When will my apparent "Madness" about buying Telecasters/guitars end?

We all get lazy and bored with rehearsal. ( which is the best way to get better at playing guitar ) So we take the easy way out and buy a new guitar for inspiration. It does make rehearsing more fun for a while. Then we get bored again. Try to find ways to make rehearing more interesting and maybe you can break the chain.

 

Sometime directly before all your friends and family get together, and one of them says, “We are here today to celebrate the life of our friend Digiplay...”

(just kidding...maybe...)

I found my “one” about a decade ago, and although I don’t search as diligently or as urgently as I used to, there’s still a little tingle here and there.

 

re/joe ely
the road goes on forever
and the party never ends

 

Truthfully, you mature out of it. I’ve been playing for over 40 years and I own two guitars. And in this same 42 years, I’ve only let two go.

My “number one” is a 2010 American Standard Telecaster that I bought new. I also own a 2014 Taylor DN3 that I bought new as well.

Becsuse of watching fellow guitarists pulling their collective hairs out in frustration, I knew what to buy. I’d be dangerous if I had money, but I’d always know that those guitars would be for pure pleasure. My Tele does it all.

 

Wow , I could have been the one that wrote that original question by Digiplay Tele-Holic. I don’t need the one but one I’m satisfied with . I also lost a lot of money because I rarely get back what I paid for the guitar.

 

Well, I think I have "the one" already...

However, a couple of years ago I began to realize that buying guitars to find the one was not the point for me. Instead, it's the thrill of the hunt, the excitement of the purchase, and the enjoyment of something new (but not necessarily something better). A buddy of mine laughs at my rather small pile of guitars (about 7 electrics right now). He's got one Strat, loves it, and he absolutely rocks it. I, however, enjoy browsing the various forum sites, looking at what's new for this year, comparing specs, etc. He doesn't like any of that. To me, that's part of the hobby, too.

 

Synths not included. Piano, Rhodes, Wurlitzer, B3. Each may be the right one in certain situations. Though “The One” may better express your voice as an artist. Guitars, the more the better and for me “The One” is a Tele of course

 

Excuse my ignorance, but I assume G.A.S. means ‘guitar acquisition syndrome’.

 

For me, my love of 'Teles' has pretty much come to an end. After buying bunches of them over time, I finally started playing around with the 'parts-caster' part of the deal. And, after constructing several, I finally decided that I had one that was really my 'best' player. It had every attribute I could think of, including feel, sound, looks, 'mojo', and best of all..... I built it! I even used some alternate bridge saddles from an old PRS that I believe actually improved the sustain a bit. All that said.....it did have one flaw, and that was that it had developed a bit of an odd neck tweak, which caused the high E string to fret out on the 13th fret when fretted on the 12th. Clearly, a bit of fret filing could have probably fixed this, but I'm EXTREMELY fortunate to have a good friend who is perhaps one of the best guitar techs on the planet. And, he has a motorcycle that he's not all that great at wrenching on, plus he's a bit of a Tube Amplifier geek as well. AND..... he has me to maintain/repair both for him when needed. So, for 3 days worth of motorcycle work (a labor of love for me), I got my now one-and-only Tele completely re-fretted, nut replaced, and completely set up...... and it now plays PERFECTLY! And, since it always sounded good, looked good, and felt good.....it's now 'all good' in my book. It's.... '...the one!'. Now I have to solve my similar problem with SGs! I've still got about 20 of them! Maybe I can find a similar thread to this only on that guitar and maybe there'll be an answer for me about how to end my SG-madness elsewhere...... For now, my 'tele-madness' has finally reached it's conclusion......... I think.......lol Tom D.

 

I think the reasons we each give for needing to buy one more will be manifold.

Note I said "the reasons we each give" and not just "the reasons".

I suspect the real underlying driver for all of us is the same, and it's psychological.

This desire to find "the one" is a trick we're playing on ourselves to justify our unhealthy consumerist attitudes, as if Guitars weren't just tools to do a job but some kind life-partner or an extension of ourselves.

I'm as bad as the next guy of course, and I'm TRYING really hard to kick the GAS.

There's my tuppence - worth.

 

Nice read bro.

