay some years ago...

As a former bass player, I have several electric basses, and my wife and I share two upright basses.

If you are a guitar player, you can never have too many guitars.

One last one, I sold several years ago: a nice 80's Larrivee with cutaway. Nice guitar, I played it for about 20 years.

Oh yes, the one that got away: a 1964 Gibson J50, gifted in the 70's to a songwriter friend, who needed a guitar. It really blossomed soundwise after he had the Mill Wheel in Toronto re-brace the top in standard Martin bracing style. What a cannon it now is.

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: lefthanded guitar
Date: 09 Aug 11 - 03:01 PM

I have three guitars, but that includes the cheapo Korvettes guitar I first learned to play on during last century when I was knee high to an Indian rosewood sprout. So really and practically, I own just that second guitar which I bought with my first paycheck aeons ago, which I rarely (which- means never- lol) use: and the Martin. Which I play, enjoy and adore A LOT.

I keep telling myself to get rid of my second guitar and just keep my Martin. I am always PLANNING to bring the second guitar to gatherings in case it gets knocked about; or that I'm gonna tune it to an open tuning (wonderful advice to myself which I've never followed thru on)
or just have it around as a spare for whatever. Like what if we're invaded by a bunch of aliens from a parallel universe and they insist we all have two guitars...you know...a reason that is substantial and relevant like that. ;D

So I believe .......truly....that I really should just sell that second guitar and put it towards something else; I dunno what tho.

And it's just taking up space. I never play it.

That said, I'm still keeping the second guitar.

Don't ask me why.

Subject: RE: Two Guitars or Just One?
From: PHJim
Date: 09 Aug 11 - 03:31 PM

Guest - I know very few D-21 owners. They only made less than 3000. I wrote the late Mike Longworth right after I got mine and asked him why they quit making the D-21 in 1969. He said that the D-28 was $20 more and folks were opting for the white binding and ebony board and bridge. Mine is a '62 that I bought/traded from Ed Dick at Ed's Music Workshop in Peterborough, ON about 34 years ago. I plan on throwing it a 50th birthday party next year...Shhhhhhhh. It's a surprise.

Backwoodsman - I quit smoking 36 years ago when I found out that I was gonna be a father. I put the 75 cents a day that I was spending on smokes into an old tobacco can (Cigarettes were a lot cheaper in those days) and soon had enough to buy my first banjo.

My other guitars are a 1950 Gibson LG1, a 1958 Goya M-26 and a 5 or 6 year old off-shore Gretsch Synchromatic arch top.

I like the D-21 for playing bluegrass or country/folk gigs.
The LG1 is great for blues/jug band stuff.
The Gretsch is good for swing and slide.
The first guitar I ever owned was a Goya M-26 that I bought used in 1960, so when I found this one, I bought it for sentimental reasons. It's not an expensive guitar, but I really like it and so do others who hear/play it. Solid spruce top, solid flamed maple back and sides, Brazilian board and bridge.
I also own a solid body Tele clone that I play about twice a year. wouldn't mind getting rid of it, but the others I'll keep.

Maybe I'll do a post sometime about my banjos, mandolins, ukuleles, dulcimers and squeeze boxes.