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March 2006
Posts: 1634
Location: Chehalis, Washington | Quality is obviously a VERY subjective question around here; however, I have really fallen in love with the sound of an Adamas 12-fret slothead (Dave, Mark, etc, I blame all of you). Unfortunately, I am at my spending and acquisition limit for some time to come.
Question is: would it be better to have fewer guitars and own only REALLY nice ones, or to keep the versatility and variety of several different "mid" level models of varying styles? |
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January 2005
Posts: 4903
Location: Phoenix AZ | A few years ago my wife said one of the most profound things. At the time I had about 25 Ovations in my collection. She said, "Why don't you get rid of them and get one really good guitar, like a Martin." Ouch.
I've been down both roads. At one point about 3 years ago I actually had 41 Ovation guitars in the house. It was rediculous. I wanted one of everything. SS, Mids, Deep bowls, Cutaway, different preamps, different colors, solid bodies, one of every storm model, all the shiny bowls, adamas 6 & 12, widenecks, multihole, round hole, blah, blah, blah. I eventually realized just how stupid this all was. I never played any of them and most of them really weren't all that good anyway.
Around the same time I got the FD14 and D18VS. A little later I got the U681. Finally I could say that THIS was what guitars should sound like. So I started selling most of them off and have now concentrated on a much smaller collection of guitars that either a) sound/play/look stunning or b) have significant sentimental value. The collection I have now is really pleasing to me. I don't get any satisfaction anymore in saying I own so many of this and so many of that. The satisfaction is in actually playing what I do have and knowing what great instruments they are.
The "meat" of the collection looks like this:
Shiny bowls: GC Deluxe, GC 12, Classical, Balladeer, Josh White
Ovations: Slothead Custom Legend, FD14, Book Elite, 1537, Book Mando
Adamas: U681, W681, 1581 cutaway, A2 12-string, A2 slothead
Storms: Thead, Tornado, Hurricane, Typhoon
Martins: Steve Howe, HD28VS, 00028-NB Custom
My advice is to worry about QUALITY and not QUANTITY. Moody said it best when he played the #47 Reissue Slothead. "This is one guitar I could sell all the others to own."
Dave |
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December 2003
Posts: 13996
Location: Upper Left USA | Versatility, uniqueness and the ability to bring a Newbie into your house and hear them say "Dude, what is that?" and "I didn't know Ovation made these!"
Next is the thrill of bringing a newly aquired or refinished axe to band practice and seeing what flavor it really is. |
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May 2003
Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | Couple ways to look at this.
You can own as many as you can afford.
You can own as many as you could reasonably play.
You can own as many as you can store.
You can own as many as you can take care of.
You can own as many as you love.
Now, when I buy a guitar it's to be one that'll last me a life time.
For me, I have 4:
CA1624
MEWP-1
OSP-1 (Electric Papoose)
Making a parts telecaster.
These fullfill my needs. I can't play anymore per month and I can't store anymore per month. I'd love to own more, but in a way it wouldn't be fair to the guitars because I couldn't appreciate them. Now, when I win the lottery .... |
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April 2006
Posts: 1138
Location: CT | How many? As many as your wife lets you get away with! :D |
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June 2002
Posts: 863
Location: Central Florida | Dave,
Rather than put your entire post up in quotes, let me just say I couldn't have said it any better, nor could I agree with you more. I've gone from about 18 guitars a year ago (14 of which were Ovations), down to six. I now put the emphasis squarely on quality over quantity.
I don't know if anyone else can relate to this, but I find that when I'm not gigging on a regular basis, that's when I tend to start accumulating guitars. Conversely, when I'm gigging more, I think more in terms of the tools I need for getting the job done. For me, the revelation came last year when I realized I was spending twice as much time shopping for guitars as I was playing the ones I had. |
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April 2004
Posts: 13303
Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Dave said it best.
I think we all go through the more is better phase and I think this is important because it allows us to benchmark which guitars are the most pleasing to "our" ears. (Some of us think the FD-14 is awesome but others in the OFC are not impressed) Many of us did not have the collective wisdom of the OFC or other groups to help us in the beginning.
I had over 40 guitars (electric and acoustic) at one time and now I have widdled it down to less than 20 and plan to sell off another 5-7 within the next 6 months or so. I think the dozen or so that I keep will fullfill all my desires and needs. IT STILL WON'T STOP THE GAS but that is a "WANT" rather than a "NEED". I truly can't see me replacing the keepers with anything that will be significantly better.
QUALITY is always better than quantity but a VARIETY OF SOUNDS is also very important. |
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November 2005
Posts: 4832
Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | The urge to collect and list things is a completely separate urge from the appreciation of the item collected. Strangely, something males are more prone to than females. |
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March 2005
Posts: 12759
Location: Boise, Idaho | First of all, thanks for putting me in the same category as Dave, although I fall far short. His gallery was one of the first things I came across a little over a year ago when I was looking for a small step up from my Matrix. After going a little crazy, I tried to focus on variety with quality. The variety is easy. Just look for good deals. The quality is tougher. There are too many good guitars out there. The combination of the quality and variety is tougher still.
My wife used to ask why I have more than one and would say that the latest was just like the others. She stopped asking when I tried to show her all the differences. It's like the DVD title, Unique Voices. The Ute will not make me want to sell my others. It is a nice guitar, but I have several nice guitars that cost a lot less money. If I get to the point that I have a collection that I just look at, I may start selling them off. What I'd rather do is learn more songs that I especially enjoy playing on a particular guitar.
