Interesting thread. I recently got the inventory bug (the rec.music.makers.guitar talk had turned to insurance and losses and I decided to completely inventory my instruments), and I have some 25 instruments (not counting harmonicas and jews' harps. And I had to think of how I use those instruments and whether I NEED 'em all, and here's what I decided.

I have a genuine use for everything I have, instrumentally, right up to the five five-string banjos (one each fretted and fretless, strung with either nylon or steel strings, plus one mountain-style handmade banjo which has either steel or nylon strings at need). I have a dreadnaught steel-string guitar and a parlor-sized one, a classical, a blues-toned parlor-size guitar, a dobro, two mandolins (admittedly a "duplication," but the tone of the Harmony is different enough from the 1923 Gibson), a banjo-mandolin which I bought on my honeymoon, a fiddle, a banjo-guitar, a lap steel guitar, a stratocaster copy, two small amps (one is solid-state, the other uses tubes, so the tones are different), a tenor banjo, and an electronic MIDI keyboard. Actually, I think this totals 24 items, if you include the autoharp(s) -- they count at most for one 'cause I'm not sure I have a totally-working one at the moment. I had two Appalachian dulcimers, but gave one to my sister, visiting at Christmas, who reminded me of a 20-year-old promise to make her one.

So what do I use 'em for? Accompaniment, mostly. I don't much like instrumental music for itself. Dance music? To accompany dancing! Without the dancers, it's boring. Accompany singers? You bet. I love enhancing the singing of others as well as myself, and, if there's a group of players and singers, my ability to switch to another instrument avoids duplication and sameness, which I hate. So I HATE jam sessions but LOVE song sessions. In general.

The song's the thing, and the instrument's just to help the song along.

Enough said!