My last Tele

[WRHB]

I have posted such threads but that feeling fades. The smarter thing is to be judicious in purchasing gear.

How long did it take for that feeling to fade? I’ve purchased a handful of guitars since the 1980’s and still have them all. I must have been smart and judicious in purchasing my gear.

 

[burntfrijoles]

You are a strange and sad little man.

Seriously?

 

[burntfrijoles]

How long did it take for that feeling to fade? I’ve purchased a handful of guitars since the 1980’s and still have them all. I must have been smart and judicious in purchasing my gear.

To each their own. There were some impulse buys but mostly I realized there can be many guitars that you can like or love and you don’t need them all.

 

[pippoman]

Seriously?

LOL! Not about the strange and sad part, but Seriously, I am taking my SG out next gig. We’re working in a new keyboard player, so that will be about 3 weeks from now.

 

[WRHB]

To each their own. There were some impulse buys but mostly I realized there can be many guitars that you can like or love and you don’t need them all.

To each their own is the way I look at things. I agree that I can like or love my guitars even if I don’t need them. And since I’m only an armchair musician, not a professional, I really don’t need them all. I could get by with 2 but I sure enjoy them all.

 

[Sparky2]

I understand the sentiment.

I'm down to just 13 stringed instruments, and that is by a conscious choice (over the past year) to pare it all down to just one of each category of performance/recording tools:
1 ukulele
1 acoustic
1 Gibson Les Paul
1 Fender Telecaster
1 Fender Stratocaster
1 Gibson Firebird
1 Fender Jazzmaster
1 hollow-body jazz box
1 P-90 guitar (a Yamaha Revstar)
1 electric bass (a Thunderbird)
1 drum kit
1 road-worthy keyboard
etc, etc

So, down to last Telecaster, yeah.
I guess I am there as well.

 

[burntfrijoles]

pare it all down to just one of each category of performance/recording tools:

I have been there. I had a 12 string electric, a 12 string acoustic, a nylon string Taylor, a Gretsch semi-hollow body and a Gibson ES-339. Each of them had a place for specific needs. It was just overkill in the bigger scheme of things.

As I get older, I think I prefer the simplicity and clarity of fewer choices. Don't get me wrong, I still love the sight of a pretty guitar that I no longer own or never owned. I still have the "lust" for fine instruments but I can't muster the energy or effort to make it happen. Not really unlike the pursuit of female companionship come to think of it.

 

[harleytech]

I have 3 Tele's, I'm good!

 

[DekeDog]

I've only ever owned just one Tele, and if I hadn't found some great pickups for it, it would probably be gone. I'm not really an acoustic guitar guy either, and I've only had one since 1982. My total now is eight in all, including a MIM Jazz bass. I don't really has GAS for anything, but a funny thing happened the other night. I decided I wanted to get an Epiphone Masterbilt Frontier (acoustic) for my birthday (since I couldn't think of ANYthing else I wanted). I'd heard it is a great value and a very good playing and sounding guitar, if you like that type of sound from an acoustic, which I do. So I ordered one from Sweetwater. It'll be here tomorrow.

That'll put me at nine, but I just listed two in a local marketplace website, one being my only acoustic and the other, an Ibanez hollow body I play but never really bonded with. I'll get rid of them if I have to give them away, which could happen. So, I'm going from eight to nine to seven. I'm pretty sure that's where I'll stay for a while. I really don't want to part with any more of them.

 

[Telecaster582]

I’m down to 2.
I do covet one more.
I sure don’t need one more.
My old one (avatar) is semi-retired, because the new one sounds, and stays in tune better.
The new one just doesn’t look as cool.
I could mod the old one.
I may do it.
It’s been modded more times than the law allows.
It’s (unpractical) Les Pauls that I covet to a fault.
They’re unpractical for me because I can’t keep them in tune for long, but I love how they look.
Foolish, you say?
Guilty, as charged!

Can you put a tele neck on a Les Paul? Hmmmmmmmm. Maybe if you routed the neck pocket a little.

 

[Alex_C]

I get the idea of less is more. Unfortunately, I don't subscribe to that way of thinking. I have:
One traditional Tele (partscaster)
One Tele shaped Carvin/Kiesel SCB6 (24 fret, neck thru, maple and walnut, P90 neck, HB bridge).
One Carvn Bolt Strat (S/S/H) with a locking Super-V vibrato
One Carvin DC135 Superstrat (24fret, neck thru, alder and maple S/S/H) different pickups than the bolt.
One Ibanez/Carvin guitar - this one is my couch guitar and is redundant.*
One Baritone guitar.
One 1997 Epi ES335, upgraded hardware and electronics.
One Epi Joe Pass Emperor II Pro (Full hollow jazz box)
Coming soon (stupid police hold at GC)...a 1999 DeArmond M75T (24.65" Agathis/Maple, set neck Bigsby, DeArmond S2K pickups).

