How many guitars do you actively play?

[DanielleOM]

I find regardless of how many guitars I own, I tend to gravitate to playing only 1 or 2 of them, with in a 1 or 2 week period. I find if I play more that I tend to loose focus on the music and tend to gravitate towards thinking about gear and setup.

How many do you play in a 2 week period?

I was thinking you tend to see the best players playing only one or two guitars. I then remember a Tony Trischka concert where he must have brought a van load of instruments in order to present the history and development of the banjo.

[Jim Soloway]

Mostly one with very infrequent shifts to a second one. I refer to my relationships with guitars as "serial monogamy"

[mr. beaumont]

I go on kicks, so I'll only play 1 most often, for days at a time, and then run out of gas with that one and switch.

Right now I'm on a nylon kick, so I'm cycling through two guitars, my beat up old classical for acoustic play, and then plugging in my Godin nylon at home.

I have about 5 guitars I go on kicks with...the others are just quick flings here and there, for a certain sound.

I'd like to be a "one guitar guy," but I like different sounds too much. I am in the process of getting rid of a few "redundancies" in my guitar collection...which probably makes room for another new sound somewhere in the near future.

[sgosnell]

I have 4 on the wall, and I play all of them now and then, but usually I grab the same one. The others tend to get only a quick use now and then, just to see if they've improved dramatically in the past few days. Hasn't happened so far.

[bmw2002]

Mostly one with very infrequent shifts to a second one. I refer to my relationships with guitars as "serial monogamy"

Ditto to what Jim said.

[John A.]

In a 2-week period, I'll at least pick up 3 (semi, strat, and flattop); time spent with each is probably something like 70%/20%/10% semi/strat/flattop respectively. Every few months I'll play a bunch of nylon string. If I'm on a writing/recording jag I'll also play my short-scale bass. That's all I've got.

John

[Klatu]

I've got four out on stands at a time. I spend most of my time with the Epiphone Triumph that happens to be out at the time, I'd say about 60%, with the other three receiving about equal attention the rest of the time.

[vernon]

Insiders that get played in a two-week period: 175, tele, eagle, and 335. Outliers: lap steel and acoustic.

[TedBPhx]

I have 2 stands currently occupied by a GB10SE and a Strat. The Strat just got swapped into rotation for a PRS Artist. The GB10SE is always in rotation and gets most of my attention in any two week period.

[omphalopsychos]

I purposely buy guitars that sound completely different from one another. My rotation cycle corresponds to tiring of the musical rabbit hole I'm in at the time.

[lammie200]

I have 5 on the walls and 4 in cases. My Strat, Tele and Jazzmaster always have spots on my walls. I rotate the ones that are in cases to one spot on the walls one by one on a mostly monthly basis. They all get played, but I can't be bothered if one of them sits for a month or two before it gets picked up. Lately I have been considering a custom build archtop and selling the three other ones that I currently own. Either that or have 4 archtops which is a bit much for me.

[GNAPPI]

Much of what Mr. B said is true for me also.

I have a number of gits hanging up in my practice room (PR) and living room (LR) and I'll grab one or the other as my mood strikes me. I keep different model types in my PR and LR also. The PR is only semi and fully hollow while my LR has acoustic and solid bodies hanging where I can grab them.

But I also go on "kicks" where I won't play in the LR at all for weeks, staying in the PR where the hollow and semis are.

I also follow omphalopsychos's thing on purposefully buying different gits is also true for me as is TedBPhx's method of rotating them.

Some sadly do not get much play time at all, until I rotate them into stands or wall hangers.

The same goes for amps too. My LR has an older Fender acoustasonic and SS Champion, the PR has a 30w Marshall tube amp and 5w mini tube head.

[Alter]

I try to play an archtop and a 335 everyday, along with a nylon string. Every now and then some acoustic too. On busy periods its just the archtop and the nylon. Every new moon i might also pick up an electric.. But most of my guitars, amps and pedals get used on gigs or sessions occasionally, or i unload them after a while..

[drbhrb]

Most of my guitars have a specific reason. Archtop, semi, gypsy, flat top, and nylon string all get use within a 2 week period as I typically have a gig or need to prepare for a gig on each. Tele is fun enough that it probably does too, though I could live without it in practical terms (don't plan to).