I still "need" a good deep bowl Legend or Custom Legend, though to round out the Collection, so never mind what I said above. Buy as many as you can justify to yourself and play enough that you enjoy it. Many people, including me, spend more on golf than I do on guitars. I seem to enjoy guitars more. |
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Joined:
November 2003
Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | When September rolls around, I will have 8 guitars in this house. 6 are truely world class guitars (assuming the custom Adamas is what I hope it will be).
I could widdle that number down to 4 and live happily.
If I had to live with only one guitar from my collection, It'd be a tough decision to choose which one, because they are exceptional guitars and each seems suited to sightly different sounds and/or styles, but they are all high quality keepers. |
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March 2002
Posts: 15678
Location: SoCal | I don't know how you narrow a collection down to just one guitar. If I absolutely had to, I could narrow mine down to 4-5, from about 13. Figure 5. That would leave me with a 12 string, a nylon string, and 3 6 strings, 2 of which have totally different sounds (87C and FD14) and one that has huge historical significance (GCDB). But beyond that....... |
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December 2001
Posts: 7237
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | "I actually had 41 Ovation guitars in the house. It was rediculous. "
Hmmm what's that make my collection. If I get rid of half my guitars I'll still have more than 40.
But on point... I am reducing my collection, or rather keeping guitars for two reasons. One is which ones I would play. In reality, there are only a couple of Ovations I would play. The other reason, which is why I keep the Ovations, is to maintain the solid body collection. One nice stock example of every model they made, and some interesting models it took to get there.
It has been hard selling a few of the guitars I did, but the reality was, other than to take the pictures a couple months back, I haven't even seen many of them in several years.
So as some have eluded, follow your heart and add a little logic, but not too much. |
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Joined:
January 2005
Posts: 4903
Location: Phoenix AZ | Originally posted by Mr. Ovation:
"I actually had 41 Ovation guitars in the house. It was rediculous. " Hmmm what's that make my collection. If I get rid of half my guitars I'll still have more than 40. I am ridiculous, YOU are absurd !!! ha ha
Have |
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February 2005
Posts: 11840
Location: closely held secret | Miles, have you been getting my emails? |
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January 2004
Posts: 1225
Location: Lake Hiawatha, New Jersey | I HAVE to show this thread to my wife. She doesn't understand why I need 4 guitars. ;)
"You can only play one at a time" My reply: "You can only carry one Coach bag at a time also".
Miles: What's your address, and are you going on vacation soon? :D |
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January 2005
Posts: 4903
Location: Phoenix AZ | John. Don't do what I did. My wife asked the same thing - you can only use one at a time, so why so many? I opened up the kitchen cabinet and said "Hey, you've got 8 pots and pans and in 25 years you've never used a damn one of them."
Dave |
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March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | Then "duck" . . .
Pots&Pans are probably the WRONG analogy to use (as would be "cutlery") . . .
Try something "softer". |
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January 2004
Posts: 1225
Location: Lake Hiawatha, New Jersey | Originally posted by Tupperware:
John. Don't do what I did. My wife asked the same thing - you can only use one at a time, so why so many? I opened up the kitchen cabinet and said "Hey, you've got 8 pots and pans and in 25 years you've never used a damn one of them."
Dave If you really said that to her and lived to tell about it, you're my new hero. :D I can't really say that to my wife as she has actually used the pots and pans. You see, we used to have this leak in the roof and she would put them out to catch the water.
Oh well, so much for showing this thread to my wife! |
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March 2005
Posts: 12759
Location: Boise, Idaho | "You can only wear one dress at a time." "You can only wear one pair of shoes at a time." And in response to the edict that you can't buy a new guitar until you start getting some paying gigs--"OK, you can't get a new dress until you start getting some paying gigs."
Some women I've used that one on have actually seen some humor in that. Probably the ones that could make a lot of money. |
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Joined:
November 2004
Posts: 286
Location: North Idaho | In the past, I tried to ask the wife for approval of purchases and usually met with some friction. For my latest acquisitions, I asked if she would like to buy be something nice for my birthday, and she did with an agreeable attitude. Thanks to Mile's timely collection sale, the 2001 Collector and the Book mandolin are very, very nice. Previous threads have praised the 2001. As for the book mando, the mm68-7ltd is the absolute best sounding mandolin I have ever heard. If all mm68s sound like this one, Ovations mandolins are vastly unhearlded. The bass strings produce some sweet sound. Now what do you suppose I'm going to have to spring for her birthday in Sept? |
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March 2005
Posts: 12759
Location: Boise, Idaho | My birthday is just before April 15. The IRS always gets my present. Sounds like you'll have the van full for the NW Gathering, Tim. |
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Joined:
January 2005
Posts: 4903
Location: Phoenix AZ | My wife and I have a wonderful financial understanding. She let's me buy whatever I want to with the understanding that she could find a new husmand a lot easier than I could find a new wife. Basically the situation is self-regulating. Dave |
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January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | Only 41 in the house? Rookie.
Own as many as you can/want/or allowed to have.
There are limits though, at one point I had over 350, now that's a bit much. Now it's down to a little over 100 but with two houses the commute is a real pain. Then there are the amps..... |
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March 2006
Posts: 1634
Location: Chehalis, Washington | Excuse me while I cry unashamedly... |
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September 2003
Posts: 9301
Location: south east Michigan | Don't be envious. CWK2 is just fortunate to have his career and his passion blend together.
If I wanted I could have assembled a fine collection of vintage hydraulic pumps, dump cylinders, and power take-offs from many different eras. |
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Quantity versus Quality?
