Talk Me Out of This...Custom Shop Orders

[shreddermon]

So here's the deal. I've got too many guitars. ...No, wait. Hear me out. I haven't gone off my rocker. Not yet at least.

Seriously, a couple of years ago, I set a limit for myself on the size of my collection. And I'm now several over that limit, with two others on order. Now, mind you, I'm not bothered by that at all. But my free time for playing is - unfortunately - limited by career and family. And I'm fine with that, too - life is full of tradeoffs, after all. But, realistically, it means that my less "personal" guitars get played less.

So all of this is leading me to start preferring a slightly smaller collection, almost exclusively with more personalized preferences. i.e., Pretty much custom shop orders, only.

So I'm thinking of selling a few off, and then making a couple of more custom shop orders for guitars that I've got ideas for already. A 4-for-2 ish kind of restructuring. Money is not the issue - size is. I don't want or need a thousand guitars. I'd really prefer a slightly smaller collection than I already have, but with guitars almost solely built to my preferences. But I can't quite bring myself to do actually it. I mean:

a) I've got a great collection already. They're all killer stuff;

b) Who in their right mind would sell off more guitars for the sake of ending up with less, and;

c) Doing a couple of more custom shop orders means sucking up the Masterbuilt / price increase thing which, IMHO, isn't an easy nut to swallow.

WWYD? Am I nuts?

[jackson1]

I've been following your acquisitions over the past years and yes, you're nuts!

For me, it would be an easy decision. Reduce the inventory. I get sad when I have stuff I don't use. So, I sell it. Things need to be IN use.

[Sukisyn]

I agree with Jackson. I sold off four guitars to pay for one custom built axe. I have no regrets as the 4 I sold were not being played and the one I bought will be my main player.

[kinde69]

So .

WWYD? Am I nuts?

No, you are not crazy at all If you have any 24 fret USA RR´s let me know because I´m here to help you to get rid of them

[quiksilver]

I've done this several times and have generally been quite happy with the smaller, better collection.

Then, over time, I find guitars I can't resist and build it back up again, then eventually winnow out the ones that I don't play much. In the end, the collection gets better and better (IMO, obviously), while remaining somewhat manageable in size.

I think it's a good idea. It has certainly worked for me. I say go for it!

[NextInLine]

So here's the deal. I've got too many guitars. ...No, wait. Hear me out. I haven't gone off my rocker. Not yet at least.

Seriously, a couple of years ago, I set a limit for myself on the size of my collection. And I'm now several over that limit, with two others on order. Now, mind you, I'm not bothered by that at all. But my free time for playing is - unfortunately - limited by career and family. And I'm fine with that, too - life is full of tradeoffs, after all. But, realistically, it means that my less "personal" guitars get played less.

So all of this is leading me to start preferring a slightly smaller collection, almost exclusively with more personalized preferences. i.e., Pretty much custom shop orders, only.

So I'm thinking of selling a few off, and then making a couple of more custom shop orders for guitars that I've got ideas for already. A 4-for-2 ish kind of restructuring. Money is not the issue - size is. I don't want or need a thousand guitars. I'd really prefer a slightly smaller collection than I already have, but with guitars almost solely built to my preferences. But I can't quite bring myself to do actually it. I mean:

a) I've got a great collection already. They're all killer stuff;

b) Who in their right mind would sell off more guitars for the sake of ending up with less, and;

c) Doing a couple of more custom shop orders means sucking up the Masterbuilt / price increase thing which, IMHO, isn't an easy nut to swallow.

WWYD? Am I nuts?

I've never had a large collection, for me 4 guitars is considered large but I've been up to 9 a couple of months ago. Now I'm down to 6-7 I guess which will keep going down till 3. For me it's about loving the guitar more than owning it. I'm selling my 1000$+ guitars while I'm keeping my 200$ dinky which will be one of that 3. Just because I love it If you're going to replace the ones you sell with the ones you'll love more, then go for it..

I like to keep the stuff that I'll never think of selling. So if you're thinking of selling a couple of your guitars from your collection, I guess it's time for them to leave..

My 2 cents

[wilkinsi]

You're not nuts. I bought a new guitar 2 months ago, and am already needing to sell it because I went out all week. For the last 5 years, I've gone from 1 guitar to 2, back to 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2.... That is "nuts".

[Mr.Lizardman]

BETTER really IS more!!

My second guitar ever (when I had the choice to make myself due to my wondrous new discovery of A JOB....my, how THAT'S backfired over the years!) was a Les Paul Standard to improve my playing. I figured if I had a good guitar, then it would be easy to tell if I totally sucked or not, since I could no longer blame it on the guitar- LOL
But I digress- I think part of the real fun is trying new things and finding what really calls out to you. How'd you ever know whether or not you liked/disliked a hamburger until you tried one out? Same thing goes for guitars- I have faves now I would never have discovered without trying 'em out. Now that you've reached beyond that, you actually know what you want, so why not indulge yourself with one/two/twelve you know will be great? Hell, you're probably worth it, Eh?? All those years of settling for what you had, rather than having what you really wanted!
Sorry- I just had to go all devil's advocate ....
My collection swells and then wanes over time as well- sometimes it sucks, but hey it's an adventure and all part of the fun to me....Fights off boredom at least-

[Chad]

I'm probably in the other direction. I have some rather expensive guitars, but the sub $1,000 guitars are the ones I play 95% of the time. I think I just have some mental stigma about dropping or damaging expensive guitars. I just play the less expensive ones a lot more comfortably. Something like a total custom guitar would be cool because it could be made exactly (or close) to what I want, but if it cost $3,000+ I'm not sure I would play it all that much.

I also think there's such a thing as TOO many guitars. I like to play what I have and if you get too many that just doesn't happen unless you have a ton of free time on your hands. Not to mention keeping piles of guitars strung up and maintained can become a job. I like to keep my total under 10. That seems to work.

[neilli]

Firstly, I'd say sell a few off, to concentrate your collection.

Secondly, I'd say that now might not be the best time to order more CS guitars - the prices are already up there, and maybe things will calm down or 'adjust' back down somewhat in the coming months...

[ColoBaretta]

I'm in the process of thinnin my herd also. I'm not going to keep ones anymore that I don't play. My thought is "buy the ones you like, keep the ones that fit".

[xenophobe]

I've done this several times and have generally been quite happy with the smaller, better collection.

Then, over time, I find guitars I can't resist and build it back up again, then eventually winnow out the ones that I don't play much. In the end, the collection gets better and better (IMO, obviously), while remaining somewhat manageable in size.

+1

At one point, I was over 20 USA Jacksons... I'm down to three custom shop guitars and am just as happy, because I kept the ones I actually found myself playing all the time.

[Robert Burns]

I think your doing the right thing... for me, having say 6 perfect regularly
played guitars is better than having 20, and only playing 4 or 5 every
other day. Quality, over "Quantity". Your on the right path. But i
may be heading to hell! I owned one Jackson for 16 years, and now
have purchased 3 guitars in the last 4 months! A normal "quarter" for
some of you, NUTS for me!

[Harry Krisna]

"Money is not the issue - size is."LOL,story of my life....
Seriously thou, I say go for it.If you've got the extra cake for all custom stuff,what are ya waiting for? But who says you gotta play all your guitars all the time?They won't spoil,i rarely pick up my RR,(maybe once every three months),but she ain't going nowhere...

[SEEGERMANY]

Let's see if I can help with just two words.

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