All of these instruments sound very different from each other except for the Ibanez/Carvin, it sounds like a poor copy of the Carvin Bolt.
When I'm uninspired, I pickup one of the other guitars. This keeps me in a happy place.

 

[FuzzWatt]

I recently sold off my only Tele, a player model. Not even a week later I picked up an American Pro 2...

But, I've been scaling back my collection to only a select few. I don't need any more guitars. Besides, I'm way more into synths these days and am starting to feel a bit addicted to those...

 

[OmegaWoods]

Down to 5 from a high of 9.
PRS Silver Sky
Epi Les Paul
Tele
Firefly FF338
PRS SE Paul's Guitar

I'm done for a good long time. The only gear I'm considering at this time is a Helix floor and a decent acoustic.

I feel great about my little flock.

 

[t-ray]

My plan is to let my daughters figure out what to do with my guitars when I pass on to the next world. This way I do not think much about how many I have. But to each his own, which is something I also subscribe to.

 

[Tonetele]

Yeah. I said that after owning 28 by 1980 and going over to a Strat and a Gibson. Lost count of the number of teles I've had over the years.

 

[oatsoda]

Its easy to fall into the sea and ride the tides of gear ebb and flow. At one point I had a **** ton of strats, just picking them up because they were a different colour. Then went from no tele to a cv50 to a few mims to Am Spcl, adding a couple standards and a custom shop, to letting some strats go, letting a couple teles go, and of course at the same time bringing home more bass guitars, acoustics, amps, effects, a pa system, etc.

Got to a point and sold a bunch of it, and got really silly with high end acoustics, then let some go and was down to what i considered a core collection. Two American teles, two american strats, Am P bass, 4 or 5 tube amps, 1 bass amp, pa system, my first yamaha acoustic, my custom shop 000-28, dulcimer. Think theres a les paul down there in the closet too. Most of it ended up in cases stacked downstairs during home renovations, which ate still not done due to availability and soaring cost of materials(wife going crazy living in the mess). But gear acquisition under control.

Then dad gives me 2 awesome acoustics which i can never get rid of and feel like i woll want to eventually pass down.

So is the tele I play the most my last tele?

Who knows? Just try to enjoy it and not make your family suffer for your obsessions, thats all you can do.

 

[Lonn]

I'm shipping off my only current Tele today to a new owner. It was a setneck HH Squier so not "really" a Tele per se but it's what I had. I'll get another.

 

[Telecastoff1]

I sold off three of them this past year. I'm down to the final three I feel will be all I will need to fulfill my gigging obligations and satisfy my Tele need and greed. Now amps....that's another story about GGW (gas gone wild).

 

[sloppychops]

View attachment 980410

Perfect reaction!

 

[sloppychops]

I’m down to my last Telecaster. My high point was owning 6 Tele’s, fueled by the temptation of NGD posts on TDPRI back in the day. I’ve weaned myself from the model. I simply no longer have any guitar lust for the Telecaster. Perhaps because it feels that there are less NGDs or I’ve become immune to them. Perhaps it’s because I visit TDPRI less often to lurk and rarely to post. For the record I still think of the Tele as the most iconic of all electrics and prefer its style more than any guitar.
My remaining Tele is my CS 63 NOS which has been my favorite guitar to play but it’s not always my favorite sounding guitar. I find it to be the mid point between my Strats and Les Pauls but having it’s own unique sound/tone. Still, its days may be numbered and I could become Tele-less in the coming months.
This is just a part of much larger direction regarding my guitar collection. Other instruments are also on the chopping block. One of my Strats is also departing at some point if I just can decide which one. The tones are similar but one has more bite than the other, while the other has a classic bell like quality found in earlier Strats. My 000-18 is lowly edging itself out of the door. I prefer the feel and sound of my Gibson. I could soon be a one acoustic guy. The Les Paul will stay for the foreseeable future. It could be replaced by a 61 VOS 335 with the skinny slim taper neck if could get over the sticker price. It’s highly doubtful that I will drop that much coin at this stage.
The bottom line is my collection is dwindling and I don’t mind. In fact, it’s provided more clarity to my instrument choices and it certainly has reduced the “clutter” in my music room. I am playing more and thinking about instruments less. I certainly think that visiting here less has dampened my interest in new instruments simply because it lessens temptation (as Flip would say “the devil made me do it”), plus the industry is not really producing much that floats my boat.
The only possible guitar acquisition I can envision is a Tone Master Deluxe Reverb to replace my PRRI. The PRRI has been a great amp and my favorite of all the amps I’ve owned. It’s the special edition with 12” speaker. I think the Tone Master will serve me better because of the attenuator and direct recording out.
The bottom line is that guitars come and go and I never miss the ones that I sell as much as I thought I would. I've learned this over the past 30 years or so. In fact, I could (should) have stopped many years ago had I been rational. Then again, when it comes to guitars, rationality can take a back seat to common sense. I think that's the nature of lust, whether it's gear or otherwise.