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Thread: Do You Have Too Many Instruments?

  1. #26
    Orrig Onion HonketyHank's Avatar
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    Default Re: Do You Have Too Many Instruments?

    Well, I know that whenever I succeed in kicking one out, it leaves a vacuum. A powerful vacuum. But as we all know, nature abhors a vacuum, and my cave is a perfect laboratory in which to observe that principle in action.
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  3. #27

    Default Re: Do You Have Too Many Instruments?

    In the words of King Arthur in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”...

    “What an eccentric performance!”

    (Referring to the link in the OP)

  4. #28

    Default Re: Do You Have Too Many Instruments?

    I have over the years purchased 10 mandolins. Sold or traded all but 2 which I currently own. The 2 mandolins I have kept were custom made for me by U.S. luthiers. All the others were mass produced and could not compare to the custom made ones. I do own seven guitars currently but they are all different types (acoustic, electrics, lap steel, pedal steel). I am fighting the urge to get a custom made octave mandolin.

  5. #29
    Professional Dreamer journeybear's Avatar
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    Default Re: Do You Have Too Many Instruments?

    Having acquired a gorgeous Gibson A-4 which I didn't need but just wanted, which I have no intention of using practically as far as gigs go, which is just for playing, not working, I think I might have reached my saturation point. Yet I still have a hankering for an F-2 or F-4. When you have more instruments than you need and still want another, or more, you might have a problem.

    But fortunately, i will never have this guy's problem. My collection's size is at less than 2% of his, and I'm about done.
    But that's just my opinion. I could be wrong. - Dennis Miller

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  6. #30
    Registered User Murphy Slaw's Avatar
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    Default Re: Do You Have Too Many Instruments?

    I try to only keep what I will play.

    I really do.
    1933 Gibson A-00 (was Scotty Stoneman's)
    2003 Gibson J-45RW (ebony)
    2017 Gibson J-15

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  7. #31
    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: Do You Have Too Many Instruments?

    Quote Originally Posted by NickR View Post
    Anyway, it is good to see somebody that makes one feel a bit of a non-starter, and it is always great to see a really eccentric character.
    I have a suspicion that if he could play the banjo, he would have less of them, because they would become less magical to him. (Still magical, but the kind of magical one can manage.)
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

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  8. #32
    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: Do You Have Too Many Instruments?

    Quote Originally Posted by Murphy Slaw View Post
    I try to only keep what I will play.

    I really do.
    Welll keeping and playing are best when in sync. Whether one keeps what he plays or plays what he keeps. I keep everything, (hardly ever sold an instrument, and then only after a bit of emotional trial) but I try to play everything as well.
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

    The entire staff
    funny....

  9. #33
    Registered User dustyamps's Avatar
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    Default Re: Do You Have Too Many Instruments?

    I was able to visit a private collection of close to 3000 instruments years ago. Here is the cowboy guitar wall. He also has what he thinks may be the world's largest collection of steel guitars, Fender Coronado guitars and Gibson amps.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version. 

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  10. #34

    Default Re: Do You Have Too Many Instruments?

    Steve Evans sold his cowboy guitars a while back- he had a great collection which was featured in the book he co-wrote. When I contacted him he told me that most were wall-hangers and he bought them on the quality of the artwork- not their condition when it came to playing. I suppose as he was selling his guitar shop business he needed to shift the collection. I contacted him regarding a "Cowgirl Guitar"- the Louise Massey- who was a Western singer and wrote "My Adobe Hacienda". The Louise Massey guitar may be the first guitar endorsed by a woman and was possibly a clever marketing initiative from Montgomery Ward to open up a new market- but the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor ended it. Not many people know that the Marlboro brand- with its cowboy was originally designed to get women to smoke! Those were the days...

  11. #35

    Default Re: Do You Have Too Many Instruments?

    Off topic. Just suppose that the singing cowboys of the movies had, instead of guitars, other SW-Mex instruments, like, dare we say - mandolins. More compact and suitable for life on horseback. The 20’s craze might never have ended.
    We just had, today, for the first time since the Before Time, a couple we knew over for an inside lunch! Everyone older and vaccinated. They pointed at one of my instruments: “What’s that?”
    Do we blame Gene Autry?

  12. #36
    Registered User CWRoyds's Avatar
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    Default Re: Do You Have Too Many Instruments?