 

Thanks. I fear I am far too long-winded, and I hope one of you guys would inform me if I am!

 

I’ve read a lot of nice comments on this thread, and some silly/funny ones. Cool thread for thinkers.

Honestly, I can deal with owning just one guitar IF I have to. About 44 years ago (wow! That just hit me!) I found myself as a construction worker without a job and had to pawn my beloved 71 Tele Thinline to keep the lights on and have food. Needless to say, I was at a low point. I was a pretty decent player and didn’t want to lose what skills I had, so I would jump at any opportunity to play a guitar, sometimes hanging out at Strings and Things here in Memphis. A friend had a Kent acoustic he loaned me and I was happy to play it. Several weeks later I found steady work and bailed my guitar out. I had my old 68 Bassman amp head and a homemade speaker cabinet with 2 10” Jensens (sounded pretty good actually), one cord, no pedals, but it felt like heaven

44 years later and I have accumulated 13 great guitars, I have a 1970 Vibrolux Reverb, a SF DR, and a Quilter Micro Pro. That’s not a lot for some players, but it’s more than I need.

I guess the lesson I take from this is that I’ll quit buying gear when I can no longer afford to. I’ve actually sold off a few amps and guitars that I wasn’t playing, all of them great instruments, and after reading this thread I realize I’m somewhat glutted. Actually, 1 acoustic and 2 Teles, or a Tele and a Strat, should suffice. But once the bug bites, it never suffices. At some point it becomes an obsession.

I’m 68 now and I’ll still trade occasionally but my days of endlessly accumulating gear are over. I still play semi-professionally in a 4 piece, but nowhere near enough to justify endlessly buying and collecting gear, at least from my point of view.

 

Some people say your guitar is like your mistress and you keep changing until you find the one you love the most. In ,my case I bought one of the fist Gibson Trini Lopez guitars back in 1964 for the very high sum of $400.00. My love affair was awsesome UNTILL
One night our lead guitar player asked if he could take it home and play it for 2 nights. Well when he returned it I never inspected it what could go wrong, right? Well when IU did open the case I sawa 1/2 inch wide scrape thru the paint into the wood about 2 inches long on the front of it. I never spoke to him about it for fear of losing a friend and sold it 2 years later, I have anothwer mistress and its a home made copy of a Gibson Les Paul. It took me 2 years to make but its a beauty and plays just like a Les Paul. Now its for sale because of my arthritis as I am up in years

 

Less time on the internet + more time practicing = less GAS.

 

Maybe I can help. First you comment about having forgotten more than... At 70 I've forgotten plenty but learned way more. You retain most of the important stuff and push out the chaff to make room for even more important stuff. You'll know more tomorrow than today. That's just the way it goes. Ride the wave.

How do you stop buying? How does a keyboardist not buy one synthesizer after another? They all have organ sounds, piano sounds, and more depending on how much you want to spend. So the right question is about "The One".

We all go through the search. Some of keep searching. Some of us find it isn't the one, it's the three or the thirty. That's just the way it is. Ride the wave.

For me, "The One" is a FCS '69 Stratocaster. I rarely feel the urge to stop into a guitar store any more except to scratch the itch. It's like wanting to dance with all the pretty girls at the bar but coming back home to your wife. My Strat is "heavy relic" so this a more apt analogy that may be obvious at first. I have four electrics besides "The One". I have no real urge to cast them aside. I don't need the money. But they're not "The One". Why is that?

You'll never find "The One" while you're still chasing your sound. When you've found your sound, you'll know it. Over time you'll get closer and closer and you'll know it when you hear it. When you've found your sound, you'll realize that you could probably have had it on any number of guitars, or maybe not. You get it from "The One". The others may be interesting, but they're not "The One".

Guys who play covers may need guitars for all the songs they play. They'll have a guitar for each sound. Or a pedal board you can play Twister on. Recording artists may use a few guitars for different sounds or different tunings, but they'll probably have one that is "The One" too. That's just the way it goes.

So have fun with the search. And when you find "The One" Ride the wave and enjoy it.

 

Read my post and you’ll stop worrying about that LOL! If we get tired of reading we can always stop.

 

I think it might end about 6 months after death