Man - should I just go down to 1 guitar??

[Tig***]

For me guitars are kind of like friends. Different friends can get you thinking in different ways, seeing things from different perspectives. You might joke around with one and tend to have more serious weighty conversations with another ~
Guitars are kind of like that for me. Some tend to get me to play one way and with others my style changes a bit.

A good way to look at things. I feel about the same, but haven't really thought it out this much. Maybe this is why I like a wide variety of guitar configurations and necks.

To take it a step further, my playing style changes a bit when using different effects and much more using different amp models in the HD500.

[Brian Krashpad]

I just make a point of intentionally rotating through guitars, whether in practice or gigging. Fortunately the church gig means I'll usually have at least one practice and one performance per week. Because honestly I tend not to pick them up except when playing in a band sitch.

At any rate, going down to 1 isn't a consideration for someone who performs and who hits a guitar as hard as I've been known to. I've gone through 3 guitars in 45 minutes before (fortunately at a rehearsal), so I always have at least one backup guitar, and preferably 2, at any gig.

[MAXIFUNK]

oh, no. That's not geeky at all!

yeah i know geeky as hell lmao!!

[DrumBob]

Ask us here and you're going to get too many opinions. Appreciate what you have and take the time to bond with each of them. First, do you play gigs?

Then, ask yourself: Do you need multiple sounds for the material you play? Do you need a separate guitar for slide? Do you play open tunings that require a separate guitar? Do you like diversity and variety?

It's always good planning to have a spare guitar on the gig in case something goes wrong. I brought a Strat to a gig once and the wiring shorted out rendering it unusable. Good thing I had my Gretsch.

[deeaa*]

These days, you only really need a second or more guitars for those reasons DrumBob gave here: slide, different tunings, spare. Plus acoustic and of course bass.

It's not like you *need* a different guitar for different sounds, though, IMO. I have many guitars but I use the same pickups in all of them. One guitar with a bucker and a single is pretty much all you need and with some effects or especially multiFX and PODs and whatnot you can make it sound just as well like a strat or a les paul or whatever. Of course in a big fine studio you might want subtle nuances and use various guitars for real sounds off them, but live, nobody cares or can hear any differences anyway. You can even fake acoustics quit easily with just the one electric. I have a friend who's rebuilt one of those Line6 guitars to his liking and uses it extensively and he plays even synth parts with it, acoustics, mandoline,

I would quite easily live with just one guitar, I played and gigged with just my Les Paul for over a decade and never even brought a spare guitar. I modded it so that the neck pup had a switch that made it dual single and it could sound just like a strat in 2nd position that way. Also had an EMG PA-2 preamp in it to make it a metal beast when need arose. It was all I needed from pristine cleans to rootsy rock to metal. I also used a few different tunings, but being so used to the guitar I could just change the tuning on the fly without even thinking about it, even while already playing a song.

BUT these days, if I gig, I always bring them two strat-based bastards. Mainly use the sturdy trusty 2-pickup one, but sometimes the lively Squire backup with just an 85 bridge bolted on w/no pickguard etc, kinda VH style, especially for the end of the gig where I play leads.

I also have a 'metal' guitar for recording, with preamp and all, real slick, and a V I don't know for what use, just always liked how they look, and my best guitar I tend to only use in studio/recording really. If I gigged much, I might start using my best guitar - the Davette - as my main axe and one of the strats as backup for it.

[Duffy]

I might sell off some of my lower quality, less great sounding guitars or give them away, but I will never move to just one guitar.

The reason I think this way is because every guitar I have sounds different and the best ones sound great but different from each other. Another factor is that I have a few good amps and each of them sounds different, some of them very different from each other and each amp seems to sound best with certain guitars.

Recently I bought a real high gain Peavey 6505+ combo and I like it more all the time. None of my other amps sound anything like this amp and certain guitars sound really good thru it, while others are just apparently not made for ultra high gain applications. Humbuckers and active humbuckers sound great thru this amp and even my noiseless Fender tele pickups.

So, while now you apparently only have the small Fender Mustang amp, you might some day get another bigger amp or a tube amp, or even a couple different type amps. At that point it might be enjoyable to have a few different guitars to use and it looks like you have some pretty nice ones that you are thinking of or trying to sell.

Obviously it is all up to you and what you want to do. But times change.

Myself, I really enjoy playing my strats and have a couple good ones, but sometimes that isn't the sound that satisfies me and neither does a single coil tele. During those times almost always I will be satisfied and groove on the sound of an HH LP or other humbucking or noiseless guitar. I even like having a good HH strat with a whammy bar. Sometimes I just want to play a guitar that has a tremolo no matter what pickups it has on it. I get a thrill out of the variety of vibes and sounds.

Some of my stuff needs to go, for sure. But I have the room for it and I'm not in any rush. Like I said, I might even give some of the ones I never play away. Some of my guitars don't sound that good relative to my other guitars and my current idea on hot rodding a guitar is to start with a real decent guitar to begin with before hot rodding it. So I'm cool with getting rid of some of my not so decent guitars. But it seems like your guitars are pretty decent guitars already.

It's your decision, but I have read so many times where guys sell guitars and later really regret getting rid of them, especially if they are real decent guitars to begin with. It might be years before you feel this way, but if you have some real decent guitars you may eventually wind up regretting getting rid of them and then find that it isn't easy to regain the past. In fact, sometimes it's impossible. Then again, if you are positive that you can't and won't bond with them, they are essentially useless and you shouldn't regret getting rid of them.

I can see where you are trying to figure out the best thing to do. It is rarely unwise to take your time and think things thru; and then maybe you'll be more sure to make the right decision. Not that we all haven't made a lot of the wrong decisions in our lives. It's definitely wise to try to keep those wrong decisions to the minimum.