[Stringswinger]

Mostly one with very infrequent shifts to a second one. I refer to my relationships with guitars as "serial monogamy"

If Martin series 18 guitars were your thing, would that make it "serial mahogany" ?

[coolvinny]

I pretty much only practice on my Hopkins Contessa (carved archtop with floater), though if a gig is coming up I'll play my laminate archtop for a day or two beforehand. They feel almost identical though - this is part of the reason why I chose this guitar.

Then I use the laminate archtop for all jazz combo jams and gigs; this guitar lives in its gig bag as I play out of the house 2 or three times a week. I have a small body archtop that I use for big band but almost never practice on - again chosen because the neck/fretboard feels very similar to my other guitars.

[feet]

I purposely buy guitars that sound completely different from one another. My rotation cycle corresponds to tiring of the musical rabbit hole I'm in at the time.

this is largely my method, too. several of the main ones stay out all the time and get picked up according to whatever i'm doing or whatever i hear in my head that day. sometimes i get a strong urge to play a specific one, or do some sort of experiment that would specifically call for one or two of them. often times, they get trotted out as a result of a you tube demo that i saw in an attempt to keep from buying new things. one (or two) are kept in alternate tunings just because.

all that said, i do have a sort of default acoustic and default electric.

[Meggy]

I have one I'm using a lot for gigs at the moment (Ibanez AS103 semi-acoustic). Then a couple of upgraded Shine SIL-510s that also get gig use, and I occasionally gig with my Ibanez JP20 archtop. And then I also have a couple of strat-style partscasters (one with Lace red-silver-blue pickups, the other more traditional strat pickups) that get very occasional gig use, but used more at home for practice. And a tele partscaster also in that category, plus a parts built guitar of my own design that I love to play, mainly used at home to practice on, but if I can find the right pickups for it, that one might well become a favourite gig guitar. And I occasionally (not enough!) play on my dreadnought acoustic (a Blueridge BR60) and Burguet 3M model classical, not to mention a Shine 5 string bass. So I make that 11 - probably too many, and certainly more than I really need.

[rio]

Here is another thread with some similar answers and discussion Many guitars or one guitar, from different perspectives

Since that thread I have definitely put the majority of my time into my '70 L5. I "actively" play that most of the time but also play a 2005 Eastman 805ce, '77 D'Agostino es175 lawsuit guitar and a '77 Ibanez Artist 2630. I have some others but am thinking of selling since I don't really use them. Particularly my nylon string - I just can't get into it. I do think that it is worth putting the majority of time into one instrument though, as fun as it is to play different guitars. I justify playing the other ones since different gigs need different guitars so I need to be comfortable with all of them but I never really need the classics except if it is a nylon string student


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Thumpalumpacus]

Two, now that I've sold my SG.

[Bebop Tom]

4 plus a Gibson banjo

[hans halmackenreuter]

My strat and my P90 equipped archtop (both strung up with 13 rounds) since I prefer the sound of single coils.

[viccortes285]

My Gibson Les Paul, Carvin 127,Epiphone Casino are played the most.
I have Two more a Washburn X40 pro. And a Ibanez 1550M.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[rob taft]

I've got guitars all over the house. Too many to be exact but I pretty much play only one until my musical tastes shift e.g. Got a bug for Flamenco so for months I pretty much played nothing but flamenco guitar now I am back to my first love which is solo jazz chord melody so it has been an Eastman ElRey4 primarily with interludes where I play a GBAA. If the GBAA had a wider neck and thinner box, I'd would probably play it all the time. Those guitars are both on stands in the living room. The others are in cases, wall hangers, on stands in other rooms or in my gun safe. This year, I hope to unload a number of the case queens.

Now if someone could invent a collapsible guitar case i.e. kind of like a Officer's spyglass I would be in hog heaven.

[Gilpy]

I have about 5 that I play all the time:
At home: Andersen "Little Archie", Seventy Seven "Hawk", Collings "Soco"
Gigs: Gibson 335, Gibson Les Paul, and the Soco again.

I have another half dozen that I play once in a while.