Playing More...

In the past I've had almost 30 guitars (acoustic and electric) at one time. That really is a ridiculous number of guitars to have. I don't think anyone could play 30 guitars on a regular basis. I bought guitars for many reasons. They looked good, they sounded good, needed to buy something to make myself feel better, it was a good deal, etc. I found myself not playing my guitars and running out of room to store them. When I had the desire to play guitar I found myself with too much choice and not entirely inspired by any of them. I have found the following:

When you have a guitar you must play it and build a relationship with it. You learn how it reacts to different styles of playing and different strings. You learn how to play the guitar because the body shape, string spacing at the nut, gauge of the string, size of the neck all make a difference. It is a love affair. If you don't spend time with the guitar you'll never know what it can do, what you can do and what you can do together. If you have too many guitars you have acquaintances and not love affairs.

I started selling the guitars I knew I would never play and ones that overlapped in purpose with the ones I had planned to keep. By many standards I still have a lot of guitars (10 acoustic, 5 electric) but I think I have weaned down to just the right amount. After selling the last 5 I noticed a change right way. I was playing more and getting more intimate with the guitars that were left.

It has been a wonderful experience buying and selling guitars because it allowed me to know what I wanted in a guitar, but ultimately the experience I love the most is playing and singing.