    There is no such thing as too many instruments, as long as you have the space for them.
    Can be a drag when you move though, and having to get a place that has an extra room just for the instruments. Luckily I have an understanding partner.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Mandolins: Northfield 5-Bar Artist Model "Old Dog", J Bovier F5 Special, Gibson A-00 (1940)
    Fiddles: 1920s Strad copy, 1930s Strad copy, Liu Xi T20, Liu Xi T19+ Dark.
    Guitars: Taylor 514c (1995), Gibson Southern Jumbo (1940s), Gibson L-48 (1940s), Les Paul Custom (1978), Fender Strat (Black/RWFB) (1984), Fender Strat (Candy Apple Red/MFB) (1985).
    Sitars: Hiren Roy KP (1980s), Naskar (1970s), Naskar (1960s).
    Misc: 8 Course Lute (L.K.Brown)

  13. #37
    harvester of clams Bill McCall's Avatar
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    Default Re: Do You Have Too Many Instruments?

    Quote Originally Posted by CWRoyds View Post
    There is no such thing as too many instruments, as long as you have the space for them.
    Can be a drag when you move though, and having to get a place that has an extra room just for the instruments. Luckily I have an understanding partner.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Moving in a week. There’s about 20 cases here, not to mention the stands, amps, etc. Fortunately my spouse is very understanding, as more than 2 are hers. Can’t wait to get into our new music room
    Not all the clams are at the beach

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  14. #38

    Default Re: Do You Have Too Many Instruments?

    Quote Originally Posted by CWRoyds View Post
    Can be a drag when you move though...
    I did the move last summer - into the smaller home. Yes, it is crazy I'd downsized significantly prior to the move - expunging more than half of the stash. Still, an infernal exercise.

  15. #39
    Registered User Murphy Slaw's Avatar
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    Default Re: Do You Have Too Many Instruments?

    Quote Originally Posted by dustyamps View Post
    the world's largest collection of steel guitars, Fender Coronado guitars and Gibson amps.
    That seems very cool, and yet somehow wrong.

    I'm torn...
    1933 Gibson A-00 (was Scotty Stoneman's)
    2003 Gibson J-45RW (ebony)
    2017 Gibson J-15

    The Murph Channel
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  16. #40
    Registered User Mandobart's Avatar
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    Default Re: Do You Have Too Many Instruments?

    Yes. I have 6 guitars. And 5 fiddles. And 4 mandolins (an F5, hybrid F4, banjolin and resonator mandolin), 1 A4 mandola, 2 octave mandolins (F4 and F5), a mandocello, a 6 string banjo, an ukulele and an electric mandolin.

    Plus the cases for all of these. What used to be our basement family room became my stringed instrument family room after our kids grew up and moved out.

    My wife isn't thrilled, but she knows I love playing music and that as far as mid-life crises go, she's getting off easy.

  17. #41
    Registered User Paul Cowham's Avatar
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    Default Re: Do You Have Too Many Instruments?

    It's impossible to own too many instruments if you apply the simple formulae:

    Too many instruments = however many you own + 1

    A bit like the vaguely amusing pub sign (remember them?) Which says free beer tomorrow...

  18. #42
    Registered User Marcus CA's Avatar
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    Default Re: Do You Have Too Many Instruments?

    Quote Originally Posted by Mandobart View Post
    My wife isn't thrilled, but she knows I love playing music and that as far as mid-life crises go, she's getting off easy.
    My wife is thrilled, because she knows I love playing music and that as far as mid-life crises go, she's getting off easy. We both feel we got really lucky!

    As for the question of the post, I think that the answer is "no" as long as you still pay all the bills on time, you still pay attention to family and friends, and you don't feel that any of your instruments are simply taking up space.
    still trying to turn dreams into memories

  19. #43
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    Default Re: Do You Have Too Many Instruments?

    Yes
    THE WORLD IS A BETTER PLACE JUST FOR YOUR SMILE!

  20. #44
    Registered User lowtone2's Avatar
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    Default Re: Do You Have Too Many Instruments?

    Quote Originally Posted by dustyamps View Post
    I was able to visit a private collection of close to 3000 instruments years ago. Here is the cowboy guitar wall. He also has what he thinks may be the world's largest collection of steel guitars, Fender Coronado guitars and Gibson amps.
    You think he would sell a Coronado bass? I don't have one of those yet.

    I have a very mild case, compared to many.

    Here's the tally: 2 double basses, 9 electric basses, 2 guitars, 1 tenor banjo, 5 saxophones, 2 functional mandolins, innumerable harmonicas (some expensive enough to count).

    That doesn't seem like so much, I must be forgetting something. Oh, one electric mandolin. Not going to mention the tin whistles, amps, microphones, pedals and pickups.

  21. #45
    Registered User Matt's Avatar
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    Default Re: Do You Have Too Many Instruments?

    13 instruments tuned in 5ths seems about right. These range from ‘teens Gibson A’s to more modern builders of all styles. Oh, and then there’s the tenors. I do have way too many pairs of shoes, shirts, pants and shipping boxes (in case I ever decide to actually sell something).

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